"Hunter (or Hunter On Ice)" is a 2000 NES adaptation of "Ice Hunter (or Hunter: Prince of Ice)," a Commodore 64 video game, credited to Colosoftwares, 1983. (In the UK it was published by Anirog Software Ltd.,  possibly developed by Tequila Sunrise Software, and released Sept 1984.) Jean-François de Wergifosse is probably the developer for both the C64 and NES versions.

The NES version was released as a 5-in-1 multicart with very similar C64 ports of Magic Madness (Magician) and Tropical Fever, plus Race 'N Burn and Shoot the Goof, a light-gun game from Oniros. These are probably from the same developers.

This hack restores a screen of explanatory text at the beginning of the game, as well as the copyright credit to Colosoftwares. This text appeared in the game originally, but was removed from later bootleg releases. The original text was in French. A version translated into English is also provided.

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Hunter On Ice.

Help Hunter the Inuit Hunter get back to his igloo.

Build a raft with the ice cubes you find on the ice floe. Watch out for dragons and sea lions who won't leave you alone. Fortunately, you can crush them under the ice cubes, or fight them once you've taken the pearl of power.

Use the 'A' button to pick up the ice cubes and drop them into the sea at the bottom right of the screen.

Knock out bridges to make room for your ice cube to drop, but don't get yourself trapped. Hunter will be knocked out if he falls, but he can climb down (and up) the poles supporting each platform as if they're ladders. This will help him avoid enemies.

Put on your skates and press 'Start' to begin...

©  Colosoftwares  1983 / 2000

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Oddities:
During gameplay the screen is eight tiles wider than the NES screen, suggesting that this was possibly intended for other hardware. On NES the score HUD is cut off at the sides, including Round and Lives numbers, on the title screen. During levels, the HUD scrolls with your movement. 

Graphics have been slightly updated but are very faithful to the C64 presentation.

Cutscenes with the igloo are also not included here. It would probably be possible to hack something in along those lines.

Strangely, the crying seal and dragon use the same sprite and palette, but had different palettes on C64. For this reason, both are polar bears in this hack. (Ideally this could be hacked to use different sprites, but I have not looked at the code in that much detail.)

The first screen of the game was originally explanatory text in French (at 5C10 in the ROM). In later bootlegs this was replaced with "Press Start to play" and the copyright removed. If a graphic numbered 60 or above (in hex) is used on this screen, 60 is subtracted from its number. Essentially this code forces only text to to be used on this screen. Change 60 to 00 at 1E75 and 1E7A to remove this offset, which allows for any background graphic to be used on this screen. Sprite palettes are set at 722.


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Ice Hunter is a single screen platformer where you play as Thorak (or Hunter) the Inuit, Prince of Ice, who is searching for blocks to make a special igloo. Thorak has found a multi-level cave containing the blocks he needs for the igloo. He must get two blocks, one at a time, to a stream at the bottom of the cave, then stand on them to float down the stream. His main problem is the creatures that move around the screen - a Seal and a Dragon. These have to be avoided or if touched he loses one of four lives. The creatures though can be killed by dropping a block on top of them, or allowing them to fall through the gaps. A bird occasionally appears, and can be killed if its flight path is blocked.

To get the blocks to the bottom of the screen, there are platforms over gaps, and to get a gap Thorak can walk on the platform to remove it then drop blocks through the gap to the level below. Thorak can't fall through the gaps, but there are pillars that can be climbed up or down. At a certain level in the cave, Thorak can't get back up, so he has to make sure he has two blocks to move to the stream. A power-pill can be collected, and these stun the creatures, which can then be touched to remove them. Once the blocks are floated away, then it's off to the next cave, with more creatures. The levels start to scroll slowly to the left and appear again on the right of the screen.

These games were featured on the bootleg console:
GameStar AL-27605M Taiwan 2000 / Game Star 5 in 1
"Hunter, Magic, Race, Tropical, Shoot"
with a menu screen using graphics from "Hokuto No Ken 2."
(A recreation of this is included as data.)

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Hunter On Ice.

Help Hunter the Inuit Hunter find his igloo.

Build a raft with the ice cubes you find on the ice floe. Watch out for dragons and sea lions who won't leave you alone. Fortunately, you can crush them under the ice cubes, or fight them once you've taken the pearl of power.

Use the 'A' button to pick up the ice cubes and drop them into the sea at the bottom right of the screen.

Put on your skates and press 'Start' to begin...

©  Colosoftwares  1983 / 2000

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        Hunter On Ice.

Aide Hunter le chasseur esquimau a retrouver son igloo.

Construit un radeau avec les cubes de glace que tu trouveras sur la banquise. Attention aux dragons et aux otaries qui ne veulent pas te laisser faire.

Heureusement, tu peux les ecraser sous les cubes de glace ou les combattre non sans avoir pris la perle de puissance.

Utilise le bouton 'A' pour prendre les cubes de glace et laisse les tomber jusqu'a la mer en bas a droite sur l'ecran.

Chausse tes patins et appuie sur 'Start' pour commencer...

©  Colosoftwares  1983 / 2000


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Hunter (Unl)
Database match: not found
Database: No-Intro: Nintendo Entertainment System (v. 20210216-231042)
File SHA-1: EC11FB76AB1CC79BE4D2E9595418B2E6AB451ED1
File CRC32: 658F53D9
ROM SHA-1: 8359CAA175CF03B8B41952E8EA93690143373A19
ROM CRC32: 82FD4907
