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Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story (SNES)

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Debug Options#

DragonBruceLee-SNES-DebugOptions.png
In the Options menu, select the "Difficulty" option, then press L, A, R, R, Y. The above menu will appear, which lets you test several aspects of the game:

(Source: meccablue85 via Gamewinners)

Reboot#

Restarts the game.

Controller Test#

DragonBruceLee-SNES-DebugController.png
Opens a fairly extensive test screen, which displays what buttons are pressed in every pad, as well as other values, depending on what accessories are connected to the system and their state.

Show Statistics#

Europe

US

This options displays a screen where you can see the amount of RAM and ROM space the game uses, and the game's build date.

DragonBruceLee-SNES-DebugSNESVer.png
Pressing Select on the above screen shows you the CPU, PPU1 and PPU2 chip versions that your system has, just like The Lion King (SNES).

Additionally, there's text for a MOVIE TEST located at 0x1B818 in the US ROM, however there is no such option present in this menu, which suggests it may have been removed before the game went into production.

Level Select#

DragonBruceLee-SNES-LevelSelect.png
Go into the Options menu, select the "Sound Test" option, then press B, A, R, B, A, R, A. If you entered the code correctly, you'll hear a chime sound. When you start a one player game, you'll be able to select the stage you wish to start in.

(Source: meccablue85 via Gamewinners)

Development Text#

Starting from 0xD98F in the US version and 0xD955 in the European version is several debug messages for the Multitap controller, which is also present in several other games that supports the Multitap controller.

START OF MULTI5 CONNECT CHECK
MODIFIED FROM SHVC MULTI5 CONNECT CHECK Ver1.00
END OF MULTI5 CONNECT CHECKSTART OF MULTI5 BIOS
MODIFIED FROM SHVC MULTI5 BIOS Ver2.00
END OF MULTI5 BIOS

Anti-Piracy#

Watch on YouTubeThe game normally does not contain any SRAM, but it still checks to see if there is SRAM by writing two bytes of values at $307FFE. If this write was successful, trying to start a Story Game will result in an instant Game Over after the intro cutscene ends. All other game modes are still accessible and play as normal.

(Source: Original TCRF research)

Error Messages#

A few error messages in the game are implemented, but a select few are also unused.

Bad Controller#

The game periodically checks to ensure anything but a Multitap controller is connected on controller port 1. If it ever does detect a Multitap controller on port 1 during gameplay, this screen pops up until it is removed. Upon removing the Multitap device, the game restarts back at the Virgin Interactive logo.

Region Error#

Attempting to play the American version of the game on a European console and vise versa hangs the game on this screen. Since the game was never released in Japan, the wording of this screen comes off as a bit awkward.

Unused Error Messages#

In both versions of the game is a few text related to error messages that don't get used. They are located at 0x13F10-0x13FCC in the US version, and 0x13E55-0x13F41 in the European version. Plugging in a Super Scope or SNES Mouse does not result in an error, nor does the original anti-piracy message gets used in favor of the method described above.

SUPER SCOPE.
ADAPTER IS NOT DESIGNED FOR
USE WITH THE SUPER NES
MOUSE.
THIS GAME CAN ONLY
BE PLAYED FROM THE
ORIGINAL GAME PAK

Regional Differences#

Europe

US

The US release had some changes done to the startup screen since it was published by Acclaim.

DragonBruceLee-SNES-StartupPal2.png
The European release has this additional screen show up before the Virgin Interactive logo, telling folks that the film was available through all good video ... stockists? This message was removed in the US release, but the text is still in the ROM, at 0x13BBF.