The Adventures of Bayou Billy/Regional Differences (2024)

This is a sub-page of The Adventures of Bayou Billy.

Originally released as Mad City on the Famicom in Japan, The Adventures of Bayou Billy underwent several significant changes during its English localization consisting mainly of difficulty adjustments and graphical modifications (including giving the game's heroine more revealing clothing). Despite the TRIPLE HARD ACTION GAME tagline that originated from the Japanese advertising, the Famicom version was actually the easier version.

General Differences

• The two game types had their positions swapped for The Adventures of Bayou Billy, meaning that Game A now uses the Zapper for the shootout stages, while Game B uses the D-Pad and A button.
• Probably the most infamous and notable change: The Adventures of Bayou Billy is much harder than Mad City, greatly contributing to its notoriety.
  • Enemies in the beat-em-up stages move faster, deal twice as much damage, and take twice as many hits to kill.
  • The amount of bullets started with in the shooting stages, normally 150/100 in Mad City, has been cut down to 50/100.
  • There is less fuel for the buggy in the driving stages. It also takes a single hit to destroy, when it had a health bar in Mad City and takes visible damage in the form of losing the top.

• The fighting stage HUD was tweaked a bit, shifting the high score and life counter more towards the left. The life counter was also given an extra digit.

• A new, thinner font was made for The Adventures of Bayou Billy, which is used in places such as the sound test, practice menu, and credits.
• The screen scrolls automatically once all enemies on-screen are defeated in The Adventures of Bayou Billy's fighting stages. Mad City requires the player to walk to the right to scroll the screen.
• The bullet counter flashes when the gun is selected in The Adventures of Bayou Billy's fighting stages. Mad City has no such indicator.

• The reticle used for the shooting stages was changed from a square shape in Mad City to a circular one in The Adventures of Bayou Billy.

Driving Stages

• Billy's buggy was given a screeching noise when it revs up and turns.

• The buggy itself also has a different, wider sprite.
• The top speed the buggy can go is 180 mph, as opposed to 250 km/h (~155 mph) in Mad City. This doesn't change the buggy's speed in-game.
• Mad City maintains your current speed for you in the driving stages, while The Adventures of Bayou Billy requires you to hold UP to keep your speed up the whole time.
• Overall, the driving stages play very differently in The Adventures of Bayou Billy; the stages have a faster pace, the turns are sharper, and it's possible to go off-road.

• In Mad City, there is an indestructible brown/red buggy that appears in both stages, most likely the one that Annabelle is seen in in Stage 3. Ramming into it will instakill Billy. It was removed in the international versions.

• The explosives that can be thrown were changed from dynamite sticks to grenades. In addition, Billy cannot shoot or throw another grenade while a grenade is flying in The Adventures of Bayou Billy.

• The HUD was changed, removing the black background and the player's score, and adding a bar showing the buggy's progress in the level.

• An after-level bonus was added in The Adventures of Bayou Billy.

Main Menu

The Japanese version's title slides in from the right, whereas the international title screen has a wavy, rippling effect. In addition to changing the menu's text, the screen's background was changed to black, and more copyrights were added.

Demos

The order of the demos were changed between Mad City and Bayou Billy.

• Mad City's demos are, in order, Stage 1, Stage 2, and Stage 4. Once the Stage 4 demo is over, it loops back to Stage 1's demo.
• The Adventures of Bayou Billy's demo order was changed to Stage 6, Stage 2, and Stage 4. Once the Stage 4 demo is over, it loops back to Stage 2's demo.

The large scrolling Japanese text that plays before the first demo was naturally translated to English with some slight embellishment. Red portions are exclusive to Mad City.

Training

• Training is renamed Practice Mode in The Adventures of Bayou Billy.
• Billy starts out with three lives in Mad City, and zero in The Adventures of Bayou Billy.
• If a training level is finished, it sends you to the training menu instead of the main menu.
• The road in the driving training stage is a straight road with rocks in Mad City, and a winding road with puddles in The Adventures of Bayou Billy'.
• Like the main menu, the shootout training stages were swapped; Game A uses the Zapper, and Game B uses the D-Pad and A Button.

Quiz Mode

In the Japanese version, you could access Quiz Mode by either beating the game four times in a row or losing all of your lives and opting not to continue on any stage but the first.

By disabling the menu selection routine with the Game Genie code AEYVAG, you can select the quiz option in the US and PAL versions, although it is no longer functional.

Screens and Cutscenes

• A registration mark was added to the Konami screen in The Adventures of Bayou Billy, and the logo itself was centered.

• Billy's portrait in the intro was given a major facelift for the international versions, and the hyphen that was (mistakenly?) hidden behind the "H" was moved to its intended spot, though they probably should have just removed it altogether.

