Arkanoid (Arcade)

The mothership Arkanoid was attacked by unknown forces. The spacecraft "Vaus", armed only with an elastic orb and rubbery armor, must destroy rectangular tiles and battle against Homer Simpson's catchphrase.

Stage Editor#

This needs some investigation. Discuss ideas and findings on the talk page. Specifically: There's probably a better way to access this. Also, is it possible to actually save stages?

A half-functioning stage editor can be accessed by putting the following cheat in MAME's arkanoid.xml cheat file:

  <cheat desc="Edit Mode">
    <script state="on">
      <action>temp0 =maincpu.mw@0338</action>
    </script>
    <script state="run">
      <action>maincpu.mw@0338=8082</action>
    </script>
    <script state="off">
      <action>maincpu.mw@0338=temp0</action>
    </script>
  </cheat>

This will bring up the level editor after starting a new game. Notes:

• With this method, the joystick can't actually be used to select blocks. Only the next block in the level can be selected.
• After turning the cheat off, the game will freeze after Vaus respawns.

The message "CAN YOU DO BETTER ?" also appears on the high score screen of N.Y. Captor, an earlier Taito game.

Staff Credits#

Watch on YouTubeA set of staff credits (with pictures!) is still in the game, but it's normally inaccessible. These are (highly likely) supposed to play after the game's epilogue, but in the game, the epilogue is followed by the name entry sequence or game over screen.

There's no place to access it in the World set, but it is accessible in the newer Japanese set with level select.

Put the following cheat in MAME's arkanoidja.xml cheat file. This will replace the Export warning with the credits.

  <cheat desc="Team Credits">
    <script state="run">
      <action condition="(maincpu.pb@c677==88)">maincpu.pb@c675=40</action>
    </script>
  </cheat>

Also present in a75__06.ic14 (the MCU internal ROM) at 0x3CC is this string.

Wed,  4 Jun 1986, 16:34 Programmed By Yasu.

Unused Round#

There's one unused round in the game. It's coded as Round 33, which is used for the Doh fight in the final game. This might have been used as a backup, just in case Doh failed to spawn for some reason, or before the game was made to have a boss. The easiest way to access this round is to go to Round 192 through using cheats to always have the exit door open.

Here's the arkanoid.xml code. Just beat Round 01 to get there:

  <cheat desc="Broken Heart">
    <script state="run">
      <action>maincpu.pb@ED72=9F</action>
    </script>
  </cheat>

Build Date#

This build string was presumably displayed on the title screen when the game was still in development. The parameters for this string are defined in the main CPU at 30FD, but there's no call to actually display the text. Oh, and it's the same date in every version of the game.

This code (put in arkanoid.xml, in case that hasn't been made clear yet) will replace the "All Rights Reserved" string with the build date text.

  <cheat desc="Build Date">
    <script state="on">
      <action>temp0 =maincpu.mw@3336</action>
      <action>temp1 =maincpu.mw@3339</action>
    </script>
    <script state="run">
      <action>maincpu.mw@3336=5CA9</action>
      <action>maincpu.mw@3339=E698</action>
    </script>
    <script state="off">
      <action>maincpu.mw@3336=temp0</action>
      <action>maincpu.mw@3339=temp1</action>
    </script>
  </cheat>

Text Testing#

Just some placeholder text for the game's scrolling text. Here's the cheat for the arkanoid.xml cheat file blah blah.

  <cheat desc="Team Credits 2">
    <script state="on">
      <action>temp0 =maincpu.mw@770F</action>
      <action>temp1 =maincpu.mw@7711</action>
    </script>
    <script state="run">
      <action>maincpu.mw@770F=CD40</action>
      <action>maincpu.mw@7711=BD37</action>
    </script>
    <script state="off">
      <action>maincpu.mw@770F=temp0</action>
      <action>maincpu.mw@7711=temp1</action>
    </script>
  </cheat>

Version Differences#

To do: Check for more differences (like bugfixes) between the Japanese and US older and newer sets. Tournament Arkanoid should probably be documented, either here or on its own separate page. It's a US-exclusive release of Arkanoid that makes the game much harder with new stage layouts. There's also two known revisions: an "older" set and a "newer" one.

There are six distinct sets of Arkanoid in MAME:

• arkanoidjb is the earliest Japanese version (and presumably the earliest release) of the game.
• arkanoiduo is the earliest North American version of the game. It seems to be identical to arkanoidjb, aside from the copyright disclaimer removal and different copyright string.
• arkanoid is the version released worldwide. This is the only set to not have a Revised one. Aside from that, it seems identical to arkanoidjb and arkanoiduo, aside the different copyright string.
• arkanoidja is the first revised Japanese version of the game. In terms of gameplay, it looks identical to the former sets, but with the addition of a level select feature.
• arkanoidu is the revised North American version of the game. It looks identical to arkanoidja, minus the level select removal.
• arkanoidj is the second revised Japanese version (and presumably the latest release) of the game. This version changes the levels structure to make the game more difficult.

Copyright#

The Japanese sets display a standard export copyright notice after the hardware check. Every US sets (plus the only World set) don't have an equivalent notice, and instead go straight to the title screen.

Title Screen#

Japan	US	World

Just like the games released by Taito under the same name in all regions, the only difference in the title screen is the different copyright. That's all.

Level Select#

Exclusively to arkanoidja, the game allows you to choose which level you would like to start at. Other versions just start at level 1. Simple.

Difficulty#

To do: If you can, add the other levels too.

Other sets	Japan, newer set

As mentioned above, arkanoidj changes the structure of each level with more complicated ones, in order to make the game more difficult.

References#