Freddi Fish and the Case of the Missing Kelp Seeds

Freddi Fish and the Case of the Missing Kelp Seeds
Developer: Humongous Entertainment Publishers: Humongous Entertainment (US), Ravensburger Interactive (DE), Levande Böcker (SE 1997), Russobit (RU), Nordic Softsales (SE 2006) Platforms: Windows, Mac OS Classic Released in JP: 1994 Released in US: 1994 Released in EU: 1994 (NL), 1997 (SE original), 2001 (NO), 2006 (SE rerelease) Released in FR: 1996 Released in DE: 1996 Released in RU: 2004 Released in AS: 1994 (IL) This game has unused graphics. This game has unused cinematics. This game has unused music. This game has unused text. This game has regional differences. This game has revisional differences.

Freddi Fish and the Case of the Missing Kelp Seeds is Humongous' first Freddi Fish title, notable for being their first game made specifically for Windows. The game puts you in the "shoes" of Freddi Fish and her annoying little green sidekick Luther as they look for Grandma Grouper's missing kelp treasure, which is apparently the only source of food in the entire ocean. Can you find the location of the kelp treasure before the mafia does?

Sub-Pages

Prototype Info

Prerelease Info

Unused Subtitles

Like other Humongous Entertainment games, Freddi Fish has subtitles for all dialogue. In the first print run in 1994 (the one with the Windows 3.1-styled pause menu), these were used and could be activated by pausing the game and checking the "Display text" box. However, on every release after, they need entering TextOn=1 to the game's entry in the hegames.ini file, or through ScummVM.

(Source: http://wiki.scummvm.org/index.php/Humongous_Entertainment/Games/INI_Settings)

Unused Click Points

Skeleton

In Mr. Starfish's room, there is an unused clickpoint involving a hanging skeleton of a fish. While the graphic exists in the room, the game covers it up, leaving an out-of-place cutout on the rocks. It also has three animations, one of which involves interaction with the jack-in-the-box head above it. The clickpoint can be run with ScummVM's debugger by force running scr 227 in the 1994 version and scr 229 in the 1998 version.

Interestingly, the skeleton is present on the load/save graphics for this room, and it still showed up on a few pre-release screenshots, making it likely that this was a last-minute change.

Sunken Ship Sword

On the deck of the sunken ship (room 48 in the 1994 version and room 49 in the 1998 version), there is a sword that normally only plays an animation of a turtle sliding down it when it is clicked on; however, there are two more animations stored in the game's data for it though of the handle coming to life. These can be enabled by entering EnableFishBradSword=1 in hegames.ini. If you want to allow these animations to play more than once, you can also add PeteIsAlsoTheOverlord=1. There is no known reason why these were cut.

Unused Music

File	Notes
	Nearly identical to another track used in the game, except it features tiki-esque chanting throughout the entire piece. Possibly unused because there was no place it would fit, or maybe due to issues with islander stereotypes. This can actually be found on The Fat Man's album "Flabby Rode" as Bongo #2/W Fat Chats (Unused).
	Intended for the king's castle, evidenced by being both in the same style as the piece that actually plays there and from being right next to it in the HE4 file. The most likely reason it's unused is because of how the game engine handles music—there is a "playlist" of the sorts always running known as the "standard songs," and a "preferred song" can be selected that will override the standard list. Unlike most other HE games, this one gradually adds background music to the list as the game is played; there can only be one list at a time, so changing the list would clear the standard list and lead to problems. As such, these two pieces would end up going unused due to programming limitations. The first track is called Dixie Door (King Crab's Court Alternate) and the second track is called Grooved Dixie.
	A tune intended for the sunken ship, evidenced for the same reasons as the castle pieces. This one goes unused due to the used one being designated as "preferred" in the programming. The explanation for the first king's castle piece would apply here...except once you make it to the sunken ship, you are "locked" in that area to the end of the game, and the standard background music is not used from there on out, so clearing the list would have no effect. Maybe it was done as a fallback? This track is called Dark Harp (Sunken Ship Alternate).
	A little excerpt of one of the other themes in the game, however this one has lyrics "Freddi we need your help please, we need to find the missing kelp seeds, Freddi we need your help, we need to find the missing kelp" added to it. It probably lacked a good place to be used in the game. This track is called We Need Your Help w/Vocals (Credits Alternate).
	The sharks theme in its entirety. Usually, only the first 30 seconds of this tune are heard before it gets cut off, leaving a good minute unheard. This track is called Stupid Fish (Boss and Spongehead).

Additionally, the save/load music is played through the sound effects channel, but a duplicate version also exists on the music channel for some odd reason. All of these unused tracks were released on Bandcamp; the soundtracks for this game and others in the series was released on October 9, 2020 and split across two volumes.

Hidden Cutscene

A disturbing insight into Freddi's mind can be viewed by adding EddieEatsLuther=1 to hegames.ini or scummvm.ini and clicking on Luther when with Eddie (see video at right for the result). This scene was animated by Tom Verre, supposedly as a way to blow off steam, though it's interesting that time was taken to record lines for Luther and Freddi just for this cutscene. They were even translated across international releases.

(Source: http://wiki.scummvm.org/index.php/Humongous_Entertainment/Games/INI_Settings)

This scene can be viewed multiple times in one playthrough by also having BretIsTheOverlord=1 (named after Bret Barrett) in the configuration file.

Regional Differences

The 2001 Norwegian dub of the game colorized the item cursors and made movement animations skippable, which would not happen anywhere else until nearly six years later (see below for details).

Revisional Differences

To do: Obtain a copy of the 2007 version and get screenshots, and see if there are any differences missed here.

The game has three known major versions: the initial version made in 1994, a re-issue made in 1998, and a 2007 re-release that changed the subtitle to Kelp Seed Mystery.

1994	1998

The 1994 version used the generic "Humongous Entertainment Presents..." logo without any sound. The 1998 re-issue used their newer logo with the signature drum roll crash. The 2007 version reverted to the 1994-style with an orange logo sans sound.

The Junior Adventure logo was added to the 1998 version, using the light-blue variant that was typically used in the other Freddi Fish games. The 2007 version excludes this.

1994	1998

The copyright dates were updated accordingly. The 2007 version had its title screen adjusted to use the shortened title.

1994	1998

Starting from this game onward, cursors are included that are made to indicate the option to go somewhere off in the distance. In the 1994 version, these particular cursors are very long and thin as opposed to the short and thick ones every Humongous game made afterward would adopt. The 1998 version changes this.

Additionally, all the item cursors were colorized in the 2007 version.

1994	1998

The 1994 version used a more generic font for the credits, sort of similar to the subtitle font used in the DOS games. From the second game onward, a more stylized cartoonish font was adopted for each credit sequence, and was retroactively added back in for the credits of the 1998 version.

1994	1998

The 1994 version uses a Windows 3.1-styled pause menu. The 1998 and 2007 versions use a Windows 95-styled pause menu which added an options screen but got rid of the setting for subtitles.

Other Differences

• The 1994 version had a bug that prevented the music from playing on the jellyfish tossing minigame unless you turned the music off and back on. The 1998 version corrected this.
• At the volcano, in the 1994 version, when throwing a purple sea urchin into the bucket, the cursor would disappear for a brief moment then reappear after the urchin landed into the bucket, allowing you to throw more in before Freddi finished talking. In the 1998 version, the cursor remains off the screen until after Freddi says her line.
• The 2007 version made it possible to skip movement cutscenes that occur when going from screen to screen. This was not possible in the earlier versions.