Hinotori

Six stages that wrap round at the sides and at the top, 18 gates joining them, 17 cheat passwords and a cartridge that, with King Kong 2 next to it, boots King Kong 2 to save its game.

Konami - (c) Konami 1987 - An RC-747 cartridge, a 128 KB MegaROM (Konami4) - MSX2 - Dump d4d443c1...

Not one capture here. Every picture is drawn from the bytes of the ROM with the cartridge's own tables: the logo, the title, the secret menu, the six stages with their rooms and gates, Gao, the enemy sprites and the items. They are checked against openMSX on an MSX2 machine: the logo, the title and the menu, 0 bytes different; the tile sheet and the palette of the dumped areas, 0. The listing and the numbers are reproducible with make, and reassembling gives back the ROM byte for byte.

The cartridge in numbers

100%of the binary explained
1,944named routines
40.4%of the listing commented
32,229bytes of code
98,843bytes of data
0bytes unidentified

What turned up when we took it apart

With King Kong 2 next to it, it boots King Kong 2 and saves its game

At power-on, p00:5DFF looks at the other slots. If it finds the King Kong 2 header ('CD' 07 45 at 0x4010), Hinotori does not start: it copies King Kong 2's INIT to 0xF120, hooks the interrupt with 170 bytes of its own copied to 0xF220 (p09:B925) and jumps to King Kong 2. While playing, F4 saves the game to tape and F5 loads it, with the BIOS tape routines and the code at p09:B9CF.

Seen in openMSX with both cartridges: King Kong 2 boots and F4 brings up «SAVE MODE / INPUT FILE NAME» inside its screen.

With Q*bert or the Game Master, a menu to choose the stage

If there is a Q*bert (RC-746) or a Game Master (RC-735) next to it, recognised by six bytes at its end (p00:5E78), pressing SPACE on the title brings up a menu: START GAME, MODIFY STAGE NUMBER and MODIFY PLAYER NUMBER (p00:4735), to start on another stage and with other lives. And the STOP key freezes the game (p00:4124).

The menu, seen in openMSX with Q*bert next to it and built here from the ROM (0 bytes different). The STOP key comes from the code; we have not tried it.

17 cheat passwords, and one that cannot be typed

F1 (pause), HOME and HOME let you type a password. Besides the ones that save the game, there are 17 cheats at p06:B8A0, each followed by the code it runs, and each works once per game (0xC600). GAOOOOOOOOOOH gives 10 lives; ILOVEHINOTORI, invincibility; NANDANANDANANDA, no lives lost; FULLITEMDAYOON, KINOOOIHITODANE and SUPERBALL fill up items; METALSLAVE, full energy; ENDDEMOGAMITAINA shows the ending…

One, «aaaaa», cannot be typed: p06:B5AB turns what you type into capitals. Fifteen tried in openMSX, with the change measured in RAM.

The stages wrap round

Every stage is three columns 256 pixels wide and 1,536 high. Leaving by one side you come in by the other (p01:653A: from column 2 to 0 and back), and at the top the map starts again (0xFF in p00:57BF). The only way out is a torii, which leads to the stage's room.

It comes from the tables and the code; the map of each stage is checked against the openMSX screen.

18 gates, and two rooms that send you back

The gates are at p09:A269: area, row and arrival point. Every stage leads to its room and every room to the next stage, but room 3 has two exits (to stage 4 or back to 1) and so does room 5 (to 6 or to 2); room 6's leads to stage 4. The last four gates lead to area 0x18, which does not exist.

It comes from the tables; we have not played it.

The item that jumps between stages

F5 brings up a map of the six stages; carrying item 14, the cursor keys choose one and SPACE jumps there, using one up (p02:8555). HOIHOIHOINOHOI gives nine.

It comes from the code; the cheat itself was measured (0xC884 = 9).

A cheat named after a designer

The ending credits (p06:AB23) are signed with nicknames: ULTRAMAN ADACHI, DARENANDA SUZUKI, 27INCH NAGAE, MOAI SASAKI… and METALSLAVE NAOKI, designer. METALSLAVE is also the cheat password that fills up the energy.

Measured in the ROM; the credits are transcribed in Findings.

Another version of five bosses, never used

From p07:7457 to p08:82B3 there are 18 strips in the sprite RLE and, behind them, 768 uncompressed bytes that nothing loads: no list and not the loader of the sets names them. Opened, they are seven figures, and five are bosses of the game drawn another way: the beast, the one-eyed monster, the face, the demon and the warrior with several arms, with not a sprite in common with the ones the rooms load.

Measured in the ROM. The first version of this said they belonged to nobody: corrected.

What the cartridge draws

Under each picture is where it comes from and what is on it.

The title: the sheet from the lists at p04:6443, 6458 and 6468 and the tile maps at p13:7640, 79A0, 7D00 and 7D30. Checked against openMSX: 0 bytes different.
The title: the sheet from the lists at p04:6443, 6458 and 6468 and the tile maps at p13:7640, 79A0, 7D00 and 7D30. Checked against openMSX: 0 bytes different.
The six stages, each with its three columns and its room, and the route between them underneath. In yellow, the gates with where they lead (p09:A269); in blue, where you come into the stage.
The six stages, each with its three columns and its room, and the route between them underneath. In yellow, the gates with where they lead (p09:A269); in blue, where you come into the stage.
Stage 1 in full: superrows at p11:7FC0, blocks at p10:6000, the sheet from the bank-4 lists and the palette at p05:9E2C.
Stage 1 in full: superrows at p11:7FC0, blocks at p10:6000, the sheet from the bank-4 lists and the palette at p05:9E2C.
Gao in his 20 poses: two 16 × 16 sprites of two layers each (p06:A0BB), walking, jumping, throwing and burning.
Gao in his 20 poses: two 16 × 16 sprites of two layers each (p06:A0BB), walking, jumping, throwing and burning.
The 132 sprites of the 41 sets the areas load (p07:6173): enemies, bosses in pieces and what they throw. In two tones: the colour is set by each enemy as it moves.
The 132 sprites of the 41 sets the areas load (p07:6173): enemies, bosses in pieces and what they throw. In two tones: the colour is set by each enemy as it moves.
On each row, a figure nothing loads (p07:7457, p08:82B3) and, after a gap, the boss the rooms do load: five are the same boss drawn another way; the two without a pair never appear in the game.
On each row, a figure nothing loads (p07:7457, p08:82B3) and, after a gap, the boss the rooms do load: five are the same boss drawn another way; the two without a pair never appear in the game.
The 41 items as the ITEM INFORMATION window draws them (p01:7B60): from 16 on, an icon over a background.
The 41 items as the ITEM INFORMATION window draws them (p01:7B60): from 16 on, an icon over a background.
The menu shown with Q*bert or the Game Master next to it (p00:5E89). Checked: 0 bytes different.
The menu shown with Q*bert or the Game Master next to it (p00:5E89). Checked: 0 bytes different.
The Konami logo: 1-bit letters at p09:AB3C put together by p01:6710. 0 bytes different.
The Konami logo: 1-bit letters at p09:AB3C put together by p01:6710. 0 bytes different.