Under the microscope: Swingerz Golf (GameCube)

a.k.a. Ace Golf, Wai Wai Golf

It’s a pun on swinging a golf club, not a comment on the characters’ after dark habits

Goofy golf games must have been having a moment in late 2002 – both Swingerz Golf and Outlaw Golf were released for North American GameCubes that October.

Outlaw Golf has lots of codes, but the cheat sites don’t seem to have any for Swingerz Golf. I decided to check and see if there were any hiding out, and wasn’t disappointed: I found a code that gives you access to all of the characters, courses, equipment, and more.

Details on how it works and how to use it are below…

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Finding the cheat

As I usually do when hunting for cheat codes, I started by trying to understand how the game processes input. I used the Dolphin emulator’s Cheats Manager to look for values in memory that change when holding down controller buttons.

Dolphin’s Memory debug screen helpfully highlights every value that changes, so you don’t go blind staring at columns of numbers.

This process led me to the memory region starting at 80219c9c:

• 80219c9c stores how long it’s been since you’ve touched D-pad left. Its value increases by 1 each frame.

• 80219ca0 stores how long it’s been since you’ve touched D-pad right.

• 80219ca4 is for D-pad down.

• etc. etc. etc. Each controller button gets its own idle counter.

I exported a memory snapshot from Dolphin and imported it into Ghidra (with the GameCube loader’s module’s Gekko processor spec). Then I traced the references to the memory addresses above until I found the function at 80122d54, which executes when you’re on the title screen.

The function has big “cheat code tracker” energy:

• If the counter value at 8064f808 is 0, check whether the player is pressing Z+L. If so, increment the counter value.

• If the counter value is 1, check whether the player is pressing Z+L again. Increment the counter again if so.

• If the counter value is 2, check whether the pressing Z+R. Increment the counter if so.

• etc. etc. etc. There are a total of nine button checks.

Let’s try using the sequence it’s listening for…

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Using the cheat

The full code sequence is:

(Holding Z) L, L, R, Y, X, Left Analog up, Left analog up, Left Analog down, B

After you’ve entered it on the title screen, you’ll be able to select all 14 characters:

The special alien character Mac “took up golf to make friends with Earthlings”

All of the courses will be available to play:

The course selection screen. “Only the best” can play on course six, unless they cheat with this new code.

You’ll have all of the clubs:

The Club selection screen. “Only players whose technique is close to perfect” can use them. Again, unless they cheat.

And all of the balls:

The Ball selection screen. Grass Ball, Thunder Ball, Rainproof Ball, Windproof Ball, and Wilson True Ball? I don’t understand the theme that unifies these.

You can choose any of the accessories:

The Accessory selection screen. I would like a glove that “improves your concentration” in real life.

And you can be accompanied by any of the caddies:

The Caddy selection screen. Robo “Malfunctions a lot in summer” – I’m not sure why I would pick him.

All of the missions will be marked as clear:

The Missions screen. Cleared!

In short, you’ll have everything unlocked. Not bad!

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Outro

That’s all for Swingerz Golf. For more retro game reverse engineering articles, see my archive here at Substack. And to get the next one as soon as it comes out, subscribe to the e-mail version of Rings of Saturn:

Logo by Ashlyn Anstee