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Squaresoft Mode 7 Demo

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This simple mode 7 demo was made by Square's US subsidiary, Squaresoft, in the mid 90s. Thanks to Keith Erickson for information on this demo.

By: Evan G
Last updated: August 1, 2010

Though the course of time, many hacks, homebrews and poorly dumped games found their way into Cowering's Goodtools ROM auditing programs. One such ROM image that he entitled "Panda Squaresoft Mode 7 Demo (PD)" (appearing in Goodsnes 2.04, meaning it was likely dumped in 2004). It turns out that this ROM image is not public domain (PD), and is a legitimate demo made by Squaresoft.

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The Squaresoft LogoThe Mode 7 demo featuring a panda

Back in the mid 90s, Square set up a studio in Redmond, Washington, and produced the game Secret of Evermore. Keith and another person named Craig Bergman got to tour Squaresoft's office as part of a high school job shadowing activity. While there, which Squaresoft scanned and put two drawings made by Keith happened to have into a Mode 7 demo (the other had a caricature of Craig). Keith drew a female panda character, which I extracted and expanded below. Apparently they originally intended to put a picture of the two in the demo. The two job shadowers were given a copy of the mode 7 demo. Craig lost his cart and borrowed Keith's, which was never returned and forgotten about.

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Panda drawn by Keith

In July 2010, an auction for this demo popped up (see board below). Really, there was not much point selling it anyways, as it was unlikely garner much money. In the end, the board sold for $95.10 on Ebay. The game was dumped years ago, and it found its way onto the Internet. The demo itself controls similar to the airship parts of Final Fantasy VI. I wouldn't be surprised if it used the same code.

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Board the demo is on, taken from the Ebay auction

Download ROM image here


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