PUGGSY | PSYGNOSIS | 1993

Puggsy is a puzzle based platformer released on the Mega Drive/Genesis in 1993 with versions for Mega CD and Amiga. It is one of the early works from Travellers Tales whom have since gone on to create great titles (Crash Bandicoot 2, Super Monkey Ball Adventure and Lego Indiana Jones) for various systems including work for SEGA and Sonic Team.

Puggsy remains one of the most enjoyable and vibrant games on the system with some impressive graphical effects being produced. The slightly enhanced Mega CD version followed later.

Reviews were generally mixed which possibly stopped the hinted at sequel from being produced. There have been no updated ports (the GBA would have been a good choice) leaving Puggsy one of the era's lesser known gems.

All versions of he game can still be found cheaply on Ebay though the Mega CD version is rather rare and fetches higher prices for copies in mint condition.

Puggsy European Case
	"Puggsy is no ordinary game. Using the unique system of Total Object Interaction (TOI), you have to guide Puggsy through some of the best puzzles and most frantic arcade action ever seen in his quest to retrieve his stolen spaceship. Incorporating graphics techniques never seen before, fantastic game play plus a complete junior section for the younger player, Puggsy is determined to become the next world-wide smash hit!"

STORY

Puggsy has become stranded on an alien planet 15 light-years away from his space station and home. His spaceship has been stolen by the native inhabitants of the planet, the Racoons. Puggsy's aim is to simply get his ship back and go home.

To reclaim your spaceship and leave planet you must overcome the obstacles and traverse most of the levels on the island. There are multiple paths that can be taken.

GAMEPLAY

The gameplay of Puggsy is akin of a typical platform of the time: move in all directions around each level some loaded with platforms and drops whilst jumping on enemies and using the objects that are around.

Puggsy

Action alone will not actually get you through a level because in each there are puzzles that must be solved in order for you to reach the exit.

For this Puggsy employs a system called 'Total Object Interaction'. It is the core element to the game. The purpose of this is to allow the objects in the game to have basic real world characteristics.

All objects can be moved, thrown, stood upon, stacked and used. They are subject to gravity, bounce and float or sink in water etc. For example, barrels can be used to make a stack to reach higher places you can use guns to shoot enemies. Each object has its own weight. If you are carrying a heavy object Puggsy can not jump as high but might stop you from getting blown around by a fan.

Puggsy's Total Object Interaction

Stacking	Pushing

Floating

Hint Chest

Objects interact with the elements in the level and with other objects. For example, some objects may catch fire if used by a source of flames. Sharp objects can cut. These sorts of happenings are all used to solve the puzzles and reach the exit.

In some levels there is located a special blue chest object which serves as a hint. It will show you a pivotal object that is needed to solve a puzzle and therefore complete the level. You are not under a time limit for completing a level, however, an event or trigger maybe missed requiring you to start the level over again.

Sliding

Well Hung

Lookin' Good

The default controls are:

The D-Pad moves Puggsy left and right across the screen. You can slide down hills/slopes by pressing DOWN.

If you are standing on a platform or stack of objects holding DOWN briefly will make you fall through them one at a time without destroying the stack.

Button A is to action an object e.g. firing a gun or using a remote control.

Button B is for picking up and dropping objects. When you are holding an object you can use the D-Pad UP and DOWN to hold it in the air or towards the floor. Throwing is done by moving in a direction pressing Button B.

You can also stack objects to carry more than one. You can walk with a stack of objects providing your on a flat surface otherwise the stack will collapse. If you have a stack of objects you can use the D-Pad and Button B and select which one to pick up.

Button C is jump. The height of the jump will depend on how hard the button is pressed. Small taps result in small jumps. Holding the button makes for rapid jumping. If carrying a heavy object the jump will not be as high regardless of the button press.

You can use objects to lever and haul yourself up by holding Button C and using the D-Pad UP and LEFT/RIGHT. This is an essential skill you must master to make it through the game.

This is also used in water for basic movement upwards and bobbing on the surface.

Pressing START pauses the game. Pressing Buttons A+B+C when the game is paused will instantly exit the level and return you to the map.

When you are playing a level there are 3 pieces of information on the screen.

