Author Topic: Bucky O'Hare (NES)  (Read 32686 times)

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Offline TerraEsperZ

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Bucky O'Hare (NES)
« on: July 27, 2006, 10:35:04 pm »
Okay, so it's late and I've worked 13 hours today, so I'll be brief since my bed is calling to me. I loved this game over a decade ago when I rented it, and I finally got around to map it a little. I've finished two planets this week. Previews for now, hopefully final maps soon.

[LINKS REMOVED]

*EDIT 24/05/12*

I've since completed all the maps and they've been linked at the bottom of the thread.
« Last Edit: May 24, 2012, 12:15:38 am by TerraEsperZ »
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Offline DarkWolf

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RE: Bucky O'Hare (NES)
« Reply #1 on: July 27, 2006, 10:44:30 pm »
I haven't played this one.  Maps look pretty good though.

Offline TerraEsperZ

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RE: Bucky O'Hare (NES)
« Reply #2 on: July 27, 2006, 11:03:36 pm »
One last post before going to bed.



Bucky O'Hare is a weird Konami game. In some ways it feels like the first Battletoads, in that the various stages have lots of variety to them, with lots of interactions with the environment. The graphics are also very good for the nes, with simulated parallax scrolling, large moving objects and other effects achieved by exploiting the hardware to the maximum.



For example, take the Green Planet:



1st & 2nd part: Standard platforming

3rd part: Swinging platforms and floating rafts over deadly waters

4th part: Loooooong fall where you need to avoid debris falling faster than you

5th part: Lots of Toad ships flying overhead and firing at you



Or better yet, the Red Planet:



1st part: Parallax scrolling (volcanoes scroll slower than the rest, and they erupt a few times, showering you with lava)

2nd part: Roll rocks to cross flaming pits

3rd part: Lava flows quickly from side holes, so you must go down as fast as possible using the fastest route or the lava will kill you

4th part: *Huge* flares that need to be avoided

5th part: You climb a huge shaft with rows of platforms scrolling left and right alternatively with deadly drills on both sides of the screen

6th part: Parallax scrolling and the use of rolling rocks to cross spiked floors

7th part: In addition to more rolling rocks over spikes, a giant green ball (the boss) keeps rolling across the screen both ways and must be jumped over and, in some places, be used to roll over the spikes



The later stages have even more variety, which you'll see once I've done their maps.



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"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably." [...] The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged. - Captain Jean-Luc Picard



B*tch, meet reality. Reality, meet b*tch. - Me
Current project:
Mega Man: Powered Up (PSP)

Offline JonLeung

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RE: Bucky O'Hare (NES)
« Reply #3 on: July 28, 2006, 10:41:18 pm »
I thought you were working on Treasure Master...



I, too, remember this NES game.  I remember being impressed.  First of all, I already had a distaste for licensed-property games.  Next of all, I wasn't a fan of Bucky O'Hare.  With such low expectations, I probably shouldn't've even rented it, but I did, and I have to say, it is an above-average NES platformer that I would play again.



Especially since I'm not sure if I actually ever finished it.



Well, good luck with mapping it!

Offline TerraEsperZ

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RE: Bucky O'Hare (NES)
« Reply #4 on: July 29, 2006, 11:21:22 am »
I've been puzzling over Treasure Master for a week and I'm just not satisfied with any of the ways I've tried to put tips and walkthrough information on it. Rather than to keep stumbling on it and wasting time, I'll most likely upload clean maps Sunday night once I'm back home and try later for the tips.



As for Bucky, I'll work on it every once in a while but I'm really hoping to get back to mapping the GBA Castlevanias (I'm still sick of that damn Metroid: Fusion with the fucked up water layering system).



---

"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably." [...] The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged. - Captain Jean-Luc Picard



B*tch, meet reality. Reality, meet b*tch. - Me
Current project:
Mega Man: Powered Up (PSP)

Offline TerraEsperZ

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RE: Bucky O'Hare (NES)
« Reply #5 on: November 10, 2008, 02:25:20 pm »
Is two years too long to revive an old thread :P?



