Taito Chase H.Q. (NES)

Taito Chase H.Q.
Developer: Daiei Seisakusho Publisher: Taito Platform: NES Released in JP: December 8, 1989 This game has hidden development-related text. This game has unused graphics. This game has debugging material. This game has a hidden sound test. This game has a hidden level select.

Cheats

Level Select

A well-known cheat to access the level select exists in this game. On the first controller, hold Down + A + B and press Start when "PUSH START BUTTON" appears on the title screen. A two-digit number will appear instead of a score. The top-left digit is a round number, while the top-right is a stage number. Press A to change stage number, and press B to change round number. Press Start to return back to the title screen. Then, just start a new game to advance to the selected level and stage.

Instant Stage Complete

During the game, press Down + A + B + Start on the second controller to instantly complete the current stage.

Sound Test

A cheat enabling a simple sound test is still present in the game, but was disabled in the final release. With the Game Genie code PESVVLAA, you can re-enable it. Now, at the title screen, press and hold A + B then press Start on the first controller, a letter and two-digit number will appear at the high score string. Letter represents the voice, music and sound effect as "V", "B" and "E" respectively. Press Up or Down to change music index, press A to play selected sound effect or music. By pressing Select you can switch between Siren and Engine background sounds, which is playing always. While playing Engine background sound, press Left or Right to increase or decrease Engine speed or, if speed was zero, to start Brake sound. Press Start to toggle hi or low transmission sounds. Press B to exit the sound test mode.

Disabled Pause

Another disabled routine in this game is a pause routine. Normally, this ability is disabled for some reason, but with the Game Genie code PESVSLAA, you can re-enable it.

Unused Sounds

A couple of sound effects remain unused in this game; the effects with sound numbers E24, E26, E27, E28, E2E, E30, E31, E32 are unused.

Hidden Text

There are a couple of developer-related and copyright messages:

Offset	Text
0x014c5b	* shogaibutsu routine * Program by Mitsugi Shimizu
0x015b59	*target car & teki car * Program by Mitsugi Shimizu
0x01e01c	DAIEI MANUFACTURING CO.,LTD. N.Koshinaka 1989
0x01fff0	1989/06/10

"Shogaibutsu" translates to "objects", while "teki" translates to enemy. Mitsugi Shimizu is credited as "directed of software". Noboru Koshinaka is credited as "music and sound editor", along with Isao Mizuguchi.

The "Daiei" copyright is stored at the beginning of a voice sample decoding routine, and most likely refers to the original developer of the decoding algorithm.