Mendel Palace

Mendel Palace
Also known as: Quinty (JP) Developer: Game Freak Publishers: Namco (JP), Hudson Soft (US), Bandai Namco (EU/AU) Platform: NES Released in JP: June 27, 1989 Released in US: October 1990 Released in EU: June 18, 2020 (Namco Museum Archives Vol. 2) Released in AU: June 18, 2020 (Namco Museum Archives Vol. 2) This game has debugging material. This game has a hidden level select. This game has regional differences.

Mendel Palace is a game about pushing tiles and knocking bad guys into walls. It also happens to be the first game Game Freak ever made. Perhaps you've heard of them?

A Super Famicom remake was planned for release via Nintendo Power kiosks in 1999, but was scrapped (presumably so Game Freak could focus on wrapping the famously troubled production of Pokémon Gold and Silver). Further plans to release this remake for Wii Virtual Console also fell through, partially because even though the game was complete from a content perspective, it was still very prone to crashes.

Debugging Features

Debug Menu

Enter the Game Genie code ZAKLSGAA, then hold B and press Start at the title screen to activate the debug menu. The options are as follows:

• DEATH/NO DEATH: Turns invincibility on or off.
• NUMBER OF PLAYER: Number of lives to start the game with.
• SCENE NUMBER: Select a level to play. The first number determines whether the "EXTRA" levels are active (0=no, 1=yes), and can be changed by pressing Select.

Moving the cursor up past DEATH/NO DEATH allows you to change the current tileset, character sprite, and character palette.

Warp to Final Level

Enter the Game Genie code AKNUOGAA, then hold Left and press Start at the title screen menu to warp to the final castle.

Unknown

To do: Is this all the code does?

Enter the Game Genie code AGEUUIAA, then hold Right and press Start at the title screen menu. This marks the fortress at the center-right of the map as cleared.

In-Game Debugging Features

Enter the Game Genie codes AUKXYXXT + LESZAXXT, then hold B and press A at the title screen menu to enable a few in-game debugging features.

At any time during the game:

• Reset: Press Start + Select to reset the game.

While the game is paused:

• Frame advance: Press Start to advance one frame. Press Select to unpause.
• Swap layers + 98 Stars: Hold Down and press Select to swap the playfield layers and set the Star counter to 98.

(Source: BMF54123)

Crash Dump

In the Japanese version of the game, if a BRK opcode is executed as the result of a program crash, the game will write a number of CPU registers and RAM variables to the screen before going into an infinite loop. The numbers displayed are as follows:

• Line 1: Stack pointer, accumulator, X register, Y register, processor status register.
• Lines 2-13: Contents of the stack.
• Lines 14-15: Scratchpad RAM ($00-$09).

(Source: BMF54123)

Regional Differences

Title Screen

Quinty (JP)	Mendel Palace (US)

The title screen was completely changed for the US release, displaying art of the game's enemy characters.

Tile Graphics

Quinty (JP)	Mendel Palace (US)

The tile that gives the player five extra seconds on the timer was changed between the Japanese and US versions for unknown reasons. The kanji in the center of the US tile, 伍 (go), appropriately means "five".

Quinty (JP)	Mendel Palace (US)

In the House of Vinci, the artist enemies will draw different pictures than normal if the timer starts running low. On Round 6, the picture just so happens to be a nude woman's torso (since their normal drawing is a woman's face) in the Japanese version. This was replaced with a drawing of a Japanese "sailor fuku" school uniform in the US version.