Dan-Ku-Ga

Dan-Ku-Ga
Developer: Taito Publisher: Taito Platform: Arcade (Taito F3 hardware) Released in JP: March 2, 2022 (Egret II Mini) This game has hidden developer credits. This game has unused text. This game has debugging material. This game has regional differences.

The Japan-only sequel to Global Champion/Kaiser Knuckle that never saw the light of day - at least officially until the Egret II Mini mini-arcade cabinet was released in 2022.

Kumagaya Easter Egg

Like most of the titles they developed, Taito Kumagaya Laboratory snuck their logo in the game, though the method to access it in this title is more esoteric than usual and it only works on the JP set:

• Before the game boots, hold 1P Start + 2P Start + 1P Up + 2P Down until the "Wait a moment" screen appears.
• Then, during any gameplay demo, press 1P Button 1 three times.

The picture alternates between the logo and game credits for Takeshi Kobori, Hiroshi Aoki, and Yuji Sakamoto.

(Source: Original TCRF research)

Debug Functions

Crash Handler

This game has a basic exception handler for the standard set of exception vectors. One method to trigger this handler is to not skip the VS screen animations when playing as General.

Expanded Input Test

Normal	Expanded

Entering the Taito Code (1P Start (×3), Service Coin, 1P Start) on the switch test will greatly expand the test to include all of the standard F3 system inputs. However, Buttons 4, 5, and 6 for each player are excluded from this test, limiting its usefulness.

(Source: Original TCRF research)

Debug Menu

Dan-Ku-Ga is supposed to feature the Taito Code:

• While the game boots up, hold the Service Coin button until the "SERVICE SWITCH ERROR" message pops up on the screen.
• Then, press 1P Start (x3), Service Coin, 1P Start.

...but the subroutine to do this is orphaned in the retail version. Put the following code in dankuga.xml to put the input check back in:

  <cheat desc="Enable Debug Menu Check">
    <script state="run">
      <action>maincpu.md@00B7FC=0x4EF90000</action>
      <action>maincpu.md@00B800=0xB8184E71</action>
    </script>
    <script state="off">
      <action>maincpu.md@00B7FC=0x303C00B4</action>
      <action>maincpu.md@00B800=0x3F3C0001</action>
    </script>
  </cheat>

After successfully entering the code, a debug menu should appear. "Normal Start" will, just as the option suggests, start a normal game, but the other options (besides "DUMMY", which does nothing) are more interesting.

Debug Start

Start the game in debug mode with 9 credits. Debug mode has the following features:

• All export warning screens are skipped.

• Starting a new game will load a debug character selection screen.

Controls

• 1P Up/Down / 2P Up/Down: Selects between fighters. This includes boss characters!
• 1P Left/Right / 2P Left/Right: Toggles whether or not that fighter is controlled by the CPU. CPU vs CPU matches are possible.
• 1P Start / 2P Start: Adjusts the map number.
• 1P Button 3 / 2P Button 3: Swaps between the default and alternate palettes for that fighter. Does nothing for boss characters.

Any other action button will start the match.

• The game will display the distance between the two fighters at the top, and other pertinent information for both fighters (Like the amount of damage taken for the current hit, the player's action number, status bits, X and Y positions, etc.) at the bottom.
• The round timer is disabled.
• After either player wins the match, the game returns to the debug character select screen.

Anime Test

This tool allows the user to view attacks and animations for every fighter in the game, including hitbox and hurtbox data.

Controls (General)

• 1P Button 1: Plays animation.
• 1P Button 2: Advances animation one frame.
• 1P Button 3: Resets animation back to start.
• 1P Start (Push): Cycles between Obj/Act, Position, Color, Inversion, and Edit modes.

• 1P Start (Hold): Brings up the "MODE" menu.

This menu lets the user toggle hit and hurtboxes, the crosshatch pattern in the background, and "2Disp", which adds a non-animated sprite to the screen.

• 1P Start (Held) + 1P Up/Down: Selects option in MODE menu.
• 1P Start (Held) + 1P Left/Right: Toggles option MODE menu.

With 2Disp enabled

• 2P Joystick: Moves the sprite.
• 2P Button 1 / Button 4: Changes the sprite bank.
• 2P Button 2 / Button 5: Selects a sprite in the current sprite bank.
• 2P Button 3: Flips the sprite horizontally.
• 2P Button 6: Flips the sprite vertically.

Controls (Obj/Act)

• 1P Up/Down: Selects an animation in the current animation set.
• 1P Left/Right: Changes the animation set.

Controls (Position)

• 1P Joystick: Moves the current animation around.

Controls (Color)

• 1P Joystick: Selects a palette for the current animation.

Controls (Inversion)

• 1P Up/Down: Flips the animation vertically.
• 1P Left/Right: Flips the animation horizontally.

Controls (Edit)

• 1P Up/Down: Selects which frame of the animation to edit.
• 1P Left/Right: Adjusts the delay of the currently selected frame of the animation.

