Daze Before Christmas
From Sega Retro
| Daze Before Christmas | ||||||||||
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| System(s): Sega Mega Drive | ||||||||||
| Publisher: Sunsoft | ||||||||||
| Developer: Funcom | ||||||||||
| Sound driver: GEMS | ||||||||||
| Genre: Action | ||||||||||
| Number of players: 1-2 (alternating) | ||||||||||
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Daze Before Christmas is a Christmas-themed platformer developed by Funcom and published by Sunsoft for the Sega Mega Drive in 1994 and later for the Super NES. It is notable for being the only Mega Drive game on record to be released exclusively in Australia.
According to interviews with with Funcom programmer Carl-Henrik Skårstedt[2] and Sunsoft developer David Siller[3], manufacturing was actually cancelled shortly after the first run had shipped due to quality issues. It had been originally planned to release in North America in November 1994[4].
Contents
Story
A gang of miscreants (the Evil Snowman, the Timekeeper, Louse the Mouse, and Mr. Weather) has colluded to steal Christmas. They have kidnapped the elves, stolen the parts from their toy-making machines, and stolen the kids' presents and cursed them with a spell. Santa must stop them and save Christmas.
Gameplay
The game is a platformer where the player guides Santa Claus through 24 levels as he races to save Christmas. Santa faces foes such as giant rats, evil toys, and living snowmen using his magic powers to turn them all into harmless Christmas presents. He moves with 
and 
and ducks with 
. He jumps with 
and stomps to defeat enemies and open presents by pressing again in midair. He can also throw magic dust, a ranged attack, with 
or 
.
Santa can find and open Christmas presents scattered around the levels, which may contain items, enemies, elves, or bombs. By drinking a cup of tea, Santa transforms into a blue-suited, devilish looking version of himself. As "Anti-Claus," Santa is invincible but unable to use his magic or open presents. His primary method of attack is swinging his sack of toys at enemies with or , replacing his magic dust.
The game is divided into sections of six levels, which end with a boss fight followed by a flying section. Santa flies in his sleigh over a city around the world and uses the presents he collects to drop them down chimneys with , , or . The player is given a password after these sections for continuing the game.
Santa's health is represented by Santa hats. If he loses all of his hats, he can take one more hit before losing a life. He can collect more hats to replenish lost energy.
Items
| Presents | |
|---|---|
| Blue presents are dropped by enemies and collected for points. The other presents are found in the levels and contain items, enemies, elves, or bombs. | |
| Hat | |
| Restores one hat of health for Santa. | |
| Bomb | |
| Explodes and harms Santa if he does not avoid it. | |
| Lightning Bolt | |
| Changes the magic dust to shooting fireballs instead, which can melt some barriers to rescue reindeer. | |
| Cup of Tea | |
| Transforms Santa into Anti-Claus for a duration, during which he is invincible but cannot open presents. | |
| Santa | |
| Gives the player an extra life. | |
| Bell | |
| Checkpoint where Santa is revived after losing a life. | |
| Star | |
| Goal at the end of the level. |
Levels
| Santa's Hallway | |
|---|---|
| Let It Snow | |
| Ice Cave | |
| Blue Magic | |
| The Evil Snowman | |
| Over England | |
| Before the Flood | |
| Password: G8WTK3A | |
| Wood Factory | |
| Magic Cave | |
| Steel Factory | |
| The Timekeeper | |
| Over Russia | |
| Winter Waters | |
| Password: X6THTWG | |
| Steel Elevators | |
| Gift Wrapping | |
| Magic Bubbles | |
| Louse the Mouse | |
| Over Japan | |
| North Pole | |
| Password: KW3TKH4 | |
