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The internet lies: cheat code edition

Discussion in 'General Sega Discussion' started by Black Squirrel, Jul 9, 2022.

  1. Bo102010

    Bo102010

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    OK, Deep Fear...

    Left, left, right, right, down, up, A+C+Y+L at the title screen. You'll hear a sound effect. Now start the game, press Start, and then press L at the pause menu.

    When you return to the game, you'll have a new line on the HUD indicating your position.
     
  2. BenoitRen

    BenoitRen

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    I can elaborate on SONICCD.INI's secret users now.

    User Debugger has the following effects:
    • The second Windows menu resource will be used instead of the first. It's the second one that contains the Stage and FUNC menus.
    • The requirement to have the CD-ROM in the drive is turned off.
    • The User variable of the game's current state gets the value 2. This doesn't do anything.
    User Fujiwara has only one effect:
    • The User variable of the game's current state gets the value 1. This causes Sonic to lose only half of his rings instead of all when hit.
    User Satoh has the same effects as Debugger, except that the User variable of the game's current state gets set to 128 instead. But this doesn't do anything either.

    EDIT: This information is now on the wiki as well!
     
    Last edited: Jul 21, 2024
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  3. Bobblen

    Bobblen

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    Nice work with the half rings discovery (or rediscovery? it wasn't in the wiki at least, until you added it!), I completely missed that one. Out of curiosity, did you trace the code or just notice it through testing?
     
  4. BenoitRen

    BenoitRen

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    I identified the memory region that lpKeepWork points to in the decompilation, which is how I was able to tell that lpKeepWork->User was being modified. Then I ran a text search for "User". It lead me to this line in RING::flyringinit. Then I just read the code:
    Code (C):
    1. if (lpKeepWork->User & 1) {
    2.  
    3.  
    4.   plring /= 2;
    5. }
    6. else {
    7.   plring = 0;
    8. }
     
  5. Bobblen

    Bobblen

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    upload_2024-7-21_21-35-17.png
    Awesome, here's proof that the code never lies! :-)
     
  6. Black Squirrel

    Black Squirrel

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    https://archive.org/details/11074-97-6812/mode/2up?q=sega
    Some crazy person has scanned Chouzetsu Daigirin '97-nen Aki Ban (超絶 大技林 '97年秋版), one of Tokuma Shoten's massive cheat books.

    How massive?
    [​IMG]
    Quite massive, and there were a few of these

    A lot of this is just confirming that games exist, but I can all but guarantee there are cheats in here that aren't online. Or at least something of note.
     
  7. Asagoth

    Asagoth

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    wiki stuff... and a beer... or two... or more...
    It'll be in our "warehouse" in a few minutes... :) ...
     
  8. Bo102010

    Bo102010

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    Speaking of obscurities, here's a debug mode code for Eiyuu Shigan: Gal ACT Heroism.
    • Press A to bring up the menu
    • Hold start and enter ←→X↓↑Y↑→↓←Z
    Pictures here!
     
  9. Bobblen

    Bobblen

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    Returning to an ancient discussion, I was mucking around with hydro thunder this morning. As @Black Squirrel found, the internet is all over the place with this one but it's actually quite simple.

    Nothing works on US rev 0

    On US rev 1 & PAL, inputting name as ?PB unlocks everything (medium, hard and bonus tracks, medium, hard and bonus boats)
    Inputting name as ?DL unlocks the medium tracks and boats only. This is interesting as it implies there might be another intermediate password for hard but not bonus as well.

    It doesn't matter whether you finish 1st, 2nd or 3rd (any lower down and you'll run out of time anyway), it always works.

    EDIT - got it! ?AC gives you medium and hard but not bonus. I just looked at the initials of the QA team on gamefaqs :-D

    EDIT 2 - I've added them in and removed the 'missing codes' tag
    Hydro Thunder/Hidden content - Sega Retro
     
    Last edited: Aug 6, 2024
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  10. Bo102010

    Bo102010

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    Here is an undiscovered one for Dungeon Master Nexus: pause and enter L, R, X, Up, C, Left, L, Right.

    The debug menu let you skip levels, clip through walls, and more.
    upload_2024-8-9_7-43-22.jpeg
     
  11. Black Squirrel

    Black Squirrel

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    I looked at all the non-US Dreamcast browsers a few months ago and was convinced you couldn't do much with them without an internet connection.

    But no, you can at least attempt to visit pages. Why I thought this wasn't possible, I'm not sure.

    [​IMG]

    Because there are hidden offline pages across these discs. Typing "about:" into the address bar is a good place to start - I haven't the time to do a deep dive right now, but no doubt there are others ("file:/dsample/index.html" is meant to be juicy in Dreamkey 3.0).
     
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  12. Chimes

    Chimes

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    Because it's obvious to intuit many websites aren't supported on Dreamcast browsers. You aren't going to watch YouTube on a Dreamcast, for one.
     
