Killer Instinct (SNES)

To do: Prototype

The Super Nintendo port of Killer Instinct cuts down on quite a few features of the arcade classic, but still manages to be a solid fighter while bringing offerings of its own, like tournament and training modes. While not outright confirmed, this port's existence owes itself to the arcade's promise that Killer Instinct would be available for your home in 1995 only on Nintendo Ultra 64 - a console that didn't actually come out in 1995.

Notably, the sequel had a nearly finished port that went the way of Star Fox 2 due to the Nintendo 64 finally being out that next year.

Anti-Piracy#

A number of anti-piracy measures exist, sharing many of the same routines used in Donkey Kong Country 2 and 3.

Failing any of the below tests will write the string I PiRatE to RAM address $7E0200 and then display the above unauthorized device message on boot up.

Boot State Test#

Almost immediately after booting, the Emulation Flag and Direct Page register are examined. The console already being in Native Mode and/or the Direct Page register containing a non-zero value fails the test as these are evidence that another program (e.g., a backup unit menu) was running before the game had a chance to boot.

Stack Test#

If the Reset Vector was at the top of the stack, the test fails. Explained in more detail in the next section.

RAM Tests#

The beginning of RAM (range $7E0000-7E1FFF) is searched for three types of fingerprints left behind by the unauthorized devices. The two jump tests, along with the stack test mentioned in the previous section, are looking for the various methods that attached hardware can use to switch from its programming to that of the game cartridge.

Jump $4C#

Checks for operation $4Cxxxx, where xxxx is the Reset Vector.

Indirect Jump $6C#

Checks for operation $6CFCFF, an indirect jump.

Incrementing RAM Pattern#

Checks for the incrementing 32 byte string $60-7F (i.e., 60,61,62 ... 7D,7E,7F). This includes lowercase ASCII characters a-z.

References#