Bugs Bunny & Taz – Time Busters

Genre: Childrens, Platform

Release Year: 2000

Developer: Artificial Mind and Movement

Publisher: Infogrames

Age Rating: Everyone

Playability Status: Perfect

Tested On: Windows 10 x64

Availability: Copyright retained - Out of print/unavailable

Everyone’s favourite wise-cracking hare and the slobbering, rambling Tasmanian Devil make an unlikely duo in this 2000 platform adventure. Thanks to the bungling Daffy Duck, Granny’s Time Regulator has broken, with pieces scattered across different time periods. Bugs Bunny and Taz need to go on another time-travelling adventure and recover the missing gears and the time gem.

Installation

The game should install without any major issues on a modern PC. Simply insert the CD into the computers optical drive and follow the on-screen prompts. If the games installer doesn’t start automatically, browse to the CD in Computer/This PC and run the autorun.exe file manually.

If you have issues starting the installer, you may need to perform a clean boot, preventing any other programs starting on your PC. See the tutorial here for details of how to do that.

Once installation is complete you should be able to go ahead and start the game without any other compatibility tweaks or settings.

Tweaking graphical settings

When you first start the game you should be taken to a menu screen with several options. Before you dive in and start playing, take a moment to adjust the graphical settings for the game. Since this is an old game, any fairly modern PC will be able to run the game with no issues. Set the games graphics options as shown in the picture below (click on the picture to enlarge it).

If you have a smaller/lower resolution monitor you may get better results choosing the 800×600 resolution, but for most users 1024×768 will give the best results. Make sure “Renderer” is set to “With 3D Card” and “Level of Details” is set to “High”. Brightness can be adjusted to taste, but don’t go too bright else you will lose detail in brighter parts of the image. Click on “Back” when you are done.

Configuring controls

While Time Busters does have support for joysticks, we weren’t able to get the game to recognise our Xbox controller at all. Instead, if you want to configure the game to use controllers, you’re best bet is to use Xpadder. We’ve already created a set of profiles that allow for easy controlling of both Bugs and Taz. Connect a couple of gamepads and configure them as follows.

Player 1’s controls.

Player 2’s controls

Now, configure the controls in-game to match, like this:-

Player 1’s key bindings

Player 2’s key bindings

With this setup, you can use the left analogue stick to move your character while the D-pad moves the camera. A button jumps, X button kicks (or spins, if you’re Taz), B button puts bugs or Taz into sneak mode and Y button switches to first person view. The right shoulder button performs an “Action” while left trigger calls the other character and right trigger switches characters. You can call the other character over at any time. When playing the game in co-op, you should note that the button to call the other player over still works. This can be the cause of a few arguments if the other player presses the button while you’re trying to complete a platform section, for example, so expect some falling out if you let younger children loose on this title.

Troubleshooting

Problems saving games or settings – Like many older games, Bugs Bunny & Taz – Time Busters stores its save game files and other configuration information in its installation directory. If you installed the game into the program files or program files (x86) folders, you may find that the default Windows security settings prevent the game from saving any progress. To fix this problem set the permissions on your game folder so that your user account has full control/read write permissions. You can find a tutorial on how to configure folder permissions here.

Screenshots

Click on any screenshot to enlarge it.