Thunder Force II (Genesis) extended difficulty mode trick

Xonatron · Post by **Xonatron** » Mon Mar 23, 2009 4:46 pm

Does anyone remember this trick?

Unplug Thunder Force II from your Sega Genesis, WITH IT TURNED ON, and plug it back in. A reset was probably required at this point. Then in the options screen (hold A, B, and C, and press Start), another difficulty mode was either available, or the original modes that were available were internally increased in difficulty.

Try emulating that...

The game was intense in this mode. This is not hypothetical, we played it in this mode all the time (having practically mastered the hardest mode, which I think was just called "HARD").

Ganelon · Post by **Ganelon** » Mon Mar 23, 2009 6:07 pm

Wasn't aware of this. Doesn't that have a huge chance of frying your Genesis cartridge slot?

Xonatron · Post by **Xonatron** » Mon Mar 23, 2009 6:17 pm

Ganelon wrote:Wasn't aware of this. Doesn't that have a huge chance of frying your Genesis cartridge slot?

Our Genesis did crash on us, but I don't know if it was related to this. I doubt it. From memory, we thought it crashed from water damage, but we were only children, and never figured it out.

Turrican · Post by **Turrican** » Mon Mar 23, 2009 8:46 pm

snapshot of the menu, for great justice.

Xonatron · Post by **Xonatron** » Mon Mar 23, 2009 10:31 pm

Turrican wrote:snapshot of the menu, for great justice.

I no longer have my Genesis (it's broken anyway) or my Thunder Force II cartridge. I will try to get my hands on the hardward, and I'll post it if I do.

Koa Zo · Post by **Koa Zo** » Tue Mar 24, 2009 9:14 pm

A number of early release Genesis games (N.America) had some sort of "trick" like you described.

iirc both Revenge of Shinobi and Ghouls and Ghosts would revert back to the Japanese title screens when you pulled and re-inserted the cartridge with the system on.

Buster Douglas Boxing would also display some weird scores and other glitches, yet still play when doing this "trick".

BrianC · Post by **BrianC** » Tue Mar 24, 2009 9:34 pm

Koa Zo wrote: iirc both Revenge of Shinobi and Ghouls and Ghosts would revert back to the Japanese title screens when you pulled and re-inserted the cartridge with the system on.

Ghouls 'n Ghosts has another method for reverting back to the Japanese version that doesn't require modding or taking the cart out, though.

From gamefaqs:

"Japanese Mode

Enter the Options menu. Choose ''26'' for the music and ''56'' for sound selections, then hold Down/Left + A + B + C + Start.

Contributed By: Victory."

Xonatron · Post by **Xonatron** » Tue Mar 24, 2009 11:46 pm

How does taking the cartridge out *work*? What does it do? How do you code to recognize it?

Turrican · Post by **Turrican** » Wed Mar 25, 2009 1:45 am

Matthew Doucette wrote:
Turrican wrote:snapshot of the menu, for great justice.
I no longer have my Genesis (it's broken anyway) or my Thunder Force II cartridge. I will try to get my hands on the hardward, and I'll post it if I do.

Well, to be honest I have both, but I'm scared to try that. Seems very unorthodox.

We need courageous volunteers!

Ed Oscuro · Post by **Ed Oscuro** » Wed Mar 25, 2009 1:49 am

Matthew Doucette wrote:How does taking the cartridge out *work*? What does it do? How do you code to recognize it?

I don't think you did. It sounds like a result of the way the console detects regions and deals with regions of the ROM...

No_not_like_Quake · Post by **No_not_like_Quake** » Wed Mar 25, 2009 11:04 pm

I did that cart pulling shit a few times with TF 2 back in the day. AFAIR, I found the trick in an old VG&CE mag. I don't remember quite how it works, nor do I remember extended difficulty but I do remember getting full stage select in the options menu.

The Coop · Post by **The Coop** » Thu Mar 26, 2009 2:18 am

Matthew Doucette wrote:What does it do?

Potentially fucks up your system and cart. I figure if someone's got that big a hard on to see the non-US title screen, just buy the Japanese version of the game. It's not worth the risk for the minimal changes by doing the "trick".

Xonatron · Post by **Xonatron** » Thu Mar 26, 2009 2:23 am

So are you guys saying that the more extreme difficulty mode was just fooling the system into thinking it was a non-american cartridge? Could I do this in an emulator somehow? I remember playing Thunder Force II in a harder than the hardest difficulty mode by doing this trick. So that would mean, following your insight, that this mode was locked out in the americas?

Xonatron · Post by **Xonatron** » Thu Mar 26, 2009 2:27 am

The Coop, very nice remixes (especially the TFIII one) on your page: http://thecoop.110mb.com/remixes.html

EDIT: As well as the TFIV one... even though I'm not familiar with the game enough to know the music, nice mix.

Kollision · Post by **Kollision** » Thu Mar 26, 2009 3:23 am

Awesome work indeed.
I've had Coop's TF4 remix in my mp3 player for months.

Ed Oscuro · Post by **Ed Oscuro** » Thu Mar 26, 2009 3:26 am

Matthew Doucette wrote:Could I do this in an emulator somehow?

Fusion 3.51 allows you to manually set the region of the console. That should do it, more or less!

BrianC · Post by **BrianC** » Thu Mar 26, 2009 6:04 am

The Coop wrote:I figure if someone's got that big a hard on to see the non-US title screen, just buy the Japanese version of the game.

That doesn't always work (JP games like Same! Same! Same! and Daisenpuu will show the western title screen and often play with easier difficulty with the system's language set to English), but there are better alternatives like the code in Ghouls 'n Ghosts, Game Genie, and modding the Genesis with a region switch.

The Coop · Post by **The Coop** » Thu Mar 26, 2009 6:56 am

Matthew Doucette, Kollision- Thanks

TWITCHDOCTOR · Post by **TWITCHDOCTOR** » Sat Mar 28, 2009 6:05 am

Matthew Doucette wrote:
Turrican wrote:snapshot of the menu, for great justice.
I no longer have my Genesis (it's broken anyway) or my Thunder Force II cartridge. I will try to get my hands on the hardward, and I'll post it if I do.

Gee...I love this quote. Maybe all that yanking in and out of the cartridge slot while it was "ON" had someting to do with the overall demise.

Sorry for your loss, Genny and T-Force II are great...if they are working!!!

Seriously folks, the "green screen" hard mode was/is challenging enough.
Yea...I still have mine, and it works.

Xonatron · Post by **Xonatron** » Sat Mar 28, 2009 6:38 am

TWITCHDOCTOR wrote:
Matthew Doucette wrote:
Turrican wrote:snapshot of the menu, for great justice.
I no longer have my Genesis (it's broken anyway) or my Thunder Force II cartridge. I will try to get my hands on the hardward, and I'll post it if I do.

Gee...I love this quote. Maybe all that yanking in and out of the cartridge slot while it was "ON" had someting to do with the overall demise.

Sorry for your loss, Genny and T-Force II are great...if they are working!!!

Seriously folks, the "green screen" hard mode was/is challenging enough.
Yea...I still have mine, and it works.

I remember it breaking down after water damage, but it was so long ago, who knows. Maybe the cartridge yanking played a part in it. I would doubt it, but then again that would not be an educated doubt.