Today's release for the Analogue Pocket and MiSTerFPGA platforms is the next entry on the DECO-16 platform. Caveman Ninja, known in Japan as Tatakae Genshijin: Joe & Mac, is a side-scrolling run-and-gun platformer built on Data East's 16-bit custom hardware.
Kuhga / Vapor Trail (1989)Crude Buster / Two Crude (1990)Dark Seal / Gate of Doom (1990)The Cliffhanger: Edward Randy (1990)Super Burger Time (1990)Death Brade / Mutant Fighter (1991)Tatakae Genshijin: Joe & Mac / Caveman Ninja (1991)Robocop 2 (1991)Thunder Zone / Desert Assault (1991)Wolf Fang: Kuhga 2001 / Rohga (1991)Tumble Pop (1991)Dark Seal II / Wizard Fire (1992)Funky Jet (1992)Gun Ball / Nitro Ball (1992)Diet Go Go (1992)The Great Ragtime Show / Boogie Wings (1992)
Caveman Ninja sits in the family lineup above as a consolidation release. Most of the DECO-16 platform work is complete; the DECO 55 and DECO 52 chip handling, the audio section, the DECO protection device family, and the programmable DECO interrupt controller have already been done across prior releases, and this board pulls all of those threads together without introducing anything new at the hardware level.
This post covers a technical overview of Caveman Ninja on DECO-16 and the game itself.
Licensing:
Caveman Ninja is distributed through the Coin-Op Collection licensing portal, which serves both MiSTerFPGA and Pocket from the same dashboard.
Pocket patrons need to register their device and generate a key before launching the core. Step-by-step instructions and the FAQ are available on the Help page. More information can be found by clicking here and here.
Overview:
Caveman Ninja runs on Data East's DECO-16 hardware (PCB DE-0347-1), driven by a Motorola MC68000 (DECO Custom 59) at 12 MHz. The sound system is the standard DECO-16 audio stack, a HuC6280 (DECO Custom 45) at 4.0275 MHz driving a YM2203 (OPN) at 4.0275 MHz for FM and PSG, a YM2151 (OPM) at 3.579 MHz for additional FM synthesis, and two OKI M6295 ADPCM samplers, one at 1.007 MHz and the other at 2.014 MHz with bank-switched sample ROM. Audio output is mono.
The video system outputs 256x240 at 58.239 Hz in a horizontal orientation. Graphics are rendered by a pair of DECO 55 tilemap generators driving four playfields between them, with one chip carrying both an 8x8 character layer and a 16x16 scrolling tilemap, alongside a DECO 52 sprite engine. A DECO 104 device handles inputs and protection, and the board's interrupts are driven by a programmable DECO controller.
Core Options:
The MiSTer core includes video settings for aspect ratio, vertical scaling and cropping, scandoubler effects, and H/V positioning and sync adjustments.
Audio settings provide separate OPN FM, OPN PSG, OPM, and two M6295 PCM toggles, each with its own volume control, covering the full sound section. Arcade dip switches are directly accessible from the OSD. Game settings include per-player auto-fire with adjustable rates, mapping options for Player 1 and Player 2, and a synced mapping mode that mirrors Player 1's layout to Player 2.
Cheats are accessible from the OSD. Stage select is new for this release and was written specifically for the core rather than carried over from an existing database. It covers the game's full branching structure, with thirteen options across the five stages, including the A and B path variants from the second stage onward, and Default starts on Stage 1. The remaining cheats cover invincibility, per-player infinite lives and infinite energy, and a per-player weapon select that switches the active weapon between the Axe, Boomerang, Fire, Tooth, Wheel, Man, and Electricity options.
The Pocket core provides auto-fire with per-button targeting and adjustable rates. Its cheat set is the same as MiSTer's, with invincibility as a single global option, and arcade dip switches available on Pocket are No. of Lives, Game Difficulty, and Attract Mode Sound.
History and Gameplay Information:
Caveman Ninja was developed and published by Data East, reaching Japanese arcades in February 1991 as Tatakae Genshijin: Joe & Mac, with the overseas release following in March under the Caveman Ninja name. It was directed by Makoto Kikuchi and scored by Hiroaki Yoshida, Seiichi Hamada, Takafumi Miura, and Yusuke Takahama, with Yoshida active in Data East's in-house sound team Gamadelic.
The gameplay is a side-scrolling run-and-gun platformer for one or two players at once. Joe, with his green hair, and Mac, with his blue hair, run through a prehistoric setting where a rival tribe has kidnapped their village's women, and the pair set out to rescue them. The controls are an 8-way joystick and two buttons, jump and attack, with the attack button charging a larger projectile if it is held. A health bar drains slowly over time outside boss fights and is restored by food drops along the way, and a kiss from a rescued woman refills it entirely. In co-op the two players can stand on each other's heads to reach items overhead.
The weapon set is what gives the game its character. Drops along the way swap the default thrown bone for an axe, a boomerang, a fireball, an electric spark, a stone wheel, a dinosaur tooth, or a shadowy doppelganger of the player that runs forward on its own and attacks anything it touches. The doppelganger is the only nominally ninja element in a game with cavemen in its title, and it is what the cheat menu's "Man" option summons. The five stages branch after each boss, with an A path and a B path on every stage from the second onward, and the route choices feed into one of three different endings.
The game opens on the village kidnapping, sweeps through a forest, a jungle, an underwater section, a mountain, and a cave on the way to the rival tribe's stronghold, with named bosses at each, including a T-Rex, a mama pterodactyl protecting her egg, a giant carnivorous plant that nods at Audrey II from Little Shop of Horrors, a prehistoric jumping fish, and a brachiosaurus. Hidden food and weapon drops are tucked throughout each stage, and the game leans heavily on visual gags, with the cavemen getting flattened into pancakes when crushed and burping after a meat pickup.
Reception was warm rather than chart-topping. The One reviewed the arcade in April 1991 and called it "a cutesie 'jumpy-jumpy' game which uses some good graphics and neat comic touches to overcome the unoriginal gameplay," recommending it as worth a try, and Play Meter's December 1991 issue placed Caveman Ninja at twenty-third on its monthly Video Kits chart in the United States. The Joe and Mac branding outlived the arcade itself, carrying through a 1994 single-screen sequel and a long-running series of console adaptations under the same names.
Updates:
Eight DECO-16 titles still remain after Caveman Ninja. Super Burger Time, Mutant Fighter, Desert Assault, Wolf Fang, Wizard Fire, Funky Jet, Nitro Ball, and Diet Go Go will be released as beta over the next few weeks.
Disclaimer: All product names, trademarks, and registered trademarks mentioned are the property of their respective owners. "Analogue", "Analogue Pocket", "MiSTer", "MiSTerFPGA", "OpenFPGA", "Data East", "NEC", "Hudson Soft", "Motorola", "Yamaha", "OKI", "Little Shop of Horrors", and all derivative works are trademarks, registered trademarks, or copyrighted materials of their respective holders. Use of these names does not imply endorsement or association with this post. All rights reserved to their respective owners. This post is for educational and research purposes only.