Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!

Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!! is the NES port/semi-sequel of the arcade game Punch-Out!!. It features Mario as the referee, boxers that are obviously cheaters, and an out-of-place ad for the Nintendo Fun Club (later known as Nintendo Power).

Sub-Pages#

Prototype Info Prerelease Info Notes Bugs

Unused Audio#

King Hippo's Theme#

The version that plays in-game has sound effects that replace four notes from the song. This is the underlying song without any sound effects.

Soda Popinski's Theme#

The first note of the main melody does not play in-game for some unknown reason.

"Oof" Sound#

The "Oof" DMC sample from Kung Fu and Zelda II: The Adventure of Link appears in the sound effects amongst the laugh sound effects.

Unused Sprites#

Super Macho Man#

Super Macho Man and Soda Popinski share the same body type, so both fighters were modeled similarly for their hook, uppercut, and jab animations. Only Soda uses jabs in the final game, rendering Macho's jab sprites unused.

Used	Unused

He also has some unused alternate expressions for his winning animation.

Mr. Sandman#

When Mr. Sandman wins, he smiles in a mocking manner. There is however, an alternate win animation of Mr. Sandman pointing at the player as he laughs. The sprites are included in the ROM, but they go unused.

Used	Unused

Developer Credit#

Present at 0x1A1BB. This signature is loaded into RAM at 0x160 to check for a cold boot.

NINTENDO.1987RD3

NINTENDO.1990RD3

Hidden Passwords#

• 135 792 4680 - After entering the last number, press A + B + Select (buttons must be pressed precisely at the same time). This takes you to "Another World Circuit" mode.
• 800 422 2602 - Triggers a busy signal. This was Nintendo of America's old nationwide customer service phone number.
• 206 882 2040 - Triggers a longer busy signal. This was Nintendo of America's old Washington state customer service phone number.
• 075 541 6113 - Triggers a longer busy signal. This was Nintendo of Japan's old customer service phone number.
• 007 373 5963 - Takes you directly to the Dream Fight against Mike Tyson/Mr. Dream. This password was first officially revealed in Spring 1990 (three years after the game's release) in Nintendo Power Issue 11, though other publications had already posted the password before then.
• 106 113 0120 - After entering the last number, press A + B + Select (buttons must be pressed precisely at the same time). This allows you to view the staff credits.

Prize Edition Differences#

The original "Shouhin-ban" (Prize Edition) Japanese release, housed in a gold-painted cartridge and given away only as a prize in a Family Computer Golf: U.S. Course competition, is essentially a modified prototype. The game data includes Tyson's graphics and coding, but he isn't accessible, with the last fight instead being against Super Macho Man (who had previously been the final opponent in Super Punch-Out!! for the arcade). In fact, all graphical tiles are identical between the LE and the Tyson version, as they share the same character (CHR) ROM, with the only visual differences being palette changes, as described below.

When the game was released to the public as Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!! it had various changes, such as Tyson becoming accessible as the new iconic last boss.

The original "Shouhin-ban" version was eventually commercially released on April 10, 2019 in Japan, Hong Kong, and Taiwan as part of the Nintendo Switch Online service.

Title Screen#

Prize Edition	Tyson Version

The title screen had blue "MIKE TYSON'S" text added at the top.

Prize Edition	Later Versions

Some Engrish was corrected: "TRAINNER" was corrected to "TRAINER", and the last sentence was cut in half.

Prize Edition	Tyson Version

More Engrish fixing. A dashed line had to be removed to fit Tyson's name.

Passwords#

Prize Edition	Later Versions

In the Tyson and Mr. Dream versions, there is a password to view the credits (106 113 0120, then hold Select and press A + B). In the original release, this password was left unfinished: the ROM contains all six secret passwords and has the routines to check it with the same button codes, but they are never called from the password check routine and there is no code to handle these after checking, as well as the credits display code. The credits text is present in the ROM in the same place as in all subsequent releases, but obviously rendered unused. The credit messages differ slightly, with U.Kaneoka and U.Kuriyama being changed to Y.Kaneoka and Y.Kuriyama in the other versions.

The password to access the "Another World Circuit" mode (135 792 4680, then hold Select and press A + B) is also inaccessible. In this mode you fight 8 boxers in a row and the title bout is against Tyson and not Super Macho Man.

Circuits#

The HUD and boxing rings have a different color palette than the ones in the Tyson and Dream versions.

Demo#

Prize Edition	Later Versions

The short demo is a bit different between versions and has yet another color palette not seen in-game.

Characters#

Piston Honda and King Hippo's skin colors were changed from pinkish to yellow, as was Glass Joe's hair.

The color palette on the profile images of Honda and Hippo was updated as well.

Bald Bull has purple-colored shorts and boots in the Major Circuit, and blue ones in the World Circuit. In subsequent versions, he always wears light blue.

