Quiz Torimonochou

Quiz Torimonochou
Developer: Taito Publisher: Taito Platform: Arcade (Taito F2 System) Released in JP: February 1990 This game has hidden development-related text. This game has unused text. This game has debugging material. This game has a hidden level select.

Quiz Torimonochou is a quiz game by Taito. "Torimonochou" (捕物帳, literally "capture book" or "catch book") is a kind of detective novel typically set in the Edo period.

Debug Functions

Round Select

This game uses the Taito Code:

• While the game boots up, hold the Service Coin button until the "SERVICE SW ERROR" message pops up on the screen.
• Then, press 1P Start (×3), Service Coin, 1P Start. The stage select menu should then appear.

Controls

• 1P Button 1 / 2 / 3 / 4: Adjusts the starting round.
• 1P Start: Starts the game.

Question Debug

The game will change the way it chooses questions if ROM address 0x00082 is set to a non-zero value. Put the following code in MAME's qtorimon.xml cheat file to enable this feature:

  <cheat desc="Question Debug">
    <script state="run">
      <action>maincpu.mw@000082=0x0001</action>
    </script>
  </cheat>

The game chooses which questions to ask based on a value in RAM address 0x100A1A. Normally, this value is randomly set every time the game needs to load a new question. However, if 0x00082 is set to a non-zero value, the game will instead load questions in number order.

Additionally, if the player starts a game through the round select, the game will go through a special group of questions that's normally only used for the first question at the start of the game.

(Source: Original TCRF research)

Game Pause

If ROM address 0x00080 is set to a non-zero number, a pause feature is enabled. Put the following code in qtorimon.xml:

  <cheat desc="Game Pause">
    <script state="run">
      <action>maincpu.mw@000080=0x0001</action>
      <action>maincpu.mw@00025C=0x0007</action>
      <action>maincpu.mw@000264=0x0007</action>
    </script>
    <script state="off">
      <action>maincpu.mw@000080=0x0000</action>
      <action>maincpu.mw@00025C=0x0005</action>
      <action>maincpu.mw@000264=0x0005</action>
    </script>
  </cheat>

Note that the game normally checks for a button that doesn't exist on retail hardware (0x20 for 1P input). This code changes that button to 1P Start.

(Source: Original TCRF research)

Developer Text

Present at 0x0009C in the main CPU:

 Fri,23,Nov,1989
 xxx,xx,xxx,xxxx

A list of question categories starts at 0x06916 in the main CPU. These might have been used in a debug menu:

NONSECT
REKISI
SHIZEN
MUSIC
BUNGAKU
ANIME
GRUME
SPORTS

(Source: Original TCRF research)

Region Flag

The region flag at 0x03FFFE is usually only set to a single value, 0x01, since the game was never released outside of Japan. The game has partial support for three other regions; putting the following code in MAME's qtorimon.xml cheat file will allow the user to swap between them:

  <cheat desc="Region Flag">
    <parameter>
      <item value="0x0002">U.S.A.</item>
      <item value="0x0003">World</item>
      <item value="0x0004">Romstar</item>
    </parameter>
    <script state="run">
      <action>maincpu.mw@3FFFE=param</action>
    </script>
    <script state="off">
      <action>maincpu.mw@3FFFE=0x0001</action>
    </script>
  </cheat>

Support for other regions is low: The export warning screen cannot be disabled and always mentions Japan, the game's text will always be in Japanese, and the "Winners Don't Use Drugs" screen needed for North American export is missing. The standard coinage changes for region 0x02 are implemented, but this seems to be part of the standard Taito framework for this period.

What's not standard, however, are the different copyright strings:

Region 02	Region 03	Region 04
© 1990 TAITO AMERICA CORPORATION ALL RIGHTS RESERVED	© 1990 TAITO CORPORATION JAPAN ALL RIGHTS RESERVED	© 1990 TAITO CORPORATION JAPAN LICENSED TO ROMSATR

Yes, Romstar is misspelled as "Romsatr". What they'd be doing importing a game like this is anyone's guess.

(Source: Original TCRF research)