Biaofeng Zhanjing

Biaofeng Zhanjing飆風戰警
Title screen.
Hack of	The Punisher
Developer	"All_In"
Original developer	Capcom
Console	Arcade (CP System)
Date	2002

Biaofeng Zhanjing (飆風戰警, literally "Stormtroopers") is a bootleg of The Punisher arcade game released in 2002 by group calling themselves "All_In".

Gameplay and Changes

Biaofeng Zhanjing is a backport of The Punisher, which ran on the QSound-enhanced CP System Dash hardware, to the "classic" CPS-1 hardware. Due to change in sound hardware, Biaofeng Zhanjing replaces all sound effects and music from the original game with those from Final Fight. In addition to the sound changes, some gameplay-related changes were also introduced:

• The intro blurb and character profiles in the attract mode has been removed. When the machine is powered on, the game goes straight to the title screen. Support for high score lists is also removed.
• Player 1 can play as Nick Fury and vice versa for Player 2 (as Punisher), each with alternate color palettes (both of those alternate colors may revert to their regular colors in certain animations, however). However, the name plates on the top of the screen will always refer to their intended position, so does the single-player dialogue. (The name plates are additionally recolored to yellow.)
• A third button is added that allows the player the following effects, depending on the player character. This costs the player health bar, much like original special attacks, and can cause friendly fire to some extent (if a player's third button projectile hits the other player, the other player will react to it as if it was an enemy projectile; they cannot lose health this way, but if their health has been drained, getting hit by a friendly fire will result in a loss of life). Occasionally, doing this will also result in the character pulling their gun, even if there are no gun-wielding enemies; if this occurs, pressing the button again will cause the player character to hide their guns again. Doing the third button attacks during the bonus stage can cause the game to crash.
  • Punisher (original): Drops dynamites from above; similar from those found during the elevator segment of the final stage.
  • Nick Fury (original): Fires a wave projectile; originally from the ninja enemies.
  • Punisher (alternate): Fires a smoke attack from front; originally from the game's final boss, Kingpin.
  • Nick Fury (alternate): Fires five bullets, shmup-style; based on that of the Ingram gun pickup.
  • The alternate versions of Punisher and Fury both use palette ID of 05 (checked from the service mode's object viewer). This palette originally belongs to Leon, the bald knife-wielding street thug enemy.
• The game's Stage 4 (Death on Rails/Next Stop, Destruction) is now the game's first stage, with the original Stage 1 (Back to the War/First Strike) moved to the third. The level order continues normally from this point, which means Stage 4 is done twice. Thus, the stage order is now 4-2-1-3-4-5-6 (stage numbering corresponds to the original game).
• The bonus stage is now done twice, after Stage 3 (Back to the War/First Strike) and Stage 6 (Final Punishment/Final Verdict).
• System configuration is done through dip switches, instead of the System Configuration menu. The operator must still write changes to EEPROM by entering and exiting the System Configuration menu for best results.
• When prompted to continue, or if the test mode is entered during gameplay, the current stage music will continue to play.
• When a stage is defeated (except the last stage), stage number is not shown, leaving just "STAGE CLEAR".
• No music plays in the ending sequence after Kingpin's defeat. Additionally, the game simply returns to the title screen instead of showing the staff roll.
  • If the game is set to start on Stage 7, the game returns to the title screen after the stage ends.

Glitched Free Play?

Setting the game to enable Free Play (Coinage to other than 1 Coin/1 Credit, 2 Coins to Start/1 to Continue to on) results in the following glitches (and debug functionalities):

• The player is now able to control the attract demo. This is not without risk, as starting the game when certain stages are being shown (such as Punisher's Stage 1 demo as Fury, or Fury's Stage 2 demo as either player) can cause the game to crash.
• The player will lose the ability to select character/color.
• Depending on the Coinage switch, the first stage will be changed (it is not possible to start in the original game's Stage 1):
  • 4 Coins/1 Credit: Bonus Stage
  • 3 Coins/1 Credit: Unused bonus stage (listed as "????????" in Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics for the original game)
  • 2 Coins/1 Credit: Stage 6 (Final Punishment/Final Verdict)
  • 1 Coin/2 Credits: Stage 2 (Raid on Pantaberde/Assault on Pantaberde)
  • 1 Coin/3 Credits: Stage 3 (Waterfront Warfare/Tricks and Traps)
  • 1 Coin/4 Credits: Stage 4 (Death on Rails/Next Stop, Destruction); closest to non-free play behavior
  • 1 Coin/6 Credits: Stage 5 (Kingpin's Wrath/The Wrath and the Fury)
• The first column of the screen will be filled with the same letter. (Some of them may disappear during the continue screen.)
• Hitboxes will appear during the game.

Trivia

• When the title screen is displayed or the test menu is accessed (assuming no music is currently playing), one of the game's attack sound effects will play.
• The game's Chinese title is also the Traditional Chinese/Taiwanese title of the 1999 film Wild Wild West.
• The original The Punisher ROM contains a hidden string that reads "IS THIS A FAKED CPS BOARD ?", possibly intended if tampering was detected. (The CP System Dash hardware was designed around a "suicide" battery system to discourage bootlegging that plagued the original CP System.) Despite Biaofeng Zhanjing being a bootleg of The Punisher, it is unknown if it possible to trigger the "faked board" string to appear in the bootleg.
• It is unknown if "All_In" is the name of the group/company that released this bootleg. The "All_In" string does fit in within the six-letter constraint where "Capcom" originally was in all copyright credits, however.
  • Two other CPS Dash games, Sangokushi II (Warriors of Fate/Tenchi wo Kurau II) and Cadillacs and Dinosaurs, were also backported to non-QSound CPS-1 hardware under the title of Huo Feng Huang (火凤凰) and Dinosaur Hunter (恐龍獵人), respectively. As both also originate in Chinese-speaking markets, it is unknown if "All_In" were involved with both, as the former retained original Capcom copyright (but with year changed to 1999) and the latter removed both the Cadillac (General Motors) and Mark Schultz credits.
• Regardless of how many coins are inserted, the "press start" screen will always mention "ONLY 1PLAYER", as if the game is set to one-player mode (Number of Players in System Configuration set to 1). If the game was set to require multiple coins, "INSERT ADDITIONAL COINS" may continue to appear even if enough coins are inserted.
• Entering the service mode's Memory Check will result in the EEPROM and QSound RAM tests failing. This is a result of the modification to the game's ROM (EEPROM) and the game now running on non-QSound CPS-1 hardware (QSound RAM).

Gallery

The player select screen, showing the alternate colors.

Gameplay. Player 1 is Nick Fury and Player 2 is Punisher, both with their alternate colors.

Gameplay with Free Play enabled. Note the letters on the left of the screen and the hitboxes (including from the new TNT rain attack).

The third button attacks of the standard color versions of Punisher and Fury.

The third button attacks of the alternate color versions of Punisher and Fury.

The game crashing, displaying an address error message, as a result from starting the game as player 2 when the Stage 1 demo is being shown.

Advanced memory viewer. Pressing 1P button 2, up/down, or the service credit button once the game had crashed displays a memory list, while 1P button 1 displays another memory address list on the left.

External links

• MAME driver source code for the Capcom CPS-1 hardware; contains notes on Biaofeng Zhanjing and the other two Chinese CPS Dash backport bootlegs.
• The Punisher on gaminghell.co.uk - contains notes on Biaofeng Zhanjing.
• Biaofeng Zhanjing on The Cutting Room Floor