Robotrek

Robotrek
Also known as: Slapstick (JP) Developers: Quintet, Ancient Publisher: Enix Platform: SNES Released in JP: July 8, 1994 Released in US: October 1994 This game has unused graphics. This game has unused items. This game has regional differences. This game has a prototype article This game has a Data Crystal page

Robotrek is a humorous RPG by Enix/Quintet in which you build robots and many other machines to fight enemies and solve puzzles. It was called "Slapstick" in Japan.

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Prototype Info

Unused Items

Robotrek contains three unused items in the ROM that can be hacked into your inventory via codes. They include:

• Warp System - Use Pro Action Replay (PAR) code 7E410255 to put the Warp System in your first inventory slot. This can be used to exit from certain areas back to the overworld. It is fully-functional, but disappears after a single use, meaning it was likely intended to be a readily-available consumable item. Given the number of times you're trapped in dungeons and have to accomplish something before you can leave, it's not hard to see why it was left out of the final game.
• Sphere - Use Pro Action Replay (PAR) code 7E410264 to put the Sphere in your first inventory slot. The description of the item mysteriously says "Ball?" and nothing else. It is unknown what the purpose of the Sphere was, as no matter where it's used, all you get is the standard "Sphere can't be used here." message.
• Badge 2 - Use Pro Action Replay (PAR) code 7E41005F to put Badge 2 in your first inventory slot. This item is just a palette swap of the Leader's Badge, and was probably intended for a similar purpose, but was never implemented. As such, Badge 2 has no effect.

Unused Graphics

A pair of spinning cat heads loaded into memory along with other monster sprites in various places. One appears to be a normal cat, while the other looks decidedly robotic. It's obvious that they were intended to be enemies, but they never ended up used.

Filler graphics that read "Aki", which translates to, fittingly enough, "Empty".

What appears to be a text window (unlike those actually used in the game) with Japanese text for "Mahou", which means "magic", can be found in with the graphics for the hidden Programmer's Room.

Earlier Quintet releases were initially programmed with only Japanese and American releases in mind. When ported to Europe and translated in French and German, they needed accentuated characters so they tried to fit some of them in the few remaining blank tiles.

For Robotrek's US release, Quintet tried to accommodate European translations from the very beginning rather than as a last-minute hack, hinting that they intended at some point to release it in Europe. This is further supported by the expanded font including only the characters needed for French and German rather than the full ASCII-1252 character set. Either way, Robotrek never saw official release in Europe. The smaller font still has the spare tiles where the European characters would go, unchanged from Japanese.

To do: More regional differences, e.g. censorship.

Regional Differences

Title Screen

Japan	USA

A bright cartoony Mega Man-like theme was dropped for the US version's dark sci-fi motif. "All rights reserved" was capitalized, and the font was changed to something more 8-bit.

Other Differences

• The number of available spaces for character names was increased from 5 to 7 for the US version.