GameResources/GG/GunstarHeroes

Gunstar Heroes (Game Gear) notes

This is a game resources page for the Game Gear version of Gunstar Heroes. This is a port of the Genesis game Gunstar Heroes developed by M2 with some substantial differences to distinguish it.

Notable Differences from the Genesis Version

Gameplay normally runs at 30 FPS but can still have quite a bit of lag, especially with some boss fights.
Difficulty settings only go up to Hard. There is no Difficult option to be found.
Single player only game, so no chain chucking Gunstars across the screen.
The tackle dash input has been changed. Rather than Half-Circle-Forward + Jump the input is now Double-Tap Forward + Shoot.
Green's stage has the most drastic changes.
- Green's stage is on a silly heli backpack rather than some sort of magnetic cart.
- Seven Force was too big and had to be crunched down to 5 phases despite the name, with Tails Force and Eagle Force having been dropped.
- All 5 phases of Seven Force have to be defeated regardless of difficulty.
- Some of the remaining forces have had their pattern revamped, most notably Crab Force shoots slower moving but spinning walls rather than fast but vertical walls.
Dice Palace is completely omitted from the port, along with Black's appearance in the refights stage.
The space shmup section is replaced with a much easier walker section, though the space Seven Force boss fight is referenced in the background.
Weapon lengths were adjusted for the smaller screen while the sprites generally are about to scale with the Genesis graphics. This leads to a few weapons feeling much stubbier while others feeling wider with screen coverage.

Memory Addresses

All addresses listed were found with BizHawk's RAM tools.

Domain	Address	Size	Signed	Endian	Notes
Main RAM	`03C4`	1 byte	Unsigned	Little	Difficulty setting, ranges between 0 (Easy) to 2 (Hard). Anything higher causes errors.
Main RAM	`0404`	1 byte	Unsigned	Little	The player's Y-position on screen.
Main RAM	`0405`	1 byte	Unsigned	Little	The player's X-position on screen.
Main RAM	`0399`	1 byte	Unsigned	Little	The boss's displayed life points on screen.
Main RAM	`044B`	1 byte	Unsigned	Little	The boss's internal life point count, updates a frame before address `0399`.

Rough Weapon Damage Table

Damage values were determined from either per bullet hit on the boss or per tick, where a tick is every time the boss life count was updated when they're hit with a particular weapon. The tick values do vary in frequency and value but I did make a rough average based on bullet/tick values that appeared more than a few times during testing.

All damage values were tested on Soldier Force except for melee damage, which was done on Bravoo Man. Throws were not tested since those are dependent on the bosses they are performed on. These might not be the most accurate since these don't account for how sustained damage can be dealt to a boss but at least it's a nice preliminary look at damage. Note there are some bosses with more defense, such as Papaya Dance.

TODO: Figure out the proper average tick damage for weapons. Figure out how often weapon ticks happen with various weapons for a more accurate feel of damage per second.

Attack Type	Easy	Normal	Hard
Melee	100/tick	50/tick	20/tick
Solo Force	36 or 48/bullet Roughly 42/bullet	30 or 40/bullet Roughly 35/bullet	24 or 32/bullet Roughly 28/bullet
Force + Force	33 or 44/bullet Roughly 38.5/bullet	27 or 36/bullet Roughly 31.5/bullet Saw a 25 bullet once	21 or 28/bullet Roughly 24.5/bullet
Solo Lightning	18/tick Saw a 21 tick at the start	20/tick Saw a 15/tick once	12/tick Sometimes 9/tick for 1-2 ticks at the start of contact
Lightning + Lightning	18/tick Saw a 21 tick at the start	15 or 20/tick Roughly 17.5/tick	9 or 12/tick Roughly 10.5/tick
Solo Fire	18 or 21/tick Roughly 19.5/tick	15 or 20/tick Roughly 17.5/tick	9 or 12/tick Roughly 10.5/tick Saw a 6 tick once
Fire + Fire	32/tick Saw a 24 tick once	24/tick	16/tick
Solo Chaser	27 or 28 or 36/bullet Roughly 30.33/bullet	18 or 21 or 28/bullet Roughly 22.333/bullet	15 or 20/bullet Roughly 17.5/bullet
Chaser + Chaser	21 or 28/bullet Roughly 24.5/bullet	15 or 20/bullet Roughly 17.5/bullet	9 or 12/bullet Roughly 10.5/bullet
Force + Lighting	32/tick	18 or 24/tick Roughly 21/tick	12 or 16/tick Roughly 14/tick
Force + Fire	18 or 21/tick Roughly 19.5/tick	15 or 20/tick Roughly 17.5/tick	9 or 12/tick Roughly 10.5/tick
Force + Chaser	32/bullet	18 or 24/bullet Roughly 21/bullet	12 or 16/bullet Roughly 14/bullet
Lightning + Fire	24 or 32/tick Roughly 28/tick Saw a 16 tick once	18 or 24/tick Roughly 21/tick	12 or 16/tick Roughly 14/tick
Lightning + Chaser	20/tick Sometimes 15/tick at the start for 1-2 ticks	12/tick Sometimes 9/tick at the start for 1-2 ticks	4/tick Sometimes 3/tick at the start for 1-2 ticks
Fire + Chaser	28/tick	20/tick Saw a 15 tick once	12/tick

Gunstar Heroes (Game Gear) notes

Notable Differences from the Genesis Version

Memory Addresses

Rough Weapon Damage Table

See also