Deadly Towers

Fatal high-rises. Ominous obelisks. Deadly Towers.

Debug Screens#

Several debugging tools can be activated via the Family BASIC keyboard. Hold A + B on Controller 1 along with one of the following keys, then reset the console:

M - Monitor adjust

C - Color adjust

L - CRC test

T - Timer

S - Sound check

@ - CHR RAM test

ESC - Reset

Any button except A or B will reset the game. Holding Start or Select will skip the title screen and jump to the password screen.

Monitor Adjust#

A simple crosshatch screen.

Color Adjust#

Fills the screen with a red, blue, green, and white gradient.

CRC Test#

Displays a black screen while it calculates a checksum of every bank. After a few seconds, displays them and as well as the checksum of all four, along with "NO ERROR COMPLETED".

Notably, the "no error" text is written to the screen first, before any checksum is calculated. It will always be displayed (unless the game somehow crashes during checksum calculation).

Timer#

Displays a simple timer. Press A to start the timer, A again to reset it to zero, or B to stop it. The code has a bug: the hundreds digit of the timer does not advance (it wraps from 099 to 000). Game Genie code PASATKAE (JP) will fix this (if you're willing to wait over an hour and a half).

Sound Check#

You might think there's a sound test here, but sadly that isn't the case: the code simply writes the string "SOUND CHECK" to the screen and goes into an infinite loop.

CHR RAM Test#

Tests the game's CHR RAM by filling it with a single value and reading it back, and then displays either a green (pass) or red (fail) screen. The test has a bug: it was intended to alternate between writing $5A and $A5, but reads the wrong variables and does two passes of reading and writing $00 (or $01 in the second pass, if the first pass failed). Game Genie codes AEEETZPA + AEXAYZPA (JP) restore the intended behavior.

Reset#

Immediately resets the game (via an indirect JMP to the RESET vector at $FFFC), and will continue doing so until you release the buttons. May have had another function at some point in time.

Secret Cheat#

Restarting while holding A and B on the second controller will activate a flag (0160:03) that, when in one of the game's many single-screen dungeon rooms, will blank out the part of the screen behind the player's HP/max HP. As the sprites that display the HP are transparent and the dungeon backgrounds tend to be bright, this makes it much easier to read them.

Normal	Alternate

Unused Text#

Programmer Message#

At 0x1E01F (US) or 0x1E1C3 (Japan), there's a secret message from the developers. For whatever reason, the Japanese version ends with two extra exclamation marks and has an extra space before "GOOD BYE".

DISASSEMBLE? HELLO ! THIS IS DISASSEMBLE MESSAGE FOR YOU.
THIS PROGRAM WAS MADE IN JAPAN TOKYO 10 NOV 1986 COPY RIGHT BY
IREM CORP.PROGRAMMED AND LICENSED BY LENAR SPLENDOR
TEAM GOOD BYE !

Unknown#

An odd bit of text is at 0x1E1B0 in the Japanese version, after the line "PEACE WILL PROSPER IN FUTURE". Its location suggests it was supposed to appear somewhere in the ending.

      HOW WAS IT ?

Regional Differences#

Title Screen#

Japan	US

The list of room names was cleaned up for the American release.

COLD KILLERS ROOM
GRAT BURNS ROOM
BEAT PLANTS ROOM
WHEELERS ROOM
CENTIPEDES ROOM
GRAT WINGS ROOM
DEATH BEARS ROOM

COLD KILLER'S ROOM
GREAT BURN'S ROOM
BEAT PLANT'S ROOM
WHEELER'S ROOM
CENTIPEDE'S ROOM
GREAT WINGS'S ROOM
DEATH BEAR'S ROOM

The ending message was changed slightly in the US version to correct a grammatical error.

HE SUCCEEDED TO THE THRONE
           AND            
PEACE WILL PROSPER IN FUTURE

HE SUCCEEDED TO THE THRONE
           AND            
    PEACE WILL PROSPER
IN THE FUTURE