Dynamite Dux (Sega Master System)

This page details one or more prototype versions of Dynamite Dux (Sega Master System).

This prototype is documented on Hidden Palace.

An undated prototype was released by SMS Power! on December 28, 2021.

It is a late build that feels very close to final, but does have various minor differences.

Misc. differences#

• Free space in the ROM is actually empty (all FF), not filled with leftover data.
• The header's product code is 0000 since this is a prototype, but the cart is labeled 7029 while the final ROM is 7028.
• The "Sega logo" screen is always shown, for any region.
• The "play sound" queue had length 3 (increased to 10 in the final) and didn't prioritize background music.
• The "low life" threshold for half closed eyes was at 5 units (7 in the final) and only took effect on idle damage and food. Curiously, food healing still checks for >=5 in the final but the damage fix overrides that.
• Weapon ammo was decremented (and empty weapon dropped) after the shot finishes, instead of immediately on firing.
• Potentially some bugs related to sprite positioning (?)

Enemies#

• The fire boss's small fires and water gun got a more significant rework, but still feel largely the same.
• The rock boss had 30 hit points, reduced to 20 in the final.
• The penguin boss and (sometimes) cannon balls did no damage.

Sound#

Sound effect id AC to AF were dummy placeholders, removed in the final:

Ending#

It was possible to break the ending "credits" by holding the dpad before the first enemy appears, causing punches to miss so enemies hit/kill you. The final fixed this by clearing player input at that point, and made it ignore the life counter display and extra life check.

"The end" text scrolled faster (3 -> 4 frames per tile in the final) and stayed for a longer time (384 -> 256 frames) before returning to the title screen.

Levels#

Round 1's fire boss was 3 tiles early, then immediately followed by 2 Rompers (like the arcade version) with food drops. The final removed those Rompers, moved the drops to the first enemy of each path, and reordered (fixed) the top path's first 2 Roller Cats.

This early boss location can be seen on the game box¹, Sega's game catalogs and even some magazine reviews after release, suggesting it was a very late change.

Round 4 had an additional homing gun near the start, also shown in the manual and in a review, and the path split was set differently.

Round 5 had different tile properties at the top corner of each floor step.

Cutscene graphics#

Early	Used

Mockup	Used

Unused in the prototype and removed in the final, an early copy of Bin's human form that would be on the background layer instead of a sprite, and at a slightly different position. Bin himself looks identical except the bottom part of the legs (and not covered as deep), but the background part doesn't match the one in game, having green grass at a distance instead of more flowers.

References#