Under the microscope: TNN Motorsports Hardcore Heat (Dreamcast)

Some new cheats for a Dreamcast launch title on its anniversary

For the 27th anniversary of the Dreamcast’s North American debut, I’m examining one of its launch titles in this edition.

TNN Motorsports Hardcore Heat (known as Buggy Heat outside of North America) is a racing game from CRI. CRI worked closely with Sega in the 90s and early 2000s, and Sega still has a stake in its successor. I’ve covered a few Dreamcast games from CRI here previously - see the articles on AeroWings and Surf Rocket Racers.

There are a handful of cheat codes for Hardcore Heat that have been known for ages. But I found several more that seem to have gone unnoticed since 1999. Details on they work are below…

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Cheat codes you can enter

There are a handful of cheats known for this game already. This one is new, however – enter it at the Mode select screen:

Up, Left (x9), Down (x7), Right, X (x10), Y (x8), L+R (x2)

This will give you access to the two bonus vehicles, LE-2001 and the jet plane from Aerowings:

All three Championship classes will be marked complete, giving you access to the Russia and Japan courses:

And the Type 4 paint jobs available in the Garage:

That’s almost everything that can be unlocked. To get the last thing, Super expert mode, enter this code at title screen:

Left (x2), Right (x2), Left, Right, X, Y (x8)

Super expert mode unlocked. The display cuts off the icon!

That code was previously known. But there’s another one that I think is new. It unlocks the LE-2001; the jet; and the extra tracks, but not the extra paint jobs:

Up, Left (x9), Down (x7), Right, X (x10), Y (x8), L+R (x2)

This code, which is also new, turns on debugging information:

Left (x2), Right (x2), Left, Right, X, Y (x2), X (x2), Y (x8)

Alas, it makes the game unplayable! It isn’t recognized by the PAL version:

One more new code: this one resets all of the unlockables:

Left (x2), Right (x2), Left, Right, X (x7), Y (x5)

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Cheat codes you can’t enter

The NTSC-U version has a function at 8c03df20 that looks for input at the mode select screen. It reads from the table starting at 8c088838, which has all of the cheat button sequences above - and some more. That is, there are several unused button codes.

This one would have enabled another debug display:

Code 08: L (x2), R (x2), L+R

These would have disabled the various parts of the HUD:

Code 07: Left (x2), Right (x2), Left, Right, X (x5), Y, X

Code 0D: Left (x2), Right (x2), Left, Right, Y (x3), X (x3)

This code seems to have been an alternate version of the “Random weather” one:

Left (x2), Right (x2), Left, Right, X, Y, X, Y

And this one would have disabled the flashing Press Start Button text on the auto demo:

Left (x2), Right (x2), Left, Right, X, Y, X, Y, X, Y

There are some others that don’t seem to have been tied to any effect:

• Left (x2), Right (x2), Left, Right, X, Y (x2), X (x5)

• Left (x2), Right (x2), Left, Right, X (x8), Y (x2), X (x4)

• Left (x2), Right (x2), Left, Right, X (x2), Y, X (x9)

• Left (x2), Right (x2), Left, Right, Y (x2), X (x2)

• Up (x4), Down (x4)

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Outro

Here’s the full list of codes in NTSC-U version’s game data:

One more thing: I mentioned above that you can unlock the jet from Aerowings in Hardcore Heat. But did you know that you can also unlock the buggy from Buggy Heat in Aerowings?

Thanks for reading, and happy Dreamcast day. Rings of Saturn will return soon.