Puggsy

Your score is displayed upper-left. Every time you earn points it will bounce up and down. To the right is the number of lives you have. Between these will be an arrow. This will point in the general direction of the exit which is in the form of a racoon head.

Apart from objects and puzzles, each level is also littered with enemies. Most can be defeated by jumping on them and pressing Down on the D-Pad. They can also be killed with objects. Guns are easy enough used but other objects may have to be bounced onto an enemy to kill it. For each enemy defeated you will receive points. Beware that some levels have enemies which can not be defeated. For example, in Dark Blade Forest you are pursued by a hooded creature which can not be killed.

Puggsy ordinarily can not take any hits. If you are touched by an enemy or hazard you will be killed. There are some special items which Puggsy can use which will protect him.

Special Items

Sun Glasses	Trainers	Invincibility Shield

Should you be killed you will re-spawn at the same place. Loosing all your lives will naturally result in Game Over. You can continue by starting the game again from the title screen or entering a password.

When you complete a level you will be rewarded bonus points for any objects you take through an exit. The amount varies between objects; however, hearts earn extra lives. You can take through as many objects that will fit if you stack them; usually about 5 depending on their sizes. Also watch the bottom of the reward screen as it will mention if you are about to face a guardian.

Level Complete Bonus

Some levels have multiple exits. Taking an alternative exit will open up a different route on the map and sometimes a secret level(s). Secret levels are described later.

Some routes may only take you aside rather than further around the island, so replaying and taking the other exit maybe needed.

Guardian Encounters

At the end of an area you will face a guardian. These guys are huge in comparison to Puggsy. There will be a specific way to score a hit on each. It may entail throwing something or activating a switch at a particular moment.

In such an encounter Puggsy can take 6 hits as will the guardian represented by two sets of blocks at the top of the screen.

The guardians are:

Polly Pirate
The Emperor's Old Clothes
So Pharaoh So Good
Flour Power
Halitosis the Dragon
If Looks Could Kill

Puggsy Guardians

Polly Pirate	World Guardians

When a guardian is defeated you will receive a points bonus and their face will be crossed off the list. A cut scene will be played moving on the story and a new password will be given for returning to this spot.

Island Map

The map is for moving about the island (selecting levels) showing you where you have been and your next destination. You select which level you want to play by moving the Puggsy icon around in the top left box of the screen.

Island Map
	Key White are levels that have been completed. Yellow are newly opened levels. The solid yellow blocks indicate that there will be a guardian when this level is complete. ? are secret levels. See below for more. Whilst moving the Puggsy icon around, the magnifying glass will move around the island also to show you which area you are in. The name of the level you are on will be displayed between the boxes. Pressing BUTTON A on the map will give a magnified picture of the area in the box to the right. This has no particular use. Pressing BUTTON B will reveal the current password in the box. When this is flashing it indicates a newer password as progress has been made. This is generally after you have completed an area or a guardian. Passwords are entered in the Options Screen. More detail is below. Pressing BUTTON C will show the world guardians and your score. The crossed faces have been defeated. Pressing START will enter the level.

Options

The title screen presents three main options:

Start - begins a new game or continues from Game Over.

Option - takes you to the options screen. Here you can choose the layout of the buttons from 6 presets, increase (max of 7) or decrease the number of lives or enter a password to resume a game.

To enter a password use the D-Pad to highlight the number and BUTTON A to select it. BUTTON B moves back a character and BUTTON C skips one. The password is activated when you start a game.

Junior - A practice run to get used to the game. You play 5 simple levels and a guardian. These are: Beach 1 and 2, Lake, Mines and Light House, So Pharaoh So Good who needs only 2 hits to be defeated.



