Zombies Ate My Neighbors (Genesis)

Zombies are the least of your worries: Vampires, mermen, blobs, chainsaw-wielding crazies, and yes, spiders, are some of the more terrifying creatures that will also try to off your neighbors.

This neighborhood sucks.

Error Handler


Exclusive to this version of the game is a basic error handler. Handy! Use the Game Genie code ABTA-B92C to trigger a 68000 Error in the demo.

The complete list of error traps starts at in the ROM. 68000 Bus error! Odd address error! Illegal instruction error! Divide by zero error! CHK instruction TRAPV instruction Privileged instruction error! Unexpected 68000 error! Reserved exception error! Error in normal task allocation! Error in VBL task allocation! Illegal sprite frame definition! Error in object allocation! Wrong task to deallocate object! Invalid object to deallocate Error in add_pickup_item! Error in clear_disable_table! No more RAM matrices available! Bad generator to disable! Stack overflow! Task did not deallocate object! Sprite update list overflow! Map update list overflow! Character update list overflow! Backobj update list overflow! Odd map address error! Zero direction usage error!

Unused & Dummied Out Items
A few items and one weapon are unused, though unfortunately there's nothing unique about them besides their graphics. The Game Genie codes replace Player 1's starting weapon.

Banana


Game Genie code: KB2T-AAB6

The banana is functionally identical to the popsicle weapon, and uses the same graphics. In the Sega Genesis version, only the item's pick-up item remain. The SNES version contains graphics for the actual weapon and its HUD icon, but they were cleaned out of this version.

Paint Can


This paint can is used in the SNES version, albeit obscured from the player's vision, and acts as the flamethrower weapon's pick-up object. There's no flamethrower weapon in the Genesis version, so its appearance here is even more confusing.

Yellow Potion


Game Genie code: MK2T-AACJ

This is identical to the random potion. It's missing the question mark on the flask, but that's about it.

Miscellaneous
Items and  point to the functionless Grey Potion and Machine respectively, at least in the SNES version. In the Genesis game, they don't even have any graphics in the ROM. So in this version, they're just blank entries with no icons and no purpose. Exciting!

Unused Level Bonus
This text appears in the ROM at address : While partially coded in, this bonus was never finished. It would grant 1000 points when a certain number of Blob monsters are destroyed. The Blob monsters can only be destroyed with cold weapons.

Unused Music
Zombies Ate My Neighbors contains one unused music track, interestingly, it's actually different from the SNES' unused track, and takes up a different slot! It's track, which points to nothing in the SNES version.

Regional Differences
The Chainsaw Maniac enemy was redesigned into an equally insane Canadian lumberjack in the European version. Surprisingly, it made the transition rather well, behaving identically in both versions. Some related sound effects and text (such as stage names and a bonus related to it) were modified accordingly. (e.g. the "Chainsaw Begone Bonus" became "Axeman Begone Bonus".) This may have been done to prevent comparisons with Leatherface from The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, which was banned in England, West Germany, and other European countries.