Space Harrier (Arcade)

Space Harrier
Developer: Sega AM2 Publisher: Sega Platform: Arcade (Sega Hang-On hardware) Released in JP: December 1985 Released in US: April 1986 Released in EU: 1986 This game has a hidden developer message. This game has hidden developer credits. This game has hidden development-related text. This game has unused graphics.

Space Harrier is a game about a hirsute young man's mission to fly across the globe and eradicate the local flora and fauna.

Unused Text

Starting at 0x00454 in the main CPU is this text that may have been used in debugging.

Error! Entry Mode=User
---Bus Error---
---Address Error---
---Illegal Instruction---
---Zero Divide---
---CHK Instruction---
---TRAPV Instruction---
---Privilege  Violation--- 
---Trace---
---1010 Exception---
---1111 Exception---
Run Aborted! Mode=User

Palette Error Message

TO BIN-CHAN
     THE COLOR BANK ISN'T BIG ENOUGH! 
     MAKE IT WITHIN 59 OR LOWER FOR 1 STAGE.

If RAM address 126100 -- the palette index used for enemy objects -- is set to a value higher than 3B, this message will appear.

Bin(-chan) is Satoshi Mifune, one of the game's programmers and a frequent collaborator with Yu Suzuki (it is assumed Suzuki left this message). A similar message appears in OutRun.

Unused Graphics

An older logo for the game can be found at the back-end of the game's tiles ROM. Replaced with the fancier, rotatier logo. A logo using the same font can be seen in the flyer for the game and on the arcade cabinet.

The Space Harrier sprite format was reverse engineered by Jens Lippmann, and in amongst the familiar sprites there are others which seem partially completed or abandoned. Remnants of the drawing process can still be seen in all sprites, where one color in every palette is often used for what look like vertical guide or measurement lines every 8 pixels.

Barbarian, never seen full size in-game, illustrating the usually transparent lines (fuchsia is only picked for clarity here).

Unused dragon sprite. There are no other palettes for this dragon, unlike the others which change from green through red to show damage.

Unused dragon sprites with various palettes. With the fur and friendly appearance, this looks to be a companion to Uriah the bonus stage dragon.

Unused scenery sprites.

Unused boss sprites. These look very similar to Syura and may have been intended for animation. Different palettes allow the red to fade to black.

Syura also has unused red palettes.

Unused man and gun sprites. The gun has different palettes to fade the red to black.

Unused sphere sprite which could have been used to model the Tomos (right).

Has various palettes and a version of nearly Tomos size.

Unused spark-like sprite in various palettes.

Unused palette version of the title-screen logo sprite.

Easter Egg

There's an Easter egg which displays a credit from Yu Suzuki, as well as the game's build date.

To trigger this text, at the start of a stage (before the stage name disappears), press Shot-3 six times, Start eight times, then Shot-3 again. Note that any misstep in this sequence will reset the whole process.

(Source: Reassembler)