The Twisted Tales of Spike McFang

The Twisted Tales of Spike McFang
Also known as: Chou Makai Taisen: Dorabocchan (JP) Developers: Red Company, Bullet-Proof Software Publishers: Bullet-Proof Software (US), Naxat Soft (JP) Platform: SNES Released in JP: March 19, 1993 Released in US: June 1994 This game has hidden development-related text. This game has debugging material. This game has a hidden sound test. This game has a hidden level select. This game has regional differences. This game has anti-piracy features. This game has a prototype article

The Twisted Tales of Spike McFang is a relatively obscure, quirky, and light-hearted action-RPG (compared to its peers on the SNES). It details the often-sidetracked journey of a young vampire prince and his companions as they attempt to stop a pervasive evil force from conquering the world. Pretty decent!

Few outside Japan know, however, that the game was preceded by the rather unremarkable PC Engine platformer Makai Prince Dorabocchan (1990) and followed by the SNES sports title Super Naxat Open: Golf de Shoubu da Dorabocchan (1994), where most of the Spike McFang cast return in a generic golf game.

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Prototype Info

Developer Text

At 0xE0003 is the sound driver version.

DBOOT VER1.03

At 0x126EF is a string that is written to SRAM at the start of each save file as an SRAM verification check. If there is a mismatch, the game deletes that save file. This string also doubles as an anti-piracy measure; if no SRAM was detected and thus the write for all three saves fails, pressing Start on the title screen hangs the game at a black screen.

DORABOTCHAN

(Source: Original TCRF research)

Debug Menu

Press Right, Y, B, Left, B, Y, Up, Y, B, Down, B, Y, Select, Select, Select, Left, Right at the title screen (alternatively, use Game Genie code DD8E-14DD), then during gameplay hold L + R and press Start to open the menu. Press Start or B to close this menu. This will also allow you to hold X to walk through walls.

The list of menu entries includes:

• TIME: The current save game's playtime, which counts up by one each second. For some reason, while the format of the time is HHMMSS, the units are counted in hexadecimal, which explains why the seconds and minutes portion goes from 00 to 3B instead of 00 to 59. After FF3B3B (255 hours, 59 minutes, and 59 seconds), it will overflow back to 000000. Values are stored in memory at 0xB08 to 0xB0B.
• LEVEL: Sets Spike's current level, which is one more than the current value. Goes from 00 (level 1) to 0F (level 16). The value in the GUI will not update until the debug menu is updated via changing to another option.
• NPC: Sets Spike's current teammate. If Spike has no teammate and the NPC value is set to 01 or 02, and vise versa, the change will only take effect upon changing rooms. 00 for no teammate, 01 for Rudy, 02 for Camelia.
• HAT: Sets Spike's current hat. 00 for no hat, 01 for Spinning Hat, 02 for Star Hat, 03 for Feather Hat, 04 for Lightning Hat.
• CARD MAX: Gives the player all cards.
• JARA: Sets the player's gold to 999G if selected. The value next to the option is the player's current gold in hex.
• STAGE/SCENE: Sets the current stage and scene, respectively. Be aware that this does not properly update Spike's position, so he may end up out of bounds after being teleported. Be careful not to select an invalid scene on certain stages, or the game will crash.
• BGM/SE: A simple sound test. Pretty self explanatory.
• LOAD/SAVE: A save state system, long before emulators with save state support existed! Set a state from 00 to 07 to save first, then load that same state when desired, which will send you back to where you last saved with the progress up from that point. Be sure not to load a state that was never saved beforehand, otherwise the game crashes.

(Source: GameFAQs)

Regional Differences

To do: Document regional centaur cleavage censorship.

The US version had various changes made, ranging from censorship to difficulty adjustments.

Difficulty

• Enemies have higher defense.
• Spike's health doesn't get replenished after gaining a level.
• The option to restart with full health in the beginning of an area if you die was removed.

Shop

Japan	US

The shopkeeper was originally a pretty blonde girl with a unicorn horn. The American version replaced her with a radish-like mummified creature, presumably because of her large bust.