Linus Spacehead's Cosmic Crusade

Linus Spacehead's Cosmic Crusade
Also known as: Cosmic Spacehead (EU) Developer: Codemasters Publisher: Camerica Platforms: Unlicensed NES, Aladdin Deck Enhancer Released in US: 1992 Released in EU: 1993 This game has unused music. This game has debugging material. This game has regional differences. This game has a notes page

Linus Spacehead's Cosmic Crusade is a sequel to Linus Spacehead that alternates between the platforming of the first game and point-and-click adventure areas with an I-can't-believe-it's-not-SCUMM interface.

Sub-Page

Notes

Missing Noise Channel

Due to a programming error, the noise channel is completely missing from the game's music. (Cosmic Spacehead's Pie Slap does use the noise channel for the "splat" sound effect.) Changing a single instruction in the ROM from BEQ to BNE will activate the noise channel again. At NES File Address 21AD9, change byte F0 to D0, or use Game Genie Code ESKOOZEY. For the NSF file, change the byte at 1B49 from F0 to D0.

(Source: Dizzy9)

Even with this fix, not all music tracks were written to use the noise channel. In many tracks it serves as percussion to drive the beat, which was especially unclear in the first section of the car assembly line theme.

Area	Unmodified	Noise Enabled
Title loop
Old Lino Town action route
Cape Carnival
Formica City
Surfing
Bumper car racing
Linograd
Linoville
Bus ride
Factory Reception
Assembly line
Computer
Workshop
Crusher line
Space driving
Ending

In other tracks it serves as the ambient sound of water, wind, or power surges.

Area	Unmodified	Noise Enabled
Riverbank
Dodgey City action route
Dodgey City
Coast
No Man's Causeway
No Man's Causeway action route
Outer sector

Unused Music

The music track with index 33 goes unused, a mellow piece with a steady rhythm to its basic melody. To hear it requires making the game write $21 to address $078D on the US version or $078E on the European version when the game starts a new music loop.

The track numbers are grouped by kind and mostly follow the game's quest progression. Track 33 is grouped with the music for arcade action sections, placed between the music for the Scrapyard's action stage and the music for the odd-numbered arms of the space station, so it may have been intended for a late-game action stage as well.

In-game Reset

Press and hold A + B then press Select + Start.

Regional Differences

Color Palette

As is typical of Codemasters' 1993 revisions to its NES games, all uses of color $0D for black were changed to $0E for the European release of Cosmic Spacehead except for brief moments during certain fade transitions, since it is known that the abnormally low voltage signal of $0D can cause display problems on some monitors.

Title Screen and Intro

The game's title in European regions was changed to "Cosmic Spacehead". Several graphical changes were made to the game to reflect the change of title.

USA	Europe

The intro graphic was changed to match the European box art, which features a very different rendition of the game's protagonist. A new Codemasters logo was also added to this screen, and the logo is repeated on the credits screen that follows with a new background color, replacing the old Codemasters and Camerica logos.

USA	Europe

As the control scheme was altered, it's only natural that the attract-mode demo was rerecorded for it. It still does most of the same things; the European version's player even strives to do as much nonstop platforming, only taking advantage of the new ability to stop and start forward motion in midair for one second. Here are the major differences:

• When the player is ready to leave Old Lino Town, the European demo doesn't raise the cursor as high, and it takes the additional action of stopping to Look At Old Lino Town before leaving.
• In the action stage, the US demo crosses a high island and jumps a red Headcase on it where the European version takes the low route and collects another Cosmic Candy there.
• Later the European demo lands on the second-to-last candy instead of jumping over it as the US demo does, bringing Cosmic's total to 5 versus Linus's 3.
• In Cape Carnival, the US demo clicks the onscreen Give button before selecting the Lino Dollar, whereas the European demo cycles through the commands to Use as if pressing the B button. The latter method prevents the risk of a desynchronization bug seen when playing the US demo in Spanish, where the pixel the player clicks is now located between Dar (Give) and Usar (Use) and therefore fails to put the money in the Luk·E·Day Machine.

Apparently the new demo was recorded in NTSC mode, as Cosmic doesn't receive the speed boost he normally gets in the platformer stage, even when the game is run on a PAL system. The European demo could be using code from an earlier build, considering that its apparent presses of B still bring up Look At first, while the playable game changes it so that B brings up Use first.

New Battle Mode

The European version adds a two-player battle minigame called "Pie Slap" to the main menu. This is an overhead "tank combat" sort of game where a player wins by shooting the other player four more times than the other player shoots them, while collectible powerups that change a player's speed or shot abilities occasionally appear on the field. Each of the three selectable arenas uses a music track from one of the main game's special action stages, and this version's "Splatdrone" player characters use the sprites for the bumper cars in the racing minigame, but otherwise this is all new content.

