[bigjanstudd]

I used to play Rolling Thunder for the NES a lot. One day out of general boredom I hit the top right hand corner of my NES with something hard for no reason. I think it was a remote for the TV or something. I noticed that when I did this, the screen jumped in a peculiar way. (This was all happening during the demo mode of the game) I did it about 3 times and on the 3rd time, some really weird shit happened. An albatross character just fell out of the top of the screen and landed on the floor of the computer screen. (the computer screen that says "Rolling Thunder" on it. Basically the title screen. I was so shocked i barely had time to react, ifyou 've played the game you know that there are enemies using the computer on the title screen. I managed to fire one shot before I got killed. Then the enemy characters fell through the floor.

After that, the game continued as if I had started a new game but lost a life. But it started me on this weird level where the entire background and everything visible except albatross was screen breakup. I walked around and found that there were actually platforms and stairs to walk on and stuff. You just couldnt see them. There were weird parts where you would walk on a short platform and then there would be an individual stair, and then another platform etc. I played this for like 20 minutes to see what would happen. Nothing happened. It just going randomly.

Eventually I got bored and I paused the game and left it on so I could try again later. Again, nothing happened and i got bored and turned the game off thinking I could just recreate theeffect again later. But I was never able to.

I'm not sure what any of this means, but I think that the Title screen of Rolling Thunder and the little vignettes that take place between levels, all of which are in front of that super computer screen are actually levels that were designed for that purpose but never meant to be played. Somehow by fluke I got into one. But its probably possible to hack into them somehow and see whats there. Don't know if that counts as a lost level, but it might. But if anyone knows how to hack levels on a NES emulator let me know I wanna try it again.

Jan

[BMF54123]

It's not unusual for game developers to use level data in places where you'd (normally) never be able to interact with it. In the days of limited ROM space, it was often more efficient to reuse existing routines than to create new ones that essentially did the same thing. All the between-world and ending scenes of Super Mario World are either actual levels or level data without a header; for example, the enemy roll uses ordinary level structures with static sprites placed on top. You can even change a RAM address while they're running and regain control of Mario. In a more extreme example, the shop screen in Black Tiger (arcade) is an actual room in each level, made entirely of special tiles, hidden from view behind thick walls and/or high up where the player can't reach. When you enter the shop, the game simply scrolls to the appropriate spot in the level and replaces your player sprite with a cursor. Mega Man also uses similar methods for its title and stage select screens, as far as I know.