Deadly Towers

Deadly Towers
Also known as: Mashou (JP) Developers: Tamtex, Lenar Publishers: Irem (JP), Brøderbund (US) Platform: NES Released in JP: December 15, 1986 Released in US: September 1987 This game has a hidden developer message. This game has hidden developer credits. This game has debugging material. This game has regional differences. This game has a Data Crystal page

Fatal high-rises. Ominous obelisks. Deadly Towers.

Debug Screens

Several debugging tools can be activated via the Family BASIC keyboard. Hold A + B on Controller 1 along with one of the following keys, then reset the console:

M - Monitor adjust

C - Color adjust

L - CRC test

T - Timer

S - Sound check

@ - CHR RAM test

ESC - Reset

Any button except A or B will reset the game. Holding Start or Select will skip the title screen and jump to the password screen.

Monitor Adjust

A simple crosshatch screen.

Color Adjust

Fills the screen with a red, blue, green, and white gradient.

CRC Test

Displays a black screen while it calculates a checksum of every bank. After a few seconds, displays them and as well as the checksum of all four, along with "NO ERROR COMPLETED".

Notably, the "no error" text is written to the screen first, before any checksum is calculated. It will always be displayed (unless the game somehow crashes during checksum calculation).

Timer

Displays a simple timer. Press A to start the timer, A again to reset it to zero, or B to stop it. The code has a bug: the hundreds digit of the timer does not advance (it wraps from 099 to 000). Game Genie code PASATKAE (JP) will fix this (if you're willing to wait over an hour and a half).

Sound Check

You might think there's a sound test here, but sadly that isn't the case: the code simply writes the string "SOUND CHECK" to the screen and goes into an infinite loop.

CHR RAM Test

Tests the game's CHR RAM by filling it with a single value and reading it back, and then displays either a green (pass) or red (fail) screen. The test has a bug: it was intended to alternate between writing $5A and $A5, but reads the wrong variables and does two passes of reading and writing $00 (or $01 in the second pass, if the first pass failed). Game Genie codes AEEETZPA + AEXAYZPA (JP) restore the intended behavior.

Reset

Immediately resets the game (via an indirect JMP to the RESET vector at $FFFC), and will continue doing so until you release the buttons. May have had another function at some point in time.

(Source: CaH4e3, ReyVGM, Rachel Mae)

Secret Cheat

Restarting while holding A and B on the second controller will activate a flag (0160:03) that, when in one of the game's many single-screen dungeon rooms, will blank out the part of the screen behind the player's HP/max HP. As the sprites that display the HP are transparent and the dungeon backgrounds tend to be bright, this makes it much easier to read them.

Normal	Alternate

(Source: Original TCRF research)

Unused Text

Programmer Message

At 0x1E01F (US) or 0x1E1C3 (Japan), there's a secret message from the developers. For whatever reason, the Japanese version ends with two extra exclamation marks and has an extra space before "GOOD BYE".

DISASSEMBLE? HELLO ! THIS IS DISASSEMBLE MESSAGE FOR YOU.
THIS PROGRAM WAS MADE IN JAPAN TOKYO 10 NOV 1986 COPY RIGHT BY
IREM CORP.PROGRAMMED AND LICENSED BY LENAR SPLENDOR
TEAM GOOD BYE !

Unknown

An odd bit of text is at 0x1E1B0 in the Japanese version, after the line "PEACE WILL PROSPER IN FUTURE". Its location suggests it was supposed to appear somewhere in the ending.

      HOW WAS IT ?

Regional Differences

The list of room names was cleaned up for the American release.

Japan	US
COLD KILLERS ROOM GRAT BURNS ROOM BEAT PLANTS ROOM WHEELERS ROOM CENTIPEDES ROOM GRAT WINGS ROOM DEATH BEARS ROOM	COLD KILLER'S ROOM GREAT BURN'S ROOM BEAT PLANT'S ROOM WHEELER'S ROOM CENTIPEDE'S ROOM GREAT WINGS'S ROOM DEATH BEAR'S ROOM

The ending message was changed slightly in the US version to correct a grammatical error.

Japan	US
HE SUCCEEDED TO THE THRONE AND PEACE WILL PROSPER IN FUTURE	HE SUCCEEDED TO THE THRONE AND PEACE WILL PROSPER IN THE FUTURE