The internet lies: cheat code edition

This is why:

Sega Rally Championship (Europe) (Made in EU).zip
Sega Rally Championship (Europe) (Made in USA).zip
Sega Rally Championship (Japan).zip
Sega Rally Championship (Korea).zip
Sega Rally Championship (USA).zip
Sega Rally Championship Plus (Japan).zip
Sega Rally Championship Plus Netlink Edition (USA).zip

(from an archive.org list of dumps)

Two PAL revisions(?), a South Korean version and two Plus-es. Many games were lazily ported so you can safely assume the same cheats will work everywhere, but in Sega Rally's case, there were updates between regions, which means seven dumps to check.

When faced with the choice between that and a game that only has one dump, you can see why I might favour something less awkward.

But hey, we're here now - let's do some investigating~

 

Mystery 1



Yes, "special mode" does exist on the Saturn (spoilers: I'm going to guess all PC codes do). GameFAQs lists it three times under separate names, but it's exactly(?) like the PC version - select a car by holding X while pressing C.

"Hyper Car Mode"
"Power up your car"
"Adds an additional All-Standard-Special filter to the Records screen under Arcade Championship. Any records set in this mode will appear under Special"


I'd like to think one of the Japanese guide books explains this function better - while I've known Sega Rally for 25 years, I've never been a super ultra master of the game. I usually fail on the Mountain course... but with this mode, I didn't!

I think it's maybe doing two things:

a) it stops your car from slowing down if it hits a wall (unless you're perpendicular to it). Usually if you bash off the sides, you lose a bit of speed, but this mode seems more lenient.

b) it feels like it might be ignoring road surfaces. It may be treating everything as tarmac, which means you go faster, but you slide more. It's really hard to tell.

It also adds an extra filter on the records screen, as it does on PC. The fact they're not treating it as a joke mode (and that you still have to try to win) suggests it really is an alternative driving model than "you win mode". I'm not convinced it's actually changing the statistics of the car, just how the car reacts to the environment.


But the difference is subtle, and there's no indicator that the mode is enabled.

 

Mystery 2


Yes you can remove the HUD on Saturn. But it's exclusive to the PAL version.

GameFAQ's description isn't great:

"the final options screen"

The way it's actually done is by holding A+X+Y prior to the car selection screen showing, then select a car with C. It works in both the arcade and time trial/2 player modes.


Mystery 3

"More challenging ghost car"

This is indeed another PAL-exclusive code, and works just as SSM described. Although obviously it's only going to do 52 second laps on the Desert course since they're all different lengths.




There are two more things that need investigation:


On the PC, there is a means of practising against the Stratos. I don't know how to do this on Saturn, if it's even possible.


And when watching replays on Saturn, you can zoom in and out of the "cinematic" camera angle by holding down+Z, then pressing L or R. If the PC version still has this feature, it isn't documented.

 

I lied. It works in the Japanese version.

So I did a bit of digging, and this probably explains it - the ROM header dates:

19951031 (US)
19951115 (KR)
19951128 (JP)
19951218 (EU)

The US version was finished a couple of weeks before the Korean version (which also has this code). Usually it's the Japanese version that's rushed out the door (as would be the case with Sega Rally 2), but not this time.

The November and December 1995 versions are more feature-rich, the PAL version in particular seems to have generally more scenery (and runs at a higher resolution, albeit at a lower frame rate).

 

As you can probably guess


Sega Rally Championship Plus NetLink Edition has all the codes and features because it's built on later versions of the game. So if you're living in a strange world where you can only play NTSC-U versions of Saturn games, this is the one to pick.

 

Now I do!


1) Unlock Stratos
2) Go to arcade -> practice
3) When prompted to select a course, hold Z, select with C and keep both buttons pressed. When the track loads in, you should be put against the Stratos.

Holding the buttons is the key - it's seemingly the only code that forces you to do so. And this works in all versions of the game.


And now, a new mystery. This was listed on that Japanese site, and it's... odd:


Forest track. Drive backwards until you get to the checkpoint before the hairpin turn, and you'll see this muddy hill.

It shakes for a bit, then...


... collapses. Taking that one spectator with it.

This bit of geometry doesn't exist in the US version - it's one of the many little additions added to improve the look of the game. I can't tell if this is a bug, or something programmed on purpose - it feels like it's here for a reason, but I don't know how to class it.

 

Finally(?), replay cameras:

Five more camera angles were added after the original NTSC-U release. You can see them all just by pressing the D-pad and X/Y/Z buttons.

Camera controls aren't listed in any of the manuals for whatever reason, so yes, this is technically hidden content.

 

It doesn't.

But yeah I can see pressing four keys at once might cause problems for cheaper keyboards. Interesting that they thought to care though.

 

Quick one: True Pinball/Hidden content

Something I've noticed a few times - when you get a long-ish code of seemingly random button combinations, it usually has a secret meaning.

DRUDRLRDD? Not quite. If you use compass directions, (e.g. up is "north"), you get... "SENSELESS", which given you're disabling the tilt sensor, is pretty apt. Not a single mainstream cheat site spotted this.



Whether there's any point in this feature is a different story. In real pinball, tilting occurs if you physically move the table too much - nudging the machine is valid play (and genuinely necessary on some tables), as it can influence where the ball might go, but if you're too violent, you'll get warnings, followed by a tilt (and you'll lose any bonuses).

It is not, as you might think, to dislodge a stuck ball. There are two solutions for that:

- Modern machines have a "ball search" feature, where if they don't register any activity in x seconds, they'll start moving bits of the playfield on their own accord. If the ball is stuck in a mechanism, it'll in theory get un-stuck.
- In professional tournaments, someone will physically pick the ball up and move it to the player's flipper of choice, since it's the game at fault, not the player.
(I don't know if True Pinball simulates these)

In order to tilt the machine in a video game, you have to consciously nudge the table several times in quick succession... which probably isn't going to solve anything, since a simulated nudge is a set force in a set direction. Unlike in real life, it's not something you can do accidentally, and also you hope that because it's a simulation with ultra precise maths, balls typically go where you'd expect.