A 3D fighting game by Konami (the Osaka division) released exclusively for the Nintendo 64, back when games console shad their own exclusive fighting game franchises. PlayStation had Tekken, Sega Saturn had Fighting Vipers and Virtua Fighter and the Nintendo 64 had Killer Instinct, and G.A.S.P. Released in 1998 when Tekken 2 and Virtua Fighter 2 had already established themselves within the home console market.
Gameplay revolves around arena-based 3D fights inspired by titles like Virtua Fighter, with scoring based on move quality and combos rather than just depleting health. Although this only appears to matter when the round time has expired, instead of awarding the match point to the player that’s the most health remaining, the game calculated the score based on remaining health (which weights heavily) along with technique.
You select from 8-9 playable fighters (plus unlockable like a cat-masked wrestler Gouriki and boss Reiji Ogami, who transforms into forms like Hikari and Yami), each with unique moves, punches, kicks, throws, and evades. Modes include single-player tournament/duel, versus (1v1 or tag-team), training, and a notable create-a-fighter system where you customize appearance (hairstyles, body types, faces) and steal moves from defeated opponents. This is one of the few fighting games that does let you create and customize your own fighter, something that is more commonly seen win the wresting game genre.
Unfortunately the game failed to capture the audience that Tekken and Virtua Fighter had, and the game itself wasn’t very well received both in Japan and Internationally. One of the main criticism’s was the overall pacing and speed of the game, giving a fell that the characters were fighting underwater. I’m not sure if this was a design consideration from Konami, as they possibly wanted to implement a more strategic fighting system that gives the player opportunity to counter and plan their next fighting move, or it this was more so of the technical limitations of the Nintendo 64. Many of the stages have destroyable objects that break as your chapter slams into them, but the physics processing could have an impact of the games overall speed as a result. Running on an actual N64, expect to get a frame rate of 20-30FPS.
The moves of the characters is also rather limited, with many moves just being a various of the same punch/kick. This might be due to the ability to create custom fights, which affects how the character’s moveset would flow, and how the animations execute across different character models and meshes without clipping or looking unnatural. This is often difficult to pull off and is why we often don’t see customisation in fighting games.
Still, the game reward you give a nice Techno-inspired soundtrack that has dark elements to it. If you have already admired Tekken for it’s soundtrack, you won’t be disappointed considering sound isn’t one of the N64’s strong points.
The Nintendo 64 instalment of the Destruction Derby series of games that were popular on the PlayStation, PC and Sega Saturn. The N64 version isn’t a straight port, but rather a spin off title which you would see often with racing games, with the N64 getting specialized ports of Ridge Racer and Wipeout.
Destruction Derby 64 is played as a vehicular combat racer where you pilot one of 24 cars (stock cars, hot rods, ambulances, taxis, etc.—12 start unlocked, others via progression/Time Trials) across 8 tracks and 4 circular bowls (arenas). The core loop is to race to checkpoints/finish while ramming opponents to rack up destruction points, wreck them (explode/disable), and survive as damage affects your handling/speed, so balance aggression with caution.
Single-player in Destruction Derby 64 (World Championship mode, plus Arcade and Time Trial) revolves around scoring the highest points via destruction + racing progression, not just pure placement. Races end when all opponents are wrecked, your damage meter fills (you explode), or you miss a timed checkpoint. Up to 12 AI cars split into 2-3 groups for head-on chaos from the start (opposing groups reverse direction), no lapping system.
The multiplayer takes advantage of the four controller ports the N64 provided. You have access to 4 player split screen with has the game modes Deathmatch, Destruction Race, Tomb Tag and Capture The Flag, Unlike the console versions you don’t need to have two consoles linked up via the serial cable, all of this can run on one N64 console.
There is a nice variety of track in the game, Seascape Sprint has a costal/beachside appearance to its and make me thinks it takes some inspiration from the costal track from Rage Racer. Metro Challenge is a more urban environment set in a more built up area, whilst Terminal Impact is set on a Airport terminal with plenty of obstacles that you will need to avoid. Destruction Junction is a figure-8 designed track that can be tricky to navigate as it’s easy to make a wrong turn.
