Space Invaders '95: The Attack of Lunar Loonies

Space Invaders '95: The Attack of Lunar Loonies
Also known as: Akkanvader (JP) Developer: Taito Publisher: Taito Platform: Arcade (Taito F3 System) Released in JP: July 1995 Released in US: May 1995 This game has debugging material. This game has a hidden level select. This game has regional differences.

Taito's take on the self-spoofing style done in Konami's Parodius series.

Debug Functions

Crash Handler

This game has a basic exception handler for the standard set of exception vectors. It prints data for the program counter, status register, fifteen of the sixteen data/address registers, and the stack pointer at the point of exception.

Level Select

This game uses the Taito Code:

1. Hold the Service Coin button upon booting, and wait until a "SERVICE SWITCH ERROR" message pops up on the screen.
2. Press 1P Start (×3), Service Coin, 1P Start.

If successful, a stage select menu will appear, which can be navigated with the 1P Joystick. Additionally, upon selecting a stage, the player gains 9 credits.

(Source: RyogaMasaki)

Expanded Input Test

Normal	Full

Entering the Taito Code on the switch test will greatly expand the number of inputs tested to include every possible input that the F3 system supports.

(Source: Original TCRF research)

Running Debug

Put the following two codes in MAME's spcinv95.xml cheat file to enable a Tilt-triggered debug menu.

<cheat desc="Ignore Checksum"> <script state="run"> <action>maincpu.mw@000FDA=0x0002</action> </script> <script state="off"> <action>maincpu.mw@000FDA=0x00AE</action> </script> </cheat>

<cheat desc="Tilt Debug"> <script state="run"> <action>maincpu.md@000780=0x4EB90001</action> <action>maincpu.md@000784=0xEB844E75</action> </script> <script state="off"> <action>maincpu.md@000780=0x4A390041</action> <action>maincpu.md@000784=0x55BA67EC</action> </script> </cheat>

It's a Joke

Exits the menu.

Appear

Brings up a prompt in the lower-left corner. The user picks which object to spawn with 1P Up/Down and spawns that object by pressing 1P Button 1.

No Hit

When toggled, getting hit by an enemy shot or colliding with an enemy won't kill the player.

Reset

Resets the game. Makes sense.

Otamesi SCR

Displays the raw contents of the game's foreground and background graphics ROMs.

Controls

• 1P Up/Down: Scrolls through tiles (1 row per frame).
• 1P Left/Right: Adjusts the width of each row of tiles.
• 1P Button 1 / 1P Button 2: Adjusts palette number.
• 1P Button 3 + 1P Left/Right: Scrolls through tiles (1 screen per frame).

Otamesi OBJ

Displays the raw contents of the game's sprite graphics ROMs.

Controls

• 1P Up/Down: Scrolls through tiles (1 row per frame).
• 1P Left/Right: Adjusts the width of each row of tiles.
• 1P Button 1 / 1P Button 2: Adjusts palette number.
• 1P Button 3 + 1P Left/Right: Scrolls through tiles (1 screen per frame).

Otamesi OBJTBL

Displays properly assembled sprites from the game's sprite table.

Controls

• 1P Up/Down: Adjusts sprite number by 01 per frame).
• 1P Left/Right: Toggles horizontal and vertical flip bits.
• 1P Button 1 / 1P Button 2: Adjusts palette number.
• 1P Button 3 + 1P Left/Right: Adjusts sprite number by 10 per frame.
• 2P Joystick: Repositions the sprite.

Carnage / Mongol

Both options destroy all on-screen enemies. "Carnage" jumps to a subroutine (0x01EC5E) that just jumps to an enemy-clearing subroutine (0x00503C) and exits, while "Mongol" jumps to 0x00503C directly.

(Source: Original TCRF research)

Regional Differences

International	US

On the Continue screen, non-US sets have a referee-like creature that points his finger down in rhythm with the countdown. The US sets instead have Taito's typical Continue instructions in its place.