Wonder Boy (video game)
Encyclopedia
Sega
, usually styled as SEGA, is a multinational video game software developer and an arcade software and hardware development company headquartered in Ōta, Tokyo, Japan, with various offices around the world...
and developed by Escape (now known as WestOne Bit Entertainment, not to be confused with Westone
Westone
Westone is a manufacturer of hearing healthcare products and high-end earphones, otherwise known as in-ear monitors , used by professional musicians and audiophiles.-Background:...
). It was the first in a long running series of games and was followed up by five sequels, Wonder Boy in Monster Land
Wonder Boy in Monster Land
Wonder Boy in Monster Land is an action role-playing platform video game developed by Westone. It was released by Sega for the arcades in 1987 and for the Sega Master System in 1988; Activision released the game for the Amiga, Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC, ZX Spectrum, and Atari ST...
, Wonder Boy III: Monster Lair, Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap
Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap
Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap is a platforming and action-adventure video game developed by Westone. It was published by Sega and released for the Sega Master System in 1989 and for the Game Gear in 1992 under the title Monster World II: Dragon no Wana...
, Wonder Boy in Monster World
Wonder Boy in Monster World
Wonder Boy in Monster World, known in Japan as Wonder Boy V: Monster World III, is a side-scrolling action RPG originally developed by Westone Bit Entertainment and published by Sega for the Mega Drive/Genesis in...
and Monster World IV
Monster World IV
Monster World IV is an adventure platform game, released exclusively in Japan for the Sega Mega Drive in April 1994. It is the sixth and final game in the Wonder Boy/Monster World series....
.
Originally designed for the arcade
Video arcade
An amusement arcade or video arcade is a venue where people play arcade games such as video games, pinball machines, electro-mechanical games, redemption games, merchandisers , or coin-operated billiards or air hockey tables...
, it was later ported to the Sega SG-1000, Sega Master System
Sega Master System
The is a third-generation video game console that was manufactured and released by Sega in 1985 in Japan , 1986 in North America and 1987 in Europe....
and Sega Game Gear by Sega, and to the ZX Spectrum
ZX Spectrum
The ZX Spectrum is an 8-bit personal home computer released in the United Kingdom in 1982 by Sinclair Research Ltd...
, Commodore 64
Commodore 64
The Commodore 64 is an 8-bit home computer introduced by Commodore International in January 1982.Volume production started in the spring of 1982, with machines being released on to the market in August at a price of US$595...
and Amstrad CPC
Amstrad CPC
The Amstrad CPC is a series of 8-bit home computers produced by Amstrad between 1984 and 1990. It was designed to compete in the mid-1980s home computer market dominated by the Commodore 64 and the Sinclair ZX Spectrum, where it successfully established itself primarily in the United Kingdom,...
by Activision
Activision
Activision is an American publisher, majority owned by French conglomerate Vivendi SA. Its current CEO is Robert Kotick. It was founded on October 1, 1979 and was the world's first independent developer and distributor of video games for gaming consoles...
.
Gameplay
The "Wonder Boy" in question is a character known as "Tom-Tom" - a caveman-like character whose girlfriend, by the name of Tanya, has been captured by a monster. The player must guide Tom-Tom through seven "areas", each consisting of four "rounds". The levels are made up of forests, hills, oceans, caves, ice palaces and occasionally mountains lands. The levels always run from left-to-right, with some vertical movement.Tom-Tom can arm himself with a stone hammer, which he can throw at oncoming foes, a skateboard with which he can rush through the levels and survive one attack by an enemy, and temporary protection by a fairy which allows him to destroy foes by simply running into them. All of the aforementioned power-up
Power-up
In computer and video games, power-ups are objects that instantly benefit or add extra abilities to the game character as a game mechanic. This is in contrast to an item, which may or may not have a benefit and can be used at a time chosen by the player...
s are obtained by breaking open eggs. These eggs can also contain unpleasant surprises - curses which cause Tom-Tom to lose vitality more quickly than usual, and poisonous mushrooms which reduce Tom-Tom's vitality in one go. "Bad eggs" can be easily spotted, as they are covered in red spots, whereas "good eggs" that contain hammers, skateboards and fairies are plain white. The player must remain aware of the vitality meter, which constantly runs down at a steady pace and can only be refilled by collecting fruit throughout the level. There is also one doll to collect in each level, which doubles the bonus points awarded at the end of the level and, as already mentioned, if all dolls are collected "hidden levels" are unlocked.
