Under the microscope: Roadsters (Dreamcast, PlayStation)

Three platforms, three sets of secrets

It’s long been known that the Nintendo 64 version of Roadsters, the racing game from Titus Interactive, has cheat codes. This GameWinners.com page from early 2000 has details about 12 different names you can enter to enable special effects. Those are correct – here they are in the game data:

80179510 "CheatsOff"
8017951c "Gimme ALL"
80179528 "fastBUCKS"
80179534 "EasyMoney"
80179540 " Trophies"
8017954c "Smurfing"
80179558 "BigWheels"
80179564 "Skywalker"
80179570 "Car Radio"
8017957c "Chopper"
80179584 "Anyway"
8017958c "Extra rez"

None of the cheat sites have codes listed for the Dreamcast or PlayStation versions of Roadsters. And none of the special strings above appear in the game data for those versions. What gives? I decided to investigate…

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The Dreamcast version

You might notice that pressing buttons on the title screen of the Dreamcast version of Roadsters makes cartoon sound effects play. That’s not the only thing button presses do, however – they also start filling the buffer that starts at memory address 8c097ee4:

• The Y button stores a value of 8 in the buffer.

• A stores a 9.

• B stores a 10.

• X stores an 11.

Tracing references to the buffer address in Ghidra leads to the function at 8c04e0a4, which compares its contents to an array of fixed values. Here’s Ghidra’s decompilation of that function (with my variable names added):

If the button values in the buffer match the array of fixed values, an effect is applied.

The function gets called six times. The first call is for this button sequence:

A, B, B, A, B, A, A, B

What happens when you enter that on the title screen? You get a two player Pong game!

Left: The start of the Pong game. Right: The Pong game in action.

The second call is for this sequence:

X, Y, X, Y, A, B, X, Y

This unlocks several extra cars with goofy names. Here are Duck and Cow:

There are also cars called Hummer, Camper, Player1 Special, BigRig, and Firetruck:

The third call is for this sequence:

X, X, Y, Y, B, B, A, A

This enables FreeFlight mode! Hold X+B while playing during a Quick Race to take control of the camera. You can move with the analog stick and the trigger buttons.

Free flight mode in action

The fourth call is for this sequence:

A, Y, X, B, A, Y, X, B

This gives you five turbo boosts. Press Up on the D-pad to use one.

Five turbo boosts on the HUD

The fifth call is for this sequence:

X, X, X, A, X, X, X, Y

This plays the staff roll:

Stills from the staff credits

The sixth call is for this sequence:

A, A, A, A, B, X, Y, A

This seems to do nothing – alas. The value at 8c097df8 gets set from 0 to 1, but the game never checks that address.

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The PlayStation version

Does the PlayStation version have the Dreamcast version’s cheat codes? Or does it use special player names like the Nintendo 64 version?

Answer: neither. It has its own cheat code detection system. When you’re on the title screen, the function at 80025a08 checks your input against two sequences:

8005babc [0x0400, 0x0200, 0x8000, 0x2000, 0x0800, 0x0100, 0x2000, 0x8000]
8005bacc [0x0100, 0x0800, 0x2000, 0x8000, 0x0200, 0x0400, 0x8000, 0x2000]

The first one of these works out to this button sequence:

L1, R2, Square, Circle, R1, L2, Circle, Square

If you enter it correctly, the function at 8002c728 plays a sound effect. And the value at 800101e0 gets set to 10,000,000. That turns out to be how much cash you have in Roadster Trophy mode:

Your cash balance is shown on the New season screen

The second sequence is:

L2, R1, Circle, Square, R2, L1, Square, Circle

This sets the 16-bit values between 800603d0 and 800603d6 from 0 to 1. Those addresses are used to determine whether you can access the Category A and Category B cars – the code unlocks them for you:

Left: Selecting Category A. Right: A Category A car.

Putting in both codes, one after the other, also sets the three 16-bit values starting at 80010202. These mark you have having completed the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd division championships in Roadster Trophy mode.

Trophies: 1st Division Champion

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Outro

One game, three versions, three cheat code systems. Strange! According to MobyGames, the Nintendo 64 version was primarily programmed by Rob Stevens. The PlayStation version was handled by a team at Smart Dog, and the Dreamcast version was programmed by a team at Player 1. Maybe that explains the diversity?

Logo by Ashlyn Anstee

Thanks for reading! I’ll be back with more Rings of Saturn soon. Check out the archive for more articles like this while you wait for the next one.