Destruction Derby 64 follows the same soundtrack theme as the PlayStation original with a techno/electronica inspired soundtrack that keeps pace with the games racing theme. However I feel a more industrial/grunge inspired theme would suit the destruction part of the game better.
Taking place several years after Tekken 2 and featured several new characters and a few from the previous instalment. Tekken 3 introduces several new gameplay mechanics that take advantage of the 3D fighting environment, with the ability to sidestep
Versions
Like earlier installments, Tekken 3 was released to arcades first in 1996, then ported to the PlayStation in 1998
Arcade
The arcade version ran on an upgraded PlayStation based board, known as Namco System 12 which featured a higher clocked processor (48MHz vs 33Mhz) and slightly more VRAM (2MB vs 1MB) This game Tekken 3 had the ability to run at a higher polygon count allowing for more detailed characters, along with its background stages to me more detailed thanks to the increased VRAM. This gives a 3D-like effect to the background, and you can see them being more vibrant, especially on Howoarg’s stage. On King’s stage, there is a helicopter that does not show up in the console released, and on Xiayou’s stage, a moving carousel can be seen. Sound is provided by the Namco C352, accompanied by the Hitachi H8 3002 processor. A unique feature of the sound is that the background music progress depending on the current round your character is on, reach round 2, and the sound changes to another verse/segment, round 3 and another segment plays before looping back to the start segment for round 4 onwards. This all depends if you have configured the game to have 3 or more rounds, by default Tekken 3 is set for two rounds (A third is possible if the opponent wins).
At the start, there are only a few characters playable, with the rest being locked/hidden. Namco implemented a time-based unlock that would unlock characters depending on the amount of time the arcade machine was left on. Thankfully there is a MAME cheat to unlock all characters instantly, so you don’t need to leave the emulator running. Also, all hidden characters share the same background music, due to how uncommon they are and the limited ROM storage, whilst the PlayStation port gives them their own unique music as part of the arranged soundtrack.
The arcade release would later be ported to the PS2, as part of a bonus feature of Tekken 5, This one retains all the graphic enhancements from the System 12 version. The original Japanese arcade release had Jun as her own character, with her own portrait panel. But her character model uses Nina’s and has Jin’s move set. She will appear in the attract screen character usage statistics once you have completed arcade mode as her. Sake is another unused character but this one is more incomplete. Later arcade releases remove her and Sake as playable characters, and they do not appear at all in any home console release.
PlayStation
Compared to other Tekken arcade to console releases, Tekken 3 required some conversion time as the home console was a lot more contained compared to the arcade version. One notable difference was the change in the stage background, opting for a more flat box-like look compared to the detailed arcade background, The character models also went to a polygon diet and a minor reduction in resolution to keep the game running at 60fps. However Namco made up for it with the added content, with a newly arranged soundtrack that remixes samples from the arcade original soundtrack, plus each unlockable character has their own background audio track.
Tekken Force is a new game mode that puts you in a beat-em-up environment. Your character has to progress through a series of stages (4 in total). Each stage has a boss character which will be one of the playable Tekken characters before they face Heiachi at the final stage.
Additional game modes include team battle mode, time attack mode, and a movie/music player that can playback ending movies for unlocked characters, and also supports Tekken 2 and the original Tekken if an unlocked save file is found.
Tekken 3 remains one of my favorite fighting games and is a joy to go back and play every now and then, for both the arcade and home versions. Whilst I still enjoy the modern Tekken games, they seem to be a bit too heavy and take a while to load and to get into a game. Tekken 6’s load times were horrible, even after installing it to an SSD.
A dancing/rhythm based game for the original PlayStation, released in Europe, US and Japan with each having some minor changed being made across the different regions. A very niche game and one that could only exist an a console.
Gameplay
The game is played by monitoring the beats within rhythm, there are four beats. You press the directional buttons and on the fourth beat you press either the Circle or Square button to execute your character dance move. Whilst this seems easy a lot of the timing is based on the current song being played, and on some songs this can be difficult (Like Kelly’s stage, which is at a slower BPM than the other songs) Timing is crucial and on some emulators its hard to play the game because the delay in response makes it near impossible to play. This is something to consider when playing on a system that has wireless controllers. You can look at the two faces icons at the top left or right of the screen for an idea of which beat you are on. The green bar that shows the buttons to enter also flash to indicate the beat.
