Jim Power: The Lost Dimension in 3D (SNES)

To do:
Cover the Buck Rogers and EU prototypes

Jim Power: The Lost Dimension in 3D is a SNES conversion of the Amiga game Jim Power in Mutant Planet. This version sports a different player sprite, redone shmup levels, two new Contra III-esque top-down levels, with the latter making you drive your trusty gyro-cycle to the end on a tight time limit, and finally, nauseating parallax scrolling that's going the wrong way round.

Jim Power as a whole is also notable for its excellent Chris Hülsbeck soundtrack, which may or may not have copied Ys III's A Searing Struggle for its Level 1 (and 5 in this version) theme.

Cheat Mode#

During the game, press X, A, B, Y, A, B, Y, X, B, Y, X, A, Y, X, A, B on controller 2. The following functions will now be enabled on controller 2:

Button	Function
Up	Nine Lives
Down	Nine Bombs
Left	Nine Keys
Right	Reset the timer
L	Skip to the next level
Start	Freeze the game. Hold to run in slow motion.

Debug Content#

The overhead levels have a disabled routine that lets you tweak acceleration, deceleration, and top speed values for rotation and movement. Pressing Left/Right on the second controller selects which option to change, and Up/Down increase and decrease the value. The lives show the currently selected option the score shows the value. Pressing Start + A on the first controller will reset the values and level. You can enable the routine using Game Genie codes:

DDAB-4D0D
6DAB-4D6D
8EAB-4DAD
446D-4A7A
196D-4A5A
286D-4A8A
646D-4AEA
9A6D-427A
F26D-425A
226D-428A
646D-42EA

(Source: Original TCRF research)

Unused Code#

The retail version has a rippling shimmer effect in the background of levels 1 and 7, for the lake reflection and the fire, but it's disabled. The game sets a RAM value at boot that turns the effect off and never changes it. The effect only runs on version 2 of the S-CPU, likely to avoid the version 1 HDMA crash bug. The Buck Rogers prototype has the CPU check but not the RAM switch, so the effect was active there. You can enable it with the Action Replay code 7E047500, which also changes the background scrolling.

(Source: Original TCRF research)

Version Differences#

The game was released on Steam in 2015, with some changes from Piko Interactive.

The copyright screen removed "Copyright Loriciel 1993", "Copyright Electro Brain 1993", and "Licensed by Nintendo"; and added "Copyright Piko Interactive 2015".
The title screen originally had an Electro Brain logo and text, but this was removed.
The parallax scrolling was fixed. The original game would scroll the background layers in the opposite direction and at higher speeds, and was very disorienting. The updated version has regular parallax scrolling.
Each life is given 3 hits, represented by hearts.
The transition screens between levels were changed from text-only to having a 3D rendering of the level. These images are also in the DOS version, where the Level 2 and 5 images used to have green gems instead of coins.