Human Resources for the University of Oklahoma. Serving Faculty and Staff in Norman, Oklahoma City, and Tulsa campuses.
05-10-2014, 05:43 AM
When did you play the game? - Can't really remember exactly when i played it, but it was somewhere around '97 to '99, maybe a little later What computer did it run on? - I'm certain it was windows PC i played it on. What operating system did the computer run? - I think it was either W95 or W98. What were the graphics like? - It was 2D, pretty colourful background as i remember. Unfortunately i don't remember anything else. What was the music like? - Not sure about this one, I'm guessing it was CD Audio. Were there speech? - I remember vaguely that there were some speech, I may be completely wrong about this one. What was the gameplay like? - I don't remember that much, but i'll try. It was a 2D physics contraption game, like the game 'The Amazing Machine' I THINK you had to help a penguin(may have been another animal) cross to the other side of the screen. I remember 3 different level themes, the first being arctic(with igloos, polar bears etc.) The second theme was in a jungle(I only remember monkeys in this one) The third being an underwater/ocean theme(You had many different types of fish and sharks in this one, i remember clearly the hammerhead shark which if you landed on his head he would knock you upwards) A whole list of items to use to help the penguin cross to the other side, I remember if you placed a balloon over a bonfire the balloon would fly up. Which perspective were you given there? - 2D only if i remember correctly. Thats all i can remember folks, if you have any questions I'll try to answer them. Thank you! :)
In Real Life, a turtle's shell is fused to its spine (It is, after all, a modified rib cage). Removing a shell in Real Life, if possible at all, will kill the turtle in seconds if the turtle is lucky. But in fiction, it is often treated as a removable article of clothing. Expect the turtle, when out of the shell, to be wearing little more than Goofy Print Underwear.
Alternately, the shell may be large enough to not only accommodate the resident turtle, but also allow somebody else to hide inside it at the same time. In some cases, the Removable Shell may also be portrayed as having a furnished apartment (and often Bigger on the Inside). Another variant will be for the turtle to withdraw all of its limbs (and its head) to make them pop out so that it does a 180 degree turn without moving from the spot. Slow animals with removed shells may become much faster.
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A variant can apply to other shelled animals like snails, which also - with the exception of hermit crabs - are fused to their shells and cannot 'take them off'.
Sub-Trope of Art Major Biology, Appropriate Animal Attire, and Funny Animal Anatomy.
Compare Fur Is Clothing (the mammalian equivalent).
Contrast Eggshell Clothing (the shell that is supposed to come off does not).
Examples
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For the longest time in the Twin Cities area, there were commercials for a casino whose mascot was a shell-less turtle dancing in polka dot heart boxers.
The obscure Japanese series Oraa Guzura Dado had one turtle character, for whom this trope was a running gag.
Dragon Ball's Master Roshi, though not a turtle, is the turtle hermit, and wears a heavy shell on his back for training purposes which is fully detachable.
In Pani Poni Dash!, the cast travels inside Himeko's dreams, wherein the Archangel Michael has a turtle companion who keeps losing her shell.
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Comics
Back in the Eighties, there was a newspaper cartoon (Some Thoughts by Eric Johnson) in the UGA college newspaper, The Red and Black, that featured a series of strips about a turtle jumping out of his carapace (wearing the requisite wife-beater and boxers), later suggling inside the carapace with a turtle-honey, and finally, about some Georgia Tech students who indignantly wrote in to the cartoonist to complain that they had opened up a real turtle and not found a little animal in boxer shorts.
The Terrific Whatzit, a DC ComicsGolden AgeFunny Animal superhero, is a turtle who possessed a costume similar to that of the Golden Age Flash, and powers similar to those of Golden Age speedster Johnny Quick. When in costume, he removed his shell (his superhero name stemmed from the difficulty of telling what species he was without the shell).
Verne in Over the Hedge often loses his shell. After this happens several times, R.J. asks Verne, 'What is the point of this thing again?'
In Cats Don't Dance, T.W. Turtle never actually gets out of his shell, but he did duck into it on one occasion and re-emerge with a scrub brush and soap, as though he'd been cleaning the inside.
A chipmunk falls inside a turtle's shell in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
One scene in Robin Hood had Toby Tortoise pull his head into his shell and peek out from one of his armholes.
Clothahump the turtle wizard in Alan Dean Foster's Spellsinger series doesn't have a removable shell, but he has enchanted his plastron to install transdimensional cabinet drawers in his chest.
