Kangaroo 2-25-83

 


This is a mid level WIP version of Kangaroo.  All three levels are now present and Momma Roo can move around and punch out monkeys.  While the game is fully playable now, it's still missing sound and music and has a several graphical differences and glitches.  It's obvious that the display kernel is also still being worked on as there is way more flicker than in the final version (to the point that Momma Roo almost looks transparent at times).

One interesting change is that the background is the normal black instead of the light purple of the released version.  The reason behind this is that at the time, Atari had a policy forbidding black backgrounds for anything other than space games.  Another interesting change is that the layout of screen three has been changed.  In this prototype there are more platforms and a new ladder which provide alternate routes to the top.  It is unknown why these were removed, but the layout in this prototype is closer to the arcade game than it is in the final version.

 

Differences
There is no title screen, the game starts automatically
There are no game options
There is no sound or music
The background is black instead of purple
There is no screen flashing when rescuing Baby Roo at the end of screen three
The four fruits look very different
There is no movement delay at the start of the game for the intro music (because there is no music)
There is a graphics glitch on the end of second platform on the bottom of screen two
The bell graphic looks different when ringing
There is no hesitation when attempting to jump the gap on screen two
The layout of screen three is different
   - The ladder at the starting point isn't broken and can be climbed
   - There is an extra small platform after the second ladder that can be used to jump up to the larger platform
   - There is an extra medium sized platform in the top area that can be used to skip one of the ladders on the right side
There are graphical glitches on some of the platforms on screen three
The whole game flickers much more than the final
The level is a darker brown
Each level has an extra fruit (making 4 per level).  Most likely these were removed to reduce the amount of flicker.

 

Different looking fruit

The black background is nice

Screen three is looking a bit different

Here's the final version for comparison

Extra fruit on screen one
    

Extra fruit on screen two

Extra fruit on screen three
The swinging bell looks different too

 

 

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