Because the reason I haven't been posting much lately is because I've been spending a lot of time mapping this game again. I went back and revised the first two planets (Green and Red, adding enemies and correcting a few mistakes in stages with parallax which are displayed with a few extra scanlines when there shouldn't be any), finished the other two (Blue and Yellow, and currently adding the enemies to the later) as well the Cell level (which is a maze and I'm trying to assemble the parts in an easy-to-follow map), and am currently mapping the Salvage Chute.



As soon as I'm back from work, I'll upload the first three completed planet maps in the first post. Hopefully, I'll have two more soon, then only the last two levels will be left (Center of the Magma Tanker which shouldn't be too hard, and Escape! which is going to be very long and hard to map because there's a ton of parallax scrolling, animated tiles and rotating palettes to deal with).



(And I know I said the same thing for Metal Storm a month ago, but there's just that annoying auto-scrolling stage I want to finish beforehand).



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Current projects: Bucky O'Hare (NES), Metal Storm (NES), Clock Tower (SNES), Ristar-The Shooting Star (Gen), Sonic The Hedgehog (Gen), Sonic CD (Sega CD), Mega Man Zero (GBA), Battletoads (NES)
Current project:
Mega Man: Powered Up (PSP)

Offline TerraEsperZ

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RE: Bucky O'Hare (NES)
« Reply #6 on: November 13, 2008, 05:54:31 pm »
Okay, the four planet maps are up at last. Turns out that they *were* being uploaded to ImageShack, but it would never give me the links afterward, nor would it do it with ImageBot. Once I logged on my account manually, I had a dozen copies of each image there already.



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Current projects: Bucky O'Hare (NES), Metal Storm (NES), Clock Tower (SNES), Ristar-The Shooting Star (Gen), Sonic The Hedgehog (Gen), Sonic CD (Sega CD), Mega Man Zero (GBA), Battletoads (NES)
Current project:
Mega Man: Powered Up (PSP)

Offline TerraEsperZ

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RE: Bucky O'Hare (NES)
« Reply #7 on: November 18, 2008, 04:09:12 pm »
*First post updated with Stage 6: Salvage Chute*



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Current projects: Bucky O'Hare (NES), Metal Storm (NES), Clock Tower (SNES), Ristar-The Shooting Star (Gen), Sonic The Hedgehog (Gen), Sonic CD (Sega CD), Mega Man Zero (GBA), Battletoads (NES)
Current project:
Mega Man: Powered Up (PSP)

Offline TerraEsperZ

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RE: Bucky O'Hare (NES)
« Reply #8 on: November 20, 2008, 10:27:10 pm »
*First post updated with Stage 5: Cell*



Either no one cares about this, or no one is browsing the board, which has been surprisingly slow for the last week.



Anyway, as you can see from the its map, Stage 5 is more maze-like and features a bit of backtracking between some sections contrary to all the other stages.



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Current projects: Bucky O'Hare (NES), Metal Storm (NES), Clock Tower (SNES), Ristar-The Shooting Star (Gen), Sonic The Hedgehog (Gen), Sonic CD (Sega CD), Mega Man Zero (GBA), Battletoads (NES)
Current project:
Mega Man: Powered Up (PSP)

Offline Will

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RE: Bucky O'Hare (NES)
« Reply #9 on: November 20, 2008, 10:48:19 pm »
I see you have only two stages remaining. It's going pretty well.

Offline TerraEsperZ

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Re: Bucky O'Hare (NES)
« Reply #10 on: May 24, 2012, 12:12:39 am »
It only took, what, 6 years? But at least, it's finally done and I can strike another project off of my "Lost in Limbo" list.

