Under the microscope: Action Man: Destruction X (PlayStation)
Lost levels and cheat codes in a 26 year old PlayStation game
If you look in the game data for Action Man: Destruction X, the 2000 PlayStation game from Blitz Games, you’ll see some interesting strings:
0006c01c "CHRISTMASCAMEEARLY"
0006c0b8 "IFYOUCANTWINCHEAT"
0006c108 "THEDOGATEMYMEMORYCARD"
0006c120 "!!RECOILRULEZ"There are 16 of these in total. They sure look like special names that can be used to enable cheats, but where do you put them? The game has a name entry screen, but it only allows you to put in three initials:
What’s the deal? I decided to investigate.
Entering special names
The suspicious strings above are referred to by the function at 00071280. That function handles input on the initials entry screen:
When you press one of the directions on the D-pad, it updates the value that tracks which letter you’re highlighting.
When you press X on a letter, it increments the cursor position.
When you press Triangle, it changes the screen ID and sends you back to the main menu.
That all makes sense. But there’s additional logic: if you press the Circle button, it loops through the special names from above. If you’re highlighting the first letter of one of them, it writes a value to the array of 32-bit values at 000896c8. The letter then appears below your initials.
If you highlight the next letter of the same special name and press Circle again, that letter appears, too. Keep going, and…
…the game will unlock something for you! The index of the special name is used to determine which function in the array of pointers at 0006c154 executes when the name is completely entered. These functions set bits in the flag fields that are used to track game progress.
The cheat effects
If you use the Circle button to enter CHRISTMASCAMEEARLY on the name screen, the first six items in the Extras menu will unlock.
Enter IFYOUCANTWINCHEAT to unlock the last item, the Cheats menu.
Entering THEDOGATEMYMEMORYCARD unlocks all of the stages in Arcade mode.
12 of the other names unlock a more limited set of items:
FASTERFASTER: Unlocks the Driving school extra.
ICANSEEYOU: Unlocks the Spotlight missions extra.
SNOWPROBLEM: Unlocks the Combat extra.
OLDSKOOLSTYLE: Unlocks the Combat Camera cheat.
WHEREDIDEVERYONEGO: Unlocks the No Traffic cheat.
TRIGGERHAPPY: Unlocks the Quick Reload cheat.
STRENGTHOFABEAR: Unlocks the Weak Enemies cheat.
IMMORTALITY: Unlocks the Invulnerability cheat.
WEAPONSFACTORY: Unlocks the Infinite Ammo cheat.
DONTFORGETYOURGLOVES: Unlocks the Sub-Zero Bike Race, Satellite Launch, and Satellite Down stages.
LANDOFTHERISINGSUN: Unlocks the The Secret Formula, Orient 300 Race, and The SuperMetal Alloy stages.
STARSANDSTRIPES: Unlocks the King of the Streets, The Missing Scientist, US 500 Race, and Final Confrontation stages.
Unused stages
There’s one special name that hasn’t been accounted for yet:
0006c120 "!!RECOILRULEZ"It actually can’t be entered! It needs two exclamation points, but the letter grid on the name entry screen doesn’t have exclamation points.
To see what it was meant to do, I edited the game data to make this orphan name use periods instead. Doing so unlocked two extra stages: Teenbot Tag Team L and Fusion Mutant.
Both of these are boss stages. In the first one, you go up against some pink and purple robots:
The second has you battle against a swamp monster:
I think these are unused. They both use the same intro dialogue, which is from a different stage – The Missing Scientist.
I found another unused element in this game. It can’t be accessed with a special name, but you can get to it by manipulating the address that determines which menu screen is active (00089488). Setting it to 03 makes this alternative stage select menu appear:
This lets you select the unused boss fights. It also shows a build date at the bottom, but the font colors make it difficult to see. In memory, it’s:
00018250 "Sep 27 2000"Outro
I checked the first Action Man game for PlayStation – Operation Extreme – to see if it uses special names like the ones above. Alas, it doesn’t.
For more adventures in retro game archaeology, see my archive of articles. You can also subscribe here at Substack to get more writeups like this one delivered directly to your inbox:
