Front Mission: Gun Hazard

Front Mission: Gun Hazard
Developer: Omiya Soft Publisher: Square Platform: SNES Released in JP: February 23, 1996 This game has hidden development-related text. This game has unused music. This game has debugging material. This game has a hidden sound test. This game has a hidden level select. This game has anti-piracy features.

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Oh dear, I do believe I have the vapors. This page contains content that is not safe for work or other locations with the potential for personal embarrassment. Such as: Quite vulgar, racist language in sound samples.

Front Mission: Gun Hazard is a side-scrolling platformer/shooter spin-off of Front Mission, a series of tactical RPGs about robots.

Hidden Voice Sample

A partial recording of a vulgar diatribe is present in the ROM. This is sampled from a phone call by a member of UK neo-nazi terrorist organization Combat 18, likely taken from the song "Dog Tribe" by Fun-Da-Mental. Its full transcript (bolded segment only included in-game):

The BNP's got your card marked, you bastards. We're gonna burn your building down, you fuckheads. C18's watching you, you communist, nigger-loving, Paki cunts. Fucking dickheads, we're gonna hang you for burning the British flag. You'll hang from every fucking flagpole in Britain for burning the Union Jack, you bastards.

The sample is used very quietly and covertly just after the end credits.

Sample	In-game appearance

(Source: Gideon Zhi)

Debug Mode

To do: Check the difference between selecting "AMAP/BMAP DEB" and the regular "AMAP/BMAP" on the scene menu.

Start the game with Pro Action Replay code C002EDF1 active to access this debug menu, which allows you to customize a wanzer, jump to a specific stage, etc. Data can also be loaded/saved from/to a saved game, which makes this function as something of a save editor.

Selecting "BEGINNING" or "CONTINUE" from the scene menu lets you start or continue the game, respectively.

Test Stages

Included in the stage list are three different test stages. TEST-0 and TEST-2 leads into a simple map with a few slopes but an incomplete tileset and a background with the wrong palette. TEST-2 contains no objects, while TEST-0 contains Bolsai.

TEST-1 appears to be a copy of a stage in the game where the player spawns at the end of the level. There are no other objects present in the stage.

Sound Test

Select "MUSIC" from the scene menu to access a basic sound/music test. Press Y to play the selected music track or sound effect and Start to return to the debug menu.

Unused Music

A few unused songs that were found in the aforementioned sound test menu, never heard anywhere in the game.

ID: 0C

ID: 32

ID: 4C

ID: 54

(Source: Original TCRF research)

Developer Text

At 0x25375 is this string that is written to the start of SRAM as a verification check. If there is a mismatch in the SRAM, all save data is erased.

-- GUN HAZARD --

The Multitap debug information is included starting at 0x296CF5 despite the game not supporting the peripheral in the first place.

START OF MULTI5 CONNECT CHECK
MODIFIED FROM SHVC MULTI5 CONNECT CHECK Ver1.00
END OF MULTI5 CONNECT CHECKSTART OF MULTI5 BIOS
MODIFIED FROM SHVC MULTI5 BIOS Ver2.10
END OF MULTI5 BIOS

(Source: Original TCRF research)

Error Messages

Anti-Piracy

After the Square Soft logo, the game checks to ensure that the game's ROM header is not tampered from a specified checksum. This includes ensuring that there's exactly 8KB of SRAM on the game's cartridge. If this check fails, the game fades in on this message and hangs.

Region Error

Attempting to play the game on a PAL console will lock up the game here. Since the game never left Japan, the wording on this screen comes off as a bit awkward.