CIRCUS CONVOY
• EASTER EGG: The manual mentions the existence of an Easter egg. Finding it changes the game display screen from showing a possible 80 stars to 95.
• There are noticeable differences between the cartridge and digital copies. On the console, you’re able to jump down from the giraffe screen to the next screen to trigger the duck shoot switch, but with emulator you have to take the long way around. With emulation, you can jump off the gator screen and drop down to pick up the Jade key, but on a console it’s impossible, as you just fall off the side and it never switches to the next screen. A minor difference is with the snake sideshow. You see more of the snake on emulation. It doesn’t change the difficulty level; it just looks different. Another difference is the control of the drop down menu. On the console it’s fast and smooth, but on the emulator it seems a bit sluggish on the. {Greg Degeneffe}
• BUG: The registration QR code is unique to the cartridge and digital copies. If you submit a score using a digital copy, it will always be marked as emulation, even though a Harmony Encore can run it on a real system.
• BUG: There’s a glitch with some original “heavy” 6-switch VCS and JR models where when you hit a rabbit, the QR code for the guide will appear, and you have to hit SELECT to get back to the game. You also won’t be able to pull up the QR display by pressing SELECT. The issue is there is a # missing for an EOR #$08 (to change the direction Andre faces via REFP0, stored in $A7). The opcode got compiled as EOR INPT0, and with many bits undefined for INPT0 the behavior is random and buggy especially on an Atari Jr, but will work on some consoles so it is a nasty bug.
The actual EOR spot is bank 14, at $FC55 where the code is currently:
LDA $A7
EOR INPT0
STA $A7
Should be:
LDA $A7
EOR #$08 ; for REFP0
STA $A7
• BUG: A bug in bank 17 causes a graphics glitch on the alligator screen (see picture):
f3ea a5 00 lda CXMOP ; should be a9 00
lda #00
f3ec 85 1c sta GRP0
· BUG: When you are selecting an inventory item, the trucks flash colors intermittently. The error is with the dependency of the Zero flag for branching, but the problem is the value it is testing is a different bank, and the chosen bank-switching method affects the state of the zero flag:
;BANK 1,
$FEE5
LDA
$FB76,Y
LDY
$0800,X ; X=6, bank-switch back to bank 6, but this is a load instruction
affecting zero flag...
;BANK 6,
$FEEB
RTS
; goto $FDF8
;BANK 6,
$FDF8
BEQ
$FE0E ; this was meant for testing value from LDA $FB76,Y earlier
AND
#$07 ; if Y=0 this branch is taken and the truck color turns red,
ASL
; as $F0 was cleared before and skipped for updating now.
STA
$F0 ; $F0 holds a value that is loaded into Y later to index what
pointers to use.
• BUG: With the PAL version, there is significant color loss during the Duck Shoot mini-game, most likely due to an inconsistent framerate.
