Battle City (Game Boy)

Battle City
Developers: Nova, Namco Publisher: Nova Platform: Game Boy Released in JP: August 8, 1991 This game has a hidden developer message. This game has hidden developer credits.

A port of the NES game, which was a port of the arcade game Tank Battalion.

Hidden Text

Message

The following text is found in the ROM at 0x5946. For some reason it references Weird Al's parody of the Dire Straits song "Money for Nothing".

NAMCO TAKEYASAN NOVA DRUMMING K.ODA"WEIRD" AL YANKOVIC. MONEY FOR NOTHING

"TAKE" is credited under "GRAPHIC DESIGN" and "VS GAME DESIGN", while "DRUMMING K.ODA" is credited under "SUB PROGRAM", "MAP DESIGN", "GRAPHIC DESIGN", and "VS GAME DESIGN".

You can also find "DRUMMING K.O" hidden in the game's graphics.

Cheat Codes

Eight cheat codes that can be entered on the title screen exist. Entering a code twice will not deactivate it. Once you entered a code correctly, a jingle will sound. Each code sets a different flag in memory address $C8F2, indicated by bN in the description below.

Code	Effect
Left, Left, B, A, Up, Down, A, Right	b0 - Start with 9 lives.
Down, Up, Up, Down, Left, Right, A, B	b1 - Enable all stages.
B, A, B, B, A, B, A, A	b2 - Start with level 3 tank.
Down, Left, Up, A, Right, Right, B, Up	b3 - Options Menu when starting a new game.
Right, Up, A, Down, B, Left, A, B	b4 - Some kind of HARD mode. Increase maximum number of the active enemies on the field to 6 after level 5 (normal value is 4).
Up, Up, Down, Up, Left, Right, Right, Left	b5 - Shovel power-up will use a random block instead of block $02.
Up, B, Left, A, Right, B, Down, A	b6 - Don't require player to let go of A or B when shooting.
A, Down, A, Up, A, Right, B, Left	b7 - Show credits instead of starting game. Will not unlock all stages.

Options Menu

Option Menu with default settings.

Use code b3 from above to access this menu when starting a new game on the title screen.

"SPEED" apparently makes the game run faster. "LEFT" is the number of lives. "EXTEND" determines which of two tables is used to determine at what number of points the player is granted an additional life.

Table A	Table B
20000	20000
60000	40000
120000	80000
180000	120000
240000	160000
300000	200000
360000	240000
106800	280000
480000	320000
540000	360000
600000	400000
660000	440000
720000	480000
780000	520000
840000	560000
6168000	6168000