Guerrilla War (NES)

Guerrilla War
Also known as: Guevara (JP) Developer: SNK Publisher: SNK Platform: NES Released in JP: December 26, 1988 Released in US: June 1989 Released in EU: 1989 This game has a hidden developer message. This game has hidden developer credits. This game has unused modes / minigames. This game has unused graphics. This game has unused music. This game has a hidden level select. This game has regional differences.

Guerrilla War is (more or less) an NES port of the arcade game of the same name. Any similarities to the Cuban Revolution are purely coincidental.

Cough.

Hidden Text

Some messages from the programmers are located at 0xF8BD (US version) and 0xFB8F (Japanese version) in the ROM:

APO? mess       
DaDi DaDaDa DaDi
ATHENA ikima--su
MARIchan muzukas
hikute wakanna-i
Ganbarima-----su
Ti-----me Girl!!
Fight ! Fight !!
HoHoHoHoHoHoHoHo
Knt mess        
NIKAGETSU DE TSU
KKUTTAN DAZO-   
HOMETE HOMETE   
3/9/88 20:0     
BUG GA DEMASSEN 
YOUNI ....

Original		Translated
ATHENA ikima--su	ATHENA 行きます ATHENA ikimasu!	Athena, ready to go!
MARIchan muzukas hikute wakanna-i	マリちゃん難しくてわかんない。 MARI-chan muzukashikute wakannai.	Mari-chan is tough. I don't understand her!
Ganbarima-----su	がんばります！ Ganbarimasu!	I'll do my best!
NIKAGETSU DE TSU KKUTTAN DAZO- HOMETE HOMETE	二ヶ月でつっくたんだぞ！ほめてほめて。 Nikagetsu de tsukkutan da zo! Homete homete.	I managed to finish this game in 2 months! Let's hear it for me!
BUG GA DEMASSEN YOUNI ....	バグがでまっせんように... BUG ga demassen you ni...	I hope there aren't any bugs...

(Translation: GlitterBerri)

Knt is the main programmer, Yukio Kaneda. APO's identity is unknown.

"Athena, ready to go!" (± some words) is a line from Psycho Soldier, another SNK game.

Level and Difficulty Select

Hold A + B when selecting the number of players for this menu, with a difficulty and stage selection. Note that all stages except the last are accessible here.

Hidden Initials

These hidden powerups in stage 3 are arranged to spell out the developer/publisher name (SNK) and the main programmer's pseudonym (KNT). Note that some of the powerups may fail to spawn due to sprite overload.

Powerups

• K - Kill all enemies on the screen.
• N - +1000 pts.
• S, T - Weapon pickups.

Unused Graphics

General

The unused frames for the players death animation, which is closer to how it appears in the arcade version. In this port, the animation has been simplified, so the enemy soldiers can use it too.

Map Screen

Normal	Unused

The map segment has graphics for the player going upwards, however there's not enough space to give a separate palette for the legs. The game only uses the horizontal variant of the sprite.

5th Area

Two different sized graphics of the players getting into the minecart... or falling into it after being thrown by Plow Brothers from the previous Area. What's interesting is that Castro Player 2 has unique tiles here instead of being a replica of Guevara Player 1. Again, these graphics don't seem to be designed to have multiple palettes.

The enemy soldiers were set to appear during the minecart section, possibly planned to have more than one single rail before it was turned into a bonus level. Instead of the soldier being overlaid into the minecart, the graphics contains a piece of it, meant to be combined with the rest of the minecart tiles. The body is drawn a bit differently in compare to how it normally appears in the game.

10th Area

The final boss of the game, Batista Dictator running away. This was supposed to be used after all of his turrets on the roof were destroyed before the second phase was added, where he fights to the death.

The graphics for an unused boss! In the arcade version, the last area is guarded by bigger tanks. This could have been an unique incarnation of them in this port as a mini boss before facing the Dictator. No code was found related to it and the boss was probably replaced by the set of 4 turrets blocking the path, followed by the exact same set right after that.

Unused Music

Track 09 in the NSF isn't used. It might have been meant as a stage theme or a boss music. it can be heard in the game by setting the value to 1B at the RAM address 0100 and make the game play any sound effect.

Regional Differences

Title

Guevara	Guerrilla War

The background of the title screen is teal in Guevara, but it's blue in Guerrilla War. The logo for the latter has a darker palette and is framed by a fireball that flashes red and white, while the logo for Guevara isn't animated.

The European version (not pictured) uses the Guerrilla War logo, but with different copyright text: "©1988 SNK Corporation / Licensed By Nintendo".

Curiously, the splash screen that appears after the SNK logo refers to the game as Guerrilla War regardless of the region.

Character Names

Guevara	Guerrilla War

On the score screen, the heroes are explicitly called Guevara and Castro in Japan. They became Player 1 and Player 2 for international releases, disguising the game's connection to the Cuban Revolution only slightly.

Sasuke vs. Commander

A minigame based on Sasuke vs. Commander, an early SNK arcade game, is hidden inside the Japanese version! According to an interview from 2001, programmer "Kin-chan" (presumably Yukio Kaneda, if the hidden message above is any indication) insisted on adding this in return for taking up the job to program the Famicom port of Guerrilla War in just two months. To access it, do the following:

1. At the player selection screen, hold A + B and press Start to trigger the Level and Difficulty Select cheat.
2. Set to stage 5.
3. Now, hold Up + A + B on controllers 1 and 2, and then press Start on controller 1.

The ROM also includes the necessary font and space in the side bar for a score, an alternate screen layout, and multiple frames of animation for Sasuke and the ninjas, but none of it was used. It's likely that the developers had planned a more full-fledged port, but simply ran out of time.

Most of the game's graphics and screen layouts remain in the US ROM, but the program code was either disabled or removed.

To do: explain, maybe it does more

While the game does not display your score, the main game will display it in place of your high score.

Credits

Guevara	Guerrilla War

The North American version changed Fly Garuda to Ninja Sasuke and added Uncle Boo Boo.

Epilogue

The Japanese version has an extra epilogue after the credits.