At the end of every "area" (thus every four "rounds"), Tom-Tom will encounter an incarnation of chief antagonist Drancon as a boss character
Boss (video games)
A boss is an enemy-based challenge which is found in video games. A fight with a boss character is commonly referred to as a boss battle or boss fight...
. Once defeated, Drancon's mask flies off and transforms into an item such as a tea cup or a piece of fruit for Tom-Tom to collect. Drancon then subsequently makes his escape.
A two-player mode was available, but as per many arcade titles of the era, it was a version of the one-player mode whereby each player would take alternate turns between lives.
The game also contained an hidden eighth area, which could be accessed by collecting every one of the 28 dolls in the game.
SG-1000
The first home version of Wonder Boy was released exclusively in JapanJapan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
for the SG-1000
SG-1000
The SC-3000 was the computer equivalent of the SG-1000.The SC-3000 sold for ¥29,800 in 1983 and was marketed as a computer for beginners...
(Sega's first video game console) during the same year the arcade version was released. The game was released in a "My Card" format, which required the "Card Catcher" peripheral. Because of the severe hardware differences, the game was remade completely for the SG-1000 with an all new set of stages. Certain enemies and stages were also omitted, such as the skateboard.
Master System and Game Gear
The version of Wonder Boy for the Master System and Game Gear was a direct port of the arcade title, with some minor reductions to accommodate the more limited hardware. In Japan, the Sega Mark III version was entitled Super Wonder Boy, although the overseas releases dropped the word "Super" from the title. The Game Gear port in the United States was entitled Revenge of Drancon.The graphics were lifted straight from the arcade version, but the HUD
HUD (computer gaming)
In video gaming, the HUD is the method by which information is visually relayed to the player as part of a game's user interface...
was restricted to a simple vitality bar — the score and number of lives were displayed prior to starting the level. The sound was modified slightly to adapt it to the more limited audio hardware. The graphics were brighter. The controls were modified slightly to make it possible to only perform a high jump when the run button was pressed, whereas it was possible in the arcade version to perform one simply by being in motion when jump was pressed.
However, the most important aspect that differentiated it from its arcade counterpart was the addition of "areas". Wonder Boy for the Master System and Game Gear had nine areas; this included all seven areas from the arcade original + two new areas created specifically for this version. The new areas featured unique level design different than the rest of the game. These two areas were dubbed as the fourth area and eighth area in the game. This resulted in a modification on the numbering for the areas lifted from the arcade original (for example, what was the fourth area on the arcade version became the fifth area on the SMS/GG version).
As with the arcade version, collecting all dolls in the game would reveal an extra "area" which, in this case, would be the tenth area.
ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64 and Amstrad CPC
The license to produce the home computer versions of Wonder Boy was awarded to ActivisionActivision
Activision is an American publisher, majority owned by French conglomerate Vivendi SA. Its current CEO is Robert Kotick. It was founded on October 1, 1979 and was the world's first independent developer and distributor of video games for gaming consoles...
, who produced versions of the game for the ZX Spectrum
ZX Spectrum
The ZX Spectrum is an 8-bit personal home computer released in the United Kingdom in 1982 by Sinclair Research Ltd...
