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This article is about the game. For the character, see Dr. Lunatic (character).

Dr. Lunatic is a top-down view action game released by Hamumu Software in May of 2000[5]. It was the first game Jamul worked on under the Hamumu Software name, however Eddie Galaxy: Intergalactic Exterminator would become the first to be released. The Dr. Lunatic engine set the precedent of most future Hamumu tiltes and a good portion would continue to be released using it (most notably The Adventures of Bouapha: Spooky Castle and Spooky Castle: The Adventures of Kid Mystic).

The game and especially its updated version, Dr. Lunatic Supreme With Cheese, are among Hamumu Software's most popular games to date.

Publishing Issues[]

Originally Jamul planned to have Dr. Lunatic published distributed by eGames, but they were not interested in publishing it due to them finding it "too weird" and that a bald protagonist would scare children. This caused Dr. Lunatic to be forked into Kid Mystic as a separate project to satisfy some of their concerns. eGames would later agree to publish a stripped down version of Dr. Lunatic which was Spooky Castle.

These issues combined with others prompted Jamul to self-publish Dr. Lunatic as an indie game developer, which was very novel at the time in 2000.

Story[]

The evil Dr. Lunatic is taking the brains out of zombies and putting them into the heads of other zombies to create a race of super zombies! Only Bouapha possesses the cunning and resolve to put him on ice. Unfortunately, the vile doctor has quadruple padlocked his front door, so Bouapha is going to need to get the four Keys of Lunacy to open it, and Dr. Lunatic has entrusted those to his poker buddies, who happen to live in widely disparate regions of the world.

Gameplay[]

Drlunaticworldselect

The original world select screen before Supreme With Cheese.

The player controls Bouapha using the keyboard and collects Hammers, which can be thrown at enemies. The more hammers obtained, the more hammers can be thrown at once. Pants of Power can be picked up for increasing the speed of which hammers are thrown. Collecting springs allow for the hammers to rebound off of walls. There are also Special Weapons, which have a variety of effects, but limited ammo.

At the outset, the player is allowed to enter five worlds: Spooky Forest!, Dusty Desert, Icy Mountain, Cavernous Caves, and the Crazy Asylum of Madness. The primary objective in the first four worlds is to collect a Key of Lunacy from one of Dr. Lunatic's poker buddies who resides in that part of the world. These four Keys of Lunacy are then used to give the player access to levels in the Crazy Asylum of Madness.

Each world features a set of levels that can be accessed by the player by walking through the opening of that level, usually represented as either an alcove, hole in the wall, or an object with a hole in it, and the main objective of most of these levels is to collect all the brains scattered throughout the level. While the levels in a world can be completed in any order, most, if not all, of them must be finished in order to unlock levels that are closed to the player. The levels that are closed to the player at the start of a level also include the level in which the Key of Lunacy is located.

Expansions[]

The original Dr. Lunatic featured two expansions, both of which would ultimately be superseded by 2003's Supreme With Cheese.

Expando-Pak[]

Expandopakcdrom

The Expando-Pak CD-ROM

The Expando-Pak was released in August of 2000 for $12.99.[6] It added several new monsters, tilesets, and new editor functions such as passive monsters through the usage of specials. The new worlds included were: The Haunted Mansion, Pygmy Island, and Space Station Loony. A Dr. Lunatic with Expando-Pak Bundle was then later available at a discount priced.

Fun Pack[]

The Fun Pack was released in December of 2001[7], and was released as a free update for owners of the Expando-Pak. Installing it without the Expando-Pak would result in missing assets and invisible monsters but the game was still otherwise fully functional. It added even more items and monsters to the game, most notably friendly "monsters," as well as two worlds, Field Trip and New World Dis-Order<?>!!!, which explained to the player how these new features worked.

Supreme With Cheese[]

SupremeTitle

The Supreme With Cheese title screen.

Swcboxart

First edition release artwork on the DVD case

On 18 September 2003[8], Dr. Lunatic Supreme With Cheese (often shortened to Supreme or SWC) was released. Two physical relases came out with the earlier releases being in a DVD case sporting an Italian chef on the cover, and later a jewel case release. Although an entirely separate game, it is essentially a massive upgrade to Dr. Lunatic, featuring, among other things, more monsters and items, a more powerful and easier to use Editor, a completely revamped user interface, bonus features such as extra playable characters, the SpisMall and arcade games, and the removal of a limit on the total number of worlds the player could create with the Editor. Most of the recent add-ons are compatible only with SWC.

Supreme With Steam[]

Supreme with steam

Dr. Lunatic Supreme With Steam

On September 1st, Jamul announced that Dr. Lunatic is coming to steam under Supreme With Steam[9]. The featureset is basically the same as the free Supreme With Cheese enhanced itch.io edition, with the exception there are now steam award integrations, steam workshop integrations and of course easier usability since it's integrated entirely in the steam client[10]. The porting has been commissioned to Tad Hardesty[11], with additional visual assets done by Ben Rose[12].

Add-Ons[]

There are many player-made add-on worlds available for the various versions of Dr. Lunatic, which were previously available from the Hamumu website. They are now included in all_supreme_worlds.zip on itch.io. Almost all of the add-ons released after 19 November 2003 are only compatible with Supreme with Cheese.

Engine Particulars[]

The Dr. Lunatic engine makes usage of the JSP file format and uses 32x24 tiles. Originally Dr. Lunatic featured Red Book audio linked to the CD-ROM, but this was later changed to using .OGG files to prevent having to insert the CD-ROM in every time. Most games after 2001 started to abandon Red Book audio. The Red Book audio was also mentioned in the features of the original release:

Nifty CD music, or random play with your favorite CD (will only use your favorite, does not work with non-favorites)[13]

Unlocked Profile[]

This is a useful profile file for people who just want to be past the initial "grind" to have all the usual abilities and play the new add-on worlds: https://www.mediafire.com/file/7nnvknntt1bme9y/rtys.prf/file

See Also[]

Dr. Lunatic Community[]

Dr. Lunatic Editing and Modding[]

Dr. Lunatic Reference Material[]

Dr. Lunatic Guides[]

References[]

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