Under the microscope: Army Men: World War (PlayStation)
Reverse engineering the artifacts of 3DO's relentless release schedule
In this edition, I’m examining the Army Men: World War series for PlayStation. There were four of these games, all released in 2000 and 2001.
As you might expect from this compressed development time frame, the games share a lot of code – and some previously undocumented cheat effects.
Below I’ll describe how these effects work in the first World War game and how they got carried through to Land, Sea, Air; Final Front; and Team Assault.
Army Men: World War
The cheat sites list several codes for Army Men: World War. GameFAQs, as of this writing, has these:
Of these, only Level Select actually works. The game represents it in the array at 800be6ce:
| Address | Data | Meaning |
|----------|------|---------|
| 800be6ce | 2 | R2 |
| 800be6d0 | 000a | R2+R1 |
| 800be6d2 | 8 | R1 |
| 800be6d4 | 0 | None |
| 800be6d6 | 1 | L2 |
| 800be6d8 | 5 | L2+L1 |
| 800be6da | 4 | L1 |
| 800be6dc | 0 | None |
| 800be6de | 20 | Circle |
| 800be6e0 | 0 | None |
| 800be6e2 | 80 | Square |
| 800be6e4 | ffff | End |Each button has a bit pattern associated with it. Combinations of buttons are represented by taking the logical OR of the button bit patterns. For example R2’s pattern is 0002, R1’s pattern is 0008, and so their combination is 0002 | 0008 = 000a.
Whenever buttons are pressed or released on the main menu, the function at 800135f8 checks to see if their bit patterns match the value at the start of the array. If they do, the array’s starting index is incremented. If they don’t, it’s reset to 0.
When the code is fully entered, the function at 8001377c executes, a message that says ANY MISSION is displayed, and you’re taken to the mission select screen.
This is the only button-based cheat that the game checks for. But there’s another cheat that doesn’t seem to have been published before. Select NEW GAME from the main menu, then enter your name as ECAEP:
The game stores the name you put into the name entry screen at 800aa804. A pointer to this string is used as the first argument to an implementation of the standard C function strncmp. The second argument is a pointer to the null-terminated string ECAEP. The third argument is the number of bytes to check, five.
If this comparison succeeds, extra bits get set on the flag field at 800FEB80 – it gets OR-ed with 0fc0. What’s that do? Well, nothing at first – if you start playing after entering the special name, you won’t notice any difference. But if you restart the mission (Pause, choose RESTART from the menu), you’ll be invincible!
What’s going on is this: when the mission restarts, the extra bits that were set on the flag field above are used to update another flag field (at 800feb7c). This field stores various character attributes – size, color, health status, hazard status, and susceptibility to damage.
When you finish a mission, you’ll start the next one being susceptible to damage again. But restarting (or dying) will make you invincible again.
Army Men: World War – Land, Sea, Air
The cheat sites don’t list any codes for the second game in the Army Men: World War series, but it came out less than six months after the first one. What are the chances that the effects above are present in Land, Sea, Air?
Pretty good, it seems. The ANY MISSION cheat uses different buttons, but it still lets you choose your starting mission from the main menu:
Triangle, R1, R1+L1, L1, R2, R2+L2, L2, Circle, SquareOr, more explicitly: Press Triangle. Press and hold R1 and then L1. Release R1 and then L1. Press and hold R2 and then L2. Release R2 and then L2. Then press Circle and Square.
The special ECAEP name works the same in this game as it does in its predecessor – it makes you invincible after restarting a mission.
Army Men: World War – Final Front
There was a third Army Men: World War game six months after Land, Sea, Air. Some cheat sites have an “All weapons” code for it, but it doesn’t work. What does?
The ANY MISSIONS code uses a different button progression, but otherwise does the same thing:
L1, L1+R1, L1, L1+R1, L1,
L2, L2+R2, L2, L2+R2, L2,
Square, Circle, Circle, SquareThat is: Press and hold L1, then press R1 twice. Release L1 and start holding L2. While holding L2, press R2 twice. Release L2, then press Square, Circle, Circle, Square.
The special ECAEP name grants you invincibility during missions (after restarting once) here, too.
Is everything the same on the cheat code front? No – this game has an additional invincibility cheat (that doesn’t require a mission restart). Pause during gameplay and then enter this sequence:
L1, L1+R1, R1,
R2, R2+L2, L2,
Square, Triangle, Circle, TriangleThat is: Press and hold L1 and then R1. Release L1 and then R1. Press and hold R2 and then L2. Release R2 and then L2. Then press Square, Triangle, Circle, Triangle.
The array of button patterns for this code is right next to the “any missions” array. The same function checks both arrays, and switches which one it reads from based on the pointer value at 800b707c. This value gets updated when you’re on a menu screen.
Army Men: World War – Team Assault
A fourth Army Men: World War game appeared in late 2001. Did it recycle cheat effects? You bet.
This game’s ANY MISSIONS cheat is identical to Final Front’s:
L1, L1+R1, L1, L1+R1, L1,
L2, L2+R2, L2, L2+R2, L2,
Square, Circle, Circle, Square
You’ll be unsurprised to learn that the ECAEP name works in this game, too. And that the INVINCIBLE cheat also matches Final Front’s:
L1, L1+R1, R1,
R2, R2+L2, L2,
Square, Triangle, Circle, Triangle
Outro
OK, I lied – this article isn’t just about the World War games. Army Men: Green Rogue was released for PlayStation less than a month after Army Men: World War – Team Assault. It’s got the ANY MISSION and ECAEP cheats, too. For ANY MISSION, enter this sequence at the main menu:
Triangle, Square, Circle, Square
In a 2021 interview, Michael Mendheim – the creative director for several of the Army Men games – said:
The problem was with all the early success of these Army Men games, the executives at 3DO thought they could ship an Army Men game (or bundle) every quarter and be successful
No wonder some things needed to be reused and recycled!
If you know of other game sequels with missing cheat effects, leave a note in the comments.
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