, Commodore 64
Commodore 64
The Commodore 64 is an 8-bit home computer introduced by Commodore International in January 1982.Volume production started in the spring of 1982, with machines being released on to the market in August at a price of US$595...
and Amstrad CPC
Amstrad CPC
The Amstrad CPC is a series of 8-bit home computers produced by Amstrad between 1984 and 1990. It was designed to compete in the mid-1980s home computer market dominated by the Commodore 64 and the Sinclair ZX Spectrum, where it successfully established itself primarily in the United Kingdom,...
in 1987. The game was true in spirit to the original, although the levels beyond level 4 differed to allow for the necessary multi-load
Multi-load
Multi-load is a term used to describe multi-part games that were developed for 8-bit computers, such as the ZX Spectrum, Atari and Commodore 64....
system. The first round of each area was always a forest, the second an ocean, the third a cave and the fourth a forest at nighttime (the C64 had round 1 at night time and round 4 during the day). This was not the case in the console and arcade versions, in which the areas provided more variation (although based on these same four themes). Interestingly, the Amstrad CPC version contained the graphics used in the C64 conversion, but the sound from the Spectrum conversion.
Some Spectrum versions were afflicted with a bug that prevented the game from preloading all four levels in 128K mode — the fourth level's graphics would not load correctly, and it would be impossible for the player to move before the game crashed and the computer rebooted within around three seconds. As a result, 128K owners were forced to boot
Booting
In computing, booting is a process that begins when a user turns on a computer system and prepares the computer to perform its normal operations. On modern computers, this typically involves loading and starting an operating system. The boot sequence is the initial set of operations that the...
into 48K mode to run the game, and did not enjoy the benefit of having all levels preloaded as was designed. Under 48K mode, however, the 128K music still worked.
Mobile phone port
In 2004, Sega released a pixel-perfect conversion of the game designed for mobile phones.Wii Virtual Console
On March 31, 2008, Wonder Boy was made available for play on the Nintendo Wii Virtual Console in North America. Japan & Europe got the game a week later. The game is available for 500 Wii points, and is an emulation of the Sega Master System version.Clones
Escape/Westone had a licensing arrangement whereby they owned the rights to the game, but Sega retained rights to the main characters, bosses, and names. Because of this they teamed up with Hudson SoftHudson Soft
, formally known as , is a majority-owned subsidiary of Konami Corporation is a Japanese electronic entertainment publisher headquartered in the Midtown Tower in Tokyo Midtown, Akasaka, Minato, Tokyo, Japan, with an additional office in the Hudson Building in Sapporo. It was founded on May 18, 1973...
to produce a conversion of the game for the NES
Nintendo Entertainment System
The Nintendo Entertainment System is an 8-bit video game console that was released by Nintendo in North America during 1985, in Europe during 1986 and Australia in 1987...
, under a new license. To get around the licensing issue, Hudson Soft simply had the graphics of the main character and the title changed. The result was Adventure Island
Adventure Island (video game)
Hudson's Adventure Island, also known simply as Adventure Island and released in Japan as , is a side-scrolling platform game produced by Hudson Soft that was first released in Japan for the Family Computer and MSX on September 12, 1986...
, which instead of featuring Tom-Tom, featured a character known as Master Higgins, who bore a striking resemblance to Tom-Tom, albeit with a hat. The game was, however, Wonder Boy in all but name. In this arrangement, once again, Hudson Soft retained the rights to the character and name, allowing them to continue to produce future games using the Adventure Island name and characters. These sequels are not based on the Wonder Boy sequels.
Hudson released Champion Takahashi's Adventure Island for the MSX
MSX
MSX was the name of a standardized home computer architecture in the 1980s conceived by Kazuhiko Nishi, then Vice-president at Microsoft Japan and Director at ASCII Corporation...
. This version featured Master Higgins as the main character but retained the music of Wonder Boy, unlike the NES Adventure Island which had a completely different soundtrack.
Escape/Westone repeated the same kind of task by converting Sega's 1991 beat 'em up arcade Riot City
Riot City
is a 2D beat 'em up arcade game developed by WestOne Bit Entertainment and published by Sega.-Plot:The plot begins when narcotics agents Paul and Bobby are committed to putting an end to the drug syndicate known as "MID". MID's secret hideout is located on Riot Island, an island full of...
