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Titenic is a beat 'em up for the Famicom based on the 1997 film Titanic that was developed by Hummer Team. The full, unaltered version of the game is only known to have appeared on a Super Cool Boy 3-in-1 multicart from ABAB Soft that likely had a CB-403x ID, but the first documented release of it online was on the 2005 multicart Super New Year Cart 15-in-1.

Overview[]

TitenicGameplay1

Gameplay as Jack.

The game is a 2D side-scrolling beat 'em up set on the RMS Titanic. Jack and Rose have their own sets of stages; Jack's takes place before the ship crashes into the iceberg and Rose's stages take place afterwards. In Rose's final stage, there's a section where she must make it to the ship's deck before she runs out of time and drowns in the water.

The A button jumps and the B button attacks. Both Jack and Rose have a two-hit combo, which knocks the enemy down. While crouching, both can punch with A and kick with B. The B button also makes them attack while they're in the air. Both characters have two special attacks each, performed by either pressing A+B together or by pressing Up and then Down. Jack has a charging elbow attack and a charging uppercut while Rose has a scissor kick and an axe swing (which, unlike her crouching attacks, can hit small enemies such as rats). Special attacks drain a small portion of health when they make contact with an enemy and can kill you if you don't have enough health left. You can collect wine bottles and lobsters to refill your health as well as extra lives. These are the only pickups in the game.

The cutscenes go through the movie's plot while also displaying redrawn shots of the movie. The music features renditions of tracks from the movie, including renditions of My Heart Will Go On and Nearer My God To Thee.

Enemies[]

The animal enemies (such as octopi, bats, rats, snakes and chickens) all have pre-determined behavior and inflict damage on contact. These all can be defeated in one hit. The fish jumping out of the water are unkillable however. Sometimes a rescue tube will be bouncing around which can also be taken out in one hit.

The rest of the enemy roster is the ship's crew and passengers. All of them (excluding the waitress) were taken from The Mask for the SNES and were modified in some way. These enemies have their own attacks to harm you with instead. All human enemies can also be defeated by knocking them into the water if the stage allows for it.

TitenicGameplay2

Playing as Rose, fighting the fat man boss.

The bosses include a muscular sailor wielding a knife (who later appears as a regular enemy), a fat man wearing a tuxedo and sporting a shotgun, and a lean rich man (likely Cal from the movie) who utilizes a pistol and a running attack. The latter must be fought three times throughout the game; each time he appears in a different color and with harder AI. While it's possible to defeat Cal with regular attacks, he can be knocked off the ship similar to other human enemies.

History[]

According to an interview and correspondence with Hummer Cheng, Titenic was originally developed much earlier than it was released; it was supposed to be published by Ka Sheng. However, the market for Famicom games in Taiwan was at a decline and Ka Sheng told them they had no interest in publishing original games anymore.[1] This prevented Titenic from having a single cart release at the time. Around 2001, Hummer Technology would modify Titenic into Harry's Legend and reportedly sold it to a supplier by the name of 品佳股份有限公司, who operate as "Silicon Application Corp." in English. It was originally presumed that Trump Grand Manufacturing Co. had the direct rights to Harry's Legend in the past, although Hummer Cheng had trouble recalling any experience with them.

In 2003, ABAB Soft would be established by Handel Liao, which would publish several multicarts with Hummer Team's games included on them. At least one multicart they released, a Super Cool Boy 3-in-1 that is extremely rare and reportedly has a CB-403x ID, contains the original version of Titenic. Two other multicarts listed on the ABABSoft website feature Titenic and Harry's Legend.[2] Some time in 2005, a multicart known as the Super New Year Cart 15-in-1 would be published and distributed by 鴻景 (Hong Jing) and at the time, it was the first cart discovered to have Titenic on it. The game could be accessed from one of the two menu items: Hacker (starts on stage one with Jack) and Heroine (starts on stage four with Rose). The multicart's DIP switches also toggle 6-in-1 and 8-in-1 variations that contain only Hacker, but it is unknown if these were ever released as their own cartridges.