Hit Editer

Allows the user to create their own hitboxes. Up to eight hitboxes can be on-screen at once.

Controls

• 1P Joystick: Moves the currently selected hitbox.
• 1P Button 1 + 1P Joystick: Changes the dimensions of the currently selected hitbox.
• 1P Button 2: Cycles between the eight hitbox slots.
• 1P Start + 1P Joystick: Changes the offset of the current sprite.
• 2P Button 1/2P Button 4: Changes the sprite bank.
• 2P Button 2/2P Button 5: Selects a sprite in the current sprite bank.
• 2P Button 3/2P Button 6: Selects a palette for the sprite.
• 2P Start + 1P Joystick: Offsets the "camera" of the editor.

Scroll Test

Use 1P Up/Down to select a map and press 1P Button 1 to load that map.

From here, the user can look around the currently loaded map.

Controls

• 1P Joystick: Moves the camera around by 1 pixel per frame.
• 1P Button 1: When held, moves the camera (or background layer) around by 4 pixels per frame.
• 1P Button 2 + 1P Joystick: Moves the secondary background layer around by 1 pixel per frame.
• 1P Button 3 + 1P Joystick: Moves the tertiary background layer around by 1 pixel per frame.
• 1P Button 4: Disables camera lock.
• 1P Button 5: Creates the yellow lightning / terrain-destroying effect used by supers.
• 1P Button 6: Toggles the coordinate display.

• 2P Button 6: Plays the special space launch animation.
• 2P Start: Exits back to the map menu.

Character Test

Allows the user to scroll through the raw banks of sprites and foreground/background graphics.

Controls

• 1P Up/Down: Scrolls through tiles.
• 1P Left/Right: Adjusts how many tiles are displayed in each row.
• 1P Button 1 / Button 2: Adjusts palette number.
• 1P Start: Switches between OBJ (Sprites) and SCN (FG/BG tiles).

SCR Char Test

Allows the user to view preassembled background and foreground images. Fair warning: The background color flickers black and purple every two frames.

Controls

• 1P Joystick: Moves image around on the screen.
• 1P Button 1 / Button 2: Scrolls through images.
• 1P Button 3 / Button 4: Adjusts palette number.

Staff

This allows the user to view each character's credit cutscene. The game normally picks 4 of these and plays them in a random order while the credits roll. Use 1P Joystick to select which character's cutscene to view, and press 1P Button 1 to play that cutscene. The first four cutscenes viewed will display one quarter of the credits, while any further cutscenes will play without text.

(Source: Original TCRF research)

Running Debug Menu

Put this code in MAME's dankuga.xml cheat file to enable a Tilt-triggered debug menu.

  <cheat desc="Tilt Debug Menu">
    <script state="run">
      <action>maincpu.md@000510=0x4EB9001F</action>
      <action>maincpu.md@000514=0xF0004E71</action>
      <action>maincpu.md@0009E4=0x4EB90000</action>
      <action>maincpu.md@0009E8=0x81664E75</action>
      <action>maincpu.md@1FF000=0x4EB87F34</action>
      <action>maincpu.mw@1FF004=0x4E75</action>
    </script>
    <script state="off">
      <action>maincpu.md@000510=0x0C80001F</action>
      <action>maincpu.md@000514=0xFF8E642E</action>
      <action>maincpu.md@0009E4=0x4E4A007C</action>
      <action>maincpu.mw@0009E8=0x0700</action>
      <action>maincpu.md@1FF000=0xFFFFFFFF</action>
      <action>maincpu.mw@1FF004=0xFFFF</action>
    </script>
  </cheat>

The game pauses when the menu pops up. "Cancel" exits the menu and "Reset" resets the game. As for the other options...

Process Meter

Displays a CPU meter below the second player's life bar.

Task Status

Displays the internal task IDs for every currently-loaded task. Tasks labeled "E" are currently running, while tasks labeled "W" are waiting for other tasks to complete.

No Damage

When toggled, gives both players infinite health.

Hit Mode

Use 1P Joystick and then press any button to toggle displays for player hitboxes ("ATK", displayed in red), hurtboxes ("HIT", displayed in yellow), both, or neither.

Speed Change

Use 1P Joystick and then press any action button to choose between the following game speeds: 0.5x, 1x, 1.25x, 1.5x, 1.75x, 2x, and 4x. The 0.5x option still doesn't work.

Color Edit

Allows the user to edit the game's palettes on the fly. Even more features than the last game!

Controls

• 1P Up/Down: Selects between R, G, and B gauges for the selected color.
• 1P Left/Right: Adjusts the currently selected RGB color gauge.
• 1P Button 1 / Button 2: Selects between colors in the current palette.

• 1P Button 3: Brings up a sub-menu of the editor. 1P Joystick moves the cursor, 1P Button 3 accesses the select option, and 1P Start exits the menu.

Copy-Paste: The user selects a range of colors to copy, then presses 1P Button 3 to confirm.

