Bakutotsu Kijuutei

Bakutotsu Kijuutei: Baraduke II
Developer: Namco Publisher: Namco Platform: Arcade (Namco System 1) Released in JP: August 1988 This game has hidden development-related text. This game has unused graphics. This game has unused items. This game has debugging material.

Bakutotsu Kijuutei: Baraduke II is the sequel to Alien Sector, a.k.a. Baraduke. The gameplay has changed significantly: Instead of having to eliminate every Octy to proceed, the player just has to reach the end of the stage. The health system is gone, so the player has a maximum of two hits before dying. Oh, and the player can only fire to the right, they can't backtrack, and there's an encroaching wall of death that they must outrun.

This was the last game in the Baraduke series.

Debug Functions

Most of these are already labeled correctly in MAME.

Sprite Viewer

Flip this dip switch to enable a sprite viewer on the title screen. Press 1P Up / Down to scroll through sprites.

Stage Select

Flip this dip switch to enable a stage select feature before starting a new game. This is actually a floor select (since this game has branching paths and all) and ranges from 00 to 47. Press 1P Left / Right to adjust the floor number by 1, and 1P Up / Down to adjust the floor number by 10.

Coordinate Display

The "Show Coordinates" dip switch does just what it says it does, printing the character's relative X and Y positions to the bottom-center of the screen.

Alternate Stage Count Display

The second dip switch labeled "Unknown" in MAME will change the way stage numbers are displayed. Normally the game uses a table to look up what stage the player is actually on and prints that to the screen at the start of the stage and at the bottom-left of the screen, but if this dip switch is set, the game will print the raw stage ID instead.

ADS Mode

To see the remnants of an ADS mode...

• Put the following code in bakutotu.xml:

  <cheat desc="ADS Mode">
    <script state="run">
      <action>user1.md@3FBA26=123EE37E</action>
    </script>
    <script state="off">
      <action>user1.md@3FBA26=F8002710</action>
    </script>
  </cheat>

• Start a normal game with the service dip switch set to Off.
• Enable the code.
• Press the Service Mode button (Default F1 in MAME).

The game doesn't actually track anything, though, hence "remnants".

Press the Service button (Default 9 in MAME) to switch to the next page. Note that the game skips from 13 minutes to 21 minutes. The full list of audits is loaded to the first background layer and is 512 pixels tall.

(Source: namcos1.cpp MAME driver)

(Source: Original TCRF research)

Alternate Layout Feature

If the Freeze dip switch is set, the game will load alternate layouts for most floors, 13 of which are unused in the normal layout set. Note that only the stage layout changes - object layouts remain the same. The obvious problem with all this is that the Freeze dip switch, well, freezes the game. Put the following code in bakutotu.xml to disable the freezing function:

  <cheat desc="Disable Freezing Function">
    <script state="run">
      <action>user1.mb@366B85=00</action>
    </script>
    <script state="off">
      <action>user1.mb@366B85=F6</action>
    </script>
  </cheat>

The table listed below first lists the floor number, then the earliest floor that uses this floor's normal layout, and then the first floor that has a normal layout that matches this floor's alternate layout, if any. For example, Floor 31's normal layout first appears in Floor 22, while Floor 31's alternate layout first appears as Floor 4's normal layout.

Floor	Normal	Alternate	Floor	Normal	Alternate	Floor	Normal	Alternate
0	Floor 0	Floor 4	27	Floor 27	Unique	36	Floor 36	Floor 6
1	Floor 0	Floor 10	28	Floor 28	Unique	37	Floor 37	Unique
14	Floor 14	Unique	29	Floor 29	Unique	38	Floor 38	Floor 23
17	Floor 17	Floor 9	30	Floor 30	Unique	39	Floor 39	Unique
19	Floor 19	Floor 30	31	Floor 22	Floor 4	42	Floor 4	Floor 0
20	Floor 20	Unique	32	Floor 32	Floor 36	44	Floor 44	Floor 24
22	Floor 22	Floor 4	33	Floor 33	Unique	45	Floor 36	Floor 30
23	Floor 23	Unique	34	Floor 34	Unique	46	Floor 4	Floor 30
24	Floor 24	Unique	35	Floor 35	Floor 23	47	Floor 19	Floor 30
25	Floor 9	Unique

(Source: Original TCRF research)

Unused Bonus Roulette Content

Second Layout

Wheel 1	Wheel 2 (Unused)

If var $00E9 is set to a non-zero value, the bonus roulette will use a second, unused layout. The "L" icons are supposed to manipulate var $00E9, but since those icons are only on the second wheel, the player never gets past the first wheel.

Unused Spaces

Put the following code in bakutotu.xml to replace all of the spaces on the first wheel with an unused space:

...But what does it mean? This game has text or audio that needs to be translated. If you are fluent with this language, please read our translation guidelines and then submit a translation!

  <cheat desc="Change Roulette Setup">
    <parameter>
      <item value="0x86068606">+1 L</item>
      <item value="0x88068806">-1 L</item>
      <item value="0x8A068A06">2 Shot Vessel</item>
      <item value="0x8E068E06">Speed Power-up</item>
      <item value="0x92069206">Paccet Cluster</item>
    </parameter>
    <script state="run">
      <action>user1.md@367593=param</action>
      <action>user1.md@367597=param</action>
      <action>user1.md@36759B=param</action>
      <action>user1.md@36759F=param</action>
    </script>
    <script state="off">
      <action>user1.mq@367593=8C06840694068206</action>
      <action>user1.mq@36759B=8206820694068206</action>
    </script>
  </cheat>

Icon	Message	Translation	Notes
	ふふふふふふ きをつけて いきなされ	Fufufufufufu. Tread carefully.	Increments $00E9. All bonus rounds will use the second layout until an L- space is hit.
	さきはまだ なかゆい		Sets $00E9 to zero.
	あたらしい ふねは いるか?	Is there a new ship?	As expected, the player will get a 2-shot vehicle on the next round. Uses an incorrect palette - should be instead.
	なにも, あたらず. ざんね,!		Should act like the speed power-ups in the normal game, but it doesn't actually do anything.
	てしたを いつぴき あたえよう		Would presumably give the player multiple Paccets at the start of the next round, but it does nothing. The text is identical to the text used on the normal bonus Paccet spaces.

