Bionic Commando (Arcade)

The predecessor to the NES game, without a world map or equipment or Hitler's exploding head.

Unused Music
Three pieces of music are unused. Tracks and  are short, non-looping tracks, while  is a bit longer and loops.

Level Tiles


A circular gate that would have appeared in the rocky part of Stage 2.



A vertical version of the horizontal girders seen in Stage 2.



Should have been used for the top of the girders in the second half of the level. They're not.

Unused Sounds
Here are some unused sounds. Sound is special: It tests the game's sound engine.

Good luck determining what the other 8-bit sounds were used for. Beep boop.

Programmer Credits
Two programmer names can be found at in memory:

Title Screen
In addition to the different title, Bionic Commando is missing the bonus life information that's in Top Secret.

Display Changes
This was corrected in Bionic Commando. In Bionic Commando, a number was added to properly indicate whether Player 1 or Player 2 was up.
 * Top Secret's HUD does not display the default weapon's icon at the beginning of a stage.
 * In Top Secret, the current player isn't displayed in the HUD.

In Bionic Commando, Player 2 uses a different, red palette, making it easier to tell which player is, uh, playing.
 * Here's a nice change. In Top Secret, both players use the same palette.

Gameplay Differences
In Bionic Commando, the player keeps whatever gun they had in the previous stage. In Bionic Commando, pressing Button 2 while grabbing from an angle will instantly pull the player up. Button 2 does not need to be pressed twice. In Bionic Commando, they can only drop one bomb on each pass and they give up after about 12 passes. This is no longer possible in Bionic Commando, where they can only be shot.
 * In Top Secret, the player's gun reverts to the default one at the start of every stage.
 * The Clear Bonus and Time Bonus take twice as long to display in Top Secret.
 * In Top Secret, when grabbing a ledge from an angle, there's no difference between pressing Button 2 and Left/Right: The player will start swinging.
 * The Helicopter enemies in Top Secret are much more vicious. They can drop multiple bombs on each pass and they will never stop following the player.
 * The Gate Controls in Stage 3+4 can be destroyed with the bionic arm in Top Secret.

Score Changes
Some enemies give more points in Bionic Commando. Some enemies in Top Secret don't give any points at all!

Additionally, every bonus item in Top Secret gives 100 points. This was adjusted in Bionic Commando so that all bonus items have their own point value.

Bug Fixes
In Bionic Commando, the player will fall backwards if they hit a wall while swinging. This was changed in Bionic Commando to act like every other enemy.
 * In Top Secret, it's possible to swing through walls with the bionic arm.
 * The Gremlin enemies in Top Secret are pulled in instead of pushed away when hit with the Bionic Arm.

Stage 4
A handful of bug fixes in this stage.

This was fixed in Bionic Commando.
 * In Top Secret, using the bionic arm on the lift platform is buggy. It stays in the place where you fired it, making it misaligned with the player as they go up.


 * The elevator's starting position was raised in Bionic Commando so that it's properly aligned with the platform at the end.

Stage 5
A good amount of changes in this level's difficulty, as well as a few bug fixes.

This was changed to a single Helicopter in Bionic Commando. These were removed completely from Bionic Commando. In Top Secret, there's no screen lock, so if the player is fast enough, they can beat the level without stopping the missile!
 * In the missile section, two Helicopter Soldiers will spawn halfway through the chamber in Top Secret.
 * Right before the missile core, two more Helicopter Soldiers spawn in Top Secret.
 * In Bionic Commando, the screen locks at the missile core.
 * Two Flamethrower Soldiers were added to the exit of the lift area in Bionic Commando.

In Bionic Commando, the left bound of the screen locks. In Bionic Commando, one of those two Captains was moved to the platform where the General walks.
 * The position of the General's platform is misaligned in Top Secret.
 * The last area of the game has no screen lock in Top Secret.
 * In Top Secret, the two of the three Captains at the end of the stage are placed on the lower floor.

Ending
No apostrophe in Top Secret's version of the ending.

Top Secret's English font actually doesn't have an apostrophe, so one was added in Bionic Commando just to fix this error.