the cutting room mirror

Grind Stormer (Genesis)

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Grind Stormer sounds obscene, but it's just a shooter ported from the arcade.

Free Play#

Hold A+B+C at the title screen and tap the Start button 100 times in total to unlock Free Play in the Credit Limit selection in the options menu.

(Source: GameFAQs)

Left-Handed Mode#

Unlike most Genesis games, Grind Stormer features a very early form of an accessibility feature. The options menu has a feature to set the control type for "Left-Handed". When enabled, the D-Pad's orientation is reversed so that left-handed players can hold the controller upside down as the D-pad's now oriented on the right.

Why is this notable? This is the only game that uses Reverse mode, a feature that was announced by Sega themselves as far back as the launch of the Genesis on the November 1988 issue of Beep! magazine. As the Reverse mode was expected to be implemented in software, it doesn't seem to have been officially enforced in any capacity; although several of Sega R&D2's games include a "REVERSE" function, they do wildly different actions from game to game and will never invert the D-Pad's orientation. Grind Stormer seems to be the only game that calls back to this announcement, implementing it in software with no trouble.

(Source: Tomoya Onda)

Debug Mode#

Grind_Stormer_Genesis_NO_DEBUG.png Grind_Stormer_Genesis_YES_DEBUG.png

Originally, the Training selection in the options menu had a total of four settings: NO, YES, NO (DEBUG), YES (DEBUG). The last two, as seen in the pictures above, require bit 0x02 set in memory address $FFDAD7, but the menu normally only deals with the first two (bit 0x01).

Use these game enhancer codes to enable the debug mode:

Action Replay

 
009D32:661A
00A506:6722
00AD92:6636
00D48C:671A

Each code corresponds to one of the four sets of effects available in the section below. Use just the first code for the Skip Stage enable, for example.

Action Replay
(alternate)

 
0032CC:4E71
0032D2:0C01
0032D4:0004
0032D6:6D02
0032D8:4241

Restores the debug settings in the Training selection in options.

Game Genie

 
DLRT-AN3W
ELWT-AR2G
G40T-AN6W
DMLA-AR6N

Each code corresponds to one of the four sets of effects available in the section below.

Game Genie
(alternate)

 
RE3A-A60N
AE3A-A2GW
AT3A-AAGY
AJ3A-A480
JE3A-AE02

Restores the debug settings in the Training selection in options.

Skip Stage#

Press C to instantly advance to the next stage. Sets memory addresses $FFD96A to 0001 and $FFD968 to FFFF.

Pause Effects#

Pause the game, and use the following buttons:

  • Controller 1
    • Up: Increase progress in stage.
    • Down: Decrease progress in stage.
    • Right: Modify ship.
    • Left: Modify speed (memory address $FFD948, range $0000-0007).
    • A: Unknown.
    • B: Unknown.
  • Controller 2
    • A: Add points (10s).
    • B: Add points (1000s).

Adding enough points can give extra lives and break the high score.

Debug Display#

Debug information is located on the right side of the screen.

Invincible#

Invincible to bullets and enemies.

(Source: JLukas)