The Video Game Project
A Closer Look At The Prototypes That Became Your Favourite Games!
Awesome Possum... Kicks Dr. Machino's Butt Artwork Scans
Awesome Possum... Kicks Dr. Machino's Butt is a video game created by Tengen for the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis that was released in early 1993. It also had many lines of digitized speech, unusual for its time, a feature with which the game was marketed. The box also states "it is an excellent educational game for all ages". The game included the voice talents of Walter Fields, Laurie Amat and Douglas Lawrence.
Awesome Possum includes environmental activist elements, with the character collecting empty bottles and cans, and answering questions about the environment to earn bonus points in his fight against the evil Dr. Machino. There are also various other animals located within levels which the character can ride to activate their ability, such as a bee which allows the character to fly or a rhino that catapults the character. There are a total of four worlds which together consist of 13 levels all together plus 12 bonus stages alongside the quiz which the character must collect as many recyclables as possible before the time expires.
On April 1992, Richard Seaborne was hired by Tengen to do a concept for an environmental game. Seaborne came up with the character "Awesome Possum" and by July 17, 1992 presented his proposal "Rad Rhino and Awesome Possum" to Tengen and they approved it. Development for the artwork was underway by Fall, but animations were unsatisfactory. Tengen hired Jules Marino on January 18, 1993 to polish the game character's sprites. The final title of the game was made official on May 13, 1993. The development team included a 12-page comic in the manual. When Time Warner Interactive took over Tengen in 1994, they also got the rights of the video game.
On June 20, 1997, Time Warner Interactive was charged with copyright infringement by Paul A. Roginski, who claimed that the game copied his comic book concept and character name for his manuscript. With Roginski lacking evidence to prove his claim, the case was closed and the defendants were acquitted.