Options	Password

THE LEVELS

All 51 Levels

All 51 Levels

The Beach 1	The Beach 2

The Beach 3	The Cove

Treasure Trove	The Cove 2

The Redwoods 1	Wabbits World

The Redwoods 2	Redwood Keep 1

Redwood Keep 2	Secret Tunnel

The Lighthouse 1	A Hidden Place

The Lighthouse 2	Angeltier Falls 1

Angeltier Falls 2	Lunar Jet Pug

Star Fall Lake 1	Star Fall Pool

Starfall Lake 2	Splinter Town 1

Splinter Town 2	Puggs In Space

Pyramids 1	Pyramids 2

Pyramids 3	Darkblade Forest 1

Darkblade Forest 2	Darkblade Forest 3

Diamond Mines 1	Diamond Mines 2

Diamond Mines 3	Fireheart 1

Fireheart 2	Fireheart 3

Badgermill 1	Badgermill 2

Badgermill 3	Darkskull Castle 1

Darkskull Castle 2	Darkskull Castle 3

Aztec Temple 1	Aztec Games

Aztec Temple 2	Racrock Forge 1

Puggsanoid	Rackrock Forge 2

Raclantis Docks 1	Raclantis Docks 2

Raclantis Maze

The game features 51 normal levels which include 6 secret levels and then an additional 6 boss fights giving 57. Not all levels have to be completed in order to finish the game. There are 6 more secret levels that can only be accessed with a special password and not counted towards the level total.

All secret levels are described below.

Secret Levels

These are the first 6 secret levels accessed by taking alternative exits in certain levels.

Puggsy Secret Levels
Puggs in Space A rendition of Space Invaders. Pick up the laser cannon and begin shooting the invaders. A ship floating across the top is carrying a heart you can trade for an extra life by taking it through the exit.

Lunar Jet Pug You must manoeuvre Puggsy around in a craft without touching the sides. There is also a lazer gun if to pick up, that is if feeling lucky. In this level you will be goaded to complete all 51 Levels

Pugsanoid A rendition of Arkanoid. Pickup the heart and throw it upwards to knock the blocks away. Beware that falling into one of the gaps in the floor results in death and they are extremely tricky to get out of. Should you fall in, quickly pause the game and BUTTONS A+B+C to quit the level to save all of your remaining lives.

Aztec Games The object of this game is to get the brown disc into the slot/window at the top-centre of the screen. Use the beach ball to knock it into place. When the brown disc is touched it will continue to move. The arrows on the boxes move the disc in that direction. The ? box places it moving left to right in the centre of the screen there as the ! box places it in the top-right corner next to the arrow. You can grab the brown ball when it becomes low enough or use the beach ball to knock it into to place. By doing so an extra life will fall from the window.

A Hidden Place In this room there will be letters on tiles spelling out "HERE IS A SECRET ROOM". Two cheats can be activated here. Stack the letters (reading downwards) to make the following words and take through the exit. CHEAT - makes Puggsy green and although he can still dies, no lives are lost. HEROS - Gives you a graphical demonstration with some scrolling credits of the game. Although the incorrect spelling, this is the cheat. There is also an extra life on the ledge in the top-left section of the room.

Ultra Secret Levels: 6 More!

When you complete the game you are given an equation in the credits. This equates to the following password. It works on both cartridge and CD versions.

123 765 444
177 075 537
457 337 735

This opens up a path to an island with 6 more secret levels. Only 1 will be opened initially. These have no particular bearing on the game and generally give information. Head towards the location of Aztec Games and follow the path onto a small island.

They are as follows:

Ultra Secret Levels
Shell Shocked Head right, away from the Racoon. It can not kill you if it touches you. You must stay ahead of it and jump up the large stack of shells to the exit. There are plenty of crabs to watch out for too. If too slow the raccoon will knock the stack over and you will need to start again.

Fair Oh's Tomb Before entering this level, it's recommended to be wearing the trainers. Immediately run right as the level starts away from the pursuing hooded creature. Climb up the wall and then get past all the scarab beetles to reach the exit.

Will's World Go past the four cabaret dancers and stack 2 stools to get past the wall. Drop into the pit and use the fan platforms to escape. In the next chamber will be bats carrying balloons. Kill one of them (can be tricky) and grab the balloon to float to the exit.

Never Mined This level is identical to the secret level in the diamond mines only the left and right controls have been reversed.

Lee and Errr?

Just a weird message "Leander is Galahad on the Mega Drive; Try Cheat" which is a reference to the cheat that can be done in the secret room.

The End of All

As the name suggests you are greeted to the following message -

"O.K Thats all of the levels completed. Thanks for Playing. Hope you enjoyed the game and will want to buy future Travellers Tales releases. Until then .......Bye"
Travellers Tales 93"

Then back to title screen.

