Superman: Battle for Metropolis

Superman: Battle for Metropolis
Developer: Neon Studios Platform: Game Boy Color This game has hidden development-related text. This game has unused graphics. This game has unused music. This game has unused text. This game has debugging material. This game has a development article This game has a bugs page

This game was never completed and/or given a public release. As a result of this, keep in mind that the developers might have used or deleted some of the content featured here, had the game actually been released.

  This prototype is documented on Hidden Palace.

Superman battles for Metropolis, just like the name says.

Intended to be published by Infogrames, Neon's initial vision for the game was hamstrung due to regulations that were imposed on the character. The available build, dated January 12, 2001, was created as a compromise to meet some of the licensor's demands; the result failed to impress the licensor, and the game was subsequently cancelled.

Sub-Pages

Development Info

Bugs

Unused Graphics

Unused continue numbers.

Unused Music

Two short pieces probably intended for when a level is cleared.

Unused Text

THE END

Present at 0x8BB36 and 0x8FB36. Probably a markup for the end of the main program data and sound engine data, respectively.

-- THE END --

Build Info

Appears at the start of every level.

Crash Handler

While functional, with some of the error messages connected to various portions of the program, it mainly pops up to display a "GBC ONLY" message when running on a regular Game Boy.

The full list of error codes is present at 0x009F24. Use Game Genie code 0??2-02F-A2A (where "??" is one of the below) to show a different error message instead of the "GBC ONLY" one:

00
"Illegal error code 
%w)."
Und dies ist noch 
ein bisschen 
Testtext %b, um den 
Umbruch zu testen..."
01
"Bunnyhop"
02
"Simple trick: %b"
03
"Combo trick: %b"
04
"Script error at (%b:%w)"
05
"No free script res"
06
"No free handler res"
07
"No free sprite tiles"
08
"No free bganim tiles"
09
"Gel error at (%b:%w)"
ID: %b"
0A
"Illegal bganim index"
0B
"Too many sprite pals"
0C
"No free font tiles"
0D
"No free DMA slot"
0E
"Too many sprites"
0F
"Unsupported font type"
10
"GBC ONLY"
11
"Record buffer overflow"

Five of the messages (00-03 and 11) aren't used in this game, and some of them appear to be leftover strings from Dave Mirra Freestyle BMX.

To do: BANK2 along with the CrashHandler code mostly consists of the unreferenced and not-working complex debug routine. Need advanced hacking to get it working. Entry point is at 0x4000 (all code is RAM-based).