, into Hudson Soft's 1992 TurboGrafx-CD title Riot Zone
Riot Zone
Riot Zone, known in Japan as , is a , beat 'em up video game developed by WestOne Bit Entertainment and published by Hudson Soft for the TurboGrafx-CD console...
.
Arcade hardware
The game ran on Sega's proprietary System 1System 1
System 1, also known as Mac System Software, was the original Macintosh operating system, and a part of the Classic Mac OS family, and ran on the 68K processor architecture. It was released on January 24, 1984 and replaced by System 1.1 on May 5, 1984...
hardware, based on a Z80 processor running at 4 MHz. Audio was provided by two 2 MHz SN76496 chips with a 4 MHz Z80 co-processor. The graphics were provided by a raster video
Raster graphics
In computer graphics, a raster graphics image, or bitmap, is a data structure representing a generally rectangular grid of pixels, or points of color, viewable via a monitor, paper, or other display medium...
unit at a resolution
Display resolution
The display resolution of a digital television or display device is the number of distinct pixels in each dimension that can be displayed. It can be an ambiguous term especially as the displayed resolution is controlled by all different factors in cathode ray tube , flat panel or projection...
of 256 x 224.
The game required a cabinet that provided a two-axis joystick and three input buttons - one to act a start button, two as gameplay buttons.
Arcade version
The game was lauded for the detailed, bright, colorful graphics and simple addictive gameplay, whilst some criticisms were leveled towards the lack of variety and what was then considered to be a notable similarity to Super Mario Bros.Super Mario Bros.
is a 1985 platform video game developed by Nintendo, published for the Nintendo Entertainment System as a sequel to the 1983 game Mario Bros. In Super Mario Bros., the player controls Mario as he travels through the Mushroom Kingdom in order to rescue Princess Toadstool from the antagonist...
, though many contemporary writers now note that both games may have a common ancestor in Pac-Land
Pac-Land
is an entry in the Pac-Man series of arcade video games, released into arcades by Namco, and its American distributor Bally Midway , in 1984. It was the first Namco arcade game to use the then-new arcade system later titled as Namco Pac-Land...
.
Amstrad CPC version
Amstrad ActionAmstrad Action
Amstrad Action was a monthly magazine, published in the United Kingdom, which catered to owners of home computers from the Amstrad CPC range and later the GX4000 console....
awarded the Amstrad CPC version of the game 68% on its original release in 1987, and 62% on its re-release three years later. Computing With the Amstrad awarded the game 88% on its original release.
ZX Spectrum version
CRASHCRASH (magazine)
Crash was a magazine dedicated to the ZX Spectrum home computer. It was published from 1984 to 1991 by Newsfield Publications Ltd until their liquidation, and then until 1992 by Europress.-Development:...
remained unconvinced, citing technical shortcomings, including poor character-based scrolling
Scrolling
In computer graphics, filmmaking, television production, and other kinetic displays, scrolling is sliding text, images or video across a monitor or display. "Scrolling", as such, does not change the layout of the text or pictures, or but incrementally moves the user's view across what is...
, considerable slowdown, and confusion induced by the monochrome
Monochrome
Monochrome describes paintings, drawings, design, or photographs in one color or shades of one color. A monochromatic object or image has colors in shades of limited colors or hues. Images using only shades of grey are called grayscale or black-and-white...
display. On its re-release, while quoting the aforementioned problems, the reviewer was willing to overlook them, highlighting the quality of the sprites and the fun offered by the game, and offering it 69%.
Sinclair User
Sinclair User
Sinclair User, often abbreviated SU, was a magazine dedicated to the Sinclair Research range of home computers, most specifically the ZX Spectrum...
was the most enthusiastic about the game, offering it 8 out of 10 on its original release, and 72% on its re-release. Your Sinclair
Your Sinclair
Your Sinclair or YS as it was commonly abbreviated, was a British computer magazine for the Sinclair range of computers, mainly the ZX Spectrum.-History:...
offered 7 out of 10 on its original release and 67% on its re-release.