Under the microscope: The AeroWings series (Dreamcast)

CRI, CRI again

Cheat sites have listed codes for the AeroWings and Aero Dancing games since their release in 1999. For example:

• AeroWings enables extra options when you enter the special name TASCAS.

• The NTSC-U and PAL versions of AeroWings and AeroWings 2 unlock all planes if you use certain button combinations.

Are there any more special names? Are there unlock codes for the the Japanese Aero Dancing games? I decided to investigate and found several new things:

• Upgraded planes: AeroWings

• Free camera: All of the Dreamcast AeroWings games

• No HUD counters: AeroWings

• Special options: Aero Dancing Todoroki Taichou no Himitsu Disc

• Unlock everything: AeroWings 2 (NTSC-J), Aero Dancing i (NTSC-J)

Details are below!

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Upgraded planes

In the first game, call yourself !!CHANGE!! to get alternate / upgraded versions of several planes. These are affected:

• RF-4E becomes RF-4E+

• F-1 becomes F-1+

• F-15J becomes F-15J+

• F-15DJ becomes F-15DJ+

• F-2 becomes F-2B

It’s amazing to me that this cheat didn’t leak out some time during the last quarter century; these planes are cool.

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Free camera

The special name !!LOOK?? unlocks a special free camera mode. Press X+Y at the pause screen to activate it. You’ll then be able to move the camera with the D-pad and L and R.

Here’s a video of the free camera mode action:

This works on all of the AeroWings games except for the Aero Dancing F: Todoroki Tsubasa no Hatsu Hikou append disc — that one needs a different cheat (see below).

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No HUD counters

Enter your name as ?YABURIN! in AeroWings to turn off the time and score display:

The time limit for missions is still enforced, however.

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Special options

The TASCAS name doesn’t work for Aero Dancing Todoroki Taichou no Himitsu Disc, the upgraded version of the first game.

But this name does: -TODOROKI. After entering it, you can access the new menu from the Game Config screen.

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Unlock everything (Aero Dancing F)

To unlock all planes and missions in the NTSC-U and PAL versions of AeroWings 2, go to the Game Select screen, hold down L+X and press Y. A sound effect confirms proper entry of the code.

This doesn’t work on the NTSC-J version — what gives? I checked Ghidra’s decompilation of the function at 0c2a08a4. It has a bit that looks like this:

all_unlocked_ = false;
if (SOMETHING_01 == 0x61) {
  if (SOMETHING_02 == 1) {
    all_unlocked_ = true;
  }
}

SOMETHING_01 and SOMETHING_02 are the values at 0c4a257c and 0c4a257e, respectively. Those addresses are in the same neighborhood as the ones that store player input for controller A and controller B. It turns out they’re for controller D!

The L button pattern is 0x20, the R button pattern is 0x40, and the A button pattern is 0x01. So the code is to hold L+R and press A on controller 4 at the Game Select screen. As in the other versions, all missions and planes become available.

This trick also works on the Aero Dancing F: Todoroki Tsubasa no Hatsu Hikou append disc. You get lots of extra planes and colors:

And you also get the !!LOOK?? camera from above — you can’t set your player name on that disc.

Holding L+R+B on controller 4 seems to set another flag in both games, but it doesn’t seem to have much effect.

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Unlock everything (Aero Dancing i)

Aero Dancing i has a similar “unlock everything” effect. When you’re at the Game Select screen, the function at 0c4f1ccc is listening for input. Here’s one of the things it’s looking for:

(Controller D) Hold L+R+Down and press A

If you got it right, you’ll hear a sound effect. All missions will then be marked as complete and all of the planes will become available to select. Cool!

There’s more going on in this function. Here’s another cheat:

(Controller D) Hold L+R+A and press Down

This sets the 02 bit in the flag field at 0c67aaa0, which enables the free camera mode mentioned above (the one activated by naming yourself !!LOOK??).

The game is looking for five other combinations like this. They are:

(Controller D) L+R+X and press Left
(Controller D) L+R+B and press Right
(Controller D) L+R+Y and press Up
(Controller D) L+R+X+B and press Y
(Controller C) L+R+Down and press A

However, I can’t understand what they do! Each sets a bit in the flag field at 0c67aaa0, and each one gets checked at some point during gameplay. But whatever the effects are, they’re not obvious.

These codes also work in Aero Dancing i Jikai Saku Made Matemasen:

That disc also has a code that does something too subtle for me to understand.

(Controller C) L+R+Up and press Y

If you can discern any of the effects of the unknown codes above, leave a note in the comments.

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Outro

If you like the AeroWings series, also check out my article on the pre-final demo of the first game. All of my other cheat code articles are indexed here.

Happy Dreamcast day! I’ll be back later this week with some goodies for Saturn and PlayStation, so stay tuned.

Logo by Ashlyn Anstee