The internet lies: cheat code edition

In case anyone cares, I've been doing something similar to this with other Sega consoles - grab an issue of Tips & Tricks, then crop out all the things we have covered
https://i.imgur.com/Ld6Gw1a.png Mega CD
https://i.imgur.com/sLNnEVs.jpeg Saturn
https://i.imgur.com/hxjEIKF.jpeg Dreamcast

Most of this is on GameFAQs or IGN but often it's missing context.

 

Maybe we should blame Activision:

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater/Hidden content

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/dreamcast/199057-tony-hawks-pro-skater/cheats

This lies too! I particularly like the way the "unlock everything" code is recognised... but doesn't unlock anything.


It's definitely a recurring theme. I wonder if the N64 ports were similarly short-changed.

 

Vigilante 8: Second Offense/Hidden content
A better success rate with these, but there's four codes at the bottom that aren't doing anything obvious.

I've come into the game pretty much blind though so maybe they do as advertised.

 

SoulCalibur, the highest rated Dreamcast game, doesn't seem to have much going for it in terms of cheat codes. It has some "not so obvious" features which require you to play the game and unlock things legitimately, but nothing that can be quickly tested out.

For example, during the demo sequence, you get a mixture of the introduction, computer controlled fights, and one of the characters performing a display of their leet skillz. Apparently the location of these performances varies depending on the system clock - if the Dreamcast thinks it's night, it'll pick a night time stage. If the Dreamcast thinks it's Winter, it'll pick a colder looking stage. There's some clues to how it works, but if my adventures with Christmas NiGHTS are anything to go by, chances are there are more variables involved.

Which meant, outside of some bugs, I was left with this... feature:

... you can change Sophitia's underwear by pressing and holding buttons before match.

They supposedly removed this from international versions of the game, and while yeah, she's canonically 21 in this title, it's... well.

 

This one didn't work so well:
Unreal Tournament/Hidden content

While Dreamcast Unreal Tournament has some traditional "press buttons and things happen" cheat codes, it's also has a full debug console like the PC version... you just need a Dreamcast keyboard to use it.

Unfortunately Redream's keyboard emulation isn't good enough - I couldn't activate the console, and so I couldn't test any commands. Plenty of websites list "useful" commands for the Dreamcast, but I'd hazard a guess that most, if not all the PC commands are compatible.

Quake III Arena's Dreamcast port also retains its console, and if it's anything like the PC version, will likely be just as extensive as Unreal Tournament's, if not moreso.


Fun fact: Quake III on the PC, you can change the colour of your on-screen name through the console by using the caret (^) symbol, followed by... something else to act as a value. There were only about eight or so colours available, so normal people would use ^0, ^1, ^2, ^3, etc.. Here's one of many guides:

https://openarena.fandom.com/wiki/Manual/Text_colors

... but from what I recall, you could literally put any character after the ^ and the game would set it to one of the eight colours. I don't know how it determined some letters would turn the colour blue and some would turn it green, but it was common to see people fall into this trap when discovering they could use different colours in online matches. Lots of awkward explaining about what the tilde and carat keys looked like because you obviously couldn't type these in the in-game chat "the squiggly line! The arrow that points upwards!".

I can't remember if the Dreamcast shared this feature, but I'm sure it had weird stuff like it. Most things in the GUI could be driven by console commands.

 

This has turned one of the least interesting Dreamcast games into one of the most interesting:



The idea of messing about with in-game objects is one thing, but having the ability to draw lines and circles on the screen like this was a Commodore 64 is insane.

It's a bit of a faff to emulate though, since controller C keyboard inputs get in the way of controller A.

 

Sorry did I mention how insane this is:


You can type out BASIC programs and save/load them later... which means it may be possible to write games that run inside this game.


I was able to save my "Sega Retro is reet good" program to the VMU.


It seems to be saved as plain text, so with a bit of a play, you could probably create a nice editor for modern platforms specifically for writing JPB programs. Because that's a great use of your time.

Star Wars: Episode I Jedi Power Battles/Hidden content - I've documented a good chunk of this feature but I no doubt there's a lot more to be done.


There were no offically licensed Star Wars text adventures, but there is the unofficial Dog Star Adventure, and its source code has been published. Can you get that "Star Wars" game running in this Stars Wars game??