Gameplay Differences

Passwords

• In the US version, you can press Select + Start, plus another Start to unpause the game, to see the password at any time in any adventure area.
• In the European version, you can collect a Password item with any of the five verbs in certain areas, and it will show the password while flying away and playing the standard win jingle. The Select + Start button combination is not used.
  • Although the Password items are a limited resource whose consumption is tracked during a single game session, the password encoding was not modified to track their use. Instead, when a player enters a password, the game looks at its location value and removes all Password items that the player "should" have encountered earlier in the quest, a scheme that presumes players will want to visit Cape Carnival before The Border and Dodgey City before The Caves.
  • The decoding of an entered password did have its bounds checking expanded so that only the 8 areas containing a Password item are considered valid. In both versions, a password with an invalid location will make the game default to placing the player in Old Lino Town instead of rejecting it as an Illegal Password as it would for an incorrect checksum. This means that if you take a genuine password from the US version generated in an area where the European version doesn't contain a Password item and enter that password into the European version (or any of the Sega ports for that matter), you will be relocated to Old Lino Town, even if you had already made progress on Planet Detroitica or Space Station #59-C! (The PC port still accepts all 33 location values despite only containing 3 Password items; its lack of a Password item on Space Station #59-C seems to be why both it and the Amiga port repurpose some of the space station's action stage bitflags to store the number of lives in the password.)
• The European version adds a "wraparound" feature to the password entry screen, allowing players to jump from any edge of the character grid to the opposite edge. In the US version, the cursor just stays put if the player tries to push it beyond an edge.

Game Mechanics

Play control during the platforming action segments is significantly different between versions, with the US version sticking close to the physics of the original Linus Spacehead's standard levels minus the fall stuns, while the European version is much more beginner-friendly.

• In the US version:
  • Under normal gravity, your jump peaks at not much more than 24 pixels above the ground (It can vary a little in both versions), but you can surmount a 32-pixel-high ledge by landing within the 8 pixels beneath it and getting "slid" up onto the top.
  • Once you jump, your horizontal speed is locked and cannot change in midair. Getting killed makes horizontal speed gradually decrease until a screen edge is reached.
  • Holding the A button causes you to continuously jump again every time you land.
  • The player character is quite slippery, taking a noticeable amount of time to accelerate and decelerate on the ground, but you can gain instant full speed just by jumping while holding a direction, even from a standstill or a run in the opposite direction. (The slipperiness may have been intended to provide some ability to choose lower forward jump speeds by hitting A without holding a direction.)
  • Pressing Left or Right at any time causes Linus to immediately resume his running animation, whether he's been jumping, falling, or standing.
• In the European version:
  • Under normal gravity, your jump peaks at at least 32 pixels above the ground, and you can surmount a 40-pixel-high ledge by landing within the 8 pixels beneath it. This stems from a boost to the initial jump speed that appreciably improves jump heights under the other gravity conditions in the space station as well.
    • This also affects which of the Cosmic Candies can be properly collected: The "The Wilderness"→"Nearly Freezing Pool" stage contains one candy on a remote platform that could not be reached without dying afterward in the US version because Linus's jump was too short to get back to the remainder of the level. That jump becomes doable in the European version, if just barely. However, another candy in the "Detroitica Bus Depot"→"Factory Reception" stage becomes almost impossible to collect: Where a player of the US version would simply jump in front of the bridge over the candy from the right, the European version's jump would carry the character all the way onto the top of the bridge first. Therefore reaching the candy takes a serious fluke of a slip between two platforms to the candy's left and may even require the PAL-mode speed boost with the correct pixel offset to keep from falling too fast.

USA	Europe

• • You can freely move horizontally in midair, even while dying, making the game significantly easier (and more similar to the first game's bubble- and balloon-riding levels).
  • Holding the A button does not make you continuously jump. But if you release the button and hold it down again before landing, you will jump one more time immediately.
  • Traction was also improved, with the character going from zero to full speed in no time at all if he had not just been running in the opposite direction, and he slides forward for a little less time and distance after the direction is released.
  • If the European version of the game is run on a PAL console, the player will move 50% faster during most of the standard platformer action sections, while the game runs at 50 FPS instead of 60 FPS. This is a net speedup of 25% vs NTSC. While this is a big help for sneaking past enemies, the way it applies to both horizontal and vertical motion means that jumps hardly go any farther.
  • After running during a jump or fall for about two-thirds of a second, Cosmic will switch from the running animation to his falling animation, even if a direction was held the whole time. Cosmic can also remain in his non-running jump pose if the player only pushes forward in small increments not too early in the jump. These changes were probably made so that these animations still get seen a fair amount with the new manual air control.

Play control in the adventure areas was also streamlined and debugged for the European version.

• The US version's cursor starts moving at 1 pixel per frame (in each dimension) and soon speeds up to 2 pixels per frame. The European version's cursor still starts at 1 pixel per frame, but it speeds up to 3 pixels per frame.
• The US version's cursor stops moving for 2 frames upon every press of A or B; the European version's cursor is only stopped for 2 frames by B.
• The US version's player character only moves toward the last press of A and ignores the button being held down until it is released and pressed again, making long treks require several button presses. The European version has the character continually follow the cursor so long as A is held within the graphics field, allowing the player to smoothly "drag" Cosmic's attention all over the place, though it still takes a new press of A to select an action or an object.
• When choosing an action with B, the first verb to appear in the US version is Look At, followed by Pick Up, Talk To, Give, and Use before looping back to Look At, matching the order of the onscreen list of commands left-to-right. The European version has B select Use first, followed by Look At, Pick Up, Talk To, Give, and looping back to Use, likely because it's the most used command.
• Once an action is selected, the US version cancels it if you press A on any non-item area anywhere above the inventory, but the European version only cancels an action if you click in the space between the graphics field and the inventory, letting you move Cosmic while still keeping an action ready to use later.
• The US version features a glitch where if Linus is placed against an unclimbable barrier, the next command input will make the game treat Linus as if all objects are right beside him, allowing the player to interact with some objects before Linus has gotten anywhere near them. It still does checks for things like height differences, though, which can actually produce false negatives from doing the check immediately when Linus will eventually reach the object's height at the end of a staircase. The European version removes this glitch entirely (but it can still be performed in the Sega Master System and Game Gear ports!).

