The Maze of Galious

The castle and ten worlds, 321 rooms built from their tables, the ten bosses made of characters, 47 items and the shops, all drawn from the ROM.

Konami - (c) Konami 1987 - An RC-749 cartridge, a 128 KB MegaROM (Konami4) - MSX - Dump 420c42c1...

Not one capture here. Every picture is drawn from the bytes of the ROM: the logo and the title, the 321 rooms of the castle and the ten worlds, Popolon and Aphrodite, the sprite sets, the bosses and the items, with the cartridge's own tables, and checked against openMSX on a Japanese MSX1 machine, without a single difference. 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
3,423named routines
40.1%of the listing commented
53,613bytes of code
77,459bytes of data
0bytes unidentified

What turned up when we took it apart

F2: the character sits on a cup

F2 in the middle of a game (p02:9E07) sets state 9 and the character appears sitting on a white cup, with patterns from bank 15 (p00:5917, p03:BE36).

Seen in openMSX.

ZEUS in the pause: continue

Typed in the F2 pause in room 1 of the castle (p01:7E57), losing shows GAME OVER and F5 CONTINUE; F5 carries on in room 1 with life at 8 (p01:7EF1).

Seen in openMSX.

The black rooms are hints and shops

Nine worlds have a special room (0x8F0A) the game does not build: it comes out black. They are not bosses: they are Demeter with a hint or her shop, with the message in English or Japanese depending on the machine (p02:94F0).

Both rooms and both languages, seen in openMSX.

The boss is called by its name

In its room you type its name (p02:9B18, table 0x9B4F): YOMAR, ELOHIM... HAMALECH. Smoke comes out and then the boss, with the background in black.

Seen in openMSX by forcing the guessed flag.

The bosses are not sprites

They are character mosaics (61 at 0x9E0A) swapped to move them. World 3's boss graphics are loaded in steps through a computed address, which is why no word in the ROM names them.

Measured in game, frame by frame.

With another cartridge next to it

p00:5F0C looks at the other slot: with Q*bert you start with 100 arrows, 100 coins and 100 keys; with Knightmare it changes 0xE05A and 0xE05B; with the Game Master, a bit.

Read in the code.

Hidden items in the castle

Five items come out when the figures of certain rooms are defeated (p02:9F82); 0x26 also asks for right, down, left and up (p03:A056).

Read in the code.

Konami's mark

At the end of bank 3: ガリウス ノ メイキュウ and the RC-749. The format of the mark was uncovered by Manuel Pazos.

What the cartridge draws

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

The title screen, built from the ROM: it matches openMSX in all 16 KB of VRAM (titulo.py coteja).
The title screen, built from the ROM: it matches openMSX in all 16 KB of VRAM (titulo.py coteja).
The castle: its 147 rooms with their numbers, laid out by their neighbours (0xA9EF). All 321 rooms in the game, checked character for character against openMSX.
The castle: its 147 rooms with their numbers, laid out by their neighbours (0xA9EF). All 321 rooms in the game, checked character for character against openMSX.
World 9, its 27 rooms. The black ones are hints and shops; the one with the seal, the boss's.
World 9, its 27 rooms. The black ones are hints and shops; the one with the seal, the boss's.
The boss room of world 1 with the seal: one half from 0xB760 and the other, the same flipped.
The boss room of world 1 with the seal: one half from 0xB760 and the other, the same flipped.
The ten bosses in full: character mosaics (0x9E0A), measured in game and down to zero against openMSX.
The ten bosses in full: character mosaics (0x9E0A), measured in game and down to zero against openMSX.
Popolon's and Aphrodite's 32 poses (0x7529), which share patterns and change colour.
Popolon's and Aphrodite's 32 poses (0x7529), which share patterns and change colour.
The 47 items (0x6E34, 0x6E80). The game never names them: it only draws them.
The 47 items (0x6E34, 0x6E80). The game never names them: it only draws them.
The Konami logo, down to zero against openMSX.
The Konami logo, down to zero against openMSX.