• A notice for the player to use either the standard controller or the NES Zapper was added to the international versions. The text strings for these instructions are present in the Japanese ROM, despite being unused in that version.

• In Mad City, if you let the continue timer run out after getting a game over, you'll go back to the title screen. Doing the same in Bayou Billy takes you to another screen showing a picture of a fallen, struggling Billy.

• The visual of the fallen Billy is also present in Mad City, except it's only visible during the driving stages when you run out of time. Here, the picture also shows his turned over Jeep in the background, ignited in flames. In Bayou Billy, running out of time in the driving stages just makes you lose a life, thus, rendering this scene obsolete.

• Annabelle's wardrobe was changed from a long red dress in Mad City to a pair of "Daisy Dukes" shorts and a midriff-revealing tank top in The Adventures of Bayou Billy. Her hair style was changed as well. Inexplicably, Annabelle's dress when she's tied up in Mad City appears to be strapless, whereas in every other instances in the game it clearly has two short sleeves.

Unique to Mad City is a concerned face for Godfather Gordon, which is used at the end of the Stage 6, 7, and 8 cutscenes.

• The close-up of Billy being overwhelmed by gunfire when he loses at a gun stage was given a darker palette in the international versions.

Stage Differences

It should be noted that the tileset for the swamp levels went through some changes, which simplified its appearance.

• The ground has a lot less detail, creating a starker transition between grass and sand.
• The trees lost most of their moss, and were given lighter shading. A few were even extended or shortened.
• Some rocky cliffs were added to the background, removing a great number of the vines.

Stage 1

• Stage 1 had several changes concerning its lakes and the area surrounding them.
  • The small pieces of land in the first and last lakes were replaced with wooden walkways.
  • The sandy area between the first two lakes was shortened down and was removed of its rocks.
  • A tiny walkway was added to the second lake. The enemies in it were also changed, from divers to crocodiles.
  • The last lake was shortened.
• The encounters for this stage and the next two fighting stages were changed for The Adventures of Bayou Billy.

• The tank top-wearing bad guys had their clothes' colors changed from green to blue. Their red-clad palette swaps remained unchanged though.

• Much like the tank top guys, the boulder-throwing punks had their pants and boots changed from green to blue.

• The non-armored frogmen in Stage 1 had their palette changed from blue to grey. They also make a noise when surfacing.

Stage 3

Stage 3 was extended, adding a lake (with a mandatory crocodile fight) and some extra ground before the second boss.

Stage 4

• The road was made thinner, and the trees on the side of the road were replaced with wooden posts.
• More clouds were added to the sky.

• The civilian vehicles in the stage were changed from trucks to sedans.

• The enemy vehicles were changed from green trucks to blue buggies.

• The light aircraft which drop bombs on Billy had their palette changed from green to orange.
• In Mad City, there were loads of water puddles which slowed the buggy down when ran over. They were knocked down to three (which appear at the end of the stage) in The Adventures of Bayou Billy.

Stage 5

• Billy starts out driving at top speed in Mad City. His buggy is stationary in The Adventures of Bayou Billy.

• The road was made thinner, and the lampposts were replaced with red striped poles.
• A good chunk of the stage was changed to feature a lot of sharp corners.

• Like the previous stage, the civilian cars were changed.

• The main enemy buggies were given a palette change, from red to blue. Red buggies still exist, but were made a separate enemy that chases Billy more aggressively.

• The helicopters had their palette changed from grey to cyan.

Stage 6

• The knife-wielding enemies on Stage 6 sometimes drop knives in The Adventures of Bayou Billy. They don't drop anything in Mad City.

Stage 9

• The inside of Gordon's manor was given a palette change in The Adventures of Bayou Billy.

• Gordon's suit was given a darker color.

• Gordon's heirs wear different-looking armor.
• In The Adventures of Bayou Billy, if you lose to the two final bosses, they come back with only 5 hit points. In Mad City, they always return at full health.

• Annabelle's NPC sprites were changed to match her new hairstyle and wardrobe. In these sprites you can see that she was barefooted in Mad City, but was given red high heels in Bayou Billy.

Ending

There are four endings in the Japanese version!

Normal Ending

This is the same as the one in The Adventures of Bayou Billy.

Easy Mode Ending

Complete the game with any of the power-up bonuses you get from completing a Training stage (it doesn't matter which ones you get or whether you actually used them or not), and the game will just refuse to show you the ending, instead telling you to complete the game again without them. However, you will proceed to the second loop and get a normal ending once you clear the final stage on your next playthrough.