In addition, the European version makes the player icon walk across the world map (seen when there is no action stage left to clear) twice as fast as the US version. Less waiting!

Area-Specific Differences

Old Lino Town

Taking a cue from The Fantastic Adventures of Dizzy, the European version's Old Lino Town overlays an animation of a hand pressing the B button on the controller if the player has not yet picked up the Old Lino Town Teleport Key and has not pressed B in the last twenty seconds. This can lead to version-exclusive visual glitches if a player decides to use Old Lino Town's Teleport Machine with only the A button after only having taken any other town's teleport key, since the controller graphics take the place of some tiles used for the teleport animation and share palettes with the vanishing Cosmic.

In the action stage leading to The Border, the European version omits a green Headcase enemy that patrolled the edge of this route's last chunk of land in the US version. It was a bit difficult to dodge for such an early stage...

USA	Europe

The Post Office

The postal workers' eyes blink white (from your character's face palette) in the US version, but they blink yellow (from your character's pajamas palette) in the European version.

USA	Europe

After installing the Targetting Device into the missile in Linograd, the US version lets you run back to the Lost Property Office and be offered another targeting device! Install that before the missile is fully primed, and you can go back and receive a third targeting device and so on ad infinitum. The European version has the office default to "I can't help you anymore" if anything has been done to the missile, so you can no longer keep a spare targeting device as a souvenir. It retains the bug of the Enquiries attendant being the one to mouth the words, though.

Nearly Freezing Pool

The US version has a display bug at this pool where the È, Ç, Ä, Ö, Ü, comma, apostrophe, hyphen, and inverted question and exclamation mark characters are missing from both fonts in graphics memory, but many text strings that can be called in this area still try to use these characters, causing tiles of background art to appear in their place. The European version adds all the missing glyphs back, but to make room it had to delete all the background plant life, and some of the rocks were changed slightly.

USA	Europe

The German script has an additional display bug in the US version when freezing the pool, as that is supposed to change its title from "Fast Gefrorener Teich" to "Gefrorener Teich". This routine fails to blank the leftmost character, rendering it as "F Gefrorener Teich". The European version fixes this by leaving "Fast" out of the name even before it's frozen.

USA	Europe

Furthermore, the US version enables a bug if you collect the Icing Sugar last and don't scroll the inventory up before using it. Freezing the pool leaves the inventory in the same position, allowing players to select and use the Icing Sugar again until they pick up another item or scroll up the inventory; the name is just invisible until the cursor hovers over it. The European version prevents this by setting the inventory scroll to the top item upon freezing the pool.

Dodgey City

The first two stalks out of three which touched the top of the screen in "Frozen Pool"→"Dodgey City" had their top 32 pixels chopped off for the European version, and so did the first one of two such stalks in "Dodgey River Bank"→"Dodgey City". This may have something to do with the fact that Linus was not able to stand on these highest leaves anyway because the screen edge acts as a ceiling, although it is unclear why both stages had another sky-scraping stalk left at its original height.

USA	Europe

USA	Europe

USA	Europe

In the clifftop meeting with Shady Lionel, the European version fixes a mistake the US version has with a control code in the text where the value $FF, which signals a line wrap in the same text string, is placed between the German and Spanish translations instead of $FE, which separates different text strings. This means that playing in German makes the game try to display both the German and Spanish versions of the line, "You've come to the right place sonny! Shady Lionel at your service!" Aside from looking a bit glitchy with some of the extra text stuck on screen until the player leaves the area, this has the side effect of overwriting some of the bytes in memory that store which Cosmic Candies have been collected with the values of the excess text characters, altering which candies are available in some of Linoleum's action stages.

USA	Europe

Because the languages count the number of $FE codes to find their versions of each string, the Spanish mode in the US version fails to display Shady Lionel's introduction at all as it grabs the English version of the next string along with two other control codes misinterpreted as text.

USA	Europe

Foreign Soil

The European version fixes the same text control code problem as Shady Lionel's introduction in the sarcastic Look At description for the Fusewire, "Look! Look! Look! Doesn't anyone pick things up anymore?", this time located between the French and German translations in the US version. Again the screen is a bit shaken by too-low text left partially stuck on screen after trying to fit the German text below the French text, and the side effect of overwriting Cosmic Candy collection bits applies to the rest of the action stages. But not only is this action thankfully optional, it's also repeatable, and because the fuse wire regenerates here after assembling the missile, you can collect Cosmic Candies in the early parts of No Man's Causeway or the right of Linoville and regenerate them by coming back here to choose Regarde Fusible again, making it possible to farm any number of extra lives by playing in French in the US version only.

USA	Europe

The missing $FE makes the German mode display the Spanish translation instead.

