Under the microscope: Mat Hoffman's Pro BMX & Dave Mirra Freestyle BMX (Dreamcast, PlayStation)

Battle of the bikers

In this edition:

• I discover the missing “unlock everything” code for the Dreamcast version of Mat Hoffman's Pro BMX

• I use Ghidra and Python to get the definitive list of pause menu codes for both the Dreamcast and PlayStation versions of Mat Hoffman's Pro BMX

• I find the missing “Amish Boy” cheat code for Dave Mirra Freestyle BMX

Two extreme sports games — get ready.

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Mat Hoffman's Pro BMX

The cheat sites have hallucinated a lot of cheat codes for the Dreamcast version of this game. Some of the codes work on PlayStation, others are accepted on Dreamcast but don’t do anything (e.g. “Big Tires”), and more aren’t accepted at all. I am rectifying the situation here!

First, you can unlock all characters, bikes, and courses from the title screen. The function at 8c104480 is listening for a sequence of buttons starting at 8c2acfa0. They correspond to:

(Holding L) Y, A, X, B, Left, Up, Down, Down

You’ll see a brief flash that says MH V1.0 19:42:29 AUG 13 2001. All characters will be available, including Granny and Tony Hawk:

The bonus bikes and courses become available, too:

There are also codes you can enter at the pause menu during gameplay. Unlike the title screen sequence, these are obfuscated for some reason.

The function at 8c0defe0 changes the value stored at 8c216944 each time you press a button. Then it applies an effect if the value matches any one of nine targets. The code is basically identical to what’s in Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater (see this article), so I modified my script from there to retrieve the button sequences. The result was:

What’s new here is the Slow motion code, which is also available on PlayStation. There’s also a duplicate code for the “Show balance meter” cheat, which I think is new. One of the “Replay save destination” codes matches one from one of the prototype builds.

My script is here for reference.

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Dave Mirra Freestyle BMX

The codes situation for the other BMX game is a little bit better — the cheat sites have valid codes to unlock almost everything you could want: all courses, styles, and bikes.

You can also unlock one of the bonus characters, Slim Jim Guy (portrayed by Demetri Goritsas), but not the other one, Amish Boy. What gives?

It turns out there’s a missing code. From the character select screen:

• First enter the Slim Jim Guy code:

  • Dreamcast: Down, Down, Left, Right, Up, Up, Y

  • PlayStation: Down, Down, Left, Right, Up, Up, Circle

• Then enter this code:

  • Dreamcast: Up, Up, Up, Down, Up, Up, Up, Right, Y

  • PlayStation: Up, Up, Up, Down, Up, Up, Up, Right, Circle

On Dreamcast (NTSC-U) version, the function at 8c0faee0 is looking at button sequences starting at 8c173d4c. All of the other unlock codes are in the same spot; you can enter them on any of the screens.

There’s actually an extra button code that I think is unused: Down, Left, Down, Left, Down, Left, Down, Y / Circle. I stepped through the PlayStation code in the Mednafen debugger and still couldn’t figure out what its effect is supposed to be.

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Outro

For many more cheat code reverse engineering articles, see the archive. I’ve got more coming, too!

If you’re familiar with Tokimeki Memorial Taisen Puzzle-dama (Saturn, PlayStation) or Nuclear Strike (PlayStation), get in touch — I’m trying to figure some things out with those games.

Logo by Ashlyn Anstee