Flicky (Arcade)

Flicky
Developer: Sega AM1 Publisher: Sega Platform: Arcade (Sega System 1) Released internationally: May 1, 1984 This game has a hidden developer message. This game has hidden developer credits. This game has unused graphics. This game has revisional differences.

Flicky is a rubbery bird who must save her yellow Piopio buddies from the inexorably evil Nyannyan cats. There's also an iguana sometimes. The hero would later be cloned and shoved inside assorted badniks in the Sonic the Hedgehog series.

Hidden Text

Two early names for the game can be found right at the start of the first main CPU chip, epr5978a.116, at 0x0013:

Older Sets	Newer Sets
/ BUSTY //FLIPPY / SEGA 84/5/24	/BUSTY //FLIPPY / SEGA 84/11/26

Interestingly, the early "Flippy" title managed to make its way onto an arcade flyer.

A longer message is at the end of the second main CPU chip, epr5979a.109, starting at 0x3EDC (0x7EDC in memory):

Older Sets	Newer Sets
1984/05/24 SEGA R/D [[ FLICKY !!]] OLD NAME 1) BUSTY 2) FLIPP PROGRAMED BY HIDEKI.ISHIKAWA SHUICHI.KATAGI GAME DESIGNED BY YOJI.ISHII CHARACTOR DESIGNED BY YOSHIKI.KAWASAKI SECURITY BY S.KATAGI ALL RIGHT RESERVED [[ DON'T COPY!! ]] [[ DON'T COPY!! ]] [[ DON'T COPY!! ]] [[ DON'T COPY!! ]	1984/11/26 SEGA R/D [[ FLICKY !!]] OLD NAME 1) BUSTY 2) FLIPP PROGRAMED BY HIDEKI.ISHIKAWA SHUICHI.KATAGI GAME DESIGNED BY YOJI.ISHII CHARACTOR DESIGNED BY YOSHIKI.KAWASAKI SECURITY BY S.KATAGI ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

(Source: Flicky 1984 (Gingerbeardman))

Unused Graphics

To do: Unused Flicky frames

Typical unused font characters. All mid-80s arcade games were obligated to have some of these!

This requires a bit of explanation. The way the game handles stage palettes is as follows:

• The default stage palettes, which are loaded when the game boots up, are stored in palette sets 40 to 7F.
• The "active" stage palettes, which are mirrored from palettes 40-7F until the game needs to loads something else into that space, are stored in palette sets 80 to BF.

Palette 83 is used for each stage type's platform palettes. Palette 43, shown above, is only used as a fallback palette. It can be seen briefly when the game is reset. It's not used anywhere else.

Wasn't that fun?

Alternate	Final

Here's an alternate set of the tiles the game uses for platforms. Here are the differences:

• The alternate set's graphics use fewer colors than the final set. This means that it can't use palette tricks to change the appearance of the tiles like the final set does.
• The alternate set uses palette 4B / 8B. Neither palette changes during play. (The final set uses palette 43 / 83, which changes with each level type.)
• The alternate set is rounded off at the edges.

(Source: Original TCRF research)

Version Differences

There are two distinct builds for both the 64k and 128k versions of the game. The first has a build date of May 24th, and the second was built on November 26th. The later sets (named flickys1 and flickys2 in MAME) have different dip switch settings that make the game more difficult.

Dip Switch	Older	Newer
Lives	3 Lives 4 Lives 5 Lives Infinite Lives	2 Lives 3 Lives 4 Lives Infinite Lives
Bonus Lives	30k, 80k, 160k 30k, 100k, 200k 40k, 120k, 240k 40k, 140k, 280k	80k 160k 240k 320k

The 64k version of the later set has an additional feature: Dip switch B2 toggles sound in attract mode. In all other versions, sounds never play in attract mode.

(Source: MAME Sega System 1 driver)