Secret Shinobi Minigame in Revenge of Shinobi Proto?

evilhamwizard · Sep 18, 2015

Not sure either to post this in the Reverse Engineering forum but I was doing an Active Disassembly of the Revenge of Shinobi prototype that was accidentally included in the Sega Smash Pack release and discovered something really bizarre that I can't find any information on.

I did a complete run through with the entire game to see what data wasn't accessible in game and came upon one subroutine that was never touched that's included in the game's main loop. At first I thought it was some credits sequence that was half implemented but just never called. Turns out I couldn't be further from the truth:

A very simple Shinobi minigame! It's just one screen, no points, enemies, sound, etc. The only thing you can do is jump around. Pressing start goes back to the Sega screen.

I'm not used to creating Game Genie codes, but as far as using a debugger goes, here's how to access it in Exodus:

1.) Set a break point at 0000026A
2.) (re)Start the game and hit the break point.
3.) Open up the Register window and change the value in A1 to 0000F32E
4.) Step and resume the game and enjoy!

I recall a similar kind of "game within a game" easter egg in Arnold Palmer Tournament Golf. I checked REV00 and there isn't any reference to this anywhere in the ROM, afaik.

Icewarrior · Sep 18, 2015

Revenge of Shinobi is one of my most fav Megadrive games and that's quite a funny find!
The stage design style is also very different from the main game, like more detailed or something that'd actually come from Shinobi III.

Black Squirrel · Sep 18, 2015

I put the Arnold Palmer one on the wiki many months ago - it's not much to write home about tbh.

But this is perhaps more interesting because it was axed - maybe it's a really early test routine before they started working on the game proper? Revenge of Shinobi is a pretty early Mega Drive release so it's not outside the realms of possibility.

evilhamwizard · Sep 19, 2015

Maybe. The prototype doesn't seem to have anything coded for the staff credits, cutscenes, etc. The branch to the mini game in the main loop is one of the last listed, which is interesting. Besides the mini game, there seems to be quite a bit that the game doesn't touch on that's included in the rom. You can download the .idc script I generated with Exodus here if you want to take a look.

I did a little bit of research of who might've worked on the game to see if maybe perhaps the programmers left similar things in other games. I noticed that Matsuhide Mizoguchi worked on Shinobi and Arnold Palmer Golf, and even Sonic CD (which also had its share of hidden goodies). I'll check out his other games and see if there's anything interesting in them.

Phugolz · Sep 19, 2015

needs patch

ICEknight · Sep 19, 2015

Oh my god, awesome find!

Also, what Phugolz said.

evilhamwizard · Sep 20, 2015

Here you go.

You may have to enable fix checksums to play. It'll load up after the Sega logo.

ICEknight · Sep 20, 2015

Thank you very much!

Wow, that's as basic as it gets, although the lava animation looks pretty cool.

EDIT: Hey guys, there's more than meets the eye! Look at this guy with the creepy back!

Also, a... baseball?

...Or a golden projectile of some sort, depending on the palette:

EDIT 2: Those columns are a fine example of graphics made with the usual color blending in mind, by the way:

rata · Sep 20, 2015

If you can share that cute shinobi's art file I can attempt to put it in Sonic 1, as I think it has similar size.

ookamikaze · Sep 20, 2015

ICEknight said:

Thank you very much!

Wow, that's as basic as it gets, although the lava animation looks pretty cool.

EDIT: Hey guys, there's more than meets the eye! Look at this guy with the creepy back!

Also, a... baseball?

My guess: Random panels in the background would have "come to life" as sprites and the player would have to hit them with those projectiles, losing the game whenever he hit any of them while in their skull form. The lava could have acted as a timer.

EDIT 2: Those columns are a fine example of graphics made with the usual color blending in mind, by the way:

Click to expand...

Cool! It's a SD/Chibi (Super Deformed) version from Super Shinobi and the boss of the 3rd stage of Shinobi 1 (Arcade), Mandala. :D

ICEknight · Sep 20, 2015

Oh, I hadn't noticed that the screen layout itself is also similar to Shinobi's Mandara boss, only with lava rather than an electric field.

So this may have played similarly to the actual infamously difficult boss battle, after all.

ookamikaze · Sep 20, 2015

I noticed one thing in this Minigame: About the Mandala statues, has statues that appear to be 3 Ultramen:

- Ultraseven
- Ultraman Father
- Ultraman Mother

ICEknight · Sep 20, 2015

ookamikaze said:

I noticed one thing in this Minigame: About the Mandala statues, has statues that appear to be 3 Ultramen
Click to expand...

Good eye! Man, these guys sure loved parodying stuff.

For reference:

ookamikaze · Sep 21, 2015

Does the Revenge of Shinobi/Super Shinobi (Final Version - all Revised Versions), is there anything that minigame?

ICEknight · Sep 21, 2015

ookamikaze said:

Does the Revenge of Shinobi/Super Shinobi (Final Version - all Revised Versions), is there anything that minigame?
Click to expand...

evilhamwizard said:

I checked REV00 and there isn't any reference to this anywhere in the ROM, afaik.
Click to expand...

That means the first final ROM.

EDIT: This makes me think about the possibilities of other known early prototypes hiding unexpected "game modes" like this one here.

For example, the World of Illusion prototype houses some unused HUD and dialogue graphics seemingly intended for a Quackshot (Donald-only) sequel... Perhaps there's also more to it?

ookamikaze · Sep 22, 2015

A few months ago, researching the Shinobi 1 from Arcade, I noticed that the Flyer has Beta images:

http://flyers.arcade-museum.com/?page=flyer&db=videodb&id=6350&image=1

- The Blue Details on Joe Musashi's uniform are Red in these images;
- An unused enemy, a red beret soldier with machine gun;
- The boss gauge is different: it says "Boss Damage";
- The houses in the Black Turtle's background (Mission 2 Boss) are with brown colors, different from the final version which is gray colors.

Someone could make a Active Disassembly in all existing roms (all Sets) from game to see if it has any hidden content, for example, the unused enemy. :D

PS: A Active Disassembly also in the Master System version: Perhaps the Ending Screen can be hidden somewhere (Is it the same as the NES/Famicom version? Because the two versions are similar)... />/>

evilhamwizard · Feb 13, 2016

I might make a new thread for Shinobi 3 if I find more cool things about it. I don't know where else to post it since it's very small and I don't feel like making a new thread about it. But I found something weird in the earliest prototype:

If you wait 216000 frames (which equates to 1 hour exactly I think), this happens. What happens is that the game (while in a level) constantly subtracts from FFFF0134 until it's 0. When it's zero, it loads the address to the routine that does all of this to FFFF00D8 at 0x179CC and branches. The actual subroutine that does this is located at 179E4. Nothing animates on the screen while this is happening. The effect goes away as soon as you move.

redhotsonic · Feb 13, 2016

That's a pretty sweet find. I wonder what it use was for?

Mastered Realm · Feb 15, 2016

I guess this was a fade out routine (for level change or something)?

ICEknight · Feb 15, 2016

Damn, I have a feeling that I've seen that effect as a fade out routine somewhere...

But it's strange that it only affects the "empty" tile, so it may just be a test routine with a timer they forgot to remove.

Secret Shinobi Minigame in Revenge of Shinobi Proto?

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