Garfield: Caught in the Act

n/a

Garfield: Caught in the Act
System(s): Sega Mega Drive, Sega Game Gear, Windows PC
Publisher: Sega
Developer: Sega Interactive, Novotrade Point of View
Sound driver: GEMS
Genre: Action
Number of players: 1
Release Date RRP Code US 1995-11 1556 EU 1995-11 1556-50 AU 1995 FGAR02SMC BR 199x 046990 US 1995 $44.9944.99 2560 EU 1995-11 2560-50 BR 199x 077290 US 1995 85023 US (Expert Software) 1997-09 $19.9919.99 T-6803-01
ESRB ELSPA OFLC Tectoy

Garfield: Caught in the Act is a platformer game starring the characters from the Garfield comic series. It was released for the Sega Mega Drive and Sega Game Gear in 1995, and was brought to Windows in 1996 as a stand-alone title as well as through the Sonic & Garfield Pack.

A port to the Sega 32X under the title of Garfield in TV Land was planned, but scrapped, though the name was still used in some later re-releases.

Story

Odie scares Garfield while he is watching television, and he ends up falling on the television. In a rushed effort to repair the television before Jon catches them, Garfield and Odie attempt to put the banged up and broken pieces together. They did actually put something together, but it was far from being a real television. As Garfield throws away the spare pieces, they become an electronic monster, the Glitch. The Glitch transports Garfield into the television. Now he must defeat the Glitch and make his way out.

Gameplay

The original Mega Drive game features six levels. Sega Channel subscribers could download Garfield: The Lost Levels, that featured 3 different levels.

The Game Gear version includes eight levels, two of which appear in the Lost Levels. There is only one type of bonus stage (accessed by finding an icon of Arlene's face in each level), in which you try to wreck everything in Jon's living room within a time limit to get an extra life. Garfield does not have different outfits in each level, and the attacks are the same in all levels (his close-range is a punch, and the projectile are stones). There are no invincibility items. In the between-level segments, you do not take damage from the obstacles; instead, they teleport you back to the start of that segment.

In the PC, there is a new level, Alien Landscape, and the Mega Drive levels are arranged in a different order.

History

Development

The Sega Mega Drive and Sega Game Gear versions of Garfield: Caught in the Act were developed simultaneously by Sega InterActive and Novotrade, respectively. Both are built around the same core concepts, but were developed independently, with only the Sega management layer being shared between the two. The Garfield project came into existence due to the rise of licensed platform games in the early 1990s, with Disney's Aladdin believed to have set the standard for others to follow.

Mega Drive development had begun with Steven Lashower as the lead programmer, but development issues led to the game being rebooted over the Christmas period of 1994 (leading to several months of work being scrapped), with Michael Fernie now on lead programmer duties (Lashower was not credited in the final game). Garfield was built on an engine that Sega InterActive had already developed, and aside from the animations which came directly from Paws, everything was handled in-house.

While Garfield: Caught in the Act had been thoroughly planned out with extensive documentation, many of the original plans were sidelined as they often proved not to be fun. The highest profile case of this was a train segment of the Catsablanca level, which although existed in the game for a very long time (to the point where it even features on the North American retail box), was not considered satisfactory for the end product.

Other levels in various stages of completion included a Robin Hood-style stage ("Slobbin Hood"), a viking-themed level set in winter ("Bonehead the Barbarian"), a level set in space ("Alien Landscape") and a stage which took place in ancient Rome. Slobbin Hood and Bonehead the Barbarian made it into the Game Gear game, but were axed from the Mega Drive version, while all that remains of the Mega Drive Alien Landscape are some unused code routines. In addition to time restraints, some levels are thought to have been cut due to limitations on cartridge space a constant battle for the developers.

Alien Landscape, the only stage created by Petra Evers, was inspired by a lava lamp. The level was reportedly finished for the Mega Drive, but instead became an exclusive level for the PC version (made by a mostly different team at Sega). There was also a scrapped, pseudo-3D minigame where you picked up cheese in a mouse hole.

