Black Tiger (Arcade)

Black Tiger
Also known as: Black Dragon (JP) Developer: Capcom Publishers: Capcom (INT), Romstar (NA) Platform: Arcade (Commando hardware) Released internationally: August 1987 This game has hidden development-related text. This game has unused graphics. This game has unused items. This game has unused music. This game has regional differences.

Black Tiger is an action-adventure game by Capcom. It features a hero with a mace and an infinite supply of daggers.

It's also the game that introduces the ubiquitous Zenny currency that appears in many other Capcom games.

Unused Graphics

	Sundry unused characters. The characters without shading are for the Japanese font sets.
	These characters at the end of each font block are 訂 (Correct) and 完 (End).
	Eleven Kanji that would be used by the wise men that the player saves. Their possible meanings: 敵 (Enemy), 売 (Sell), 破 (Break), 毒消し (Antidote), 何 (What), 求 (Call), 薬 (Medicine), 恩 (Kindness), 青 (Blue / Green), 炎 (Flame)
	The hourglass graphic that the wise men use has sand in it. This graphic does not.
	Two unused HUD graphics: A gem, which might be an early Zenny graphic; and a dagger, which the player always has.
	Early designs for the 4 and 5 HP HUD graphics. Here, it's represented by a shield rather than a set of armor. These are the only remnants of this design. The 1, 2, and 3 HP versions were replaced by the 6, 7, and 8 HP armor. Perhaps the player once maxed out at 5 hit points?
	A large HUD graphic for a suit of armor. This might be the first design for the HP display!
	An unused fifth armor type. This is stored in ROM before the other four armor graphics. Presumably, buying this would give the player an armor with 1 HP. This was replaced in the shop by the antidote. Five sets of armor compliment the theory that the game once capped the player at 5 HP. The other four armors were then altered from (2, 3, 4, 5) HP to (2, 4, 6, 8) HP.
	This is an olden, golden version of the shop key graphic. This design can be seen on old arcade flyers for the game. The final shop graphic is the same silver design seen in the rest of the game.
	An angry-looking version of the cow bonus item. The angriest cow in history.

(Translation: divingkataetheweirdo)

Early	Final

There are three "sizes" of Potions and Hourglasses in the graphics ROM. Only one of each is used, and even then their designs were changed.

Unused Music

ID#	Track	Notes
35		Four miscellaneous congratulatory tracks. Each track could have been assigned to a high score slot. Would've been a nice feature.
36
37
39

Regional Differences

The Japanese version was made after the international version and has further refinements and balance adjustments.

High Score List

International	Japan

The character limit per name was changed from 3 to 4.

International	Japan

Furthermore, the Japanese game uses a completely different character set for its high score entry screen that includes katakana, hiragana, and numerical symbols.

Shop Prices

International	Japan

The prices of all shop items were changed for the Japanese game. Note that each difficulty level has its own price table. 1 is the easiest difficulty, 5 is the default setting, and 8 is the toughest difficulty.

Prices in bold print were increased for the Japanese release.

International									Japan
	Difficulty Level									Difficulty Level
Item	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	Item	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
Weapon LV 2	100	100	150	150	200	200	300	400	Weapon LV 2	150	150	200	200	200	200	300	400
Weapon LV 3	1000	1200	1000	1600	1200	1600	1600	2400	Weapon LV 3	1000	1200	1600	1600	2400	2400	2400	2400
Weapon LV 4	2400	2400	3200	3200	4800	4800	6400	6400	Weapon LV 4	2400	3200	3200	4800	4800	6400	6400	6400
Weapon LV 5	9600	9600	9600	9600	12800	12800	12800	12800	Weapon LV 5	9600	9600	9600	12800	12800	12800	19200	19200
Armor LV 2	80	80	100	100	150	150	200	200	Armor LV 2	80	80	100	100	200	300	300	400
Armor LV 4	300	300	400	400	500	500	600	600	Armor LV 4	400	400	500	600	800	1000	1000	1200
Armor LV 6	800	800	800	1000	1200	1200	1600	1600	Armor LV 6	800	1000	1200	1200	1600	1600	2400	2400
Armor LV 8	1600	2400	2400	2400	2400	3200	3200	4800	Armor LV 8	1600	2400	3200	3200	4800	4800	4800	4800

Additionally, the price of keys was changed from 30 Zenny to 80 Zenny. This applies to all difficulty levels.

Graphical Changes

International	Japan

These four Kanji were touched up a bit.

International	Japan

The shading on the top of the cave entrances in Round 3 was redone.

International	Japan

The wall spike tiles were changed to match the brightness of the rest of the adjacent bricks.

International	Japan

More shading changes, this time to Stage 6. The Japanese version certainly looks better.

International	Japan

Some of the edge tiles were changed so that they meld better with the surrounding wall.

Level Changes

Round 1

International	Japan

Some of the cliff tiles in this section are missing in the international release.

Round 2

International	Japan

One of the spikes on the large left "orb" is improperly flipped in the international game.

Round 3

International	Japan

This area looks sloppily constructed in the international versions of the game. The Japanese added more cliff tiles to the game's BG graphics ROM, allowing this area to be redone in a more natural way.

(Source: Original TCRF research)