JuJu Densetsu (Japan) - MAME machine

Arcade Video game published 36 years ago:

JuJu Densetsu © 1989 TAD.

JuJu is an scrolling platform shoot 'em up in which the player controls an enchanted ape called Toki. An evil witch doctor called Vookimedlo cast a spell on Toki, transforming him into an ape before kidnapping Miho, Toki's bride-to-be and Princess of his tribe. JuJu must fight his way through numerous stages packed with hordes of jungle monsters and hidden traps, as he battles to reach and free his girlfriend and to destroy the evil wizard, breaking the transformation spell and returning him to his human form.

JuJu's only weapon against the forces stacked against him is an ability to spit magical balls of energy from his mouth. There are, however, power-ups found scatterd throughout the game's stages that will aid JuJu in his quest. These can increase the power and spread of the energy balls JuJu spits, for example. Other power-ups are lucky rabbit feet that give allow JuJu to jump much higher, clocks award extra time to complete a stage, fruit that adds to Toki's bonus points, keys that unlock bonus areas and an American football helmet that protects him from attacks from above. Magic coins can also be collected that can earn Toki an extra life.

The game features six stages and JuJu's journey will take him through murky lakes and steep canyons, over frozen, ice-capped mountain ranges and lava-spewing volcanoes, before his final confrontation with the evil Witch Doctor.

TECHNICAL
Main CPU: Motorola 68000 (@ 10 Mhz)
Sound CPU: Zilog Z80 (@ 4 Mhz)
Sound Chips: YM3812 (@ 3.579545 Mhz), OKI6295 (@ 8 Khz)

Players: 2
Control: 8-Way Joystick
Buttons: 2
→ Spit, Jump

TRIVIA
According to the TAD president, Tadashi Yokoyama: One day in December 1988, a freelance artist came at TAD with a portfolio of designs including this monkey. The team was motivated to do a game around this funny monkey.

On February 02, 1989, the first prototype was ready: one level, no enemies, no musics and the monkey can jump only (no shoot). At this point, they decided to reprogram the game entirely from 0. Note JuJu Densetsu was coded with the same system used by the neogeo coders at SNK.

During the first location test (at the TAD office) on September 07, 1989, many new ideas came to the developers but most of them were not included in the final product (i.e: snakes on the first stage), because lack of time.

On September 15, 1989. a public location test was done in Japan AND in the USA (University of Washington). A second test was done in October. After this test, they decided to program the end of the game (done by a non-programmer in a week-end). Note: The girl you have to save is brune in the attract mode and blonde at the end.

The game was finished on November 06, 1989.

Then, after about 10 months of development, JuJu Densetsu was finally released on December 08, 1989 in Japan by TAD. 3148 arcade boards were sold. Export releases: "Toki".

The title of this game translates from Japanese as 'Legend of JuJu'.

The devil monkey with horns from the level 2 is called Bellzador (Dev. code name: Akuma Zaru) and has the most complex AI routine. It takes 27 pages 'A4' format in the source code. Its desing and patern were inspired by Red Arremer from Makaimura.

There is some unused sprites for the character's animation in the game code.

On February 26, 1990, TAD know that pirate versions of their game appear on the market.

This was the last video game developed by TAD. A sequel was planned (JuJu 2! an action puzzle game) for the Super Famicom but the company closed its door 2 months after the JuJu Desnsetsu release. Fortunately, the source code of JuJu 2 was sold to Altron Corp. who released the game as "Little Magic [Model SHVC-LI]".

TIPS AND TRICKS
BAD ENDING
----------
You can reach a 'Bad Ending' if you died last life (After the 5th continue) in Stage 6 (Final Stage).

DEBUG MODE
----------
Mr. Akira Sakuma, programmer of this game, divulged this trick in October 2015. 26 years after the release in Japan!
In order to access the JuJu Densetsu hidden Debug Mode: use a hex editor, and open the file k10_4e.bin, and at offset $244, replace the '00' by '0F'.

On screen you have then the following:
AXX
BXX
MXX
TXX
IXX

A is corresponding to the visible enemies on screen
B is corresponding to the enemies loaded in memory but not visible on screen
M is corresponding to the number of enemies projectiles/shots on screen
T is corresponding to the Traps sets on screen
I is corresponding to the Items visible on screen

STAFF
Game Designer: Haruki Kitahara (Kitahara)
Programmers: Akira Sakuma (Sakuma), Takashi Nishizawa (Nishizawa), Tsukasa Aoki (Aoki)
Graphic Designers: H. Kakiuchi (Kakiuchi), Junichi Fujisaku (Fujisaku), Jun Matsubara (Matsubara)
Musics & Sound: Yusaku Aoki, Yukihiko Kitahara

PORTS

• CONSOLES:

[JP] Nintendo Famicom (jul.19, 1991) "JuJu Densetsu [Model DTF-5J]"
[JP] Sega Mega Drive (jan.31, 1992) "JuJu Densetsu [Model G-4064]"

CONTRIBUTE
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