Adventure Series (Mega Drive)

Adventure Series is an American SEGA Genesis/Mega Drive video game developed by Malibu Interactive and published by THQ in 1993. Players can pick between five engines to play with: Thomas, James, Percy, Toby and Duck. They can also colour in the engines and give the driver a name. The colour of the driver in the colouring in effects the colour of his sprite in-game. It has three different skill levels for three modes; Game, Race and Explore.

The game is narrated by American Software programmer Craig Ewert.

Playable Characters

 * Thomas
 * James
 * Percy
 * Toby
 * Duck

Non-playable Characters

 * Edward
 * Henry
 * Gordon
 * Sir Topham Hatt
 * Troublesome Trucks
 * Annie or Clarabel

Locations

 * Tidmouth Sheds
 * Knapford
 * Maron
 * Cronk
 * Barrow-in-Furness
 * Dryaw
 * Elsbridge
 * Brendam
 * Shiloh
 * Crewe

Music
The original Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends theme tune is played at the title screen. This game featured music from series 1, 2 and 3. Various sound effects include a whistle, puffing, braking, different tones of a selection (e.g. starting a race) "ding" and a "fill" effect while colouring the engines.

Most of the music however is unable to be looped except in the Race game.

Starting the Game
The player must pick an engine from Thomas, James, Percy, Toby or Duck. The player can start straight away with Thomas, or colour-in any engine. In the colouring-in, they can choose what colour their engineer's clothes are by colouring them in on the picture.

There is an opportunity to name the engineer after the player's own name, or pick from some of the names provided. All of these include: Amy, Andy, Ann, Bill, Bob, Brenda, Brian, Brittany, Carlos, Chris, Dan, Dave, Elizabeth, Emily, Eric, Jasmine, Jason, Jeff, Jennifer, Jessica, Jim, John, Jose, Joey, Julie, Kathy, Karen, Kevin, Kim, Laura, Linda, Lindsey, Lisa, Maria, Mark, Mary, Matt, Melissa, Michelle, Miguel, Mike, Nancy, Peter, Rob, Sam, Sarah, Scott, Stephanie, Steve, and Tim.

You must also select a skill level of easy, medium or hard.

Game
To find the correct rolling stock and take them to the designated station (any station in easy mode). Once complete, Sir Topham Hatt will make a comment on speed and memory, and a score will be tallied.

The rolling stock are flat trucks (flatbeds), mine trucks (Troublesome Trucks/Freight Cars), log trucks, gravel trucks (also Troublesome Trucks/The Freight Cars), passenger carriages (coaches; Annie or Clarabel) and flat trucks (flatbeds) carrying a shape of varying quantity or colour.

The stations featured are Barrow, Brendam, Crewe, Cronk, Dryaw, Elsbridge, Knapford, Maron, and Shiloh.

If the job is finished in 1 minute or none, the player will be congratulated by James, Edward, Thomas, Gordon or Henry and told that Sir Topham Hatt wants to see them. NOTE: James or Thomas will not congratulate you when you're playing as one of them.

Race
To race to the finish line before the other engine reaches it, the player must keep up with their skills and speed. For example, pick up up-arrow hot air balloons and sweets but watch out for branches, down-arrow hot air balloons and other engines.

The first race is against Toby, the second race is against Percy, the third race is against Duck, the fourth race is against James, and the last race is against Thomas. NOTE: The characters often switch around depending on the engine the player chooses at the start.

Winning against three engines will give the player a silver medal and winning against all five will give the player a gold medal and end the game.

Explore
The chance to explore the maps from "Game" and "Race" without a timer and points. Players can pick up loose trucks or coaches and take them anywhere.

Trivia

 * Despite this game being released exclusively in North America, it is not region-locked, meaning that it can be played on the international version of the SEGA Genesis, the SEGA Mega Drive.
 * A picture of Sir Topham Hatt seen in the "Congratulations", "Well Done", and "Come back and play again soon!" screens from the Race and Info mode are from "Trouble in the Shed".
 * The picture for the Game mode is a modified Ertl Thomas pulling a Troublesome Truck to a station for the Fat Controller, the picture for Race is the scene where Edward is trying to rescue James from the second series episode, "Old Iron", and the picture for Explore is simply a point-of-view of an engine coming out of a tunnel.
 * In the Race mode picture, James has a happy face. This was because his face was edited.
 * A few themes have been used:
 * During the Game mode intro, the busy station theme is played.
 * During the Game and Explore modes, part of Henry's theme is played.
 * During the Race mode intro, part of Gordon's theme is played.
 * During the Race mode, a modified version of Edward's theme is played.
 * When races are lost, part of Sir Topham Hatt's theme is played.
 * In this game, Crewe, Shiloh and Barrow are depicted as stations on the North Western Railway, but Shiloh is a station on the Culdee Fell Railway, and Crewe and Barrow are located on the Mainland.
 * In the front view shots of the engines, James, Percy and Duck have the same front view sprite as Thomas, albeit recoloured and with different faces. This was likely done to save memory on the cartridge.
 * In Game Mode, when you play as Percy, Toby, or Duck, all the engines will congratulate you.
 * In Game Mode, when the job is finished in 0 minutes, James, Edward, Thomas, Gordon, and Henry will say, "Congratulations...", "...wonderful...", and "...fast...".
 * In Game Mode, when the job is finished in 1 minute, James, Edward, Thomas, Gordon, and Henry will say, "Well done...", "...good...", and "...hard...".
 * In Game Mode, when the job is finished in 0 minutes, Sir Topham Hatt will call the player a very splendid engineer and say, "You did that very quickly.".
 * In Game Mode, when the job is finished in 1 minute, Sir Topham Hatt will call the player a really useful engineer and say, "You did that quickly.".

Goofs

 * James, Percy, Toby and Duck's in-game sprites are missing their numbers.
 * When Duck and Annie or Clarabel are facing left, their sprites are mirrored, meaning that Duck's "GWR" initials and Annie or Clarabel's name are mirrored as well.
 * On Duck's back-angle sprites, the side of his running board changes from black to red.
 * James has a 4-4-0 wheel arrangement, his tender is too short, and his wheels are red.
 * On some menu screens, as well as the in-game sprites, all the engines share the same face.
 * The sprite and sound effect for using the engines' whistles is exactly the same for all engines.
 * None of the in-game sprites are fully animated.
 * Toby's in-game sprite has no buffers on his front or back ends. He is also missing the bell on the top of his roof.
 * Thomas, James, and Duck's in-game sprites are missing their whistles.
 * In the front view shots of the engines:
 * James' happy face seems to resemble Henry's and Duck's seems to resemble Edward's.
 * James' sad and shocked faces are shared with Percy. Thomas and Duck also share James and Percy's sad faces, but the eyes are looking downward instead of looking to the left and their noses are changed to resemble Thomas and Duck's noses.
 * Thomas, Percy, and Duck's domes are painted gold.
 * On the colouring-in screens:
 * Percy's picture shows him with a single coupling rod.
 * Thomas, James and Toby do not have coupling hooks.
 * Duck is missing his GWR initials.