Post-Match#

Prize Edition	Later Versions

Even more Engrish fixing was done to the regular victory screen, and unnecessary quotes were added. The original Japanese version is quite confused on who it should be congratulating.

Prize Edition	Later Versions

The newspaper at the end of the game was changed to tell the player how to fight Mike Tyson/Mr. Dream, added a password for the Super Macho Man match, had its Engrish fixed, and changed the exclamation mark to be more blocky.

Prize Edition	Later Versions

You guessed it, more Engrish and second-person fixing.

Prize Edition	Later Versions

And here, too.

Music#

Most (perhaps all?) of the music was altered after the Prize Edition. With one exception (see below), the actual melodies and instruments remained the same, but there is more vibrato in the LE version's BGM.

For example, here's the main theme.

The "Title Bout" theme was totally changed after the LE version.

Inaccessible Content#

Mike Tyson#

Mike Tyson is programmed in the game, and is functional as an opponent.

If you use Game Genie codes IESZPAAA + AKSZZAAA, Mike Tyson will replace Glass Joe. Game Genie code AANXPPZL will present the fight as The Dream Fight against Kid Dynamite.

The background color of the ring is gray (value 00), which suggests that the proper palette color may be missing.

Text for the announcement for the Mike Tyson fight, as well as the "Mike is waiting for your challenge" text is still present in the ROM file as well. The code that actually loads the "Mike is waiting for your challenge" screen is missing from the ROM.

Another World Circuit#

The "Another World Circuit" is inaccessible in this version of the game. However, changing RAM 013E to any non-zero value will cause the game to display the current circuit as "Another World Circuit".

PlayChoice-10 Differences#

To do: Document default saved times. Get a screenshot of the scoreboard. There are palette differences in the PC-10 version. There may be additional differences between the PC-10 and retail versions.

Among the games available on Nintendo's PlayChoice-10 arcade hardware was Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!, which had a few differences from the retail version.

• When starting a new game, the player is prompted to input their initials. These are saved to the scoreboard, which is displayed after every fight.
• The scoreboard is also displayed before each fight if the player waits on the intro screen.
• The famous "training" animation immediately skips to the end in this version, rendering most of the backdrop unused.
• The "Another World Circuit" is not accessible in this version. If you modify RAM to play there anyway, the high score tables for the matches are junk data.

Mr. Dream Version Differences#

When Nintendo's license to use Mike Tyson's name and likeness expired, a new version of the game was released that replaced him with a generic character named Mr. Dream. While this version is less common on cartridge compared to the Tyson version, Animal Crossing and all digital re-releases use this iteration (aside from, as noted above, Nintendo Switch Online's Famicom game library, which instead has the Prize Edition).

The Mr. Dream version never saw a Famicom cartridge release in Japan as it only released for the NES in North America and Europe, however it would see a release for the FamicomBox kiosk. Incidentally, the game's inclusion in Doubutsu no Mori + was the first time the Mr. Dream version was commercially released in Japan.

Tyson Version	Dream Version

The updated version removes "MIKE TYSON'S" from the title screen, as well as the "MIKE IS WAITING FOR YOUR CHALLENGE!!" screen. A 1990 copyright was added.

Tyson Version	Dream Version

In with the Dream, out with the Mike.

Tyson Version	Dream Version

And here's Mr. Dream himself. He's basically just a palette and head swap of Tyson, although at the same time based on former undefeated record-holder Rocky Marciano.

Tyson Version	Dream Version

The pre-fight stats were changed for Mr. Dream, making them less realistic and more mysterious.

Tyson Version	Dream Version

The "Another World Circuit" version of Mike Tyson is glitched, causing his name to be displayed as "Another mchampionn", due to writing the words "Another Champion" on top of "Mike Tyson". The glitch is fixed in the Mr. Dream version of the game, showing his name as intended.

Mike Tyson Leftovers#

The "Mike Is Waiting For Your Challenge" screen is still programmed into the game, but is inaccessible. Most of the graphics data used for this screen is still there, but some of the graphics for the "Mike Tyson" text have been overwritten by new copyright text.

Miscellaneous#

The Mr. Dream version also makes an extremely minor (as in "single pixel") alteration to Piston Honda's KO sprite. See if you can spot it!

Virtual Console Differences#

Piston Honda's quote of "Where is the NHK TV camera? Hello Tokyo!" was changed in the Virtual Console versions to "Where is my camera crew? Hello Tokyo!" This is likely because NHK is an actual broadcasting company in Japan.

Revisional Differences#

Super Macho Man Soft Lock Fix#

In the original release of Mike Tyson's Punch Out, if the player interrupted Super Macho Man's spin punch at the exact moment a crowd character was giving a "tell", the game would go into a state where it couldn't proceed as the whole audience would be locked up. The game received a revision which fixed this glitch by making the crowd animations proceed any time the ref appeared on screen. This fix remained in later versions such as the Mr. Dream edition.