The Treasure of Usas

The five ruins from their tables: 20 stages with their antechambers and statue rooms, 63 actor types, 12 scenes, Wit and Cles with their four moods, and the texts in Japanese and English. All drawn from the ROM.

Konami - (c) Konami 1987 - An RC-753 cartridge, a 128 KB MegaROM (Konami4, no SCC) - MSX2 - Japanese dump 4ff2aad8...

Not one capture here. Every picture is drawn from the bytes of the ROM with the cartridge's own tables: the stages, Wit and Cles, the enemies and the bosses, the faces, the scenes and the title. The check against the openMSX VRAM is still to be done. The listing reassembles byte for byte with make.

The cartridge in numbers

100%of the binary explained
2,536named routines
40.1%of the listing commented
41,458bytes of code
89,614bytes of data
0bytes unidentified

What turned up when we took it apart

The music changes with the mood

Each ruin's tune plays higher or lower, and with another instrument, depending on the mood of whoever goes in (p15:BE7A, p13:625D): happy, two semitones higher; calm, as written; sad and angry, one or two lower. Hear it in The music, taken from the engine and checked against openMSX.

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Mood changes the game

Each hero has four states: happy, calm, sad and angry (p06:A644). A happy Wit jumps a second time in the air, once per jump (p01:64F1); a happy Cles keeps walking on thin air for 32 frames as long as the direction is held (p01:62C7).

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One shot and one blow per state

Wit's shot is type 4 minus the state: waves, bar, ball or beam (p01:6B0D); Cles's blow is the state plus 6 (p09:B7C9). An angry Cles hits hard and breaks the big crate (p01:7398, p01:7431). Happy, nobody pushes blocks; the other three states push them, each at its own speed (p01:7BD0).

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The 喜楽哀怒 items

Each one sets its mood (p01:75EE), and each ruin sets the starting one (p00:4575).

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The pause is a shop

In INFORMATION you buy SPD and JMP with coins (p06:A0EA). The prices depend on the character: Wit 70 and 60, Cles 50 and 80 (p06:BF6C).

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Other Konami cartridges

The game looks in the other slots for four catalogue numbers (p06:B751). With RC-749 (The Maze of Galious) you start with 100 coins (p00:45F7); with RC-750 (Metal Gear), half the damage (p01:72FF); with RC-751 (Nemesis 2), F5 CONTINUE after GAME OVER (p00:4427); with RC-752 (F1 Spirit), the happy powers, always (p01:64F1, p01:62C7).

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Two languages in one cartridge

A Japanese MSX gets the texts in Japanese; any other, in English (0x002B, p05:9849). The font holds hiragana and 28 kanji (p14:9289).

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The passwords are the names of the ruins

On reaching ruins 1-4, a map makes the ruin blink and types out its password: JUBA RUINS, HARAPPA RUINS, GANDHARA RUINS or MOHENJO DARO (p06:A2BB). On the title screen, CTRL or button B asks for it (KEYWORD, p00:4643), and with it you start at that ruin (p00:45CB).

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What the cartridge draws

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

The title screen, built from the ROM: the 14 x 15 tile map at p05:9988 (p05:96EA). Not yet checked against the VRAM.
The title screen, built from the ROM: the 14 x 15 tile map at p05:9988 (p05:96EA). Not yet checked against the VRAM.
The first stage of the first ruin, screen by screen (map p10:5FFE), with what each holds on entry: enemies and their nests (p09:B12B), traps (p15:A4F9), items (p12:B8BB) and the boss (p09:BED3).
The first stage of the first ruin, screen by screen (map p10:5FFE), with what each holds on entry: enemies and their nests (p09:B12B), traps (p15:A4F9), items (p12:B8BB) and the boss (p09:BED3).
The outside map (p05:93C6) with the ruin marked and its password, for ruins 1-4.
The outside map (p05:93C6) with the ruin marked and its password, for ruins 1-4.
Wit and Cles walking, built piece by piece (p00:5BC6) from their frame tables (p14:97AE, p14:9BCE), at the pace of p01:69E6.
Wit and Cles walking, built piece by piece (p00:5BC6) from their frame tables (p14:97AE, p14:9BCE), at the pace of p01:69E6.
The INFORMATION faces, one per mood (p06:A644, p06:A64C).
The INFORMATION faces, one per mood (p06:A644, p06:A64C).
The enemies from each screen's list (p09:B12B), with their frames (p15:B744) and colours.
The enemies from each screen's list (p09:B12B), with their frames (p15:B744) and colours.
The four stage bosses, types 30 to 33.
The four stage bosses, types 30 to 33.
The items you pick up (p03:A81D) and the balloon shown when the mood changes (p15:A426).
The items you pick up (p03:A81D) and the balloon shown when the mood changes (p15:A426).
One of the ending scenes, with the tiles left by the previous one (p04:71D5).
One of the ending scenes, with the tiles left by the previous one (p04:71D5).