SMASH TV

Hitting F3 (reset) in MAME shows a tally screen with the text “WARP # ACTIVATED=SECRET KEY” (picture #1).  Hitting it again will reset the game and end up warping you to the next level from the one you were on.  Some graphics glitches will result from this.  Also, the bottom bonus room on level 3 will be full of keys (picture #2)!  This message is the intentional result of an error recovery from some hard-to-locate crash bugs. When a user starts a game, a flag is set in CMOS when a legit game is underway, and it’s cleared again when the game is complete. Upon any system crash, or a hang for more than a few seconds, a watchdog would reset the hardware. During the boot, the CMOS flag would be checked to determine if the game was rebooting from a crash - if so, it would jump ahead to the tally screen, show the Secret Warp message, make sure the score was okay, and continue the game from there.  There were no other warp messages. The #3 was a little “red herring” to make sure people weren’t too mad about what had just transpired, and were a little bit intrigued.  {Mark Turmell}

The Pleasure Domes only exist on games with ROM revision 8.00 ("L8 ROMs") and higher.  To reach it – when you collect keys, sometimes a little "key" icon will be dropped onto the floor. According to the messages given at the start of each level on an L8 machine, you need 10 keys to get in. Depending on how your game is set up, this can be difficult or impossible, unless you go through the mazes in such a way as to get as many "$" rooms as possible. On the second level (i.e. the one following your victory over Mutoid Man), the nearest of these levels will start you off with a sprinkling not of prizes but of keys. You should have no trouble picking up 10 keys in this room alone. After defeating the Cobra Boss and entering the secret rooms, you'll eventually come to a room which will end with a choice of directions: right or down. Heading right will take you to the final battle with the Game Show Host. Heading down will take you into the Pleasure Domes. And yes, the visual effects (and prizes!) are well worth the hour or so of play it takes to see them.

BUG: Sometimes you can't reach the edges of the stage walls.

 

 


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