Then, the player moves the cursor to where they went to paste to. 1P Button 3 will paste the color data.

Paste: Like the above, but without all the copying.

Multi Edit: The user selects a range of colors to edit, then presses 1P Button 3 to confirm. From there, 1P Up/Down will select which R/G/B to edit and 1P Left/Right will adjust that value for all of the colors in range.

Gradate: The user selects a range of colors, then presses 1P Button 3 to confirm. Pressing 1P Button 3 again will generate a color gradient based on the first and last colors in range.

• 1P Button 4: When held, allows the user to adjust the R, G, and B values of the selected color simultaneously.
• 1P Start: Reverts any recent changes made to the current palette.
• 2P Up/Down: Adjusts palette number by 02.
• 2P Left/Right: Adjusts palette number by 10.

• 2P Button 1: Inverts the current palette every other frame.

• 2P Button 2: Switches between simplified and complex color value displays.
• 2P Button 3: Cycles between putting the editor on the bottom, the top, or off-screen.
• 2P Button 5 + 2P Button 6: Exits the editor.

(Source: ねこ自慢ブログ (升) Wayder Cheat 0.171)

General's Unused Alternate Colors

Even though General is not officially playable, he does have two alternate colors like the other characters (but, unlike them, his standard color is the same one from GC/KK). To see them in-game, use one of the MAME codes below and select him with a kick button (brown uniform) or the Start button (red uniform). You can also reach the boss fight using his standard color to see the CPU using the kick button one; unfortunately, activating both codes in a 1P game does not force a mirror match (the game will become stuck after the CPU opponent is chosen), so your only option is to reach him the old fashioned way.

 <cheat desc="P1 Play as General">
   <script state="run">
     <action>maincpu.pb@40B321= B</action>
     <action>maincpu.pb@41454D= B</action>
   </script>
 </cheat>
 
 <cheat desc="P2 Play as General">
   <script state="run">
     <action>maincpu.pb@40B521= B</action>
     <action>maincpu.pb@41454F= B</action>
   </script>
 </cheat>

Version Differences

To do: Does the version in Egret II Mini have portraits for both Gonzales and Azteca?

This game can be summarized as the Japanese version of Kaiser Knuckle with the following basic changes:

The attract mode has a new pre-title cutscene: The game scrolls across sprites of all the playable characters (with a silhouette of General behind them), intercut with the game's title at increasing speed.

The player can choose between two difficulty levels - Normal or Pro(fessional) - or enter a training mode.

Gonzales and Azteca are fully playable - except for their slots in the player select screen having no portraits - and have endings. They are now mid-bosses instead of bosses, being the 5th and 9th opponents respectively.

• New colors for backgrounds (including the player select screen) and characters. The former standard character color - also used by the CPU in mirror matches - can be selected with any kick button and the former single alternate color can be selected with the Start button; this is inverted for Gonzales and Azteca.
• The control scheme has been completely reworked, removing the Super (Light + Medium) and Extreme (Medium + Heavy) level of strength for Punch and Kick normals. Some of these attacks have been removed entirely, while others have been changed into command normals (directions plus an attack button).
• Every character gains two new mobility tools- a backdash (previously only Gekkou had a backdash) and the ability to jump again in mid-air but only after landing a jumping normal.
• Barts' Rolling Smash is now air-only and requires no charge.
• Boggy, Lihua and Marco gained new moves.

Regional Differences

While this game was seemingly only location tested in Japan, the game itself can be switched to the US or INT regions by setting the region flag at 0x1FFFFF in the ROM to 02 (US) or 03 (INT).

All of the differences from the previous game are kept, along with a few additional changes in this updated release:

• When set to a non-JP region, the game uses the attract mode and title screen of the previous game, Global Champion.

JP	INT

• All text in the mode select has been translated...

JP
INT

...as has the text in the training mode.

JP	INT

• In the training mode, if the region flag is set to JP, the game displays the inputs for the character's special and super moves in the upper-left corner. When a special move is executed, the command for that move flashes white. If set to US or INT, these inputs are not displayed. It's not clear if these would be intentionally left out or if they were going to be rewritten at some point to account for the kanji and kana in the JP strings.

Gonzales	Azteca
By the sudden disruption of the Soviet union, Gonzales's dream to attend the olympic game has been shattered, and he needed his fiancee Tanya to go by in life... But the whereabouts of Tanya was unknown because she was also involved in a civil war. Soon after receiving a prize, Gonzales started preparing his journey. She is alive and will sure await him. Beleaving so, he was entering the civil -war area where Tanya lived.	Having the promised amount of money, Azteca entered a fortune-telling house. He met an old woman who knew his past for bringing back his past memory. After receiving the money, the old woman told him he should go to the moon shrine in a full-moon night. In the full-moon night, many people saw a dazzling light emitted from the ruins and disappeared. There were various conjectures about the light, but nobody knew the fact. After that, neither has seen Azteca's figure and nor knew his whereabouts.

• The new endings for Gonzales and Azteca have been fully translated.