(Source: Original TCRF research)

Unused Graphics

Character Graphics

Two shaded fonts, neither of them used. The font used in-game is decidedly unshaded.

16x16 icons of the player (probably meant to represent lives before the vehicle icon replaced it), adult and baby Paccets & Octys, and a gun.

A bunch of unused symbols. There's the Paccet and Octy again, along with an eye and, umm...other things!

Two different kinds of meters, both unused. Maybe this game had a health system at one point?

FG / BG Graphics

There are six stage tilesets in the game: Three with stalactites and stalagmite graphics, and three without. The first tileset, the one with marble-like stones, is completely unused.

The tileset with smooth stone blocks only has a single block unused: A two-way arrow block. The mossy tileset has a few more unused blocks, including a pass-through block and a different version of the two-way arrow block.

The three tilesets without stalactites and stalagmites are mostly unused. The first set is only used on floors 28 and 37 and leaves a lot of the blocks in the tileset are unused, while the smooth and mossy versions are completely unused.

Five background graphics are unused. Yep.

Sprites

Early	Final

There's an early design for the player character at the start of the object graphics ROM. This design lacks the eyes and dark outline seen in the final art.

Early	Final

The early design appears in an alternate version of the player's death animation. The final design made this animation more comedic by keeping the player's head visible after the explosion. Each animation has nice touches that the other version lacks: In the early animation, ash falls to the ground after the explosion, while in the final animation, the player's suit is lit up by the explosion.

Used	Alt

A third design, one with blue boots, fixed arm outlines, and a larger visor, appears later in the object graphics ROM.

The blue-booted design shows up in unused crouching graphics and an alternate death pose. The meteorite did it, I tells ya.

Early	Final

An early version of the "START!" graphic. A little hard to make out.

Yes, there are still more unused power-up graphics, these without any code associated with them. From left to right, they include a bonus White Paccet, a speed-down to match the speed-up power-up, some kind of vehicle power-up (more vehicle health?), armor for the Paccets (which uses its own unique graphic in the final game), a Bagann (which just pop out of the capsules on their own), and a random power-up icon.

Used	Corrected

This final unused power-up would have given the player one single yellow Paccet. The graphic is assigned an incorrect palette in the sprite viewer - the erroneous palette is meant for the weapon power-ups.

Early	Final

Preliminary versions of the score numbers. The early numbers have much thinner outlines and only go up to 4.

Graphics for a 10 point bonus. Paccet eyeballs are worth 1 point in the final game; they were probably originally 10 points before single-digit scoring was implemented.

Yet another early design for something. They really could have cleaned up the object graphics ROM. Anyway, this is an alternate design for the player's gun.

Two, that's right, two unused floating guns! Most games are lucky if they get just one. The first one might have been a vehicle for the player to use, while the second one seems like an obstacle.

Early	Used

The Molamola enemy has an alternate design in the game ROM, one that more closely resembles how it appeared in the first game.

The final design has six unused frames, five of which have a different, craggier head. Maybe it could have acted as a barrier of some sort.

Black Paccets can appear in yellow capsules, but they never peek out and look around like this.

The stone Baganns have a bunch of unused animations. In the final game, they always face to the left and chomp, but they have turning, right-facing, and upward-facing animations...

...as well as blinking and happy animations.

This Paccet in the same style of the stone Baganns is completely unused.

How many stone creatures does this game need, anyway? Here are single-eyed, double-eyed, and blinking stone pillars. That's pretty weird...

...but not as weird as this chomping stomp thing. What the hell?

Shades	No Shades (Palette 3F)	No Shades (Palette 39)

This is an unused version of Takky and/or Hommy without shades. There are two possible palettes: The first palette doesn't have any obvious errors but makes the player's smile very hard to make out, while the second palette has a more accurately-colored vehicle and a more noticeable smile, but uses an incorrect blue color for the vehicle's tarp.

These Paccet designs appear right after the Paccets used in the game's credit sequence. They lack the more complicated shading of the Paccets used in the final game.

(Source: Original TCRF research)

Hidden Text

Startup Text

This text with info on the game's sub-CPU is normally displayed at the start of the game for a single frame. Set the Freeze dip switch and reset the game to get a chance to actually read the thing. Apparently they never got to 1.00, which would explain a lot...

Placeholder Text

There are four sub-CPU modes that print placeholder text to the screen and then stop. Put the following code in bakutotu.xml to replace the Press 1P Start Button text with a chunk of placeholder text.

  <cheat desc="Change Press Start Text">
    <parameter>
      <item value="0x03">Temp Title</item>
      <item value="0x05">D E A D Text</item>
      <item value="0x09">Game Over</item>
      <item value="0x0A">Demo 1</item>
    </parameter>
    <script state="run">
      <action>user1.mb@367613=param</action>
      <action>user1.mw@3FD925=0x1212</action>
      <action>user1.mb@3FD927=0x12</action>
    </script>
    <script state="off">
      <action>user1.mb@367613=0x0C</action>
      <action>user1.mw@3FD925=0xF5BD</action>
      <action>user1.mb@3FD927=0x19</action>
    </script>
  </cheat>

03 - Game init	05 - Death cutscene	09 - Game over	0A - Attract mode

(Source: Original TCRF research)