There is only one round per level, and score is determined by the complexity of the dance moves performed. The commands to enter are displaced on screen, and after completing the first two combos, you have two possible combinations to enter which alter the dance moves your character does, some being more complex.
Its possible for your enemy player to attack interrupt and break your combo for a maximum of two chances per round. If your quick to respond, you can jump and avoid the attack by pressing triangle. You cannot attack or be attacked during a solo. Otherwise if your hit you will lose whatever combo you were building and will have to start again.
A normal play-through features 12 levels, each getting harder as you progress. Capoeira serves as the mid boss, whilst Robo-Z serves as the final boss. Completing the main game mode unlocks that character for Dance View use, which is where you can select that character and crate your own sequence using the different dance moves that character has.
A Jammer in action, this interrupts your rivals dance move
Fever Time: If you score high enough, your character will enter what is called fever time at the end of the game, this is a bonus dance moves that your character does and does not require any additional input from you, the player.
Characters
Each charicters has their own dance moveset, along with a unique stage and music. Except for Columbo and Burger Dog, which reuse Shorty’s and Hamm’s music and stage respectivly.
Heat: The poster character of the game, basically the Kazaya of Bust A Groove (For those who are familiar with Tekken). Supposedly got indo a race-car accident and is now able to expel flames from his body. Dances to the break-dance style.
Frida: A Hippie/Beech chick who lives on a beech shack and is a keen graphic artist.When you attain a high score a tropical storm blows her shack to bits, leaving her homeless.
Pinky: A Dancer, looks like RuPaul
Hamm: A hiphop rapper who loves burgers, sounds like Kermit the Frog. Despite his size he is able to pull off some moves
Strike: A gangster rapper, inspired by Snopp Dogg and Coolio. Drinks from a flash in the Japaneese version which is missing in the US/Europe versions.
Shorty: A 12 year old girl who deiced to enter a dance competition, has a pet mouse
Kelly: Blonde woman who has a fetish for milkshake and baby items, her level can potentially cause a seizure if you’re doing well.
Gas-O: Wears a gas suit, some sort of scientist?
Hiro: Disco dancer, also has a hairy chest. The official description of him shows hes is shy and works with his computer each night (On the disco Reddit?)
Kitty N:Might be A Furry? Has a catchy theme music
Capoeria: Two aliens (Lala and Kiki) who serve as the mid-boss. You can guess what their dance style is. Unlocked when you complete the game on normal.They have supposedly come to earth to collect enough billboard to construct a giant fan (To combat global warming?)
Robo-Z: A vogue dancing robot, and the final boss of the game. Unlocked when you beat the game on hard.
Columbo: Unlocked when you beat the game with Shortly, her pet mouse/ferret.
BurgerDog: You can see him in Ham’s stage behind the counter. Can be unlocked by playing with Hamm once you have unlocked Robo-Z, uses Hamms move set.
Each character has an alternative costume
Screenshots are captured from the Mednafen emulator running on elementaryOS, using the Mednaffle fronted, up scaled to 2x the resolution
You can choose from the default soundtrack which features vocals, or just the instrumental versions. You can also hear the various samples and sound-effects.
Arcade
There are references to an arcade version of the game that was released in Japan only, most likely running on Namco System 10 or Sony ZN hardware which was PlayStation based. There isn’t much footage of this available online and there are no MAME roms that exist so I would assume this game was never fully released, or was only produced in small numbers.
Released in the arcades in 1998 and the ported to the Nintendo 64, here you are racing across various locations across the sunny state which range from cities to the beach. Many of the tracks are quite wacky, with you racing up the rails of the golden gate bridge, in a spaceship, a volcano or inside a trippy computer, in a way it feels like a roller coaster ride, of which there is a track where you can drive on a roller coaster. The game has various similarities with other Midway or Atari racing games like Rush or the Crusin games, which were also on the Nintendo 64 and plays like an arcade racing game, back in a time when this sort of racing game was popular before they all degenerated into racing sims.
