Dudes with Attitude

Dudes with Attitude

Also known as: Trolls on Treasure Island
Developer: American Video Entertainment
Publisher: American Video Entertainment
Platform: Unlicensed NES
Released in US: 1990

This game has unused objects.
This game has unused graphics.
This game has revisional differences.

Dudes with Attitude is an unlicensed NES puzzle game. Happy, Dude, Foxy, Babe, Patch and Bozo (who are being referred as "the dudes") are on a mission to uncover buried jewels on Caribbean islands. Gameplay involves controlling one of them as they bounce back and forth across the screen trying to acquire the jewels on the playfield.

Unused Graphics

Font Characters

Within the font, there are 24 unused characters.

Dog

A yellow dog.

Egg

An egg.

Unused Objects

Undo and Redo

Hex codes: 5D and 5C

Two blocks that say "UNDO" and "REDO". They don't seem to do anything no matter what color you are.

Hot Coals

Hex code: 5B

Hot coals. It makes you die if you touch it two times. While it doesn't appear in any levels proper, it is available in the game's level editor. It also makes an appearance in the 1994 reskin.

Hourglasses

Hex codes: 77, 75 and 76

Blue, gray and red hourglass. For some reason, when you try to get these objects to appear in the game, a shuriken appears near them, which makes it almost impossible to interact with them. Just like the "UNDO" and "REDO" blocks, they don't seem to do anything.

Version Differences

In 1994, the game was rereleased under the name Trolls on Treasure Island. In this version, all characters were reskinned to look like The Trolls (based on the famous series of plastic dolls).

Title Screen

Dudes with Attitude	Trolls on Treasure Island

Other than the obvious logo overhaul, the background was changed from black to blue and "PRESS START" text appears differently. The copyright texts were also moved closer to each other and the year was changed from 1990 to 1992, which is strange considering that the game actually came out in 1994. Seems like the development started much earlier than it was released.

Menu Screen

Dudes with Attitude	Trolls on Treasure Island

The borders appear incorrectly due to a bad tile change, the ability to select your own character was removed (so there is only two instead of six) and the window was slightly shortened.

Map Screen

Dudes with Attitude	Trolls on Treasure Island

While Dudes with Attitude lets you play the first four stages at the very beginning, Trolls on Treasure Island only allows you to play the stages in a linear order. The map was also completely redrawn, with the ocean becoming much darker and the compass getting moved to the top of the screen.

Gameplay

Dudes with Attitude	Trolls on Treasure Island

Trolls on Treasure Island mostly has graphical differences, but the gameplay also went through some changes. All 32 stages were redesigned and the troll's head was added in the HUD that changes based on player's actions. Also, whenever you become red (which is done by pressing B), the "Jewels" text gets replaced with "NO NO", "NO DON'T, "HEE HEE" and other messages. This feature wasn't present in Dudes with Attitude.