Proto:Air Fortress

This page details one or more prototype versions of Air Fortress.

To do: Finish documenting this. There's incomplete code for some kind of editor in the unused space of the PRG data.

This prototype of Air Fortress is for the Famicom Disk System, whereas the final game was only released on cartridge.

The dump shown here had been copied from its original disk over a copy of Mystery Quest. Remnants of the latter game are present in the now-unused disk area starting at 0x1A14A.

Download Air Fortress (FDS Prototype) File: Air Fortress (FDS Prototype).7z (38 KB) (info)

General Differences

• The scroll and intro cannot be stopped once it starts.
• Although the title screen says "PUSH START BUTTON", the opening loop on Side A cannot be interacted with. To start the game, the player must start the system with Side B inserted.
• The intro story text is a placeholder, and a weird one at that:

 THE HISTORY OF...      
           HAJI-MIKAN   
                        
 LONG  LONG  AGO   THERE
LIVED  A  GROTESQUE BOY,
WHOSE  NAME   WAS  HAJI-
MIKAN.                  
 HE WAS SO POOR  THAT HE
COULDN'T  BUY  ANYTHING.
 BUT HE BOUGHT 'WALKMAN'
AND 'STEREO KOZOH'.     
 WHENEVER  HE SAW  SOME-
THING NICE HE SAID 'GIVE
ME! GIVE ME!'           
 SO EVERYONE  CALLED HIM
'OCTOPUS!'              
                        
  ©1981 HAL LABORATORY  

• The player begins with 1000 energy and 10 bombs.
• While you can take damage and lose energy and max energy, you cannot die. Your max energy can even underflow to 65,000 if you take enough damage.
• No side-scrolling shooter segments.
• No endings implemented.

Music Differences

FDS	Famicom/NES

The music on the title screen is very different, bearing only a passing resemblance to the final track, and makes full use of the Famicom Disk System's extra sound channel.

FDS	Famicom/NES

The interior track is mostly the same, though the bassline that plays on the extra sound channel obviously had to be removed for the cartridge version.

Stage Map

The only stage in the prototype doesn't resemble any of the stages in the final game. The player starts at the upper-right corner. Destroying the core dims the stage palette and opens the escape chute, but the player can't actually interact with the ship. No other elements (music, visual effects, or time limit) of the self-destruct sequence have been implemented yet, so the player is simply stuck forever.

FILL ME (WITH TEXT)