Spirou (Genesis)

Spirou is a platformer based off the popular European comic character of the same name.

Debug Menu#

At the Infogrames logo, press C, B, A, Left, holding each button down as you go. The Sega logo sound effect will play to confirm success. During gameplay, hold A and press Start to enter the debug menu.

Expanded Debug Menu#

At offset 0xd2370 is a pointer table to each menu entry, consisting of references to each label and handler functions. In The Smurfs, all entries were present, and only a variable with the number of entries needed to be patched. In our case, there are only two entries in the table: MAIN DEBUG and TABLEAU (i.e. level select). However, the entries themselves are still present, so we can add them to a new table at offset 0xfff00 and replace the table reference in function 0xd190e to the new table. Use the following Game Genie codes:

0D1910 000F
0D1912 FF00
0FFF00 000D
0FFF02 237C
0FFF04 000D
0FFF06 23A6
0FFF08 000D
0FFF0A 23C6
0FFF0C 000D
0FFF0E 2404
0FFF10 000D
0FFF12 2428
0FFF14 000D
0FFF16 2478
0FFF18 000D
0FFF1A 24A0
0FFF1C 000D
0FFF1E 24C8
0FFF20 000D
0FFF22 24F0
0FFF24 000D
0FFF26 2518
0FFF28 000D
0FFF2A 2542
0FFF2C 000D
0FFF2E 256A
0FFF30 0000
0FFF32 0000

B6NT-4AAT
AANT-592W
B19T-8AAA
SX9T-8GJC
B19T-8AAE
Y59T-8GJG
B19T-8AAJ
259T-8GJL
B19T-8AAN
AX9T-8JJR
B19T-8AAT
FD9T-8JJW
B19T-8AAY
SD9T-8JJ0
B19T-8AA2
YD9T-8JJ4
B19T-8AA6
3D9T-8JJ8
B19T-8ABA
8D9T-8JKC
B19T-8ABE
DD9T-8LKG
B19T-8ABJ
JM9T-8LKL
B19T-8ABN
PM9T-8LKR
AD9T-8ABT
AD9T-8ABW

Options:

Label	Effect	Image
EXIT	Resumes play
CPTANIME	Frame counter outputting the value of 0xff62d8, which is incremented on each VBLANK call, unless the game is paused; Reset to 0 on screen transitions
CONSTRUCTIONVRAM	Start address of work VRAM
RESET	Performs an illegal write when A+B are hold, by writing "NAF " to ROM end (0x0fffff), causing a crash
TABLEAU	Level select
VIEW VRAM	Use D-Pad to scroll
DUMP VRAM	Use D-Pad to scroll
DUMP VSRAM
DUMP CRAM
CHANGE COLOR	Use D-Pad to select palette or show RGB values for palette entry; Doesn't seem to actually change entries
VIEW COLOR	Same interface as CHANGE COLOR, but also shows color cycling
VIEW COLLISION	Use D-Pad to select value; Setting Oui draws collision boxes around sprites

Error Handler#

An unused function at 0xd33f0 renders the error message "TABLE DE COL TROP PETITE" (lit. "Col table too small"). We can load it when opening the debug menu by adding the following Game Genie code:

0D1A7E 33F0

8APA-5GM8

There are more error messages, but none of them are referenced:

TROP DE PERSOS DS RESTEAFFPERSO
TABLE CORRESPONDANCE TROP PETITE
TROP DE SPRITES HARD
2 PERSOS TEL DE MEME TYPE

Demo screen#

An unused screen function at 0xe5e16 seems to be a leftover from a demo version, suggesting a release date of June 1995. It also includes an abridged level select, containing only the following entries:

JOUET
CATACOMBES
MARECAGE

We can load it when selecting a level from the debug menu by adding the following Game Genie code:

0D192E 5E16

C2NT-56VR

Unused Music#

Four songs are stored with the rest of the game's audio in the sound data and aren't played at any point in the game.

ID 03, an alternate version of the title screen theme.

ID 0C appears to be an early version of the subway level theme.

ID 0D is an entirely unused song which doesn't match any of the songs from the rest of the game or the SNES version.

ID 11 is the lose life theme from the SNES version.