A board book by Sandra Boynton featured a turtle inside its shell looking at another turtle that's outside its shell.
A picture book by Eric Carle was actually about a turtle who took off his shell.
According to one of Aesop's fables, 'Jupiter and the Tortoise,' the tortoise's shell used to be his home, which he could leave at will. When he didn't show up to a party thrown by Jupiter, king of the gods, Jupiter came to his house and asked him why. When he said that he would much rather stay home, a furious Jupiter declared that he would forever be condemned to carry his home upon his back, and so that is why tortoises can never leave their shells.
Mystery Science Theater 3000: During one of the Gamera movies, the bots decided to make a model of Gamera to show what's inside his shell. As they imagined it, he has a fully furnished apartment, complete with a gym, inside there. As well as another door which should never be opened, because that's where Gamera keeps all his internal organs.
Subverted in Red Dwarf: Lister recounted how, when he was a kid, he once opened a turtle's shell with a can opener. Said he, in his defence: 'Well, I didn't know!'
Subverted in a Noodle Incident mentioned by Darnell on My Name Is Earl. Randy apparently pulled the original Mr. Turtle out of his shell to see what was inside, then crammed him back into it hoping Darnell wouldn't notice. The original Mr. Turtle didn't survive.
One episode of The Muppet Show features a turtle who doesn't leave his shell, but is able to stick his head out a hatch at the top like a tank, while a gun emerges from the head hole.
Averted in The Animal Show with Stinky and Jake, as befits an Edutainment Show, with a turtle who sings a song called 'My Shell is a Part of Me'.
Dungeons & Dragons has the Tojanida; a monster that resembles a cross between a sea turtle and a lobster. It has eight holes in its shell, out of which it can freely stick its flippers, claws, and head in any configuration it desires.
Dub from Die Anstalt: Treating his neuroses required you to literally get him out of his shell.
Shellcreepers in Mario Bros. and Koopas in Super Mario World and later games.
A whole sequence is based around this in the first Paper Mariogame. The Fuzzies invade Koopa Village and steal everyone's shells, leaving Mario to recover them.
Averted in the first Gameboy title, Super Mario Land, where it was apparently too graphics intensive. The equivalent monster has an exploding, non-removable shell, and plays more like a Bob-omb expy.
Taken to extremes in the Super Mario World hack 'SMW YEAHHH', with the Blue Elite Koopas. They actually take off and fire their shells at Mario like missiles, even while flying. See here.
In Super Mario 3D World, the player can actually get into the shells themselves for some Super Speed.
Mostly averted by Bowser. Throughout all his appearances, the King of the Koopas has only been deshelled in the home computer ports of Mario Is Missing, which, dubious reputation aside, portrayed his tail as being a part of his shell.
In American McGee's Alice, Mock Turtle's shell gets stolen by the Duchess, and Alice gets to become a honorary reptile by helping recover it.
Carapacion-type enemies in Final Fantasy XIII might qualify, as when 'Broken' their carapace vanishes, which removes their Nigh Invulnerability until they restore the carapace.
It's only really iffy because even when they actually have the carapace it's not a true shell, but more closely resembles a pangolin or man-made scale/plate mail.
The Polish puzzle game Zagadki Lwa Leona features a puzzle where you have to help a turtle whose shell apparently was stolen and inexplicably got stranded on a branch.
Rare gastropod example: According to its Pokedex entry, the Pokémon Shelmet is a snail-like Pokemon whose helmet-like shell is often removed from its body by an beetle-like Pokemon called Karrablast so it can evolve into Escavalier (which resembles an armored insect who has spears for arms and said armor being made from said shell). Fortunately, Shelmet evolves into Accelgor, a Ninja snail.
The Oshawott family (based on sea otters and other aquatic mammals) also have removable shells, called Scalchops (for Oshawott and Dewott) and Seamitars (for Samurott). However, unlike most of the examples listed here, the shells are too small to hide inside and are instead used solely to be removed as weapons.
One of the playable characters in Battle Beast is a turtle who can step out of his shell, which then gains a handle as it turns into a large hammer to pummel his opponents with.
Mega Man X
Armored Armadillo of the first game can has his armadillo shell be broken with Electric Spark, making him more vulnerable to attacks.
The second game has Crystal Snail. If you hit him with the Magnet Mine, his shell flies off, causing him to lose his only method of defence and causing him to focus on trying to reclaim it over attacking you...which you can prolong indefinitely by knocking the shell around. Justified because he's a robot.
