Expansion Hack: Fire ProWrestling S: 6Men Scramble
Featuring Virtua
In this edition:
Fire ProWrestling S: 6Men Scramble has a hidden test menu with several cool features, including a more advanced character editor than the one featured in the game.
Furthermore, the game has data for more custom characters than previously known, including ones from the Virtua Fighter series.
I’ve made a patch to unlock these extra features - get it from SegaXtreme. Here’s a video!
Intro
Fire ProWrestling S: 6Men Scramble is a pro wrestling game published by Human Entertainment for the Saturn in 1996. It wasn’t released outside of Japan, but some dedicated people imported it and played with translation guides in the 90s. More recently, Malenko’s 2022 English patch has made it easier for westerners to play.
The game’s most notable features are its 6 player mode and its character creator. You can make custom wrestlers based on hundreds of base characters, including some that use costumes from other franchises. Here is a guy dressed as Freddy Krueger and another one with a Mobile Suit Gundam mask:
I found a couple things hiding in the game’s code: some unused extra characters and a debug menu that exposes various low level utilities - including a more advanced character editor. See below for the rundown and for details about how my unlock patches work.
Unused characters
The Wrestler Edit mode normally allows you to access 204 different base characters, some of which you unlock through the Victory Edit mode. The last two are weird bear guys:
There are some unused ones, though! If you extend the counter limit past 204, you can find some surprises. Here are Akira and Jacky from Virtua Fighter!
These two look like Kyo Kusanagi from King of Fighters and Terry Bogard from Fatal Fury:
I’m not sure who these two are supposed to be?
There are several others that seem incomplete. One looks to have a woman’s head (possibly a character from from Neon Genesis Evangelion?), but there are missing pixels. Others have mismatched shapes and inverted palettes.
See the video for a look at each of them in motion. If you can tell what they’re from, let me know! (They might be famous wrestlers, but I don’t know anything about wrestling)
The debug menu
When the game boots up, it immediately goes into “mode 0,” which takes you to the title screen (more on this below). But there are several other modes… what are they?
It turns out they’re part of a set of debug utilities! The main menu lets you select them:
The Kaneko Process (probably named for Tsuyoshi Kaneko, credited for “Program Support”) lets you view the ending and credits sequences.
Haraki Process (probably named for Masashi Haraki, credited for “Information Programming”) takes you to the mode select screen - as far as I can tell, accessing it through this route doesn’t make it behave any differently.
The Aikoh Process (probably named for Tsuyoshi Aikoh, the assistant planner) item has a collection of various functions, including a database of all the character stats, a color test screen, a means of setting the “game clear” flag, and some things I don’t understand:
The Yone Process (probably named for Akito Yoneda, the Wrestler Object Programmer) lets you test the controller inputs, save game function, and the sound system. Is the fact that the Secret Theme BGM is called G Gundam Theme significant? Tell me if so!
The real standout is the Gian Editor. Amazingly, it’s a custom GUI with a toolbar, mouse support, and more. It’s hard to figure out how to even use it, but it can let you see even more unused character parts.
In the FORM section you can hit A to see multiple angles of a component:
I’ve not successfully saved a character and used it in the game, but I think it’s theoretically possible? Tell me if you manage it!
Technical details
As mentioned above, the game normally boots into “mode 0.” The function at 06080000 reads the value at 0605629c to determine which mode to use. The first write to that value sets it to 00, but we can set it to 01 with this patch:
06024e28 e101The character creator’s list of base characters is determined by the function at 060b2b6e. It reads the value at 060c4e0a to see what the end should be. We can extend it past number 204 with:
060b2c2c e2e8Outro
Many thanks to Malenko, who previously contributed to the High Velocity and Kingdom Grandprix efforts on this blog, for investigating the menus and helping with translations. Thanks also to Michael for consulting on some of the extra characters.
For previous coverage of hidden debug modes, see the articles on:
The unidentified character in the red t-shirt looks like Terry Funk.