Under the microscope: Tennis Arena (Saturn, PlayStation)
Don't get a big head
GamePro said of this game:
Hands down, Tennis Arena clinches the match as the single best tennis game for the PlayStation, delivering addictive, fast-paced gameplay. Given the pathetic competition out there, though, that's not saying much and Tennis Arena is far from perfect.
Tennis Arena was released worldwide for PlayStation, but the Saturn version never made it out of Japan — alas.
It’s long been known that you can unlock two extra characters and a bonus course on the PlayStation version by putting in a button code while the game starts up. But does that effect exist on the Saturn version?
Answer: yes! I found an unlock cheat that matches the PlayStation one, plus another previously-unreported code that enables Big head mode. Details are below…
The Saturn version
The well-known PlayStation code is entered at the Smart Dog screen. It’s Up, Down, Left, Right, Start.
I don’t think anybody’s ever written it down, but this also works on the Saturn version. The two extra players are Mick McKenzie and Mishka Kochev:
And the extra court is Canyon:
Here’s something new, however. If you enter Up, Down, Left, Right, A at the Smart Dog screen instead, you get Big head mode:
It’s… kind of unpleasant looking.
The PlayStation version
I don’t think it’s been reported that the two extra characters can be unlocked individually on the character select screen with these codes:
McKenzie: L1, L2, R1, R2
Kochev: R1, R2, L1, L2
And on the court select screen, you can unlock the Canyon with this code: Up, Down, L2, R2.
The Big heads cheat is entered at the character select screen on the PlayStation. The code is: Up, Down, R1, L1.
Technical details
On the Saturn version, the function at 06021ecc is listening for button presses while the Smart Dog logo is displayed. In pseudo-Python, it’s doing this:
correct_buttons = 0
if correct_buttons == 0:
if P1_PRESSED == UP_BUTTON:
correct_buttons = 1
elif correct_buttons == 1:
if P1_PRESSED == DOWN_BUTTON:
correct_buttons = 2
else:
correct_buttons = 0
elif correct_buttons == 2:
if P1_PRESSED == LEFT_BUTTON:
correct_buttons = 3
else:
correct_buttons = 0
elif correct_buttons == 3:
if P1_PRESSED == RIGHT_BUTTON:
correct_buttons = 4
else:
correct_buttons = 0
elif correct_buttons == 4:
if P1_PRESSED == START_BUTTON:
EXTRA_CHARACTERS_UNLOCKED = True
elif P1_PRESSED == A_BUTTON:
BIG_HEADS_UNLOCKED = True
else:
correct_buttons = 0That is, it keeps track of where you are in the Up, Down, Left, Right sequence. After that, you can either press Start to unlock the extra characters or A to enable big heads.
On PlayStation, the function that checks for codes is at 80128370 on the NTSC-U version.
Outro
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Nice finds!