Mega Man: The Power Battle

From The Cutting Room Floor

Wherein Dr. Wily just gives up on the whole "themed levels" thing and sends Robot Masters after Mega Man.

Subpages

Unused Animations Graphics drawn for the game as well as those carried over from other titles were left in the final release.

Enemies

This game was supposed to have enemies (like the ones in Mega Man 2: The Power Fighters). They aren't used, but their graphics are still in the ROM. Their palettes are still in the ROM in slots 16-18. Different palettes are loaded in each game mode.

General

Properide
Palette ID: 18
Possible Boss: Unknown

Unused in The Power Fighters

Mega Man 1-2

DeluPipi
Palette ID: 17
Possible Boss: Unknown

Used by Air Man in The Power Fighters.

Mettaur
Palette ID: 16
Possible Boss: Guts Man

Used by Guts Man in The Power Fighters.

Mega Man 3-6

Kaminari Kogoro
Palette ID: 16
Possible Boss: Gyro Man

Used by Elec Man in The Power Fighters.

Kerone
Palette ID: 17
Possible Boss: Plant Man

Used by Stone Man & Shadow Man in The Power Fighters.

Mega Man 7

Petaforce
Palette ID: 16
Possible Boss: Cloud Man

Used by Cut Man & Gemini Man in The Power Fighters.

Turbo Roader
Palette ID: 17
Possible Boss: Turbo Man

Unused in The Power Fighters

Unused Abilities

Super Shots

The supercharged buster shots are present in the ROM, but they only show up during the high score screens. They appear properly in The Power Fighters. They can also be seen by changing RAM address FF8435 to 04.

CPS1
CPS2

Their respective sound effects are still in the game.

Helpers

Each of the playable characters has an unused "helper" weapon. These were later implemented in The Power Fighter, though these icons were not. There are also three temp icons (Rush, Beat, Gospel) that don't seem to have palettes anymore: These are the best matches available.

Rush

Rush seems to have functioned identically to his appearance in the second arcade game, though no walking sprites are present in the ROM. His Rush Jet sprite is also slightly different.

Beat

Beat's sprite was completely redrawn for The Power Fighter. Here, it's directly based off of his appearance in Mega Man 7. The panicked animation can only be found in this game.

Treble

Treble is by far the most complicated of the three helper characters. He has a large amount of different animations and frames.

Fortunately, almost all of Treble's animations were used in The Power Fighters. However, this second jumping animation was not.

The flames around Treble have three animations here, but only two frames in the second game.

The last set of frames. The second one doesn't appear in The Power Fighters, and suggests that it was possible for Treble to take damage.

An alternate projectile from Treble. The shots in The Power Fighters are more detailed.

Unused Enemy Attacks

PAR codes can be used to force the AI into using attacks that are part of certain character arsenals but aren't enabled in their routines.

Cut Man

afterimages	Rolling Cutters

Use PAR code FFDA05 to set the first RAM address to 10 and PAR code FFDA06 to set the second to 00 to see this attack. This causes Cutman to jump in the air leaving a trail of afterimages and eventually attack Mega Man by firing 8(!) Rolling Cutters at once.

Wily Saucer

The Wily Saucer has 5 attacks, none of which are used! The final version has no real attacks; just moving up and down.

Use PAR code FFD905 to set the RAM address to the given action ID and code FFD906 to 00 to see these attacks.

Action ID: 0C
An electric bungee cord is spawned. After rotating counterclockwise two times the cord is fired at the player. It's likely that the second saucer is supposed to be connected to the other side of the cord, but the shuttle just moves up and down instead.

Action ID: 08
Wily teleports to one side of the screen then fires an electrical bolt dragged under his ship as he sweeps the screen.

energy ball	bouncy energy ball

Action ID: 06
Dr. Wily fires a large energy ball. This ball bounces across the screen, disappearing on the second bounce.

Action ID: 04
Three small energy balls are fired at the player.

Unused Items

There are no items in the final version, though it's apparent that some were planned to be implemented.

Energy Capsules

Standard energy pick-ups that appear in most Mega Man games. Not this one, though.

Weapon Capsules

And here are weapon pick-ups. In the game's current format, these are pretty pointless, as weapons are refilled after stages.

Miscellaneous

Other power-ups: An Energy Tank (no appropriate palette exists in the ROM), a Weapon Tank, and...a large bolt? The first two have obvious purposes, but bolts are usually used as currency in Mega Man games. Perhaps this game once had a shop?

A green orb, similar to the pink health bonuses given at the end of a stage. Either this would be a weapon pickup (made redundant, since weapons are filled up at the end of a stage anyway), or a larger health bonus.

Other Unused Graphics

Text graphics for unused Enemy and Capsule bonuses. Obviously related to the unused enemies and item pickups found in the game.

Should appear above the weapon meter, but doesn't.

The top of this machine in the Wily Fortress is technically used, but it's always out of view.

Unused Music

CPS1
CPS2

Only 18 seconds of this 38 second song are heard in normal play, and it never loops. If the more complicated Dr. Wily battle was implemented, this song might have been heard in its entirety.

Unused Tilesets

Six tilesets are left unused in the game. All six are in a simpler, flat style, as opposed to the slightly overhead perspective that the final tilesets use. They also include ladders, which don't appear anywhere in the final game.

