Dead Angle (Arcade)

Dead Angle
Also known as: Lead Angle (JP), Gang Hunter (SP) Developer: Seibu Kaihatsu Publishers: Seibu Kaihatsu (JP), Tecmo (JP), Fabtek (US), Electrocoin (EU), SegaSA (SP), Sonic (SP) Platform: Arcade (Custom) Released in JP: July 1988 Released in US: May 1988 Released in EU: May 1988 This game has hidden development-related text. This game has unused graphics. This game has unused text. This game has debugging material. This game has a hidden sound test. This game has regional differences. This game has revisional differences.

Dead Angle is a shooting gallery game with gangsters and gangster accessories. It is a follow-up to Seibu's earlier hit title Empire City: 1931.

To do: Regional Differences Revisional Differences According to this spreadsheet, the ACA release changed the healing item from a red cross to a heart.

Memory Debug

Dead Angle has a rather unwieldy RAM viewer that's not referenced anywhere in the code. Place this code in MAME's deadang.xml cheat file and enable it. The menu should pop up before the title screen.

  <cheat desc="Memory Debug">
    <script state="run">
      <action>maincpu.mw@F2952=9FE8</action>
      <action>maincpu.mw@F2954=6A48</action>
    </script>
    <script state="off">
      <action>maincpu.mw@F2952=9DE8</action>
      <action>maincpu.mw@F2954=6A43</action>
    </script>
  </cheat>

Press 2P Start to bring up an address select. Press 1P Left/Right to switch between RAM digits, 1P Up/Down to change the current RAM digit, and 1P Button 1 to go to that address. Be aware that there is an extremely specific window for button inputs, so you'll most likely have to mash whatever button you want for it to actually register.

Developer Text

The following text is found at 0x01324 in the audio CPU:

START UP PROGRAM V1.02 (C)1986 SEIBU KAIHATSU INC.

Sound Test

The service menu has a sound test, but it's disabled by default. Press 1P Start + 1P Up/Down to toggle between sound test mode and input test mode.

Taito Publishing

Seibu Kaihatsu	Taito (Unused)

RAM address 0xFFFFD controls the game's publisher information, but it's always set to FF. If set to 01, the publisher will change from Seibu Kaihatsu to Taito, which licensed four of Seibu Kaihatsu's earlier games. Seibu Kaihatsu started to self-publish most of their games in 1988.

Place this cheat in deadang.xml or leadang.xml to switch between publishers.

  <cheat desc="Publisher">
    <parameter>
      <item value="0x00">Seibu</item>
      <item value="0x01">Taito</item>
    </parameter>
    <script state="run">
      <action>maincpu.mb@FFFFD=param</action>
    </script>
  </cheat>

Language Anomalies

RAM address 0xFFFFB controls what language the game's text is in; FF is Japanese, 01 is English. This works as it should, but interestingly enough, if that address in the Lead Angle board is set to 01, the title of the game will also switch from Lead Angle to Dead Angle! Note that in the Dead Angle ROM set, the title is always "Dead Angle" regardless of the value of 0xFFFFB.

Place this code in deadang.xml or leadang.xml to switch between languages.

  <cheat desc="Language">
    <parameter>
      <item value="0x01">English</item>
      <item value="0xFF">Japanese</item>
    </parameter>
    <script state="run">
      <action>maincpu.mb@FFFFB=param</action>
    </script>
  </cheat>

(Source: Original TCRF research)

Version Differences

To do: Expand this section.

Title Screen

Lead Angle (Japan)	Dead Angle	Gang Hunter/Dead Angle	Gang Hunter/Dead Angle (Spain)

Both of the Gang Hunter sets have a dipswitch that allows you to switch the title between Gang Hunter and Dead Angle.