Thunder Force III

Thunder Force III
Developer: Tecnosoft Publishers: Tecnosoft (JP), HOT-B (US) Platform: Genesis Released in JP: June 8, 1990 Released in US: 1990 This game has unused code. This game has regional differences.

Demo Recording

On the bottom of the screen on level title cards, you usually see a message telling you either the game difficulty setting or that it is a demonstration. If word $FFF29E is set to $0002, "DATA SAVE MODE" is shown instead. With this word still set, code at $4938 will run that saves demo data for the current level somewhere. The initial address, at $64C, is set to the locations of the demos in ROM; send it elsewhere (such as to SRAM at $200000 if your emulator automatically creates SRAM on write), play a while, then go back to the title screen, turn the setting off and watch the demo play back.

Later Levels in Stage Select

The Stage Select menu has code to show the last three levels (Cerberus, ORN Base, ORN Core), including placing the targeting crosshair in the right place. You can override the stage select's limitations to select these three levels with codes 6E45:07, 6E63:07, and 6E75:07. Interestingly, Cerberus is named "Kerberos" in this menu.

(Source: oostyx's Thunder Force III hacking guide, December 2010 version)

(note from andlabs: choosing a level, then beating it, will start you at Planet Hydra again, presumably because there's another set of level complete bits. There are ways around it; for instance, use FFF2A2:FF on ORN Core to see the ending.)

Regional Differences

Note that the US and Japanese versions are contained in the same ROM. The version that boots up is dependent on the region setting of your console/emulator.

Difficulty

Enemies in the US version are slightly less resilient, making the game somewhat easier.

Title Screen

Japan	US

For whatever reason, the "Tecno Soft" name is changed to "Techno Soft".

Credits

Japan	US

The name change also carries over to the staff roll.

All Weapons Cheat

In the game, pause and press Up ten times, B, Down two times, then continuously press B until the weapon meter is replenished and A to equip craws. Notice that if you change the controller configuration type, you'll have to alter the inputs for the cheat too.

(Source: Original TCRF research)