Isolated Warrior

Isolated Warrior
Also known as: Max Warrior: Wakusei Kaigenrei (JP) Developer: KID Publishers: Vap (JP), NTVIC (US), Nintendo (EU) Platform: NES Released in JP: February 15, 1991 Released in US: February 1991 Released in EU: 1991 This game has hidden developer credits. This game has unused enemies. This game has unused graphics. This game has debugging material. This game has regional differences.

Isolated Warrior is both an isometric shooting game and a B-grade sci-fi movie wrapped into one tasty 8-bit package.

Unused Sprites

The US version contains a couple of unused enemy sprites. These were mostly removed in the Japanese version to make room for a set of Japanese characters, which would seem to indicate that the US version was developed first.

Snake

This snake-like enemy (boss?) would have appeared somewhere in stage 4. It can be seen by changing ROM address 0xDC49 to 61 and using the password 0705.

Unfortunately, either the sprite's programming is incomplete, or it requires background elements/sprites not present in the final level to control its behavior (a rail, perhaps?). As soon as it appears, it locks onto your position and jumps towards you in a slow arc. When it hits the ground, it explodes, sending eight segments flying in different directions. Each segment can be destroyed with either normal shots or bombs, though they never seem to drop anything.

Depending on where the sprite is placed, it may either explode in mid-air or cause the game to lock up/reboot. Very peculiar.

• 

  In mid-flight...

• 

  ...and after impact.

Armored Thing

This appears to be an ordinary enemy, which may have been used in a high-speed level (the river or the city streets), judging by its CHR ROM location. No sprite IDs tested thus far seem to correspond with this enemy, so it may be lost for good. Too bad.

Unused Graphics

Unused logo	Logo from website (ca. 2009)

An unused KID logo (Kindle Imagine Develop, the game's developer) found amongst the cutscene graphics in the ROM. Several of KID's other games also contain this logo.

Hidden Cutscene Graphics

With letterbox/sprites	Full scene

The space station in the stage 5 cutscene is actually a bit larger than it appears on-screen. The game normally applies a letterbox effect, cutting off the top and bottom of the image. FCEUX's name table viewer reveals the whole scene.

Secret Passwords

All of the game's valid passwords are stored at 0x1EAC2 in the ROM. Most of them start you at a given stage/difficulty level, but the last few have some special effects:

• 6502: Full HP and bombs
• 6285: Full weapon power
• 6666: 1 HP
• 5350: Invalid, no effect (password routine bug; should stop checking at 6666)

Note that using any of these passwords will lock you out of stage 7 (continue flag $6C8=01).

Debug Flags

RAM address $6D7 activates two debugging features:

• 01: Invincibility
• 02: Full weapon power (permanent) and level 5 bombs (reset between lives)
• 03: Both of the above

No code in the ROM ever writes to this address!

(Source: BMF54123)

Leftover Sound Test Text

The text strings SOUND TEST, BGM NO, and EFT NO can be found at 0x15F3D in the ROM. Presumably, the game contained (or was supposed to contain) a sound test at some point during development, but no code points to these strings in the final version.

Regional Differences

Title Screen

Japan	USA	Europe

Intro

The intro text in the European version was overwritten by the reset vector code, thus making the text display routine completely blank.

US/Japan	Europe