Arthur's Computer Adventure

Arthur's Computer Adventure
Developer: Brøderbund Publisher: Brøderbund Platform: Windows Released in US: August 3, 1998 This game has unused sounds. This game has debugging material. This game has a notes page

Arthur's Computer Adventure is the Living Books adaptation of Arthur's Computer Disaster. It tells the story of Arthur and Buster sneaking onto the computer to play "Deep Dark Sea".

To do: Investigate whether the fDebugWindow flag and the "Do it!" button do anything.

Sub-Pages

Notes

Unused Audio

This short jingle can be found in ACA01.MHK, which is the data for Page 1 of the story.

Most of the game's audio files are compressed in a proprietary format, so trying to play them results in lots of distortion and static. This WAV file is unique because it uncompressed and can be easily played without any distortion.

Debug Features

Some debug features can be enabled by changing variables in the game's OUTLINE file.

fDebugWindow is a boolean value that defaults to false. Setting it to true has no obvious effect.

vDebug defaults to 0. Setting it to 1 enables an overlay that shows the current page and gag number anytime a gag animation is playing.

The vDebug overlay is visible in the bottom-right corner. "Pg01" refers to the page number (Page 1), and "G21" refers to the gag number (the dancing toy pig on the floor).

allowHack defaults to 0. Setting it to 1 does the following:

• Adds a red button that says "Hack" to the top-right corner of DW's store. Clicking this button after putting an item on the scanner allows you to instantly buy it without paying.
• Adds a brown button that says "Do it!" to Page 3, including the Copter activity. Clicking the button doesn't seem to do anything.

The red "Hack" button in the top-right corner of DW's Store.

The brown "Do it!" button in the top-right corner of the Copter activity.

DDSmoneyAmt defaults to 0. The name suggests it has something to do with the money amount in the Deep Dark Sea activity.

PrintFish defaults to 1. Setting it to 0 disables the printing function in the Frankenfish activity.

FishIntro defaults to 0. Setting it to 1 skips the Frankenfish introduction.

Unused Demo File

In the folder DEMO/MHK there is an unused demo file called MP01AP.MHK. It is a byte-perfect copy of JG01AP.MHK, which is the demo for Just Grandma and Me.