Ah, that worked. I must say, the video is much better when it doesn't stop midway. :beer:
So what exactly happens when you start the ROM, but don't go into the game itself?
exactly what you saw in the video. start the rom, and immediately it goes to the Zeal speech and then if you dont press any buttons (all the dialogue in that opening scene continues without any key presses), it shows the full intro. The entire thing is interruptable any time by pressing B. The "debug room", while hugely expanded, is accessable by holding down a certain key combination before the intro fully starts.
After you have a save created, zeal no longer appears as a shadow, as the game assumes you now know who he is.