Titenic would have its third and likely final official release on the ZDog, a plug and play console made by Zechess in collaboration with Hummer Technology that was released in 2006. This release is based on the Super New Year Cart 15-in-1 version and all the stages were split into their own mini-games.

Credits[]

This is the last Famicom game from Hummer Team to feature credits. It shows that by the time Titenic was in development, most of the original members were already gone.

  • Picture by: Rebecca, Carroll
  • Program by: Hummer Cheng, Chris
  • Music by: Hummer Cheng

Super New Year Cart 15-in-1 version[]

This is the most commonly known version, as the multicart this version appeared on was first discovered and dumped back in 2011. This version attempts to remove any references of the original Titanic movie, removing the title screen and the cutscenes as well as modifying the HUD. Despite this, the characters are still referred to as Jack and Rose within the game and the credits screen still remains once you beat the game. The graphics for the title screen and cutscenes still exist within the ROM but the routines were simply disabled.

The music is also different, using Harry's Legend's tracks instead. This is rather unusual; it may be an attempt at removing further Titanic references but Hummer Team-related games usually don't change the music to hide its origins. It is also possible this version could be based on a later revision where Titenic was being used to make Harry's Legend.

Trivia[]

  • The misspelling of the title for this game was deliberate, likely to avoid trademark infringement. Uncompiled code in the Super New Year Cart 15-in-1 refers to the game as "TITANIC".
  • There is a debug mode in the game that can be accessed by hitting A on the second controller. When using the debug, the screen will be unable to scroll. Up and Down raises and lowers the water level. Pressing A again will summon Jack/Rose. Pressing Left and Right goes through an invisible selection where you can summon enemies and bosses instead. Start on the second controller brings up the ending screen.
    • In the ZDog version, the debug menu is inaccessible. In Harry's Legend, it still exists but the ending is inaccessible.
  • It is possible to cancel almost all of the playable character's animations when performing a crouching attack. This can be used to the player's advantage when they are about to lose a life by using the crouch attack to cancel the death animation.
    • This exploit was fixed in Harry's Legend.
  • One of the enemies is reused in War, another game from Hummer Team which may be dated to 1999.
  • Many of Jack's and Rose's sprites resemble Kyo Kusanagi's and Athena Asamiya's from The King of Fighters respectively. Jack's "block" (the stance he does when a boss enters) also appears to be Iori Yagami's blocking stance. Hummer Team did develop a The King of Fighters '96 Famicom port, which would explain the connection.
    • Interestingly enough, both Kyo and Athena were cut from the official release of that port even though their coding was finished.
  • The fish enemy in this game seems to be an edited version of the fish that Chuck throws up from Hummer Team's Earthworm Jim 3.
  • The music heard in the "rising water" screens of stage five (also heard as the boss theme in Harry's Legend) was later reused in King Fishing for whenever a fish grabs the end of the player's fishing line.
  • In the ROM, there is a list of object names referring to not only the playable characters and enemies in Titenic but also what appears to be enemies and items from Tenchi o Kurau 2: Sekiheki no Tatakai[3] (also known as Warriors of Fate outside of Japan). The lobster in Titenic also looks similar to the one found in Tenchi o Kurau 2. This might imply Titenic could be based on an unfinished and unreleased port of Warriors of Fate that Hummer Team would later reuse assets from.
    • Despite the lobster having a name on the object list, it does not refer to the lobster found in Titenic itself.
    • It's possible that the "summon" part of the debug could be a remnant of a two-player selection mechanic from this assumed port, as it is limited to only four characters. (There are five characters to play from in Warriors of Fate, and a second player would normally be unable to choose the same character again).
    • This object name list remains in Harry's Legend and strangely enough, Hummer Team's Mortal Kombat 4.

