Xevious (NES, Famicom Disk System)

A port of the much-loved arcade game Xevious. Namco handled this port themselves, and by all accounts it did very well indeed!

It's also one of those Namco games that comes with a tubular subtitle in the US: The Avenger.

Soft Dip Switches / Debug Mode#

At the title screen press and hold A or B on the second controller, then on the same controller press Right (×9), Up (×2), Left (×2), Down (×9). An 8-bit binary number will appear in the top-right corner of the screen. Press Left or Right on the second controller to highlight bits, and press A or B to switch them between 0 or 1. Press Reset to apply effects. Further resets will not disable any cheats.

Here's a table explaining the meaning of each bit, in order from left to right, and numbered from 7 to 0...

The US version contains the same input combination, but none of the bits have any in-game effects.

Hidden Messages#

Reset Check#

All versions of the game load the string

Kei Cross

in RAM, to help detect whether the game was hard or soft reset.

Credits#

All cartridge versions of the game have this credit text at the end of the ROM:

  MAIN: KEI CROSS
 SOUND: UHOHOY OHNOGI
ASSIST: EVEZOO END & HAL UDAGAWA
TESTER: SHIDASHI YAMAMO

Kei Cross is Kazuo Kurosu, whose name can be found in a few other NES games in the ROM text. Uhohoy Ohnogi is Nobuyuki Ohnogi, Namco's lead sound designer at the time. Evezoo End is Masanobu Endo, who designed the original arcade game and many other games for Namco. Hal Udagawa is Haruhisa Udagawa, another developer whose name appears in the ROM text for NES games. Shidashi Yamano is Koichi Yamamoto. Additionally, there is a video of Masanobu Endo talking about the NES version of Xevious here.

Additionally, the Japanese and US versions contain this copyright string just before the Credits text:

COPYRIGHT 1983 1984 NAMCO LTD. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

These hidden credits were entirely removed from the FDS version.

Regional Differences#

Title Screen#

Japan (Famicom)	Japan (FDS)	US	Europe	Namco Museum Archives

The Japanese title screen features the original NAMCOT logo, along with the standard copyright information. The FDS version updates the copyright year.

The US title screen removes the NAMCOT logo, replacing it with the copyright information, plus a trademark signifier and further information on Bandai and Nintendo of America's licensing. The European title screen is almost exactly like the US one, though keeping Nintendo's license as simply the company's name, not the country's division.

All regional versions of Star Fox: Assault includes Xevious as a bonus game which uses the Japanese NAMCOT logo.

The version in Namco Museum Archives Vol. 1 uses the Japanese NAMCOT logo, and updates the copyright information to refer to Bandai Namco Entertainment Inc. instead.