SpongeBob SquarePants (Plug & Play)

SpongeBob SquarePants
Developer: HotGen Limited Publisher: JAKKS Pacific Platform: Plug & Play Released in US: 2003 This game has hidden developer credits. This game has unused music. This game has debugging material. This game has a hidden sound test. This game has revisional differences. This game has a prerelease article

This article is a work in progress. ...Well, all the articles here are, in a way. But this one moreso, and the article may contain incomplete information and editor's notes.

This page or section needs more images. There's a whole lotta words here, but not enough pictures. Please fix this.

To do: Get higher quality images, once a ROM dump is available, if not possible. Replace with capture-card screenshots. Investigate other unused sounds. A PAL version of the game exists, but is not known much about. The music is slower, however most of the other game mechanics work the same as 0701A.

SpongeBob SquarePants, being a children's property through the early 2000's, naturally got licensed out for a Plug & Play game. Features a breakout clone, a space-shooter type game, a game where you defend characters from hooks while they just stand there, a surprisingly-robust oldschool adventure game, and a Donkey Kong clone. It can be fun for those who can look past the IBM PC speaker-grade music and sound effects.

Also, the controller is SpongeBob's face, if that's your sorta thing.

Sub-Pages

Prerelease Info

Hardware Test Screen

Immediately after powering on the game, hold Up and press A, then release Up and press Down to access the game's hardware test. This screen is essentially an earlier and less complicated version of the hardware test screen found in later Plug & Play games by Jakks Pacific, with some graphics in a large region to the top-right of the screen (which takes up the majority of the screen space) and a version ID directly below. In a small region at the top-right of the screen is a color test which displays red, yellow, green, white, cyan, blue and magenta; below are some ROM addresses in a smaller region, and below that is an input test.

Debug Gameplay

Press Up and Fire on the hardware test screen to access a debug feature which runs each of the five games in sequence. As soon as you get a game over in the current game, the next is loaded and run in the following order:

1. SpongeBob's Bubble Pop
2. Invasion of the Hooks
3. The Super Chum Bucket
4. Sandy's Surf Adventure
5. Patrick and the Maze

Interestingly, this is not the order in which the main menu lists these games. Once all five games have been played, the main menu is loaded and the game returns to its normal behavior.

Test Mode

To do: How would you trigger this with a button combination, if one exists?

Another test screen exists but has no apparent way of getting access other than messing with the batteries or quickly power cycling the system on and off until this screen appears. Rapidly power cycling may cause damage to the system if done carelessly.

Its also worth noting that there is a credit to the unit developer, Carl Muller.

Version Differences

• 0701A

Most common version of the game. Has no title screen music.

• 0910A

This version is notable for having the title screen music. Another noticeable difference is the jellyfish being absent on the title screen of this build.

• 0910A Logo

• 0701A logo

Unused Music

Unused Title Theme Song

An unused Title music that is on revision 0910A of the unit. The latest revision of the game has this cut for an unknown reason. The name of this tune is called FE-TITLE1 on the sound test menu, but will not play on latest revisions of the game. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmZi0JIXZVU

PM-FRIENDS1

An unused track in Patrick and the Maze. Most likely used after you beat the game, or beat all challenges for all the characters, it sounds similar to PM-FRIENDS2 except with more instruments.

Unlike the other unused songs in the sound test, this song repeats forever until you choose a different song.