Insector X (Genesis)

Insector X
Developer: HOT-B Publishers: HOT-B (JP), Sage's Creation (US) Platform: Genesis Released in JP: September 7, 1990 Released in US: 1990 This game has unused code. This game has a hidden level select.

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It's like if Ant Man waged a war on all insects, and the insects armed themselves with laser cannons. Has a much cuter counterpart on the NES and Arcade.

Dummied-Out Controller 2 Functionality

Sega's stock Genesis controller input code looks something like this:

    lea    (SomeAddress).l,a0
    lea    ($A10003).l,a1
    bsr.s  ReadController
    addq.w #2,a1
ReadController:
    ; ...

The buttons for Controller 1 are read into SomeAddress and SomeAddress + 1, and the buttons for Controller 2 into SomeAddress + 2 and SomeAddress + 3.

Insector X changes this to:

    lea    (SomeAddress).l,a0
    lea    ($A10003).l,a1
    bsr.s  ReadController
    rts
    addq.w #2,a1
ReadController:
    ; ...

Note the inserted rts instruction. This will cause the game to not read Controller 2 at all. As it turns out, there are a few buttons on Controller 2 that are checked during the game. But that rts makes sure those buttons never actually do anything!

To re-enable the deleted functionality, nop out the rts with code 00059A:4E71. This works with both ROMs.

The button codes are simple:

• Press 2P Start at any time during a stage to skip to the next one. If paused, this will happen when you unpause.
• Press 2P A at any time during a stage (except when paused) to increase your weapon's shot power by 1 each press; it will wrap back to the lowest power level after you reach max power.
• Press 2P B at any time during a stage (except when paused) to give yourself both bomb weapon choices. Each press will change which effect the two bombs will have.

To do: Are there other codes?