CHEATS AND TIPS

Racklantis Maze - Last Level

Use the following route to reach the last boss.

Left, down through the floor, 2nd down, left, over and up, down right, left, and left.

Super Passwords

All Levels open except Secret Levels. This partially works on the CD version.

000 276 007
304 214 763
073 756 534

All levels open and all secret levels open. This password does not work on the CD version.

600 276 007
314 325 663
037 356 576

Complete Aztec games and Puggsanoid to receive a special message and some graphics.

"Well Done!
You have completed all 51 Levels!
But are you good at Maths"

[Then graphics]

OTHER VERSIONS

Mega CD/SEGA CD version

Puggsy CD European Case
		Case Quote "Nerd ain't the word, It's one thing losing your way in the backyard of your own star system, it's entirely another losing a whole spacecraft on an alien planet. But that's just what Puggsy's done. Big mistake! So now Puggsy's in it up to his neck. And that's serious when you haven't got one! What follows is a desperately hilarious and daring adventure across Skull Island with the most unlikely hero yet to grace your Sega CD screen. Puggsy, galactic hero, star system cruiser and all-round interstellar hunk will Blitz your Brain cells, Energize your Eyeballs and Storm your Sega from dawn 'till dusk."

The CD version of the game was released in 1994 in Europe and the US.

It has several minor enhancements over the cartridge version but the core game is essentially the same, even the secret levels and cheats.

Puggsy CD



Puggsy CD

The improvements are:

Two extra play modes; Time Trial puts you against the clock as to how fast you can complete the levels, for no apparent reason.
Guardians allow you to select a guardian encounter to replay depending on your current progress (or password) through the game.
The order in which the guardians are presented is different plus two new ones: Crab and Polly Pirate.
Games can be saved to the internal RAM and the passwords are compatible with the cartridge version (should you actually own both).
Graphical improvements are generally the use of sprite effects on the bosses.
Cut scenes are movies with CGI graphics which are of surprisingly good quality considering the system.
In-game music is CD audio.

Amiga Version

This version is a conversion of the Mega Drive (cartridge) version barring a few differences in layout and colour. Graphically it is a little less impressive but the gameplay is still the same.

You can checkout more info at http://www.lemonamiga.com

Puggsy Amiga

EMULATOR COMPATIBILITY

Perfect! Play this with KEGA Fusion, Gens and Gens32 Emulators. You can download these from the SEGA Mega Drive/Genesis Emulators page.

MISC INFO

The character of Puggsy first appeared in an Amiga title Puggsy In Space. It can be seen by searching Youtube. There was going to be a Puggsy game commissioned by Psygnosis after the demo was taken in to them. After Tim Wright and Lee Carus went to work for Psygnosis full-time, the Puggsy game died out.

A couple of years later, it was resurrected and Traveller's Tales did the game based on the character for the Mega Drive and Mega-CD. The Mega Drive version was then converted to the Amiga.
The game has a robust anti-piracy measure. Though the retail cartridge does not contain any SRAM third-party copying devices did and the game attempts to write to it. If successful the anti-piracy measure is triggered and after playing a few levels a message is displayed which stops further play.

Emulators triggered this often as they create SRAM regions automatically. Some emulators can simply disable SRAM. This measure is not in the Mega CD version.
The ROM has VER-0112 embedded in it.
There are several links in the game between Puggsy and another game entitled Wiz N Liz also on the Mega Drive/Genesis. Likewise this was the same in Wiz N Liz. An example is in Dark Blade Forest their names are on tombstones.
The wabbits from Wiz N Liz make a cameo and its possible to shoot them with a gun!
In Wiz 'n Liz, Puggsy features on the tomato throwing Splat! sub-game and as part of the landscape in Temple Land. In the games manual a picture of the island is shown as a description of Wiz 'n Liz's world.
I guess they were all good mates or something.
A demo CD of Psygnosis games was available with issue #20 of Mega Power, one of the few Mega CD magazines of the day. It contained an early demo of the CD version of Puggsy along with Wiz N Liz and Microcosm.
A SNES version of the game was almost completed but never released.