The palettes for these sets are used, however.

City #1

Palette ID: 50, City stages.

City #2

Palette ID: 45, City stages.

Cloud Stage

Palette ID: 47, Cloud stages.

Arctic

Palette ID: 52, Arctic stages.

Woods

Palette ID: 51, Forest stages.

Fortress

Palette ID: 4F, Wily Fortress.

Unused Palettes

Palettes exist for this background for all story paths. However, it's only seen in the Mega Man 3-6 path.

Miscellaneous Unused Content

Set FF8103 and FF8107 to 0C after selecting a stage. The cursor will appear where the Wily fortress is, something that never happens in the final game.

Though the level name is taken from the Junk-type level of the current path, a mini Yellow Devil does show up in the intro.

Debug Content

Tile Viewers

Object / BG Viewers can be accessed from the Test Menu. These were likely selectable normally in older builds of the game and were disabled before release. They can be enabled by setting their values in RAM using the PAR code FF0CD0, plus the values for each in the gallery below, to the given value to access each viewer.

Controls
P1 Up/Down: Scroll through tiles.
P1 Left/Right: Change palette.
P1 Button 1: Increase scroll speed.
P1 Button 2: Increase scroll speed more (when used with Button 1)
P1 Button 3: Toggles narrow/wide tile viewing
P2 Left/Right: Change Stage number.
P2 Button 1: Toggle H-Flip.
P2 Button 2: Toggle V-Flip.
P2 Button 3: Change background color.

Object Test (0E)

Scroll1 Test (0F)

Scroll2 Test (10)

Scroll3 Test (11)

Subtest Menu

A hidden test menu is still in the game. While in the normal test menu, change RAM address FF8001 to 08.

All of the ??? options (and Exit) lead to the default test menu.

Obj Test

Presumably an object test, but unfortunately, none of the variables can be changed. It appears to have been completely dummied out.

SCR Block Tests

SCR2 Block Test

SCR3 Block Test

Viewers for the game's SCR2 / SCR3 chunks.

Controls
Up/Down: Change Block Number.
Left/Right: Change Stage Number.
Button 1 + Left/Right: Change X position (fast)
Button 1 + Up/Down: Change Y position (fast)
Button 2 + Left/Right: Change X position (slow)
Button 2 + Up/Down: Change Y position (slow)
Button 3 + Left/Right: Change Round Number.
Button 1 + Button 3 + Left/Right: Modify X position by 4.
Button 1 + Button 3 + Up/Down: Modify Y position by 4.
Button 2 + Button 3 + Left/Right: Modify X position by 1.
Button 2 + Button 3 + Up/Down: Modify Y position by 1.

Error Handler

A handler for various errors is built into the game. RAM can be scrolled through with Up / Down. Pressing Button 1 will bring up the screen before the crash, and Button 2 will set the currently viewed RAM address to 00FF8300.

Address Error

Privilege Violation

1111 Emulator

Illegal Instruction

Other errors text (located at 0x007D0 in the main CPU):

BUS ERROR
ZERO DIVIDE
CHK INSTRUCTION
TRAPV INSTRUCTION
TRACE
1010 EMULATOR

Other Debug Text

Text for two earlier test menus can be found in the ROM, starting at 0067A3:

T E S T   M E N U
1 INPUT
2 OUTPUT
3 SOUND & VOICE
4 COLOR
5 DOT CROSS HATCH
6 GAME DATA
7 CONFIGURATION
8 OBJECT
9 SCROLL 1
10 SCROLL 2
11 SCROLL 3
12 MEMORY CHECK
13 EXIT

T E S T   M E N U 
1 INPUT
2 OUTPUT
3 SOUND & VOICE
4 COLOR
5 DOT CROSS HATCH
6 DIP SWITCH
7 OBJECT
8 SCROLL 1
9 SCROLL 2
10 SCROLL 3
11 MEMORY CHECK
12 EXIT
 

Revision Differences

Two programming revisions of The Power Battle exist: One for the CPS1 system, and one for CPS2. They were released simultaneously in Japan. However, since the QSound title card graphics can also be found in CPS1, it's likely that the game was developed for the CPS2 first, then ported back.

Audio

CPS1
CPS2

Though the gameplay is identical between versions, the audio quality is much better in the CPS2 version due to the inclusion of QSound.

There are also a few voice clips that are only found in the CPS2 version, such as these "Got Weapon" quotes. There are two for each character.

Certain bosses, like Guts Man, are not voiced in the CPS1 game, and some just have less dialogue (like Cut Man).

Version Differences

Title Screen

Japan	International (US Title Screen Used)

The Japanese version has a bit of animation (the gears in behind the logo) that doesn't appear in other versions.

Score Ranking

Japan	International

The Japanese game has a unique background for the Score Ranking screen. Other versions recycle the Wily Castle map background.

Get Weapon

Japan	International

The Japanese weapon acquired screen uses a different, unique background. The international versions use an animated gear background, based on the gears in the Japanese version's title screen.

Voices

The biggest difference between versions is the inclusion of many more character voices in the Japanese game. All clips involving the player / bosses actually speaking were removed from non-Japanese variants.

Sample voices.