Alien 3 (NES)

Alien 3
Developer: Probe Software Publisher: LJN Platform: NES Released in US: March 1993 Released in EU: 1993 This game has hidden developer credits. This game has hidden development-related text. This game has a hidden level select.

A game based on the movie of the same name and loosely based on the other Alien 3 games by Probe.

To do: unused graphics: detailed prisoners death animation with more worms, a lot of unused enemy graphics (check if they are the same), two unused player anim phases, completely unused CHR data for missing cutscene screen at bank $6C

Hidden Text

There is a hidden copyright message at the beginning of the ROM at 0x00010:

ALIEN3...NINTENDO ENTERTAINMENT SYSTEM.PROGRAMMED BY DARYL BOWERS FOR PROBE SOFTWARE.CHECKSUM FOR ROMS:

There are no checksum checks in the ROM in any form. The routine to display the string was likely removed from the final version.

More unused text stored near the main game menu text and data may be found at 0x14766: "High Scores" and "ONE TWO". Most likely it was planned to be used in a "High Scores" table screen, which doesn't exist in the game.

There are two different level types in the final version: "MISSION" and "GUARDIAN", which stands for regular levels and boss levels accordingly. But the level type names list contains two more strings, unused in the final version, stored at 0x1497C: "MAYHEM" and "RESCUE".

It is also interesting to note that there is no Daryl Bowers listed in the game's credits, and instead, the programmer being credited as Squidgy, which strongly suggests the name is his pseudonym.

Level Skip

Pause the game and press Left, Right, Up, Down, Left, Right, A, B, A, B to skip to the next level.