USA	Europe

And the US version's Spanish mode displays the English version of what happens to be the next text string in the data, the Look At description for the Match Stick in The Caves, along with its other two control codes turned into text.

USA	Europe

No Man's Causeway

The US version makes Linus jump the gap with his teleportation-enhanced strength in either direction when the player clicks anywhere inside the gap or beyond, but for the European version this is only true for jumping right. Jumping left was changed to require clicking to the left of the gap, possibly because Cosmic's continual response to a held button could cause players to make him jump back and forth without meaning to.

Linoville

Linoville contains background animations that change with each time the player enters the area in a single game session. On the first visit, the satellite dish on the left tower sits motionless in both versions. On the second visit, the dish is spinning in both versions. On the third visit, the dish spinning is still all that happens in the European version, but the US version has a humorous scene play out shortly.

A round aircraft flies in and circles around the satellite dish with increasing speed. The dish speeds up its spinning to follow, but eventually it's too much and the dish explodes while the aircraft flies off, never to be seen again. On all subsequent visits to Linoville in the US version, the dish is still simply gone, but the European version shows something strange on the fourth and subsequent visits:

USA	Europe

The tower is now topped with a still frame of the spinning helical antenna thing from another tower, and that still antenna is itself topped with the top piece of the satellite dish. The dish's own antenna is repeated in a tiling fashion halfway down the tower, ending in the bottom piece of the dish in the cursor's cycling palette. This was most probably an error. It should be noted, however, that the European version never loads the graphics for the aircraft nor the explosion, and none of the ports of Cosmic Spacehead to other platforms show a spinning satellite dish in Linoville.

Camera Shop

The Camera Shop has a similar problem to the Nearly Freezing Pool, but here its graphics bank is only missing the È, the hyphen, and the inverted exclamation and question marks in the US version. Unfortunately, that was still enough that the European version had to erase the "camera supplies" sign wrapped around the shop's interior in order to fit the missing characters back in.

USA	Europe

Factory Reception

The US version's passcode computer screen has problems in the German and Spanish scripts where the ends of prior text strings stay stuck on the screen when new messages are supposed to take their place and even type over the border in some instances. The European version cleans them all up, reducing the number of periods to keep from running over, and it specially moves the Spanish script's line for "Failed last try" back to fit it in.

USA	Europe

Workshop

The US version has Linus knocked out onto the conveyor belt after taking 5 hits from Vork's garbage blocks. The European version makes this happen in only 3 hits, sending Cosmic to the Scrapyard a little sooner. This might have been a meager attempt to discourage players from jumping over all the blocks to forgo the fire extinguisher puzzle, a trick that has been made much easier by the higher jump.

Staff Room

The speech from the freed workers gets printed 8 pixels further to the left in the European version, right beside the edge of the screen.

USA	Europe

After that scene, if the player has not already finished the action stage in the US version, they can turn around, Use the Button again, and free the workers all over again, receiving the whole unskippable speech all over again, which doesn't make much sense. The European version prevents this by removing the Button's hotspot once the player has received the Car Keys.

Hub

The strength of the headwind in "No.2 Hard to Get Thru" was reduced in the European version, making it possible to walk across small gaps in the floor in both directions once again.

Text Differences

All instances of the name "Linus" were replaced with "Cosmic" in all languages for Cosmic Spacehead, including on the birth certificate. Confusingly, the word "cosmic" is still used as a descriptor and as an exclamation by Cosmic himself!

English Script

USA	Europe
1 GOLD LINO DOLLAR	1 LINO DOLLAR
50 GOLD LINO DOLLARS	50 LINO DOLLARS
OLD LINO TOWN TELEKEY	LINO TOWN TELEKEY
FORMICA CITY TELEKEY	FORMICA TELEKEY
LETTER FROM LINOGRAD	MAIL FROM LINOGRAD
NO.2 HARD TO GET THRU	NO2 HARD TO GET THRU
NO.4 WHERES THE FLOOR?	NO.4 NO FLOOR!

Many text changes appear to have been made not for editorial reasons but to shorten the names of objects to within new limits, with those on the graphics field being no more than 20 characters long and inventory items being no more than 19 characters long. A possible reason for these limits is how certain combinations of verbs and nouns could overrun the screen edge in the US version's German script:

French Script

USA	Europe
EXTRAIT DE NAISSANCE	CERTIF. NAISSANCE

Although the item's name was changed, the sentence "Il faut 2 photos d'identite et ton extrait de naissance" was left as it was.