Harry's Legend[]

Harry's Legend is a modification of Titenic based on Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (most likely the novel, as the movie came out in 2001) made by Hummer Technology, a successor of Hummer Team. Two versions of the game were originally released with title screens in English and Chinese. Harry's Legend has become an object of multiple unofficial re-releases, appearing on both multicarts and single game cartridges.

Overview[]

Harry Potter (Unl) -p1--!- 001

Gameplay of Harry's Legend. Note the Dudley-like enemy.

In comparison to Titenic, the gameplay has been somewhat watered down. Harry Potter is the only playable character and he only has three non-special attacks: a standing kick that can't combo, a crouching punch and a crouching kick. Unlike in Titenic, he's unable to perform any attacks in the air. The inputs for both special attacks remain the same but they need to be "unlocked"; the broom becoming available in stage two (A + B) and the magic attack is acquired in stage three (Up, Down).

There are five levels present in Harry's Legend, all of which can be chosen right after the title screen, although all of them have to be completed in order to see the ending. The majority of level layouts have been brought over from Titenic with a few differences in graphics and item placements. The first segment of stage five (At School) features a volleyball minigame, in which Harry plays against an old woman and either characters takes damage if the ball gets into their goal - possibly an attempt at recreating the Qudditch matches seen in the series.

Most of the human enemies make a return from Titenic but without proper attacks, going for contact damage instead. Most of the animal enemies return and behave the same way they do. The only all-new enemies in Harry's Legend are a giant chess piece and an indestructible floating flame. A book-holding ghost also appears in stage five but he can't do any damage to Harry; only serving to bounce the ball away. Each stage ends with a boss - possibly based on Professor Quirrell and Voldemort - who has two faces and is constantly walking backwards. Strangely, his death animation always has him fall right down into water, even if it doesn't make sense from the stage's design.

The text in the cutscenes are taken directly from excerpts of the first book, with a few typos in certain places (such as "hard" instead of "hand"). The music seems to be original aside from the boss theme, which was reused from the "rising water" screens in stage five of Titenic. The cutscene and stage one tracks were rearranged for stage three and stages two and four. The cutscene music also seems to be a rearrangement of one of the stage tracks from Hummer Team's Mortal Kombat 3.

Trivia[]

HarryPotterTWCover

Taiwanese cover of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.

  • The title screen is directly based on the Taiwanese cover of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. This was later edited slightly for the English version.
  • The demos do not use Harry's jumping or hitting sounds, yet everything else is in place. This is because sounds are played differently from Harry's actions. The demos are rather strange as Harry is kicking and jumping at random.
  • The upper right-hand corner of the HUD normally displays "Harry Potter" although some multicarts change the text to "Harry's Legend". In the ROM, there are unused tiles for the HUD that have the letters "Bo". This could have been for his name (Harry Botter), either to avoid copyright infringement or simply a mistake, as his name is 哈利波特 (Ha Li Bo Te) in Chinese. The Game Genie code XIYXOX will replace Harry Potter's name with "Harry Botter".
  • On Stage 2, it is possible to knock Voldemort himself into the water in order to defeat him. If you jump on the ice platform and let Voldemort fall in himself, you will also fall into the water as well since Harry jumps up and down in his victory animation. (The ice platform will not be under his feet after the first jump).
  • A title hack of this game, called "Hally Poter: Goblet of Fire", appears on some One Station cartridges. [4]
  • The 4-in-1 (FK23C8079) multicart has a variant of Harry's Legend where not only does the HUD replace "Harry Potter" with "Harry Legend", but the level select is removed and it plays an entirely different track when Voldemort appears.
  • Harry appears on the front of the BootlegGames Wiki.

Subpages[]

Harry's Legend Unused Stuff

Harry's Legend contains a bunch of unused stuff, many of it being leftovers from Titenic.

Gallery[]

Videos[]

References[]

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