Arkanoid (Arcade)

Arkanoid
Developer: Taito Publishers: Taito Corporation (JP), Taito Corporation Japan (EU/AS/AU/KR/HK/TW/CN), Romstar (US) Platform: Arcade (custom) Released in JP: July 1986 Released in US: August 1986 Released in EU: November 1986 Released in AU: 1986 Released in KR: 1987 Released in CN: 1986 Released in HK: 1986 Released in TW: 1986 Released in AS: 1986 This game has unused areas. This game has hidden developer credits. This game has hidden development-related text. This game has debugging material.

The mothership Arkanoid was attacked by unknown forces. The spacecraft "Vaus", armed only with an elastic orb and rubbery armor, must destroy rectangular tiles and battle against Homer Simpson's catchphrase.

Stage Editor

This needs some investigation. Discuss ideas and findings on the talk page. Specifically: There's probably a better way to access this. Also, is it possible to actually save stages?

A half-functioning stage editor can be accessed by putting the following cheat in MAME's arkanoid.xml cheat file:

  <cheat desc="Edit Mode">
    <script state="on">
      <action>temp0 =maincpu.mw@0338</action>
    </script>
    <script state="run">
      <action>maincpu.mw@0338=8082</action>
    </script>
    <script state="off">
      <action>maincpu.mw@0338=temp0</action>
    </script>
  </cheat>

This will bring up the level editor after starting a new game. Notes:

• With this method, the joystick can't actually be used to select blocks. Only the next block in the level can be selected.
• After turning the cheat off, the game will freeze after Vaus respawns.

The message "CAN YOU DO BETTER ?" also appears on the high score screen of N.Y. Captor, an earlier Taito game.

(Source: Original TCRF research)

Staff Credits

A set of staff credits (with pictures!) is still in the game, but it's normally inaccessible. There's no place to access it in the World board set, but it is accessible in the newer Japanese set with level select.

Put the following cheat in MAME's arkanoidja.xml cheat file. This will replace the Export warning with the credits.

  <cheat desc="Team Credits">
    <script state="run">
      <action condition="(maincpu.pb@c677==88)">maincpu.pb@c675=40</action>
    </script>
  </cheat>

(Source: Original TCRF research)

Also present in a75__06.ic14 (the MCU internal ROM) at 0x3CC is this string.

Wed,  4 Jun 1986, 16:34 Programmed By Yasu.

Unused Round

There's one unused round in the game. It's coded as Round 33, which is used for the Doh fight in the final game. This might have been used as a backup, just in case Doh failed to spawn for some reason, or before the game was made to have a boss. The easiest way to access this round is to go to Round 192 through using cheats to always have the exit door open.

Here's the arkanoid.xml code. Just beat Round 01 to get there:

  <cheat desc="Broken Heart">
    <script state="run">
      <action>maincpu.pb@ED72=9F</action>
    </script>
  </cheat>

(Source: Will Nicholes)

Build Date

This build string was presumably displayed on the title screen when the game was still in development. The parameters for this string are defined in the main CPU at 30FD, but there's no call to actually display the text. Oh, and it's the same date in every version of the game.

This code (put in arkanoid.xml, in case that hasn't been made clear yet) will replace the "All Rights Reserved" string with the build date text.

  <cheat desc="Build Date">
    <script state="on">
      <action>temp0 =maincpu.mw@3336</action>
      <action>temp1 =maincpu.mw@3339</action>
    </script>
    <script state="run">
      <action>maincpu.mw@3336=5CA9</action>
      <action>maincpu.mw@3339=E698</action>
    </script>
    <script state="off">
      <action>maincpu.mw@3336=temp0</action>
      <action>maincpu.mw@3339=temp1</action>
    </script>
  </cheat>

(Source: Original TCRF research)

Text Testing

Just some placeholder text for the game's scrolling text. Here's the cheat for the arkanoid.xml cheat file blah blah.

  <cheat desc="Team Credits 2">
    <script state="on">
      <action>temp0 =maincpu.mw@770F</action>
      <action>temp1 =maincpu.mw@7711</action>
    </script>
    <script state="run">
      <action>maincpu.mw@770F=CD40</action>
      <action>maincpu.mw@7711=BD37</action>
    </script>
    <script state="off">
      <action>maincpu.mw@770F=temp0</action>
      <action>maincpu.mw@7711=temp1</action>
    </script>
  </cheat>

(Source: Original TCRF research)