Jurassic Park SegaCD

This was the first game I ever worked on as a programmer. It was a very interesting experience, because much of the basic engine code that ran the game ended up being based on a prototype psuedo-3D engine I built on a Sega Genesis. The original design included three different modes of play - a top down, a side scrolling, and a 1^st person POV. It became clear that the design was much to big. However, just as everyone was trying to figure out where to go next, I finished my prototype for the 1^st person POV, and the new design ended up being based around it.

I also ended up doing many of the dinosaur behaviors, and the Galli, Dilo, and 75% of the Tri Territories. I even managed to play at being an artist in a few cases... Originally, the raptor caves had much less on the foreground layer, but I found a way to include more. However, since the artists were busy, I spent several late nights cutting the foreground layers out myself. I also added the frog to the fishing Gallimimus animation (all ten pixels of it).

Perhaps the best part of the project, however, was meeting Dr. Robert Bakker, one of the foremost paleontologists in the world. He not only helped the artists develop the dino animations, but even appeared in the game. Dr. Bakker has several interesting books, including The Dinosaur Heresies (about the changing views of dinos from slow reptiles to warm blooded fast moving animals), and a wonderful novel (Raptor Red) written from the point of view of a velociraptor.

Below you can find a complete map of the game, with the locations of all the game objects, as well as most of the game cheats and several really good easter eggs.

Goto the JP map

Cheats and Easter Eggs

Debug Functions

In INT1 (the first game location, with the crashed helicopter), use a rock on the far shore in the south quadrant. When you find the right location, you will get a bell. This enables the 2^nd joypad.

The 2^nd joypad functions are:

START - load the node jumper (allows you to go to any location in the game)

C btn - gives you all the useful objects for the location you are in

To get an infinite supply of gas grenades

Go to the Visitor Center, in the hallway facing the door to Muldoon's Office (VC4). Use the Rex-CD on the card reader to the right of the door. When you enter Muldoon's Office, the locker will never run out of gas grenades.

To get an answering machine message

Go to Wu's Office (VC3). Use the pliers on the answering machine on the desk, and it will play someone's final phone call….

To see a T-Rex vs. Triceratops battle

This easter egg was my personal contribution to the game. One of the artists had made a little animation of a T-Rex chasing some Gallimimus that was to go into GAL4 (the Galli Old Nest). However, we decided not to put it in, because the T-Rex didn't look like the other Rex anims in the game. So I shrunk down some of the Triceratops anims and used them to create the classic dino battle. Goto the Galli Frog Pond (GAL5), and use the wire cutters on a branch sticking out of the left side of a tree in the south quadrant (you will get a bell if you find it). Then backtrack to the Galli Old Nest (GAL4), and you will see the battle.

NOTE: this will not work after the Biosyn helicopter arrives on the island (because GAL4 then becomes the final battle location). It will also not work unless you have been to GAL4 at least once before (so the galli herd can run by).

To See the Visitors Center Explode

Goto the Visitor Center Control Room (VC2), and use a rock on the computer screen. You will then automatically walk back down the stairs, and the Visitor Center goes boom around you! I think the original game design included this video as part of the game, but we dropped it for some reason. However, the video had already been made, so one of the other programmers stuck it in.

You can send me mail at opus@opusgames.com

Opus the Penguin is copyright © 1984 by The Washington Post Writer's Group. The picture in the title graphic was built from pieces found in the Bloom County: Tunes For Our Times trade paperback. The artwork was then modified by the author of this web page.