• Gordon was defeated

• However

• Something lingered

  See Also

  The Adventures of Bayou Billy™The Adventures of Bayou BillyAdventures of Bayou Billy, The – Hardcore Gaming 101The Adventures of Bayou Billy Review (Nintendo, 1989) - Infinity Retro

• in Billy's heart

• Next time see the ending

• without training

Jerkass Ending

After beating the last boss, Annabelle comes out of a door and walks over to you. In Mad City, you can move around during this. If you stay away from her long enough, you'll get an alternate ending where Annabelle decides that Billy no longer wants her. What the hell, Konami?

• Billy

• Why are you avoiding me?

• Have you come to hate me?

  See Also

  The Adventures of Bayou Billy/Gameplay

• Goodbye, Billy. We won't see each other ever again.

• Billy...

• Goodbye...

• ...

• The image displayed during the credits.

Kansai-ben Ending

Let Annabelle hug Billy and then hold Up + Select until the screen changes to their faces. This resembles the normal ending at first, but the dialogue will be written in Kansai dialect instead of standard Japanese. It starts off with an exchange pretty similar to the normal ending, but gets a bit silly at the end with Billy being a bit forceful on Annabelle.

• Thanks Billy!

• Are you alright Annabelle?

• I didn't know what was going to happen to me, but I feel relieved now.

• You can always count on me!

• Now how about a kiss?

• No way! Not here. Look! There are people watching!

• Nah, It'll be fine. It's just a quickie. Come on!

• Just behave! Even if you saved my life, you'd better stop it. [Billy proceeds to kiss her anyway]

Credits

The picture shown during the cast roll was shifted more to the right, and the archway was made smaller. In addition, Annabelle's outfit was once again changed, and more detail was added to Billy's hat and legs.

Cast

Every character was given a different name in The Adventures of Bayou Billy, apart from Billy himself, who is credited as "Billy West" (no relation to the famous voice actor) in both versions despite the English version calling him "Bayou Billy" on the game's title. The enemy characters are given somewhat supervillain-sounding names in Bayou Billy in contrast to the plain names most of them had in Mad City. This is no more evident in the game's main antagonist, who went from "Richard Gordon" to "Godfather Gordon". In contrast, Annabelle's surname was changed from "Luna" to the less exotic-sounding "Lane".

The roles attributed to each enemy in Bayou Billy are, for the most parts, direct translations of the original roles they had in Mad City, with some slight differences in meaning (i.e. the fatman from Bayou Billy was originally a debugon in Mad City, a portmanteau of debu for fat and "dragon"). The only big change are the twin brothers, who are given the rather bombastic title of "Heirs to Gordon's Underworld Throne" in Bayou Billy, likely due to how they just show up from out of nowhere after Gordon is defeated.

Of note, the Diver Man enemy in Mad City is simply named Diver Man, with the same text string used for both. This was likely a coding error due to the fact that there's an unused text string for a "Dan Gould" (ダン グールド) among the names of the enemy characters in the Mad City ROM. This text string was translated in Bayou Billy with the aforementioned romanization, but it was also unused in that version, as the Frogman enemy was given an entirely new name that uses a different text string.

Staff

• The typo in "Charactor Design" was corrected, changing it to "Character Design".
• Bonobono Fugimoto was renamed Bono Bono Ebisu. His name was removed from the Game Planner and Character Design segments, but was added to the list of programmers.
• Music notes were added to the Music and Sound segment title.
• Kyouhei Sada's name was changed to Mad Jun.
• Damian Fujio's name was changed to Mt. Fujio.
• シンコン (Shinkon) Ogura's name was changed to New Cuple Ogura. It really should be "Newlywed Ogura", which is what shinkon means.
• ドクシン (Dokushin) Kanbe became Lonely Kambe. Dokushin is the word for bachelor.
• A Special Thanks segment was added, with Mr. Kobayashi being the only person listed.
• The color of the Konami Bug Checkers title was changed from pink to blue.

Audio Differences

A few extra DPCM voice samples were added to The Adventures of Bayou Billy:

• A man restating the title of the game.

• The same man saying "Bye" at the end of the credits.

• Godfather Gordon laughing at the end of every after-stage cutscene.

Music Differences

A couple tracks were slightly modified in between the release of Mad City and the international release of Bayou Billy.

Titles are taken from the sound test in both games.

(Source: MrNorbert1994 (YouTube), retro game audio (YouTube))

BGM B

The track with the most notable difference in sound, the Bayou Billy version had the two lead pulse channels slightly modified with regards to the duty cycles, with the end result sounding to sound rather muted. In contrast, the lead channels in the Mad City version sound sharper and more forward in the mix.

Highway

The pulse wave lead's sound in the intro was slightly adjusted. Other than that, the two versions appear to sound the same.