There’s a good selection of cars which feature different stats like the handling, acceleration and speed. The N64 version allows you so alter the cards slightly by changing the colour hue, and the engine whilst they are fixed on the Arcade version. There’s a good verity of vehicles from muscle cars, pickup trucks to golf carts and sports cars. Music is pretty good using its own soundtrack inspired by various genres that were popular towards the end of the 90s, with grunge and progressive style rock tracks to techno and house, with a folk inspired track on the farm course. Like Crusin USA there are opponent cars and AI oncoming traffic which you have to avoid.
Arcade
The arcade version is using the 3DFX graphics processor paired with the MIPS R5000 CPU which Atari were proud of as it is present on the billboards plastered throughout the track. You can even see the 3DFX chip towards the final stage of the Silicon Valley track, since 3DFX were based in California.
The arcade mode features a single race or a Do The State mode which takes you though all the tracks
This is one of the few arcade games that runs off a hard disk, thus required a separate CHD file in order for it to run in MAME. Hard disks gave advantages compared to the CD_ROM drive as they were still able to offer a lager storage capacity and faster loading times, important for arcade games since the user does not want to wait for the game to load. Typically most arcade game uses surface mount ROM chips that stored the game data. Multiple versions of the game exist, this is version 2.1a of the game.
The arcade version of the game runs on a MIPS based CPU paired with the 3DFX graphics accelerator. You can race in a similar fashion to Cruis’n USA with ‘Do the state’ – in this mode you complete a series of races
The arcade version is also uncensored, as you are able to hit people in the mall (this can be an optional settings within the games setup mode) hitting them just causes them to scream and bound away down the track in a comedic fashion.
Nintendo 64
This was a conversion of the arcade version, and there are some differences in the presentation of the game. Graphics have had a noticeable reduction with lower resolution textures being used in place of the detailed ones used in the arcade, the environment has also been changed slightly with the N64 having less items in the background. However the N64 does have its trademark fog effects to cover the draw distance which leaves the impression your racing on a foggy autumn day, whilst the arcade is set in the summer and has nice backdrops and sky textures This version is also censored, as in the mall track its possible to run over the shoppers in the arcade version, but they don’t exist on the N64 version, this isn’t violent as you don’t see any blood or guts, in fact it looks like there bouncing around the mall when your call collides with them. Another change was the bikini girls that appears at the start and end of the race. The most noticeable change is the music, with everything being converted to MIDI instead of using the Midway Sound System on the arcade Sadly the game was only released in NTSC regions, A PAL version of the game exists and the Rom is fully playable in both emulators and an actual PAL N64 but was cancelled close to release. It even has support for five common languages in Europe (German, Spanish, Italian & French) The gameplay itself its slightly different with different cups being offers which offer a series of racers (around 6) to complete. Like the arcade, ‘Do The State’ mode exits which takes you through all the tracks in the game.
As mentioned in the arcade version, some elements of the game have been removed, most notably are the track/trophy girls that appear when you win a race and the removal of people in the mall track.
The game was officially released for NTSC (America) regions, a PAL version was planned and a ROM of it exists but was never released to market, until now.
Comparison
Arcade
Nintendo 64
Start screen, the arcade version had an attract sequence, whilst the N64 version shows a static screen that cuts to a demo sequence
Winning a race on the arcade version causes a group of bikini clad girls to appear to celebrate your win, which don’t appear on the N64 version. On the arcade version, the effect looks creepy because they sometime appear when you can is still moving and since they follow the car, it looks like they are moving at 30mph whilst standing still…
The track selection screen, the arcade version looks similar to the crusinUSA screen. The N64 version is split into different series of racing, known as Light, Sport. Each series has 5 tracks to race accross different weeks, which unlocks cars.
The LSD tunnel in San Francisco track
The start lady appears when the race begins for the arcade version, she does not appear in the N64 version
Entrance to the LSD tunnel, building resembles a workstation PC of the era. Although the front looks more like a PC speaker
Tree are much more detailed in the arcade version
The pier section, just before the rollercoaster part
Inside the LSD building which also simulates parts of a computer, you can see the 3DFX chip in the arcade version, and the Nintendo/SGI chip for the N64
Drving on the rollercoaster, the arcade version has a better draw distance with the sky being visible, the N64 is fogged out
The game based on the popular TV show, came out very early in the shows life, along with a hit number 1 single
Story mode does not make for a good game, with the enemies being repetitive to the point of tediousness. The first level starts you off in your home town where you are attacked by deranged Turkey’s (who have the most horrible sound effect, and it’s horrendous if there’s 3 or more enemies present) and throughout the first three levels its just ongoing Turkey’s, with the occasional cow thrown in (only on the PC version, I’ve not seen the cow in the console versions on this level).
