From The Cutting Room Floor

Takahashi Meijin no Bouken Shima IV
Developer: Now Production Publisher: Hudson Platform: NES Released in JP: June 24, 1994 This game has debugging material. This game has a hidden sound test. This game has a hidden level select.

Takahashi Meijin no Bouken Shima IV is a Famicom (NES) game by Hudson Soft, never released outside of Japan. This entry in the series takes a much different, non-linear approach compared to the previous three titles, requiring you to seek out various items and abilities in order to access new areas. It also does away with the old "hunger meter," opting to use a standard life bar instead (and there was much rejoicing).

Test Mode

The game contains a debug menu very similar to that of Hudson's Adventure Island II. To activate it, use the Game Genie code GYSXPPEK (or change ROM address 18169 to 7C), then choose PASSWORD on the title screen.

The menu options are pretty straightforward. The two DEMO options allow you to record and play back your own demo, like the one shown after the title screen, although it's erased when you unload the ROM (unless you set the "battery-backed SRAM" bit in the ROM header).

Unused Debug Text

Beginning at ROM address 3AB1E is a series of unused text strings:

OPENING
ADVENTURE ISLAND 4
START--MAIN
SELECT-TEST
VER 
10-18
PRINT TEST DATA 80
PRINT TEST DATA 81

Presumably, OPENING would have been displayed in place of the game's intro during development, while ADVENTURE ISLAND 4, START--MAIN, SELECT-TEST would have been displayed in place of the title screen. The two PRINT TEST DATA strings are a complete mystery.

Interestingly enough, 10-18 is actually written to the bottom-right corner of the screen shortly after reset, but is immediately overwritten with the intro background. This is the only time the text drawing routine associated with these strings is ever called!

The Adventure Island series
NES	Adventure Island II • Adventure Island III • Takahashi Meijin no Bouken Shima IV
Game Boy	Adventure Island • Adventure Island II
SNES	Super Adventure Island • Super Adventure Island II (Prototype)