The sixth game's Shield Sheldon is a clam robot who freely throws his clam shells around like Captain America with his shield.
The eighth game's Earthrock Trilobyte will have his shell broken with any weapon acquired from Gravity Antonion.
In Aquaria, Naija can remove the shells of small turtles with her Bind song, which would otherwise damage her.
The Escarglow dream eaters in Kingdom Hearts 3Dthrow their shells like boomerangs for a number of their attacks. They have a serious flaw in that their shells will be smacked away if they receive a solid hit, which causes them to prioritize getting them back over anything else and being snails, they do this slowly.
Turtles in Darkwing Duck for NES sneeze their shells at Darkwing, at which point they are vulnerable (but, interestingly, still really tough, requiring 6 pellets to go down). The shell then comes back like a boomerang, so watch your back while attacking them.
In Show by Rock!!, Turtle BIG (a turtle) and Takeppa (a kappa) have shells that are represented as backpacks worn outside their clothing, implying they can put them on and take them off at their leisure like any other fashion accessory.
Simonla of 'Sonichu' assurs the other Rosechus, and the audience, that her shell is removable so nothing will get in the way of her poorly-drawn breasts when she poses nude.
All Terrekin in Cosmic Dash have a shell that attaches to their back, through a hole in their clothes. Word of God mentions genetic engineering.
Happens regularly to Cecil Turtle in Looney Tunes cartoons.
Happens nearly ten years before Cecil's debut in 1941 to a turtle in 1932's Freddie the Freshman.
Filbert the turtle in Rocko's Modern Life.
Gary the snail in SpongeBob SquarePants, depending on the episode. Sometimes the shell lifts up to show something hidden inside; sometimes the shell is Bigger on the Inside and SpongeBob is able to crawl into it; and sometimes cracking the shell exposes Gary's veiny, throbbing innards.
Mr. Krabs' shell is also sometimes treated as removable despite the fact that, to all appearances, he's not a hermit crab. Its loss tends to result in Naked People Are Funny (although he already wears a full outfit on his shell at the same time, so he can also be portrayed as naked by removing the clothing, but not the shell).
Franklin and all of his family members have shells that are removable. Played with in a fire safety story in which Mr. Turtle found that he could not evacuate his house by the window unless he first removed his shell.note In the Franklin and FriendsAll-CGI Cartoon spin-off, however, Franklin and his family's shells are integral parts of their bodies that they can't remove.
Shelby Turtle from Mickey MouseWorks and House of Mouse (which recycled many shorts from the former) was depicted as having a removable shell and wearing a diaper underneath.
Br'r Turtle from Br'r Hare fame.
Happens in the very first episode of Dink, the Little Dinosaur. Crusty takes off his shell to take a bath. When the resident badguy, Trannor shows up, one of the characters hides in the shell and he carries both the shell and the character off.
Averted in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Averted in The Get Along Gang.
Sheldon the turtle in Family Guy. Stewie says that his skinny body looks like 'a nude Larry David'.
In Mike, Lu & Og, one of the misfortunes that Lu's pet turtle Lancelot frequently suffered was losing his shell.
On My Friends Tigger & Pooh, Turtle has this and when he and Rabbit re-create the historic race between their grandparents, ala The Tortoise and the Hare, he removes it and gains a great boost in speed, becoming about the same speed as Rabbit. In the end, after they both end up calling the Super Sleuths to help the other, they end the race in a tie... just as their grandparents did.
The hermit crab. It's quite an oddball in that it's the only arthropod that uses a calcified shell for protection. Except, it doesn't produce its own, it simply looks for an abandoned gastropod shell. As it grows, it needs to look for bigger and bigger shells to accommodate. Quite hilariously, they also use manmade rubbish - like plastic bottlecaps, for instance. This is not a great thing for them, given that their bodies are adapted for using old gastropod shells and not plastic bottlecaps or old soda cans- using human garbage can injure them or leave them vulnerable to predators.
The Turtle's shell is the last part of the reptile's body to deteriorate.
Sadly, this trope is responsible for an awful lot of badly-injured turtles turning up at vet clinics and wildlife rehab centers, after ignorant people's attempts to 'take off' their shells to see what they look like without them. Answer: They look dead without them. (To clarify: there is no skin under the shell, only muscles, viscera, bones, fat and blood)
Myobatrachus gouldii, aka 'the tortoise frog' is an Australian frog which looks exactly like a turtle without shell, hence its nickname.