Castelian (NES)

Castelian is an extremely difficult puzzle platformer that appeared on other systems with different names, including Nebulus, Subline, and Tower Toppler.

Secret Message#

At the Game Over screen, press and hold A + Select + Up on Controller 1, then wait until the title screen re-appears. Instead you'll see the secret copyright message. The message itself is encrypted by xoring with $55 value, and can't be found in hex editor as a plain text.

This even appears in the European release, which was not published by Triffix.

Disabled Cheats#

A couple of disabled cheats can be re-enabled with the following Game Genie codes.

• SAOKUPSZ (US)/SAXKUZSZ (Japan) - press Down + Left + A + B to enable invincibility. Also, if you enter a door, the level will be automatically finished.
• SAOKSPSZ (US)/SAXKSZSZ (Japan) - press Down + Left + A + B to finish the current level automatically. Use with the above code, or it won't work for some reason.

Anti-Piracy Check#

The US version has a check in place to prevent would-be pirates from tampering with the game's text and/or hidden copyright routine: When entering a level, the game performs an integrity check on the entirety of PRG bank 3, which contains the aforementioned data. If it doesn't get the expected result, the code jumps to the wrong location and hangs.

This routine still exists in the Japanese version, though it's never accessed.

Source Code#

A fragment of uncompiled code is present at 0x03715.

pz_vars equ &60 ;page zero variables
dbase   equ &1800   ;4K current database
dsource equ &2800   ;compressed database
no_of_towers equ    4   ;total towers
total_towers equ    dsource ;defined towers
tower_addr equ  dsource+1   ;4 * address (relative to dsource)
tower_size equ  tower_addr+(2*no_of_towers)
            ;4 * size in bytes (word)
tower_data equ  tower_size+(2*no_of_towers)         
            ;compressed tower data          
            ;a). x0xxxxxx = byte            
            ;b). x1xxxxxx = repeated byte           
            ;    cccccccc   count=2..255
sprite_addr_l equ   &3900   ;sprite address table 2*256 bytes
sprite_addr_h equ   &3A00
rnd_table equ       &3B00   ;1/4K table of 256 random numbers
main_vars equ       &3C00   ;main global variables (see S.VARS) 
    ;---------------------------------------------  
    ;BANK 1 - VIC BANK : SPRITE,SCREENS,

Regional Differences#

To do: There's more. Also, add protagonist sprites for comparison.

Title Screen#

The title screen was entirely overhauled, featuring new protagonist Kyoro-Chan. Kyoro-Chan is the mascot of the "Chocoball" candy in Japan.

US	Europe	Japan

Title Music#

Both themes are used in both games, but where they play was changed: Castelian's title music is used in Kyoro-Chan Land in the "intermission" stages between levels, and vice versa.

Copyright & Credits#

The US and European versions use a light green hue for the copyright and credits text, while the Japanese version uses a salmon coloring.

Password System#

Kyoro-Chan Land added a password system to the game, with codes entered on the main menu and given out at the level intermission screen.

US/Europe Main Menu	Japan Main Menu	US/Europe Intermission Screen	Japanese Intermission Screen

Buzzing Sound#

The Japanese and European versions emit a constant buzzing noise during gameplay, but not on the title screen or level intermission screen.