USA	Europe
ELLE EST FIXEE AU MUR.	C'EST FIXE AU MUR.
SUPER PHOTOS COULEUR 30 PERCENT PLUS GRANDES!	SUPER PHOTOS COULEUR 30 POURCENT PLUS GRANDES!
C'EST MARQUE... ON GAGNE 99,9 PERCENT DE FOIS	C'EST MARQUE... ON GAGNE 99.9 POURCENT DE FOIS
1 LINO DOLLAR EN OR	1 LINO DOLLAR
50 LINO DOLLARS EN OR	50 LINO DOLLARS
C'EST UN JEU DE FAMILLE!	TU TE CROIS OU?
IL TE FAUT DES TUYAUX?	T'AS VRAIMENT BESOIN D'INDICES!
TELECLE-FORMICAVILLE	TELECLE-FORMICA
RATAPLAN!	AH CE QU'ON EST BIEN DANS SON BAIN
C'EST L'ANARCHIE LA BAS. ON N'A PAS IDEE DE VOULOIR VISITER UN TEL ENDROIT! TOTALES CHAOS.	C'EST L'ANARCHIE LA BAS. ON N'A PAS IDEE DE VOULOIR VISITER UN TEL ENDROIT! TOTAL CHAOS.
JE M'APPELLE LINUS ET J'ESSAIE DE ME TIRER DE CETTE PLANÈTE.	JE M'APPELLE COSMIC. J'ESSAIE DE ME TIRER DE CETTE PLANETE.
PLANÈTE TERRE! PLANÈTE TERRE! T'AS UN VISA D'UNE PLANÈTE NON DECOUVERTE!	PLANETE TERRE! PLANETE TERRE! T'AS UN VISA D'UNE PLANETE NON DECOUVERTE!
POUR DECOUVRIR UNE NOUVELLE PLANÈTE!	POUR DECOUVRIR UNE NOUVELLE PLANETE!
QUELLE PLANÈTE?	QUELLE PLANETE?
LA PLANÈTE TERRE!	LA PLANETE TERRE!
C'EST UN ALLER SIMPLE POUR LA PLANÈTE DETROITICA.	C'EST UN ALLER SIMPLE POUR LA PLANETE DETROITICA.
BIENTOT JE PROUVERAI A TOUT LE MONDE QUE J'AI DECOUVERT LA PLANÈTE TERRE.	BIENTOT JE PROUVERAI A TOUT LE MONDE QUE J'AI DECOUVERT LA PLANETE TERRE.

Apparently we spell "planete" without the accent now, leaving "règle" the only word in the European version's text to retain the mark.

USA	Europe
4 OU EST LE PLANCHER?	4 OU EST LE PLANCHER
5 ORDINAIRE EN VERITE	5 ORDINAIRE
TOBOGGAN ANTIGRAVITE	TOBOGGAN GRAVITE

The Anti Gravity Slide's French name was only changed for its appearance as an inventory item. Its name on the field is still "toboggan antigravite", and so it changes back and forth as the player picks it up and sets it back down.

USA	Europe
AVEC D'ESSENCE, JE FERAI UN ALLER-RETOUR A LA TERRE!	AVEC DE L'ESSENCE, JE FERAI UN ALLER-RETOUR A LA TERRE!

German Script

USA	Europe
SCHAU AU	BETRACHTE

The US ROM actually appears to store this as "SCHAU AUF", but the F never gets printed for unknown reasons.

USA	Europe
GIB [object] NACH	GIB [object] IN AN
BENUTZE [object] IN	BENUTZE [object] IN FÜR
IHM IST DIE STIMME WEGGEBLIEBEN	VÖLLIG SPRACHLOS
HÖRT NICHT ZU.	HAT KEINE OHREN DU DUMMKOPF!
ÜBERLEG ES DIR DAS NOCHMAL!	ÜBERLEG ES DIR NOCHMAL!
ER IST AN DIE WAND GESCHRAUBT.	IST AN DIE WAND GESCHRAUBT.
DAMIT KÖNNEN WIR BELIEBIG OFT NACH LINO TOWN REISEN.	DAMIT KANN MAN BELIEBIG OFT NACH LINO TOWN REISEN.
LINOSTADT-SCHLÜSSEL	LINO TOWN-SCHLÜSSEL

Old Lino Town's name wasn't changed for German, so it may have been a mistake to translate "town" in the name of its teleport key.

USA	Europe
DA STEHT 99,9 PERCENT AUSSCHÜTTUNG.	DA STEHT 99.9 PROZENT AUSSCHÜTTUNG.
HAUPTTREFFER! 50 LINODOLLAR.	DU HAST 50 LINODOLLAR GEWONNEN
MANN! EIN KOSTENLOSER BESUCHEINER AUTOFABRIK! TOLL!	MANN! EIN KOSTENLOSER BESUCH NACH DETROITICA! TOLL!
DAS IST EIN FAMILIENSPIEL!	HE, DAS IST HEIR KEIN ERWACHSENENSPIEL!
HE, KUMPEL! DU KANNST DA ERST WIEDER REIN, WENN DU MIT MIR GESPROCHEN HAST!	HE, KUMPEL! DU KANNST DA ERST REIN, WENN DU MIT MIR GESPROCHEN HAST!
SEHT HER, SEHT HER, IHR LEUTE! GEWINNE TRIP NACH DETROITICA!	VERSUCH DEIN GÜLUCK! GEWINNE EINEN TRIP NACH DETROITICA!
HAST DU ETWAS VERGESSEN?	HAST DU WAS VERLOREN?
JA, WAS HAST DU ZU BIETEN?	JA, WAS WURDE DEN ABGEGEBEN?
HIER, NIMM DAS WITZBUCH, DU WITZFIGUR.	MENSCH HIER, NIMM DAS WITZBUCH, DU WITZFIGUR!
ALLES AUSVERKAUFT!	SONST NICHTS!
BRIEFFORMULAR	BRIEF
HIER STEHT... GEH NACH CAPE CARNIVAL UND DAS GEHEIMNIS WIRD GELÜFTET!	HIER STEHT... GEH NACH CAPE CARNIVAL, UND DAS GEHEIMNIS WIRD GELÜFTET!
WAS FÜR EIN NETTER JUNGE!	WAS FÜR EIN NETTER TYP!
ER IST UNBESTECHLICH UND DAHER NUTZLOS!	ER IST UNBESTECHLICH, GEHT ALSO NICHT!
PLANET ERDE?!? SIE HABEN EIN VISUM VON EINEM UNBEKANNTEN PLANETEN?!?	PLANET ERDE?!? SIE HABEN EIN VISUM VON EINEM UNENTDECKTEN PLANETEN?!?
FORMICA CITY-SCHLÜSSEL	FORMICA-SCHLÜSSEL
EENE MEENE FLIEGENDRECK!	COOL, MANN!
FAST GEFRORENER TEICH	GEFRORENER TEICH

