Exzisus

Exzisus
Developer: Taito Publishers: Taito, TAD Corporation Platforms: Arcade (Custom) Released in JP: August 1987 This game has unused code. This game has hidden developer credits. This game has revisional differences.

Exzisus is a side-scrolling shooter with a name that makes it impossible to talk about out in real life. Of course, this assumes that you're talking to people who would bother knowing about obscure arcade games from the late 80s.

Developer Credits

At address 0x00050 in CPU-A is this programmer credit:

PROGRAMED BY T.YOSHIKAWA

(Source: タイトーメモリーズ関連 (Taito Memories))

And, at address 0x07FC4 (also in CPU-A) is a more comprehensive staff list:

STAFF
PROGRAMMER
T.YOSHIKAWA
T.MURATA

(Source: タイトーメモリーズ関連 (Taito Memories))

Over in CPU-B, there's yet another set of credits -- now with pseudonyms! At address 0x00007:

PROGRAMED BY TOM_BOY & MURA © TAITO

(Source: Original TCRF research)

There are two distinct builds of Exzisus: One with its own dedicated hardware, and one that uses the JAMMA board standard.

Anyway, the following set of credits is only on the dedicated version's CPU-B at 0x07FD7:

YOSHIKAWA
MURATA

(Source: Original TCRF research)

Copyright Strings

U.S.A.	Japan (Export)	U.S.A. (Under License)
ID: 02	ID: 03	ID: 04

ROM address 0x7FFF in CPU-B controls the copyright strings on the title screen. There are four different strings, but since this game was only released in Japan, only one of them is used. There's an additional copyright ID, 00, which uses the standard copyright message but disables the export warning. The TAD-published game overwrites the licensed message with "© TAD CORP., 1987" on one line.

Place this cheat in MAME's exzisus.xml file (or exzisusa.xml for the JAMMA-converted set) to change the copyright information:

  <cheat desc="Copyright ID">
    <parameter>
      <item value="0x01">Japan Only</item>
      <item value="0x00">World</item>
      <item value="0x02">U.S.A.</item>
      <item value="0x03">Japan (Export)</item>
      <item value="0x04">U.S.A. (Under License)</item>
    </parameter>
    <script state="run">
      <action>cpub.mw@7FFF=param</action>
    </script>
  </cheat>

(Source: Original TCRF research)

Unused Text

There are two copyright strings in CPU-A that are unused by any means. The first is at 0x7FAD:

©1987 TAITO

The second is at 0x7FB8:

©TAITO CORP.

(Source: Original TCRF research)

Version Differences

The dedicated cabinet and conversion kit versions have a number of differences between each other, possibly due to the various disparities between having full dedicated hardware and a simple software conversion kit running off of older and possibly weaker hardware.

The barrier upgrade from the dedicated board.

• A barrier upgrade exists in the dedicated version that allows the player to take several hits from enemies without dying. It does not appear at all in the conversion kit version.
• Many enemies in the dedicated version emerge from the background and move into the foreground. In the conversion kit version, they just simply appear from the edges of the screen.
• Almost all of the enemy patterns in each version are different. The dedicated board's enemy variation is a tad more scarce and enemies frequently appear from the right, while the conversion kit's enemies are a bit more varied in placement and design.

The powerup canisters that only appear in the conversion kit version.

• The conversion kit has a pickup canister that can be shot to obtain powerups. These do not appear in the dedicated version, where shooting a row of enemies will net you an upgrade instead.

Meteorita Zone on the dedicated board. Note the various sprites in the background area.

• To coincide with the removal of the background objects in the conversion kit, the missile upgrade no longer fires into the background and instead trails onto the ground horizontally, making it more useful for taking out the laser turrets.