Valis III (Genesis)

Sequel first!

Video Mode Select#

When paused, press Up + A to switch to interlaced video mode, or Up + C to switch back to progressive mode. The game will automatically revert back to progressive mode when a visual cutscene starts.

Game/Visual Select#

At $3472 in the Japanese ROM is a menu that allows you to choose between "Game" and "Visual"; sadly, both options seem to just go into the game. 530:4E71, 532:4EB8, and 534:3472 jump into this menu after pressing Start on the title screen (it replaces the Map Select check and jump).

Visual Select Mode#

At the title screen, hold A+C+Up+Left, then press Start.

Level Select#

At the title screen, hold A+B+C+Up, then press Start. Release all but Start as soon as the screen fades to black to make the level select appear.

Music Test (Japanese version only)#

At the title screen, hold A+B+C, then press Start. Press Up and Down to choose the track to play, and A plays it.

The American version can re-enable the music test with a single Game Genie code, DWRA-CN38 or by patching 19C3E:661C. The song titles are non-functional and a single line of font from VRAM are shown as they occupy the space the Japanese version would draw the song titles into.

Strangely, while the Japanese version has a total of $10 BGM tracks, only the first $0E are selectable in the music test.
While track $0F is used as the ending credits theme, it is not shown in the Japanese music test menu. This track is, however, fully playable in the American version's music test.

The American music test menu's boundaries function differently. Rather than the music test's selection ending at value $0E like in the Japanese version, the game will allow you to continue to go beyond this value. The same music in slots $00-$0F continue to loop continuously from $10 until $FF and it's possible to loop the selection all the way back to the beginning ($00).

Sound Effect Test (Japanese version only)#

At the title screen, hold B+Down+Right, then press Start. The controls are the same as the music test.

Much like the music test, the sound effect test has playable sounds beyond the selection that you can normally access. Altering 68K RAM address $F5E8 to the following values and pressing A will play the desired sound effect.

Unused Music#

There is a song hidden after the final value in the music test menu. In the music test menu force the value of 68K RAM address $F5E8 to $10 and press A to hear an unused song.

Alternatively you can use the Pro Action Replay code FFF5E8:0010 and press A while on the music test menu to get the same result. This will only work on the Japanese version of the game as the track in the American version's music test menu has it's pointer rewritten to play the same track that's played at value $00.

Even though this track is entirely unplayable in the American version's music test, data still exists for it in the game's code.