A Tank version of the turkey.
On the next stage you encounter Tank enemies which are larger Turkey’s that have the ability to spawn more turkeys that will attack. The tank’s have much more health than regular turkeys and will start to run into the beginning of the level when their health goes below 30%. If a tank manages to make it to the start point of a level, than another stage will need to be completed after you complete the level, where you have to kill the tank enemies that escaped, with a replenished health bar. You will need to do this before they destroy the town, of which depends on how many tanks had escaped. For this reason its a good idea to kill the tanks in the main game, since you are going to have to beat them regardless. What’s frustrating to me is they speed run back to the start of the level, meaning you have to chase them whilst firing, and causing you to backtrack. This makes the level much more tedious since you hare going through areas you have already passed.
The next levels don’t change much, replacing the turkeys with clones, robots, aliens and moving toys, however its mostly the same type of enemy throughout the level which become boring fast. Some of the later enemies becoming literal bullet sponges, taking 20-30 hits before they go down.
The multiplayer on the other hand is rather fun, playing as a regular FPS with a interesting selection of guns. The console versions let you play with two players, whilst the PC version supports LAN netplay. If there is one reason to play this game, its for the multiplayer mode.
The Nintendo 64 version has 17 different maps to choose from, all with a variety of weapons. The PC version has the most maps, with 26 in total This includes all the N64 maps, plus some PC exclusive maps. PlayStation has an alerted version of the multiplayer mode, discussed in its section.
Nintendo 64
The first release of the game, and was the best version of the game until the PC version, however it remains the most accessible. Multiplayer supports up to four players on one console with a range of multiplayer options, including deathmatch. This version also features a high score table and supports 16:9 aspect ratio and a ‘High-Res’ mode with the use of the expansion pack.
Downside to this version is the significant frame drops when there’s a lot of action on the screen, and the short draw distance being disguised as fog.
Below is running on Retroarch Mupen64plus with Angrylion RSP plugin, I do own a copy of the PAL version of the game, but my N64 is one of those models that only supports composite out (No RGB or even S-Video, way to go Nintendo)
PlayStation
Released a year later (1999) and used a revised soundtrack compared to the MIDI N64 version, the cutscenes are captured from the N64 version instead of being pre-rendered on a workstation like many other games of the era. Graphically its a downgrade compared to the N64 version, and the multiplayer only supports two players, known as head to head in this version.
The PlayStation version comes with a head to head mode that has 6 maps, some of which are modified from the Nintendo 64 version. DM1 is based off the Ravine level from the N64, but with some alterations like the removal of water. DM4 is based of the badlands level, DM5 off badlands 2 and DM6 is based off the Gym Class map. DM2 and DM3 look to be unique maps for the PlayStation version.
Captured on Duckstation emulator with bi-linear filtering and rendered at twice the original resolution, with GTE accuracy enabled
Windows
The definitive port of the game, with better graphics and CD audio. Also comes with a proper multiplayer mode that use the Gamespy client (now defunct) to organize games. However there are issues running this game on modern systems, as the game only seems to work on Windows 98/Me systems (95 untested but assumed to work) this could be down to DirectX/Glide support on modern systems.
Below is running on the PCem v17 emulator running Windows 98, emulating a Pentium Overdrive MMX 200Mhz, 3DFX Voodoo graphics, with a Aztech sound galaxy soundcard.
There is also a software rendering mode that renders the games graphics in just the CPU, ideal if you do not have a dedicated 3D accelerator or one that is unsupported. Unfortunately it gives PlayStation level graphics at a weird screen aspect ratio.
Cheats PC
These were hard to find, so I thought i’d put them here
Press the Esc button, select Options and move the mouse cursor to the lower left of the screen and then click, you can then enter the below cheats. Sometimes you may have to move the cursor so it goes off the screen before you can enter a cheat.