As a reminder, the before-freezing name for the pool, "FAST GEFRORENER TEICH", was changed to match what its after-freezing name already was, "GEFRORENER TEICH", because it showed up as "F GEFRORENER TEICH". "KÜHLER TEICH" never gets to show its Ü in the first place due to the missing glyphs.

USA	Europe
KÜHLER TEICH	TEICH
ES IST EISIG KALT!	EISIG KALT, MANN!
DODGEY CITY-SCHLÜSSEL	DODGEY-SCHLÜSSEL
WANNENSTÖPSEL	GUMMISTÖPSEL

The Waterproof Plug's name was only changed on the field, matching what its name already became in the inventory, "GUMMISTÖPSEL".

USA	Europe
WAS FÜR EINEN PLANETEN?	UND WELCHEN PLANETEN?
EINE EINFACHE KARTE ZUM PLANETEN DETROITICA, BITTE.	IST 'NE FAHRKARTE ZUM PLANETEN DETROITICA!
DIE SIEHT ANDERS AUS!	SIEHT IRGENDWIE ANDERS AUS!
WIRD KONTROLLIERT...	WIRD KONTROLLIERT..

Additionally, "CODE EINGEBEN... " and "STATUSREPORT..." were given extra trailing blank spaces, which may have helped clear out lingering text from failed tries seen in the US version.

USA	Europe

USA	Europe
ZU!	SIE IST ZU!
BALD!	UND ZWAR BALD!
1. WIEGT 1 TONNE	NR. 1
2. SCHWIERIG	NR. 2
3. ICH SEH NICHTS	NR. 3
4. WO IST DER BODEN?	NR. 4
5. NORMAL	NR. 5
6. SCHWERKRAFTMIX	NR. 6

Yes, even though only one name was 20 characters and could easily have been shortened, all the names of doors to the space station's action stages were thrown out and made the same as the outer sectors except with spaces inserted between the periods and numbers.

USA	Europe
ANTI-SCHWERKRAFTRUTSCHE	SCHWERKRAFTRUTSCHE

Unlike the French and Spanish scripts, the Anti Gravity Slide's German name was changed on both the field and the inventory, so it remains consistent.

USA	Europe
KISTE	KäSTCHEN
PAAT NICHT IN MEINE TASCHE	PASST NICHT IN DEINE TASCHE
SIE IST WEIA UND GRÜN, MIT DER AUFSCHRIFT 'SUPAVEND'.	ER IST WEISS UND GRÜN, MIT DER AUFSCHRIFT 'SUPAVEND'.
ES IST ZU NAA DAFÜR.	VIEL ZU NASS, MANN!
BEI GENAUERER PRÜFUNG STELLT SICH HERAUS, DAA ES EINE STANGE MIT EINEM ZEICHEN IST.	BEI GENAUERER PRÜFUNG STELLT SICH HERAUS, DASS ES EINE STANGE MIT EINEM SCHILD IST.
HALLO! ICH HEIAE LINUS.	HALLO! ICH HEISSE COSMIC.
PAA AUF! DAS IST GLÜHENDHEIA!	PASS AUF! DAS IST GLÜHENDHEISS!
SUPACOLORFOTOS! 30 PERCENT GRÖAER ALS NORMAL!	SUPACOLORFOTOS! 30 PERCENT GRÖSSER ALS NORMAL!
WAHNSINNSSCHIEAPULVER!	WAHNSINNSSCHIESSPULVER!
SCHIEAPULVER	SCHIESSPULVER
HIER STEHT... SCHIEAPULVER - BEI ANZÜNDEN GEFAHR!	HIER STEHT... SCHIESSPULVER - BEI ANZÜNDEN GEFAHR!
DOCH ERST MUAT DU BEWEISEN, DAA SIE DIR GEHÖREN.	DOCH ERST MUSST DU BEWEISEN, DASS SIE DIR GEHÖREN.
BEWEISE, DAA ES DIR GEHÖRT.	BEWEISE, DASS ES DIR GEHÖRT.
PAAFOTOS	PASSFOTOS
PAAKONTROLLEUR	PASSKONTROLLEUR
IHREN PAA, BITTE!	IHREN PASS, BITTE!
OHNE PAA KANN NIEMAND NACH FORMICA EINREISEN. LOS, HAU SCHON AB!	OHNE PASS KANN NIEMAND NACH FORMICA EINREISEN. LOS, HAU SCHON AB!
ICH HÄTTE GERN EINEN PAA.	ICH HÄTTE GERN EINEN PASS.
HIER IST DER PAA.	HIER IST DER PASS.
PAA	PASS
HIER STEHT... ZUM FLUA.	HIER STEHT... ZUM FLUSS.
HIER STEHT 'STOP' IN GROAEN BUCHSTABEN UND DANN ETWAS, WAS ICH NICHT LESEN KANN.	HIER STEHT 'STOP' IN GROSSEN BUCHSTABEN UND DANN ETWAS, WAS ICH NICHT LESEN KANN.
FLUAUFER	FLUSSUFER
DODGEY-FLUAUFER	DODGEY-FLUSSUFER
SCHADE, KLEINER. TSCHÜA!	SCHADE, KLEINER. TSCHÜSS!
ABSCHUARAMPE	ABSCHUSSRAMPE
WETTE, DAA DIE FUNKEN FLIEGEN, WENN ICH DAS BENUTZE!	WETTE, DASS DIE FUNKEN FLIEGEN, WENN ICH DAS BENUTZE!
DIE SNAPPERMAN DELUXE URLAUBSKAMERA KOSTET 50 DOLLAR EINSCHLIEALICH FILM.	DIE SNAPPERMAN DELUXE URLAUBSKAMERA KOSTET 50 DOLLAR EINSCHLIESSLICH FILM.
BALD KANN ICH BEWEISEN, DAA ICH DIE ERDE ENTDECKT HABE.	BALD KANN ICH BEWEISEN, DASS ICH DIE ERDE ENTDECKT HABE.
DIE TÜR ZU EINEM AUAENSEKTOR.	DIE TÜR ZU EINEM AUSSENSEKTOR.
MIT EIN PAAR NETTEN FOTOS KANN ICH BEWEISEN, DAA ICH DIE ERDE ENTDECKT HABE.	MIT EIN PAAR NETTEN FOTOS KANN ICH BEWEISEN, DASS ICH DIE ERDE ENTDECKT HABE.

