Saboteur (NES)

Saboteur
Also known as: Ghost Castle, Clown's Mission, Hell, Contest 2004, Butterfly, Spider Man 2, Masked Man II, Unwonted Space Developer: Nice Code Platforms: Unlicensed NES, VT03 This game has uncompiled source code. This game has hidden developer credits. This game has revisional differences.

Saboteur is an unreleased Atari 2600 game, ported to bootleg NES hardware, and published on Atari-licensed plug & plays, which would later be extensively hacked and included on non-Atari-licensed plug & plays.

Revisional Differences

To do: Add differences from the prototype version.

Ghost Castle (VT02)	Clown's Mission (VT02)	Hell (VT02)	Hell (VT03)

As with many of Nice Code's Atari and Intellivision ports, the game was later hacked to create variants for generic plug & plays/multicarts. In Saboteur's case, the first level was turned into Ghost Castle, Clown's Mission, and the wonderfully-titled Hell; the latter additionally has a VT03 variant. There are only five floors in the hacks (compared to the original game's six), and the playfield is slightly wider.

Contest 2004 (VT02)	Butterfly (VT02)	Spider Man 2 (VT02)	Masked Man II (VT02)	Unwonted Space (VT03)

The second level was turned into Contest 2004, Butterfly, Spider Man 2, Masked Man II, and the VT03 Unwonted Space. These variants were hacked to be much easier, with slower pacing and more forgiving A.I. Spider Man 2 and Masked Man II lock the controls to four directions, while the other versions allow the player to move in eight directions. Some variants of Masked Man II feature a generic insect (pictured), while others retain Dr. Octopus from Spider Man 2.

Developer Credits

Contest 2004 (VT02)	Butterfly (VT02)	Spider Man 2 (VT02)	Masked Man II (VT02)

As with many Nice Code games, pressing Up, Down, Up, Left, Right, Left, B on the title screen will briefly display a credits screen. Doing this in Saboteur does nothing, but it functions in Contest 2004, Butterfly, Spider Man 2, and Masked Man II. NCG stands for Nature Color Game, one of several aliases used by Nice Code, and PJ most likely refers to the Power Joy series of Famiclones which many Nice Code games have been released on.

Uncompiled Code

There are two revisions of the Contest 2004 ROM; one with a copyright byline of "© Copyright 2004", and another which instead says "Nature Color Game" and adds the developer credit screen. In the Nature Color Game version, a chunk of uncompiled code can be seen at address #7B2F (and continuing to the end of the PRG data):

Invalid stack size
$Insufficient memory
$
2500 A.D. Linker  Copyright (C) 1985  -  Version 4.01f

��6\Listing Destination  (N, T, D, E, L, P, <CR> = N) : �Error Only Listing Destination  (T, D, P, <CR> = T) : �LIST ON/OFF Listing Destination  (T, D, P, <CR> = T) : �

Enter Run Time Selection : �
�Assembly Terminated By Operator

�Can't Create Disk Listing File
�
                         ***** Active Commands *****

�                           Ctrl S = Stop Output
�                           Ctrl Q = Start Output
�                           Esc  C = Stop Assembly
�                           Esc  T = Terminal Output
�                           Esc  P = Printer Output
�                           Esc  D = Disk Output
�                           Esc  M = Multiple Output
�                           Esc  N = No Output

�Rename File Error
�Page %4u�LIB�������%c�
Maximum Number of Different Sections (%d) Exceeded.  Link Terminated.

�%s��Disk Listing  Filename : �Symbol Table  Filename : �Format   : �Linker Output Filename : �Microtek�Zax�Abbreviated 2500 A.D.�2500 A.D.�<None Specified>�
         Link Errors :  �         Output Format :  �Executable�Intel Hex�Extended Intel Hex�Tektronix Hex�Motorola S19�Motorola S28�M��orola S37�Çð�ð_ñ