One of my favourite childhood games from the PlayStation, objective of the game is to find Tommy’s Reptar pieces that are scattered all around the house by completing various mini games. Rugrats Search for Reptar was only released for the Sony PlayStation
First we need to talk about the Pickles Home, what has been rendered entirely within the games engine, and servers as a gateway to the mini games that need to be completed. It’s a pretty nice house consisting of 5 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a living area, kitchen and a study room, along with a garage. Its very faithful to the TV show, at least from the episodes I’ve seen, a lot of cartoon shows tent to remodel the house to suit the plot. It’s probably one of my favourite cartoon house alongside the Simpsons house which I got to explore in Virtual Springfield. Whilst rendered in a 3D environment, the art style tries to be faithful to the shows animation.
Some areas of the house are locked out initially, but when you enter a specific level they are available like the garage, I put this down to memory limitations of the PSX because some rooms that were previously explorable are disabled in some levels. An example of this was the Chuckie’s glasses level which opens the garage area, but removes the basement and garden area for that level. Some objects of the house can be interacted with, mainly Tommy’s toys which can be thrown or picked up.
Activities
Easy
Chuckie’s Glasses
Its raining outside and Angelica decided to play Hide & Seek with the babies, volunteering Chuckie’s to find them. However to make it fair, she takes his glasses, using Chuckie, you have to find and tag the babies (Phil, Lil, Tommy) and race them back to the play pen. It’s fairly easy and you get to explore the Rugrats house as you play, there’s no time limit and if one of the babies win you simply have to find that Rugrat again, although its gave over if they beat you three times.
Ice Cream Mountain
Stu wants to go golfing, he take the kids and promises a huge ice cream mountain, based on an episode in the show. There are 10 levels and to play, you walk to the ball, press the triangle button to start the power meter and press triangle again to hit the ball when the meter is in the right spot. Some require a power shot, others only require a small amount.
Grandpa’s teeth
The level starts off in a playground where you and Chuckie can play on one of the slides/rides. When your done, you can progress through the level into some sort of maze where the goose is hiding with grandpas teeth. Once you navigate the maze, a second segment starts where you have to chase the goose that has Chuckie, using Spike to catch up to it. The third stage concluded with you throwing hockey pucks at the goose (Hopefully PETA didn’t play this game), whilst trying to avoid Chuckie.
Cookie Race
You just have to race and beat Angelica to the kitchen. The house has been slightly altered and some areas have been blocked off, meaning you have to go the long way round. This is fairly easy since Angelica is quite slow but the controls can be a hindrance since its easy to run into an object.
Medium
Visitors From Outer Space
You control Angelica in a spaceship where the babies have been abducted. Avoid the TV robots/aliens and navigate to the lower levels (you can still explore the ship) where you will meet an alien fish thing, who will disable the gravity. Angelica can then float through the air vent and navigate to one of the pod escape ships where she meets the babies, somehow? Based on a real Rugrats episode.
Mr Friend
This one sucked, basically you have to throw objects at Mr Friend and destroy it. First you have to deal with one, then three will spawn. Its challenging since the hit detection is very inconsistent and the controls are digital which makes it hard for Tommy to aim, also some of the throwable objects will just clip through Mr Friend.
Let There be Light
Stu overclocks his Amiga and causes a power cut, so its up to Tommy to restore the power. This level has the pickles house in darkness, with the textures being darkened for effect. There are ghost’s that roam around the house that can drain Tommy’s health, use the flash light to zap them away. First part see you navigating the house in near darkness to the kitchen where you find the Pickles fridge, but Tommy is unable to open it by himself so he needs the help of Spike to open it for him, which starts the next segment when you have to find Spike.
Circus Angelica
The Rugrats are tasked with performing with Angelia’s Circus, and have to perform a variety of tricks. This isn’t really difficult but the controls can be a major problem since you have to be accurate when it comes to Chuckie’s part, and if you fail twice the game is over.
Hard
Hard basically means long, as there are multiple objectives that have to be completed for the activity.
Incident on Isle 7
Set in a supermarket, Grandpa takes Tommy shopping for some Reptar cereal, Tommy breaks free and is left to explore the store. First section sees you exploring the different sections of the shop, until to reach the seafood section where a bunch of lobsters get loose. You then have to avoid or kill the lobsters and navigate through the various areas that have spillages that can cause Tommy to fall. Lastly you will reach the boss section where you have to stun the main Lobster in order to hit a switch.
