King Arthur & the Knights of Justice (SNES)

[Flying Omelette]

Here's a challenge if anyone is interested in one.

This is something I'm not really sure can even be done, because I'm not even sure if what I'm looking for exists or not. But anyway, I was reading an interview with this game's developers from Nintendo Power Magazine:

http://www.flyingomelette.com/koj/scans/np-scan2.jpg

In the brown box in the lower right corner under "The Best of the Quest", one of the developers mentions that the boss, Blackwing, is one of his favorite parts of the game.

The problem is that no such boss exists in the game...or does it?

http://www.flyingomelette.com/koj/oddities/bosslist.jpg

When looking through the ROM in a Hex Editor, sure enough, "Blackwing" is listed amongst the bosses. Definitely seems like it was planned to be in there at one point, but was removed for some reason. The question I have is...Does any evidence of him other than this note at line 000483a0 remain in the ROM? I tried looking at the graphics in a tile viewer, but unfortunately, the boss graphics would seem to be compressed and I couldn't find any of them. (Oddly enough, I did manage to find unused villager walking animation frames. Villagers never move in this game, even though sprites for walking exist.)



This is what the character Blackwing looked like in the TV series the game is based on. If anyone is ever hacking this ROM and finds something that looks like this guy, please contact me and let me know.

[Helder]

i guess i'll look into it.

edit:

I made a code to go to any area you want maybe you can get to a boss using this method.

Area mod
7E1155??

just go to your item screen then press start to exit and you'll be in that new area and even progress to new areas as long as you dont go into item screen.

[scarface200729]

That's pretty interesting his favorite enemy is a deleted character. If it's that good it should of beeen kept in. Update us if you find it.

[Flying Omelette]

Thanks, Helder. Even if I can't find the missing boss with it, that code might prove useful. There are areas in this game that cannot be accessed and it might allow me to get into them.

Example:



This screenshot from the back of the game's box is impossible to duplicate through normal play. There's no way, as far as I could tell, to get around to the back of that giant blue mass of whatever it is.



Here's the front of it, but there's no way to get behind it. I don't even know what that thing is supposed to be...

[Helder]

I could try to make a walk through walls type code but I dont know how successful I will be at actually making the code.

[Flying Omelette]

If you can, that would be awesome.

Edit: Because I know way more about this game than any human being should, I had a feeling something like this would happen...





Those are both boss rooms I managed to warp into. But notice there is no boss and just a key lying on the ground that I can't pick up. The reason for this is that it's sometimes possible, through glitches, to reach the boss room before solving all the current area's puzzles. Normally, you should not be able to access the boss before you've completely solved all the puzzles leading up to it, but the developers must've known about these glitches so that what happens when you reach a boss room too early is that it won't load the boss. Instead, you just get an empty room with the key the boss is holding, but you can't pick it up.

So even if I was to warp to where Blackwing should be (if such a place exists) he might not show up if the proper flags aren't in place.

What I'm curious about now is if it's possible to alter the code to change what boss gets loaded upon entering a room with all the proper flags in place. Say, for example, if I were to complete all the puzzles in the first area, but before entering the boss Spike's room, if we could alter the code so that when you enter the room, Blinder (or another boss) appears instead of Spike...I could easily provide a save state just outside Spike's room, ready to fight him...

Well, anyway, I did manage to use Helder's code to warp behind that giant blue pile of whatever-it-is:


And duplicated the screenshot from the back of the box...



Appears to be an incomplete area. There's a ramp leading down there, but the bottom has been blocked by a row of ill-fitting tiles Arthur cannot walk through...however...


I still managed to get down there by using the code to warp back and forth and adjusting my position on the screen. Still have no idea what that big blue thing is, though...


Definitely looks like something was planned to be here at one point, but it wasn't finished for whatever reason. You can walk right through some barriers.

[Helder]

yes provide me with a save state,maybe upload it on your site and tell me what emu it was made with,I cant guarantee to be able to make the code but I have an idea as to how i might make it work,by the way I think this game blows balls I played it long ago and found it boring and uninteresting.

[Flying Omelette]

No problem. I'll get one uploaded tomorrow, as it's a little late for me to do it tonight.

,by the way I think this game blows balls I played it long ago and found it boring and uninteresting.

Yeah, that's the general consensus. It's really not a good game, and it has numerous bugs and glitches and various other problems, (one problem with trying to document where each area location the warp code takes you to is that I never know what castle I'm in when I land in one because they all look alike), but I have a weird fondness for it anyway. I like some of the music and graphics and I was taken aback by that endgame scenario where you end up resurrecting two of your dead friends by walking along catwalks made of entwined rotten corpses dripping blood in search of their spirits. That was a pretty big WTF to me back then.

Oh yes, another problem is how you can't save progress until you've completely beaten an area (if you're playing on the cartridge and not using save states, anyway). This is especially annoying at the end with the final boss, because you're likely to get killed by it the instant the battle starts, and then you have to walk through several really fucking huge areas to get back up to it again...only to probably get killed by it again right away. It's amazing I did beat this game legitimately on the cartridge without cheating years ago, but I did.

Still, I've been obssessed with trying to find out if any evidence of Blackwing still exists in that game ever since I read that interview and noticed the name mentioned in the ROM. (This game also has a TON of unused dialogue in the ROM. It seems like they changed the opening scenario two or three times and were originally going to write it like a comedy in which the characters actually talk to each other, but that got abandoned pretty quickly. Most of it's documented about halfway down this page. I've since found more, but they look like error messages left over from development.) My guess is that Blackwing was supposed to be stationed somewhere near the end of the game as a boss, and I'm suspicious a group of giant, empty, enemy-less rooms with eagle head statues lining the walls might've been where...

[scarface200729]

Well, maybe there is a universal boss unlocked code that can be made. So that every level you go to the boss will be unlocked instantly and all you have to do is get to the end of the level. If that works then whatever room blackwing is supposed to be in, he'll be there. If you need a code to unlock the boss on every level, then that would require an entire playthrough. But if you get all the codes and all the addresses are close together, then you can just check to see if there are any empty spaces in the addresses. Try them and maybe one will unlock him.

"Blaise, the old Wizard that lives in the Swamp of Zagar, is clearly a reference to Yoda from the Star Wars movies. His cryptic, "reverse" way of talking is nearly identical to Yoda's manner of speaking. (Just try reading his dialogue without hearing Frank Oz's voice in your head.) He was also once Merlin's teacher, in much the same way as Yoda was Obi-Wan's teacher. Finally, he lives in a swamp, like how Yoda lives on the swamp planet, Dagobah."

That is different now thanks to the new Star wars trilogy. It is Qui-Gon Jinn who is Obiwans teacher. I don't know how they try to explain that both are his teacher, but Jinn is clearly his main teacher. I guess they mean Yoda just taught him a few quotes here and there and didn't actually physically train him.

[Helder]

damn lucas fucked up,the code I was gonna do was make the boss be active and then maybe see if the code can be altered or maybe an address near the code modifies which boss shows up.

[Flying Omelette]

Yeah, consistency wasn't the prequel trilogy's strong point. -_-

Anyway, here's a savestate made with SNES9x just before the first boss. All you have to do is walk in the door right in front of you and you'll be facing Warlord Spike.

http://www.flyingomelette.com/koj/od...sofjustice.004

What Scarface suggested might work, too, but without knowing if a room for Blackwing even exists, and without knowing the address for the location, it seems it would be faster to force the game to load a different boss. If that can be done, and that value can be changed to one that corresponds to the missing Blackwing boss (should it still exist in the ROM), we might just get it to show up...