i have incurable blobby fever apparently. i'd also read about the debug menu somewhere so i did some looking around and got the amiga version running in an emulator (somehow it's even jankier than the DOS version, and the sprites in the intro cut scene are even more horrifying).

the debug menu is this:

i have no clue how to read any of it, but i'm guessing it's not as useful as what some games have. maybe i'm wrong though. also hopefully i'm not somehow doxxing myself lol

Fascinating. Great find mate! So I guess perhaps some of these numbers might reveal a trigger for the score giving you some life back (and also triggering a Special Stage). What I might do today is play it in DOS and try to collect the minimum amount of score, and listen for when the "yay" happens. It could potentially be that we can score a minimum amount that doesn't trigger a special stage, meaning the death isn't needed...