Toy Palace
Set in a toy store, Stu loses Tommy and Chuckie after they decide to go solo. They explore the toy store zone in the hope of finding Reptar. Everything seems to cause damage in the first part, and the last part can be frustrating since you have to collect the blocks in order to reach the switch, some of which are located on shelves. The jumping is inconsistent as there is a delay before Tommy jumps, resulting in him falling a few times. Tommy and Chuckie also have a habit of repeating their dialog endlessly.
7 Voyages of Cynthia
You control Spike (Poorly) in this level as you navigate the sewer, Spike is very vulnerable to damage and will take a hit over every minor collision. The second stage isn’t any better since you have to avoid the mud which will reduce his health. The final stage is easy as you just need to find Cynthia before the time runs out, except she spawns in a random place.
Activities
Cookie Race – Same as the main version
Egg Hunt – Also in the main game, Angelia wants to hog all the easter eggs, so its up to Tommy to find them all before the time runs out, I guess the cookies weren’t enough for Angelica?
Gold Rush – Also available as a bonus game, Phil and Lil need to collect all the coins before time runs out, Same as egg hunt really
Mini golf – Can be played with multiple players, but instead of split screen, its more of a pass the controller for each turn kind of affair. There are 10 courses to play through.
Emulation
Recommended emulator: BeetlePSX or Mednafen, Duckstation works just as well.
One of the issues that occurred when playing this game in Duckstation was some cutscenes not playing, or the ones that did play would end early, and some of the Rugrats would be played randomly around the house, like in the screenshot below where Angelica is present in the kitchen, and cannot be interacted. This would often happen if you start the game in training mode first, then exit via the door which starts the main game. Angelica’s model is in the training map so maybe the game forgot to remove her from the world?
Angelica has seen some deep shit…
The hide and seek game is mainly affected, with the Rugrats randomly appearing around the house once they have been beaten to the playpen
Not a very good hiding place Tommy…
Tommy and Phil have been found, but instead of being in the play-pen, they are in the living room. This issue also occurred with the older builds of ePSXe where rugrats would randomly appear around the house, and issues with cutscenes playing. I’ve not tested it in modern ePSXe (this was around ver1.6)
Rugrats untextured object
An untextured toilet? Found in the cookie race level. I remember something similar occurring on the actual console itself so possibly not an emulator issue. The light above the mirror is also affected in both the cookie race and Chuckie’s glasses.
Navigating the Disc
Opening the SLUS_006.50 in Notepad++ and scrolling to line 168 reveals a few menu name strings, one of which references a Debug Menu, wonder how we activate this?
All the game data is present in the DATA folder, and each of the levels are broken up into different DB folders, with DB00 being the Pickels family home. Inside each folder are multiple BIN folders that follow the name convention. DBxxANM.BIN might refer to the animations for that level. Unfortunately these formats are likely built using proprietary game tool exclusive to N-Space, so there isn’t really much to play about here. Maybe we could rename and swap a few files around and experiment what happens when the game tries to load data intended for another level?
Update: 18/04/2023
There is also a hidden/unused level known as DB19, which appears to have been scrapped during development. By using CDmage to copy and move the files, we can trick the game into loading. Because of the way PlayStation discs are authored, we need to extract and then inject the files specifically into DB04 – the Voyages of Cynthia as that’s the largest levels that we can fit the files into.
The level appears untextured and looks to be an earlier version of the Pickles household. Notable differences is space around the house, and more narrower stairs. As you are controlling Spike for this level, we have a few issues using the stars, with careful precision you can jump up to the second floor which appears mostly the same layout.
Entering the closet causes the countdown timer to start, likely because the game thinks we are on the Cynthia level and Spike as entered into a specific trigger for the countdown timer.
Lastly lets see what’s outside in the level Chuckie’s glasses, by using the cube found in Tommy’s room we can use this to glitch out of the boundaries and into the garden which we normally cannot access. We can see its not raining at all and Spike’s doghouse is missing. Jumping on the buses causes a weird model/prop to come out which spawns shortly after. There’s also a weird square at the edge of the garden which we cannot stand on.
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