| Deep Down | |
| Busy Basement | |
| Santa's House | |
| Over U.S.A. | |
| Mr. Weather | |
| Password: XAHGK9A | |
History
Development
| “ | Daze took about 1 year in total, but the problem was I didn't start until 6 months into the project so I had a lot of art and the code from A Dinosaur's Tale to combine, the SNES version was converting the same code that was already on Genesis so it took me about 6 months (I was on the Genesis version and there was one programmer on the SNES version). Unfortunately Sunsoft USA ran out of money and went bankrupt about the same day the SNES version was finished. | „ |
Production credits
- Inspired By: Rita Zimmerer
- Executive Producers: David Siller, Erik Gløersen
- Producers: Sam Patel, Henning Rokling
- Main Programming: Carl-Henrik Skārstedt
- Additional Programming: Olav Mørkrid
- Engine Coding: Roar Flølo, Morten Ofstad
- Environment Programming: Eivind Eklund, Ivar Just Olsen, Johan Køhler
- Data Crunching Program: Eivind Hagen
- Technical Manager - Sunsoft: Al Artus
- Music and Sound Effects: Kim M Jensen, Geir Tjelta
- Main Graphics Artists: Joachim Barrum, Tore Blystad, Ole-Petter Rosenlund
- Main Character Animation: Ole-Petter Rosenlund
- Additional Graphics: Lars Petter Anfinsen, Erik Bakken, Torkell Bernsen, Christophe Branche, Ronnie Jensen, Glenn Kristoffersen, Colin McMahon, Tommy Svensson
- Level Editing: Jack Kristoffersen
- Game Design: Gaute Godager, Bjørn Røstøen, Tommy Sydsæter
- Play Testing: Sam Patel, Steve Rizor, Rene Boutin, Steve Gehrke, Dan MacArthur, Justin Siller, Mario Zavala
- Chairman, Sunsoft: Masami Maeda
- Vice Chairman, Sunsoft: Tad Shimamoto
- Director, Sunsoft Japan: Kiharu Yoshida
- General Manager and International Development Coordinator: Kenji Yoshioka
- Marketing Director: Karen Shadley
- Game Play Manual: Alison Quirion
- Executive Assistant: Nanette Hyssong
- Customer Service: Kaz Harman, June Eckert, Connie Perez, Julie Williams, Jamie Jorgenson, Erin Berry, Jaupale Laster
- Best Regards To: Mari, Sonja, Merethe, Marte, Tone, Silje, Karoline, Maria + Pusen, Endre, Heidi, Alta, Walt, Trond, Skynet, Mack, Cheese & Inger, Roar, Andre, Anders, Tommy, Lisa, Erik + Janne, Super GB, Vebjørn, Thomas, Stein, Supergei, Jens-Harald, Kælliførd & Pāl, Vegard Og Gjengen, Kølla, Badla, Øks, Zumo, Antimon, Richard & Marius, Spacey, Tomten, Sonrop Ad, Jonathan Skārstedt, Sebastian Skārstedt, Martin Ranang, Diderich Buch, Slumsøstrene, Bruce Reilly, Cathy Juby, Darin Horgan, Mark Luszcz, Toko Okano, Kazuaki Goto, Masato Kawai, Akito Takeuchi, Karen Lillie, Sherry Ross
Magazine articles
- Main article: Daze Before Christmas/Magazine articles.
Physical scans
| Sega Retro Average | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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54 |
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| Based on 5 reviews | |
| Mega Drive, AU |
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 Cover
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 Cart  Manual |
Technical information
- Main article: Daze Before Christmas/Technical information.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Sega Megazone, "December 1994" (AU; 1994-1x-xx), page 45
- ↑ http://www.sega-16.com/2011/04/interview-carl-henrik-skarstedt/
- ↑ http://www.sega-16.com/2007/07/interview-david-siller/
- ↑ Sunsoft US catalogue (Summer 1994), page 19
- ↑ http://www.snescentral.com/article.php?id=0121
- ↑ File:Daze Before Christmas MD credits.pdf
- ↑ 1700 igr dlya Sega, "" (RU; 2001-xx-xx), page 54
- ↑ 1700 igr dlya Sega, "" (RU; 2001-xx-xx), page 86
- ↑ Entsiklopediya luchshikh igr Sega. Vypusk 1, "" (RU; 1999-xx-xx), page 304
- ↑ Hyper, "January 1995" (AU; 199x-xx-xx), page 77
| Daze Before Christmas | |
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