I wanted to comment a bit on these since I really feel that Bucky O'Hare is a great NES game that pushes the technical limits of the console quite a bit in terms of graphics. It might not be that difficult but it's reasonably challenging and the music is great as expected from Konami. No thumbnail this time since the maps are too big and dark to make them useful.

The first four stages can be completed in any order you like except that you need to complete the Green Planet and thus free Blinky to break the ice blocks in your way on the Blue Planet. I've assigned them numbers for ease of browsing based on their positions on the stage select screen.

Level 1: Green Planet

The Green Planet is a relatively straightforward level with nothing of interest except Act 5 which features a great differential scrolling effect (I hope I'm using the right term). The whole background is divided in sections which scroll at different rate (both ship layers as well as the background mountains and then the ground).

Level 2: Red Planet

The Red Planet is a lot more animated, featuring rocks you need to push in the fire to stand safely, very quick lava flows coming after you in Act 3 (their paths are shown with dithering), giant fire flares in Act 4, a long vertical shaft where platforms scroll right and left, and finally a few areas with a parallax background effect and eventually a giant green ball crossing the screen continuously which you have to ride until you can fight as it actually is the boss,

Level 3: Blue Planet

The Blue Planet features a lot of ice blocks and later ice spheres, and I did a bit of sprite editing to show which blocks contain enemies or powerups. There are a few sections with giant snakes who appear from off-screen and eventually make their way across the area (watch out for their heads) and I used some dithering to show blocks that eventually covered by them. Nothing else interesting as a mapper except some rising and falling piston in Act 8.

Level 4: Yellow Planet

The Yellow Planet features a lot more differential scrolling in Acts 3 and 4 and again, each ship layer moves at its own speed. Act 5 features meteors flying in every direction but I managed to capture their general starting positions, and Act 6 is literally a high-speed roller-coaster where you have to hop on the next platform as soon as yours slows down or else you'll fall to your death.

Level 5: Cell

Contrary to all the other stages, the Cell is actually a bit of a maze, so I've had to use a lot more arrows to show how everything is arranged. You can't go back to previous Acts but a single Act might consist of several areas and elevators. There are a few places where the ground will drop away under you and there are also appearing and disappearing blocks like in the Mega Man series. Both are depicted with dithering but it's easy to tell them apart.

Level 6: Salvage Chute

The Salvage Chute is actually pretty difficult, featuring horizontal (in Act 2) and vertical (in Act 5) crushers as well as a lot of enemies like all the beetles travelling up and down in Act 3 and the slug in Act 4 which throw themselves at your head. Acts 6, 7 and 8 are rooms which go completely dark after a few seconds, and all you can see afterward are the small areas illuminated by travelling lights. To replicate this effect partly, I used dithering to make the rooms appear darker and left the areas around the lights bright.

Level 7: Center of Magma Tanker

The Center of Magma Tanker is where everything is seriously getting serious. First, you have to survive four Acts where the walls constantly move apart before closing in, something I didn't feel like wasting time to reproduce. I showed the walls closed since what you really need to know are the safe spots. After that, you get gravity and anti-gravity zones, conveyor belts, four more rooms where the middle of the room rotates by 90 degrees every few seconds (Acts 8 through 11), and three more rooms with the snakes from the Blue Planet making a reappearance.

Level 8: Escape!

Escape! is the final stretch, and it's actually a quite difficult stage if you don't have very good reflex (which is my case). It also sports an impressive parallax effect as well as color palette rotation and animated background tiles. First you need avoid steam jets as well as toads grabbing onto your ship which drags you down and attack drones, then blast your way through emergency shutters (which *will* crush you if you don't get out of the way) and some more drones but with increased speed, then destroy an annoying miniboss with ground and ceilling tracks, destroy a giant Toad warship and finally face Toad Air Marshal in close-quarter combat with a deadly wall of fire pushing you against him.

I think that's enough for the night!
Current project:
Mega Man: Powered Up (PSP)