The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland (Game Boy Color)

The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland
Also known as: Elmo in Grouchland Developer: Bonsai Interactive Publishers: NewKidCo (US), Ubi Soft (EU) Platforms: Game Boy, Game Boy Color Released in US: October 1999 Released in EU: November 2000 This game has a hidden developer message. This game has unused graphics. This game has unusual dummy files. This game has a Data Crystal page

The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland is a game based off the 1999 movie of the same name, and is also the shortest Game Boy game.

Developer Message

Starting at 40000 in the European ROM, is a developer message talking about how they filled the rest of the cartridge. And they are also asking to retrieve the .gifs from the ROM file for a prize. Amusingly, when blogger Cabel Sasser called Roger Amidon in 2012, he was quite surprised and admitted he didn't know what to give to the finder.

Hello There Pilgrim...

If you have hacked this ROM, you no doubt are reading
this text. This game is basically a 2 Meg. Game. However,
Nintendo, in their infinite wisdom, has decreed that the
smallest ROM they will produce for the Gameboy Color is
8 Meg. -- Now, what to put in that empty 6 Meg.? So, the
developers of the game decided to put .GIF pictures of
themselves into the game. Why not? Might as well fill the
void with something entertaining. See if you can retrieve
them from this ROM. If you do, you win the prize. Please
call (609) 466-2092 (in New Jersey, USA) if you have been
able to view the two .GIF pictures, located in the rest of
the upper 6 Megs of this ROM. We will have a nice reward
for you...

Good Luck!

Roger W. Amidon
September 28, 2000

(Source: Big-Fred)

Unused Graphics

True to the developer's words, there are two .gif files hidden at 80000 and C0000:

The first picture is of programmer Roger Amidon and his two sons. The second picture presumably has some of the other developers, but their identities are currently unknown.

(Source: BigFred, cabel.me)