Under the microscope: Alone in the Dark 2 (Saturn)
The Star Wars-themed Easter eggs hiding in Alone in the Dark 2
The cheat code situation for Alone in the Dark 2 (a.k.a. One Eyed Jack’s Revenge, Jack is Back) is pretty bad. GameFAQs lists this code for the Saturn version:
Access Cheat/Debug Menu: On the main menu screen enter the following sequence: pad 1: L, R; pad 1: L, R; pad 1: Start.
…it doesn’t work.
ConsoleDatabase has a similar listing that involves using the second controller:
Cheat mode: For cheat mode, press L then R on controller 1, L then R on controller 2, then Start on controller 1 at the main menu.
…it doesn’t work either.
What is going on? I loaded up Ghidra to check things out. I came up with the real debug code for the Saturn version, plus some never-before-seen Easter eggs. Details are below!
The real debug code
When you’re on the title screen, the function at 00222798 is listening for controller input on every frame. It’s being called with a pointer to the data structure below, which looks suspiciously like the cheat code above (if you know how Saturn games usually represent input data). Allow me to annotate for you:
00248bac 0000 0008 # Controller 1, L button.
00248bb0 0000 0080 # Controller 1, R button.
00248bb4 0001 0008 # Controller 2, L button.
00248bb8 0001 0080 # Controller 2, R button.
00248bbc 0001 0800 # Controller 2, Start button.
00248bc0 0000 0800 # Controller 1, Start button.So the real cheat code is:
Controller 1: L, R
Controller 2: L, R, Start
Controller 1: Start
Enter that, and the debug menu pops right up:
The menu items are:
Rides: A series of FMVs.
Sequences: A cutscene player.
Message: Cycle through all of the game’s strings.
Error messages: Cycle through all of the game’s error messages.
Books: Allows you to page through all of the “books” you can come across in the game.
Samples: A sound effect player.
Musics: A background music player.
Demo: Plays the intro scenes.
Params: Adjust Armor, Hit Factor, Start Life Level, and “Draw Memory Info” (the last one doesn’t do anything apparent).
The Easter eggs
But wait, there’s more. The same function that was listening for cheat buttons on the title screen is running on the debug menu screen, too. Enter the same code (Controller 1: L, R; Controller 2: L, R, Start; Controller 1: Start), and a video of the development staff starts playing!
Our cheat code function gets called in two more spots. The first is on the Sequences screen. The code is:
Controller 1: L, R, Z
Controller 2: L, R, Z
This brings up a photo of one of the developers in front of an office building. The sign on the door says The Kerner Company: Optical Research Lab.
This is, famously, the Industrial Light & Magic office - George Lucas’s effects studio. It’s unclear what the connection between ILM and Alone in the Dark is, though.
The last cheat code sequence is associated with the Music menu:
Controller 1: X, Y
Controller 2: X, Y, Start
This also brings up a photo of another developer and an associate. They’re in front of a sign in Tataouine:
Presumably this is another George Lucas thing - the name of the Star Wars planet Tatooine is derived from this city in Tunisia.
The backstory
I showed these Easter eggs to Pascal Craponne, one of the programmers credited on the Saturn version of Alone in the Dark 2. He told me that the video shows (in order of appearance):
All three worked as programmers on the game. Craponne also noted that it’s Arribart in front of the Tataouine sign.
When I wrote to Christian Hesse, he responded with the full-size photo of himself in front of Industrial Light & Magic. He explained that he’d been trying to get a job there, but had great difficulty locating the office (the “Kerner Company” name was used in part to keep people from snooping on movie projects - it seems to have been effective).
He also sent some photos of where he worked at Infogrames. Here are some developer workstations underneath an Alone in the Dark 2 poster:
And here is a workstation and television set up for Saturn testing:
Hesse says that he has no memory of putting the Easter eggs in the game. Craponne said he didn’t do it either, but commented that Hesse, Arribart, and Bibet “are really nice people,” and that he’d “had a good time working with them.”
Outro
Many thanks to Pascal Craponne and Christian Hesse for the comments and photos. I enjoyed corresponding with them about this!
Coming soon: There was also a PlayStation version of Alone in the Dark 2. What secrets does it hold? Check back later this week (or subscribe to Rings of Saturn) to find out…
Wow! That's so cool!
I loved the Alone in the Dark games back in the day. They were eerie and weird. And HARD! As a kid I remember my older brother beat them but I couldn't get very far, but that wouldn't stop me from trying.