This sentence ("I'll have to take some neat snaps to prove to everyone that I discovered Planet Earth!") is actually two separate text strings that get displayed only 8 frames apart, as if its scene was once meant to have 4 remarks instead of the 3 it ended up with.

USA	Europe
DIESER STINGRAY IST JA SCHNELL! ICH MÜATE GLEICH DA SEIN.	DIESER STINGRAY IST JA SCHNELL! ICH MÜSSTE GLEICH DA SEIN.
DIESE AUFNAHMEN WERDEN GANZ GROA RAUSKOMMEN!	DIESE AUFNAHMEN WERDEN GANZ GROSS RAUSKOMMEN!
BALD WISSEN ALLE, DAA ICH DIE ERDE ENTDECKT HABE.	BALD WISSEN ALLE, DASS ICH DIE ERDE ENTDECKT HABE.
NIEMANDSSTRAAE	NIEMANDSSTRASSE

No Man's Causeway had its name fixed the same way on both sides, of course... And by now it's obvious that the US version's German script suffers from a recurring problem where words that should contain "ss" contain "a" in its place more often than not. In fact, the only words in its German script with a double S where neither S is part of a combo are "Stress," "Passwort", and "Wahnsinnsschieapulver!"—and that last one had another double S replaced! There is no double-S combo in the letter pairing dictionary, but if the German script was compressed under the assumption that it would be the 75th combo, that could explain why it grabbed the first letter of the alphabet instead.

Spanish Script

USA	Europe
INGRESAR CONTRASENA	FORMAR CONTRASENA
PARTIDA D NACIMIENTO	PARTIDA NACIMIENTO
ESTA SUJETO A LA PARED.	ESO ESTA SUJETO A LA PARED.
NO PUEDES DARLO.	NO PUEDES DAR ESO.
TELEKEY-OLD LINOTOWN	TELEKEY-LINOTOWN
1 DOLARE DE ORO	1 DOLAR DE ORO

The singular forms of the carried money aren't really stored in the text bank like this. Instead each name appears in the form of "10 Lino Dollars" only, and then the game will overwrite the "10" with the correct number and delete the extraneous digit and S on the end of "dollars" if necessary. In this case, though, "dolares" needed two characters deleted, which wasn't implemented until the European revision.

USA	Europe
ELLA NO TE PERTENECE.	NO TE PERTENECE.
VENDEDORA AUTOMATICA	EXPENDEDORA
PRIMERO TIENES QUE DEMOSTRAR QUE SON TUYOS.	PRIMERO TIENES QUE DEMOSTRAR QUE ES TUYOS.
DICE... 'VE A CABO CARNAVAL TODO SERA REVELADO'!	DICE... 'VE A CABO CARNAVAL ¡TODO SERA REVELADO'!
PASAPORTE OFICIAL	OFICIAL DE ADUANAS
TELEKEY-CIUDAD FORMICA	TELEKEY-FORMICA
ESTA HELADA COMO UNA PIEDRA	ESTA SOLIDA COMO UNA PIEDRA
CHARCA CASI HELADA	CHARCA CASI SOLIDA
CHARCA HELADA	CHARCA SOLIDA
¡LA CHARCA SE ESTA CONGELANDO!	¡LA CHARCA SE ESTA SOLIDIFICANDO!
TELEKEY-CIUDAD DODGEY	TELEKEY-DODGEY
TAPON IMPERMEABLE	TAPON DE GOMA
UN ENCHUFE DE GOMA	TAPON DE GOMA
¡ESTAS EN EL LUGAR ADECUADO¡ SHADY LIONEL A TU SERVICIO!	¡ESTAS EN EL LUGAR ADECUADO¡ ¡SHADY LIONEL A TU SERVICIO!

Although the US version's Spanish text for Shady Lionel's introduction can only be partially seen by playing in German, the full quote existed in the ROM for the European version to edit the missing inverted exclamation mark into at the beginning of the second line. It didn't correct the erroneously inverted exclamation mark at the end of the first line, though.

USA	Europe
ESTA PARECE DIFERENTE.	PARECE DIFERENTE.
CUENTAN DE TIEMPOS ANTIGUOS CUANDO LOS HOMBRES LINOMEN EXPLORABAN EL UNIVERSO.	TARATAN DE TIEMPOS ANTIGUOS CUANDO LOS HOMBRES LINOMEN EXPLORABAN EL UNIVERSO.
¡APUESTO ALGO A QUE VOLARIAN LOS TIBURONES SI USO ESO!	¡APUESTO ALGO A QUE VAN A SALTAR CHISPAS SI USO ESO!

Yes, it would appear that the first attempt at translating "I bet the sparks will fly if I use this!" misread "sparks" as "sharks".

USA	Europe
UN LIBRO DE CHISTES COSMICOS Y UN APARATO DE MISIL DIRIGIDO.	UN LIBRO DE CHISTES COSMICOS Y UN SISTEMA GUIA-MISIL.
NECESITO MAS PRUEBAS PARA DARTE EL APARATO DIRIGIDO.	NECESITO MAS PRUEBAS PARA DARTE EL SISTEMA GUIA-MISIL.
PARECE QUE TIENES LO NECESARIO PARA FABRICAR UNA BOMBA PUEDES QUEDARTE EL APARATO DIRIGIDO	PARECE QUE TIENES LO NECESARIO PARA FABRICAR UNA BOMBA PUEDES QUEDARTE EL SISTEMA GUIA-MISIL
APARATO DIRIGIDO	SISTEMA GUIA-MISIL

The Spanish name for the Targetting Device was changed everywhere except when Cosmic asks for it again after an unsuccessful attempt, where the line remains, "Todavia tengo el aparato de misil dirigido" in the European version.

USA	Europe
NO MANS CAUSEWAY	ARRECIFE DE NADIE

Yes, No Man's Causeway didn't get a Spanish translation until the European version, on both sides.

USA	Europe
DEPOSITO DE BUSES	PARADA DE BUSES
ESTA DESCONECTADA.	ESTA DESCONECTADO.
TECLADO DE ORDENADOR	TECLADO
INFORME DE STATUS...	INFORME DE STATUS.
FALLO ULTIMO INTENTO.	FALLO ULTIMO INTENTO

"MARCAR CODIGO... " and "COMPROBANDO..." were also given additional trailing spaces in the European version, possibly to prevent more of this text sticking around.

USA	Europe

USA	Europe
YA HA SIDO USADO.	YA ESTA EN MARCHA.
HEMOS ESTADO ATRAPADOS AQUI DESDE QUE LOS ROBOT SE APODERON	HEMOS ESTADO ATRAPADOS AQUI DESDE LA REVOLUCION DE ROBOTS
LOTE DE COCHE	APARCAMIENTO
¡ESE ES UN TIPO DURO!	¡SOY TODO UN AVENTURERO!
1 PESA UNA TON	1 PESO SUMO
2 DIFICIL DE PASAR	2 ALIENS MOGOLLON
3 NO VEO NADA	3 NADA SE VE
4 ¿Y EL SUELO?	4 OJO ABAJO
5 BASTANTE NORMAL	5 LO MAS SENCILLO
6 GRAVEDAD MIXTA	6 LEVITAREIE
TOBOGAN ANTIGRAVEDAD	TOBOGAN GRAVEDAD

Like the French script, the Spanish script only renames the Anti Gravity Slide as an inventory item, so the European version sees it go back and forth between "tobogan antigravedad" and "tobogan gravedad" as the player takes it in and out.

USA	Europe
10 DOLARES ESPACIALES	DOLARES ESPACIALES
¡QUE AUTO-COSMICO TAN ESTUPENDO !¡PRONTO ESTARE EN LA TIERRA!	QUE AUTO-COSMICO TAN ESTUPENDO ¡PRONTO ESTARE EN LA TIERRA!

The US version actually stores this with the first closing exclamation mark on the end of the first line, but it is too long for the screen and wraps around to the beginning of the next line.

USA	Europe
¡ESTAS FOTOS VAN A SER FANTASTICAS¡	¡ESTAS FOTOS VAN A SER FANTASTICAS!

Finally, the same sentence that's actually two pieces, "Tendré que sacar algunas fotos para demostrarles a todos que ¡he descubierto el planeta tierra!", had a space removed after "PLANETA" for seemingly being redundant because that's where the line wraps anyway, not that you could see it.