The marketing team at Sega demanded that Count Slobula's Castle become the first stage of the Mega Drive game instead of the originally intended Cave Cat 3,000,000 BC (which is the first stage in other versions). Michael Fernie considers this to be one of the weaker stages, and likely put off players from seeing the rest of the game.

Garfield creator Jim Davis appeared at E3 1995 to help promote the game. Special invites were granted to have a "lasagna lunch", with Davis also providing autographs.

On the Mega Drive, Garfield: Caught in the Act was thought to have been "finished" in the summer of 1995, but was not released until November, possibly so that it could coincide with the Game Gear game's launch (which finished some weeks later). Much of the Mega Drive team left Sega to pursue other projects and the Sega InterActive division was closed shortly afterwards.

However, despite not having the original team on board, some of the scrapped levels from the Mega Drive version were touched up and given a release through Garfield: The Lost Levels, a Sega Channel-exclusive game. Details on The Lost Levels's contents remain a mystery, as the game was neither preserved nor ever re-released.

Gallery

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  Meeting notes

Production credits

Mega Drive version

Sega Interactive Development

• Lead Programmer: Michael Fernie
• Lead Artists: Michael Chung, Art Wong
• Programmers: Kevin Burley, Ala D. Diaz, John LaSalvia, Pravin Wagh
• Artists: Robert Barrett, Kathleen Bruno, Sandra B. Christensen, Petra Evers, Maureen Kringen, Michael Tamura, Rob Titus
• Music Director: Tristan des Prés
• Music: Tristan des Prés, Dwight Stone, Jeffrey Glenn Tveraas
• Sound Effects: David Delia, Jeffrey Glenn Tveraas
• Audio Programmer: James Dobson
• Project Managers: David Brooks, Frank Hsu
• Special Thanks: Carmen Bayacal, Rachel Wong Coleman, Kenneth C. Dullea III, Jack Loh, Nancy Nakamoto, Rodney Nakamoto

Sega of America

• Original Design: Rhonda Van, Sega Interactive, Waterman Designs
• Additional Design: PAWS, Sega of America
• Producers: Eric Quakenbush, Rhonda Van
• Assistant Producers: Bill Person, Erik Wahlberg
• Executive Producer: Michael Latham
• Product Manager: Lisa Best Wilson
• Marketing: Eric Dunstan, Clint Dyer
• Licensing: Michealene Cristini Risley
• Lead Testers: John Amirkhan, Richie Hideshima
• Assistant Lead Testers: Sako Bezdjian, Neil Musser, Mark Subotnick, Caroline Trujillo
• Testers: Mike Borg, Joseph M. Damon, Yancey Gordon, Tai Huyah, Matthew Ironside, Heather Meigs, Camille Morris, Raul Orozco, Jeff Sanders, W. Scott Snyder, Nicole Tatem, Don Tica, Eugene R. Valenzuela, Dana Waller
• Manual: James Cabral, Mike Yoffie
• Thanks: Joyce Takakura
• Special Thanks: Mark Acey, Jim Davis, Jill Hahn, Glenn Zimmerman, PAWS

Source:

In-game credits

Game Gear version

Novotrade Credits

• Developer: Novotrade International
• Director: Laszlo Mero
• Project Director: Don Walters
• Software Director: Attila Bus
• Art Director: Eszter Paris
• Lead Programmer: Laszlo Megyeri
• Programmers: Sandor Michaletzky, Balazs Papai
• Lead Artist: Bori Paris
• Artists: Tibor Botka, Edit Matis
• Music, SFX: Laszlo Fazekas, Csaba Gigor, Gabor Foltan
• Programming Aid: Adam Jedovszky, Gyongyi Mezei
• Level Layout: Laszlo Mero, Eszter Paris, Bori Paris, Tibor Botka
• Developer Tester: Tamas Panczel
• Special Thanks: Andrea Eszterhai, Aniko Bodi

