The bosses

The bosses are painted with the ROM's characters and patterns over the layout of an openMSX dump (tools/jefes.py).

The code of the eight bosses is in bank 11 (table p01:6E89). The cartridge gives them no names: neither the English nor the Japanese texts name any of them. The prophecy only speaks of «THE DEVIL» with his copper shield, «THE HUGE SPHERE», «THE GREAT DEVIL» and his nucleus, and «THE FIVE EYED GREEN DEVIL».

The names below are those of the Gradius Wiki for the MSX version, and they are the same ones used by a 2009 Japanese guide (galfned, on geocities.jp) that quotes the manual elsewhere; we have not seen the manual. Each name goes with its boss by the stage (the ROM's cards say stage 3 is EIONEUS, 4 LAVINIA and 5 KIERKE) and by its look: Dead End has three cores, Metal Slave five, Outer Limits is the eye. For stage 7, the wiki gives Venom and True Venom.

Stage 1: Golem (boss 1)

A brain with two tentacles.

Stage 2: Cruiser Tetran (boss 2)

Stage 3: Center Core (boss 8)

A nest in the ceiling that drops spiders; boss 3 comes next.

Stage 3: Dead End (boss 3)

Stage 4: Seducer (boss 4)

It comes after a wave (p03:BD53).

Stage 5: Enigma (boss 5)

Stage 6: Outer Limits (boss 7)

An eye inside a sphere; boss 6 comes next.

Stage 6: Metal Slave (boss 6)

Stage 7: the core

Fixed, at p12:A000, in two parts.