  13. Cooljerk

    Cooljerk

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    One important thing any Dreamcast web browser will do, even when offline, is allow you to change the Dreamcast internet settings, which is saved directly onto the console itself but annoyingly can't be changed from the console dashboard. This might not seem like a big deal, unless you're trying to get a modern dial up solution like DreamPi working and can't edit your dial up settings otherwise.

    Another thing RE: Dreamcast planet web browser specifically is that IRC works, all versions of planetweb have an IRC client built in. the URL to use the IRC client is as follows: pwchat://irc.badnik.chat:6667/
     
  14. Black Squirrel

    Black Squirrel

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    So I guess you could probably expect this, but in Dreamkey/Dream Passport (let's call them the "Access browsers" for now), much of the UI is secretly HTML underneath. This means by entering certain URLs into the address bar, you can navigate the menus. Or at least you can in theory - in practice it's a bit difficult to tell what the URLs are - there's a "x-avefront://" protocol and it does stuff.

    I don't think there's much value in the first release of Dream Passport (the one from 1998). Maybe I'm wrong, but it feels like it was rushed out the door so there's nothing clever hiding away.

    Dream Passport 2 is where weird stuff happens. It was discovered that in the original release of the European Dreamkey, "about:" plays a credits video. Well Dreamkey is based on Dream Passport 2, so:

    [​IMG]
    it has one too. In fact, many of these browsers have credits screens or videos.

    (the text is too blurry for OCR so I can't easily add these credits to the wiki)

    Typing "about:visit" will give you a search history:
    [​IMG]
    Somebody tell me if you can access this legitimately.

    The internet has had a go at documenting some of this though:

    https://web.archive.org/web/20100315053029/http://krypt.dyndns.org:81/dreamcast/browsers/

    But then we're into Dreamcast-specific JavaScript and while yes, it all needs to be on Sega Retro, I can't claim to have the patience do put it all up there.


    But I can do the English credits.
     
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  15. Black Squirrel

    Black Squirrel

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    [​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG]
    There's a few special "about:" pages across the various browser flavours. Some, such as Broadband Passport have nothing, but don't error if you try and "jump" to that URL, which might be notable as most other addresses do.


    But I am so used to Dreamcasts not being connected to the internet that I've conditioned myself to ignore any online-related functionality. So this list was a wake-up call - a lot of Dreamcast software shipped with iterations of Dream Passport, but were limited to certain sites:

    [​IMG]
    The Japanese SoulCalibur has an "internet" option and it takes you to this site. The browser is essentially Dream Passport 2 (or I guess Netfront - I don't even know anymore) - it doesn't have an "about:" screen but it'll let you browse the internet:

    [​IMG]
    well at least it would if this wasn't 2024. But if they're going to this effort to customise the browser's warning screens, it's not impossible that they're hiding extra stuff too.
     
  16. ReyVGM

    ReyVGM

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    Adding a little more to this:

    This first code must be entered for the others to work and it specifically unlocks the mech select menu right from the start.

    The second code enables Invincibility. The 3rd one unlocks all mechs and powerups, but your save data must be empty for it to work. This code makes no sound when entered correctly. The "click" sound always plays when selecting a save slot.

    Additionally, while at the mech select screen, pick any number from 1-7, hold L+R and press Start. Then begin the mission to start on the mission that corresponds to the number you picked.
     
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  17. cartridgeculture

    cartridgeculture

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    put all this on the wiki ❤️
     
  18. Black Squirrel

    Black Squirrel

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    Savaki is a miserable fighting game for the Sega Saturn. Having one guy do most of the work is all well and good, but if you're shipping at full price in 1998, maybe at least give your characters names?

    But it's unique across the entire Sega Saturn library, in that comes with another game buried within: "Karatedo" (空手道) (alongside its source code, and source code for some editors). The catch? It's for the X68000.


    I can't imagine there's many people crazy enough to try and get this working. Not only do you need to know the game exists, you'd need to know how to get files off a Sega Saturn disc and onto an X68000 computer - so many hoops to jump through, nobody would bother, surely.







    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    I had to hunt down a copy of the Human 68k operating system, then mount a folder to floppy drive B:, but look, Karatedo, X68000 game that shipped on a commercial Sega Saturn disc

    and... it doesn't work! I can get to this screen, but it doesn't accept any keyboard inputs. I tried a few versions of Human 68k - no dice. I don't know if it's meant to work - obviously the source code exists so you could theoretically fix bugs and build a new version, but so many hoops to jump through, nobody would bother, surely.




    (no I'm not doing that. But someone else might have more luck?)
     
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  19. Bobblen

    Bobblen

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    You can cheat a bit by using Mame's pre-prepared software list. There's a karatedo in there that runs and accepts input. Not clear if it's taken from the Saturn disc or elsewhere though, but the title screen matches up
    upload_2024-8-19_10-38-34.png
    upload_2024-8-19_10-38-40.png
     
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  20. Black Squirrel

    Black Squirrel

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    Apparently XM6's joystick support means "no really, you must use a joystick". Good job I have a gamepad I can plug in.

    [​IMG]

    Mystery solved!
     
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