Chuck Norris Superkicks question

[+thegoldenband]

This cart always seemed like it was meant to have an ending. Digital Press points out:

 

There doesn’t seem to be an ending.  Once reaching the monastery, it takes 30 hits to eliminate all the opponents, after which you are alone until time runs out.  Does one exist?

 

However, other sources (including the game's manual) seem to make it pretty clear that there isn't one. I don't remember whether I ever defeated those last three bad guys...but I certainly would've been disappointed if I had done so, and then had nothing to do but sit around and wait for the game's clock to run out!

 

So, has anyone disassembled this cart to see whether anything might be in there to suggest that an ending was intended? (Perhaps it's in there but unreachable due to a bug?)

 

Or: has anyone considered hacking in a decent ending? (I'd do it if I had the skills, but...)

[Shaggy the Atarian]

It certainly seems like a game that could have an ending. I remember I made it to the last part once but I forgot what happened if it just counted down or what. It would be interesting to know if it was supposed to have an ending...

[moycon]

I'd usually get to the end, but there'd always be bad guys to beat and then time would run out. I always thought that there was an end, I thought the manual hinted that there was.

[moycon]

Hmmm The manual on AA doesnt mention an ending...

I guess it was just something I always thought but wasnt true.

It would be cool if someone would hack an ending onto that game.

[Tempest]

Disassembling the rom would solve the mystery...

 

Tempest

[Mountain King]

I've gotten to the last level with plenty of time to spare. Eventually the ninjas do stop comming, but I haven't seen anything that would be considered and "ending." I would just walk around until time ran out.

[Living Room Arcade]

"· BUG: There doesn’t seem to be an ending.  Once reaching the monastery, it takes 30 hits to eliminate all the opponents, after which you are alone until time runs out.  Does one exist?   {Scott Stilphen}" link

 

After reading the manual again, I think that clearly, this game is supposed to have an ending.

Chuck Norris Superkicks (USA)-manual.pdf

 

Plot Summary

- An important political leader is kidnapped and held captive in the monastery.

- You begin as a white belt.

- You must pass through six screens/stages to advance to from white to black belt.  In order to do this, you must master the karate moves for each stage.  

- Once you successfully become a black belt, you enter the monastery.  There, you will use all of the moves you learned to fight the ninjas.

Writer's Embellishment

- After defeating the ninjas, you face the evil warrior who is holding the political leader prisoner.  Using all of your black belt training, it's a fight to the death between you and the evil warrior.  

- If you are victorious, you free the prisoner.  He or she rewards you with great riches.  And the people reward you with their gratitude.  You are the hero!

The End

 

Guessing that the programmer simply ran out of RAM/ROM or whatever, so they just simply let you fight the ninjas in the monastery until the timer runs out.  We then understand that the prisoner was freed and the plot was resolved.  So the way I see it, the game does have an ending.  

[+thegoldenband]

I cleared this one a few years back. It really is a shame they couldn't have an ending sequence, or at least stop the timer and cycle the palette when you've defeated that last enemy.

[Tempest]

Has anyone looked through the code to see there's anything in there?  Maybe something is broken?

[Supergun]

Someone should definitely look the code over. I’ve seen examples where just 1 or 2 bytes being off caused Easter Eggs to become inaccessible and go unseen for decades. (arcade After Burner comes to mind)

 

And “ending scene wise”, NES Double Dragon has an awesome staff credit crawl which was accidentally cut out of the US release because of coding errors during localization of the rom.

[Tempest]

Just now, Supergun said:

And “ending scene wise”, NES Double Dragon has an awesome staff credit crawl which was accidentally cut out of the US release because of coding errors during localization of the rom.

Is it accidentally cut or just unused?  My understanding is that it wasn't used in the Japanese version either.  I thought it was just left or due to lack of time.

[Supergun]

I think you’re right, in that the Famicom version doesn’t have the staff roll in the ending either. But not really sure why it never made it into the final rom. I assumed it was programmer error, but cannot be certain.

 

 

[+thegoldenband]

By the way, today is 19 years to the day since I started this thread, which is...quite something!

[Supergun]

Unreal. I didn’t realize that it had been bumped like that!

 

It’s actually a pretty descent game. And I wonder if Chuck Norris received a complimentary copy back in the day and if he still has it.

 

So is the secondary aftermarket release by Telegames (the one that dropped the Chuck Norris name presumably because the license had expired) identical? Like is the rom exactly the same?

 

(only asking as maybe perhaps a slight difference in code activated or corrected the “ending”?)

[Rom Hunter]

4 hours ago, Supergun said:

Unreal. I didn’t realize that it had been bumped like that!

 

It’s actually a pretty descent game. And I wonder if Chuck Norris received a complimentary copy back in the day and if he still has it.

 

So is the secondary aftermarket release by Telegames (the one that dropped the Chuck Norris name presumably because the license had expired) identical? Like is the rom exactly the same?

 

(only asking as maybe perhaps a slight difference in code activated or corrected the “ending”?)

AFAIK they're identical.

[Living Room Arcade]

21 hours ago, thegoldenband said:

By the way, today is 19 years to the day since I started this thread, which is...quite something!

@thegoldenband  I was just going to say, I think it's so cool that you're still here to continue the conversation that you started 19 years ago!