Gunman's Proof

Gunman's Proof
Developer: Lenar Publisher: ASCII Platform: SNES Released in JP: January 31, 1997 This game has hidden development-related text. This game has unused cinematics. This game has debugging material. This game has a prototype article

Gunman's Proof is a vaguely Zelda-like ARPG set in the Wild West, with humor reminiscent of the Mother series.

This said, it came out relatively late in the Super Famicom's lifespan. This, coupled with ASCII's imminent demise, probably played a part in its lack of an international release.

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Prototype Info

Debug Menu

Hold L + X on controller 1 and Start + Select on controller 2, then reset the game.

...But what does it mean? This game has text or audio that needs to be translated. If you are fluent with this language, please read our translation guidelines and then submit a translation!

(Source: yamada_arthur)

"Ln-MOS version 3.1"

For some reason, the game has a bit of unreachable code to display a fake DOS-like boot sequence, which imitates a computer's self test and then prints a fictitious directory listing, consisting mostly of the same few file names repeated several times, before going into an infinite loop.

The display is surprisingly polished for what seems to be no more than a strange disabled Easter egg, even including a simulated CRT-esque "rolling line" effect in the background. The significance, if any, of the file names and (obviously bogus) dates is unknown, as the entire output is hardcoded and does not correspond to any actual contents of the game's ROM.

This strange scene can be seen on startup using Pro Action Replay codes 00D5709B 00D571D7.

• 

  Beginning of the sequence.

• 

  The entire directory listing.

(Source: Original TCRF research)

Disabled Error Handler

There is a disabled debug error handler leftover in both Release and Prototype versions of the game. Patch the ROM: 0x5176 EA EA; 0x54AB: 00 to see it at the boot.

Debug Leftover

A fairly large chunk of debug code was once present on the cartridge. The first 20 kilobytes of the ROM (mapped to SNES addresses 008000-00CFFF) is empty. On boot, if the cartridge's internal checksum is 0000, the game will attempt to fill most of that empty space with code and data beginning at SNES address 608000, which is located just after the end of the final game's ROM.

The game will then try to execute this code. However, even if the code were still present, the game would be attempting to load it into an area of memory that is read-only on a real SNES cartridge, resulting in a crash when executing it.

The full code is present in the prototype version of the game.

(Source: Original TCRF research)