Elevator Action II

Elevator Action II
Also known as: Elevator Action Returns (JP) Developer: Taito Publisher: Taito Platform: Arcade (Taito F3 System) Released internationally: 1995 Released in JP: March 1995[1] Released in US: May 1995[2] This game has unused graphics. This game has unused music. This game has unused text. This game has debugging material. This game has regional differences. This game has a notes page

Elevator Action II is the sequel to Elevator Action, you would've never guessed that.

Sub-Pages

Notes

Debug Functions

Expanded Input Test

Normal	Full

Entering the Taito Code (1P Start, Service 1 x3, 1P Start) on the switch test will greatly expand the number of inputs tested to include every possible input that the F3 system supports.

Debug Mode

NOTE: Before putting any other cheats in MAME's elvactr.xml / elvact2u.xml files, insert and activate the following code. This will bypass the game's ROM checking subroutines and allow the game to boot properly:

  <cheat desc="Fix Checksum">
    <script state="run">
      <action>maincpu.md@0008F8=4E714E71</action>
    </script>
    <script state="off">
      <action>maincpu.md@0008F8=6700014A</action>
    </script>
  </cheat>

Put the following code in elvactr.xml or elvact2u.xml to enable a few debug functions:

  <cheat desc="Debug Mode">
    <script state="run">
      <action>maincpu.md@0105AE=4EB90017</action>
      <action>maincpu.md@0105B2=F0004E71</action>
      <action>maincpu.md@17F000=4EB90001</action>
      <action>maincpu.md@17F004=06844EB9</action>
      <action>maincpu.md@17F008=000105B8</action>
      <action>maincpu.md@17F00C=4EB9000A</action>
      <action>maincpu.md@17F010=2D2C4E75</action>
    </script>
    <script state="off">
      <action>maincpu.md@0105AE=610000D4</action>
      <action>maincpu.md@0105B2=61000004</action>
      <action>maincpu.md@17F000=FFFFFFFF</action>
      <action>maincpu.md@17F004=FFFFFFFF</action>
      <action>maincpu.md@17F008=FFFFFFFF</action>
      <action>maincpu.md@17F00C=FFFFFFFF</action>
      <action>maincpu.md@17F010=FFFFFFFF</action>
    </script>
  </cheat>

When activated, pressing Tilt will toggle a game pause feature, with "[ PAUSE ]" printed to the left of the credit counter.

Holding Service 1 and pressing Tilt will bring up a debug menu.

Exit

Exits the menu and resumes normal play.

Slow Level

Lets the user change the speed at which the game runs. This is controlled by a slider that ranges from 0x000 to 0x078 in increments of 0x04. The slowdown function works as follows:

• The game takes the Slow Level, doubles it, then subtracts it from 00 to get the Slowdown Value (4007B4 in RAM. This is a single byte.
• Every frame, the game adds the Slowdown Value to the Slowdown Timer (4007B8 in RAM). This is also a single byte.

• If the Slowdown Timer is exactly 00, the game pauses and "[ SLOW ]" is written to the left of the credit counter.

Examples: A Slow Level of 20 runs the game at 3/4 speed, 40 at 1/2 speed, 60 at 1/4 speed, and the max value of 78 will run the game at a lethargic 1/16 speed.

Color Edit

Brings up a simple palette viewer / editor.

Controls (Main)

• 1P Up/Down: Selects which palette to edit.
• 1P Left/Right: Selects color to be edited.
• 1P Button 1: Activates color editor.
• 1P Button 2: Exits menu.

Controls (Color Editor)

• 1P Up/Down: Selects between Red, Green, and Blue.
• 1P Left/Right: Adjusts the selected RGB value.
• 1P Button 1 / 1P Button 2: Exits color editor.

Display

Toggles a screen flip. This flip also erases all on-screen sprites, but they'll become visible again after exiting the menu.

Test Mode

After the user goes through a Yes / No prompt, this exits to the game's standard test mode.

Reset

Elevator Action Resets!

(Source: Original TCRF research)

Unused Graphics

Early	Final

An early version of the international title. There's a tilemap for this at 0x5A10A in the main CPU. In that tilemap, "Elevator Action" and "Returns" use the same palette, while the final logo uses different palettes for both.

A newspaper background that appears to be an edit of an unknown issue of USA Today. Note the "No. 2 in the USA" slogan and the mention of a "Team X", which might be an early name for the player characters' organization.

This newspaper is part of the Elevator Action II title screen (But not Elevator Action Returns), but it uses a black palette. Put this code in MAME's elvact2u.xml cheat file to give it a proper palette:

  <cheat desc="Fix Newspaper BG">
    <script state="run">
      <action>maincpu.mw@12DD28=0056</action>
    </script>
    <script state="off">
      <action>maincpu.mw@12DD28=00F4</action>
    </script>
  </cheat>

(Source: Original TCRF research)

Unused Music

Track 1D6 is unused. It's pretty long - maybe this was a rejected theme for one of the stages?

Location Test Message

To do: Find a method to make this text appear in-game.

 THANK YOU FOR PLAYING 
UP TO THIS STAGE.
YOU ARE A VERY GOOD PLAYER, AREN
T YOU? 
BECAUSE THIS GAME IS 
NOW UNDER LOCATION 
TEST, 
WE ARE 
VERY SORRY 
NOT TO SHOW YOU 
THE NEXT STAGE OF THE GAME.             
 WE ARE 
TERRIBLY SORRY 
FOR THIS AND     
HOPE TO 
SEE YOU AGAIN,                  
 SOMETIME AND SOMEPLACE.                

Present at 0x0A4068. Yes, this really is how the text is formatted. The same text is used in other Taito arcade games, such as Night Striker and Cameltry, but the code to display this text has been completely gutted from Elevator Action II.

(Source: The Opponent)

Regional Differences

Title Screen

Japan	World	Americas

• In the World version, the 1994 copyright year is rendered in Roman numerals.
• The North/South American version lacks the blue trailing effect for the logo and gradual dissolving effect for the gun seen in the other versions, the entire title screen is simply faded in.