Sega of America Credits

• Original Design: Waterman Design, Sega Interactive
• Additional Design: Sega of America, PAWS, Inc.
• Executive Producuer: Michael Latham
• Producers: Rhonda Van, Eric Quackenbush
• Assistant Producers: Bill Person, Erik Wahlberg
• Product Manager: Lisa Best Wilson
• Marketing: Clint Dyer, Eric Dunstan
• Licensing: Michealene Cristini Risley
• Lead Tester: Arnold Feener
• Assistant Lead Testers: Louis Dribin, Heather Meigs, Nicole Tatem, Jeff Sanders
• Testers: Morgan Weiss, John Jansen, Camille Morris, Mark Subotnick, Joel Breton, Jason Foster, Scott Crisostomo, Brian Murphy, Deserea Blevins, Jessie Light, Shari Shanklin, Scott Snyder, Janis Gragasin, Fernando Valderrama
• Manual: Mike Yoffie, James Cabral
• Special Thanks: Joyce Takakura, Jim Davis, Jill Hahn, Glenn Zimmeramn, Mark Acey and all the folks at PAWS

Source:

US manual

Magazine articles

Main article: Garfield: Caught in the Act/Magazine articles.

Promotional material

Mega Drive and Game Gear US print advert

Game Gear Print advert in Hobby Consolas (ES) #51: "Diciembre 1995" (1995-xx-xx)
also published in:

• Hobby Consolas (ES) #52: "Enero 1996" (199x-xx-xx)

Physical scans

Mega Drive version

Sega Retro Average
Publication Score Source Consoles + (FR) 75 №48, p102 Electronic Gaming Monthly (US) 60 GameFan (US) 80 Mean Machines Sega (UK) 67 №39, p74/75 Sega Power (UK) 70 №75, p61 Sega Pro (UK) 85 №53, p48/49 Sega Saturn Magazine (UK) 67 №2, p90

	72
Based on 7 reviews

Sega Retro Average

Publication Version Score 1700 igr dlya Sega (RU) 60 Consoles + (FR) 75 Electronic Gaming Monthly (US) NTSC-U 60 Entsiklopediya luchshikh igr Sega. Vypusk 1 (RU) 60 Entsiklopediya luchshikh igr Sega. Vypusk 6 (RU) 70 GameFan (US) NTSC-U 80 GamePro (US) NTSC-U 55 GamePro (DE) 47 Gamers (DE) 47 Game Informer (US) NTSC-U 58 Hobby Consolas (ES) PAL 77 MAN!AC (DE) PAL 65 Mega Fun (DE) PAL 54 Mean Machines Sega (UK) 67 Sega Power (UK) PAL 70 Sega Pro (UK) PAL 85 Svet Igara (YU) 85 Sega Saturn Magazine (UK) PAL 67 Todo Sega (ES) 81 Tricks 16 bit (RU) 79 Video Games (DE) PAL 59

	67
Based on 21 reviews

Garfield: Caught in the Act

Mega Drive, US
Cover
Cart

Mega Drive, EU
Cover
Cart

Mega Drive, AU
Cover

Mega Drive, BR
Cover
Cart

Game Gear version

Sega Retro Average
Publication Score Source Consoles + (FR) 86 №47, p152 Mean Machines Sega (UK) 81 №39, p78/79 Player One (FR) 82 №57, p128 Sega Pro (UK) 83 №53, p49

	83
Based on 4 reviews

Sega Retro Average
Publication Version Score

	N/A
Based on 0 reviews

Garfield: Caught in the Act

Game Gear, US
Cover
Cart Manual

Game Gear, EU
Cover
Cart

Game Gear, BR
Cover

PC version

PC, US
Cover

PC, US (Expert Software)
Disc Jewel Case

PC, US (Expert Software; alt)

Technical information

ROM dump status

System	Hash	Size	Build Date	Source	Comments
✔	CRC32 f0ff078e MD5 b8591488ca46b51c1d39b6869fa23006 SHA-1 9fff7dea16c4d0e6c9d6dbaade20c7048bb485ec	2MB	1995-09	Cartridge (US/EU)
?	CRC32 cd53f3af MD5 8766ad6ab161ffc7796a543325a82fb6 SHA-1 dc65f458cad3c165d0963b9b6da258d438da2ef7	1MB		Cartridge (US/EU)