Here's something you don't see every day; a hidden alpha/beta-grade level in a released Twisted Metal game...
Check out the following video for an overview of the level, focusing on how it differs from the regular Junkyard:
YouTube Links:
- Standard YouTube Page (recommended; switch the resolution via the gear icon in the player)
- Pop-Ups:
Hacks used in the video:
The mini version was probably abandoned mid-way into Twisted Metal: Black (TMB)'s development when Incog realized that it wasn't turning out to be a "mini" version of Junkyard. Another possibility is that it was cut due to development time constraints (its level ID is one of the last in the game). In any case, after the mini version got cut, it appears the standard level (and the rest of the game) went on to receive more polish/refinements, as well as an overhaul of pickup locations.
Mini Junkyard also exists as a hidden level in TMB Online (TMBO) (most of Kai's active regulars have seen it by now), but oddly enough it isn't a carbon copy of the TMB version... Sooner or later I'll make a follow-up post/video focusing on TMBO's version of the level.
Would be great if any TMB developers could reveal the full story behind this level and its UI differences...
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Moving on, here's the backstory as how the level was discovered... (warning: insanely long)
In recent times I've been trying to hack TMB/O to create viable widescreen hacks, but I also often lurk around on a few gaming sites that focus on unreleased games and beta discoveries in released ones... I was curious if anything like that existed in TMB, so I applied some of my game hacking knowledge try finding out.
From what I've seen on YouTube, a few game hackers have previously played around with TMB's car select menus, but apparently none ever thought about trying the same in its level select menus...
In early October 2012 I experimented around in TMB's level select menus and figured out how to programmatically scroll through all level entries, but upon first glance, didn't find anything that immediately stood out. However, it just so happens that Mini Junkyard was amongst the aforementioned level entries... and I couldn't really recall it from when I used to be a TMBO regular.
I can't recall the exact specifics, but I think what came next was a search for Mini Junkyard in TMBO's level select menu (just by scrolling through all levels normally without any hacking). Since all standard levels are present and unlocked by default in TMBO, by all means it should've been listed, right? Wrong.
This piqued my interest enough to try programmatically selecting the level in TMBO, and next thing I knew, I had stumbled upon the level's menu background image; some large white and centered "19" text, over a mainly black gradient. This was definitely some sort of placeholder level image. The significance of 19 is that it represents Mini Junkyard's level ID (Warhawk's is 20).
In a hacking context, in TMBO it's fairly easy to start a match in Mini Junkyard. If you change your current level menu selection to it programmatically, then select the level, you're good to go. Unfortunately this isn't the case with TMB. Due to how many levels are normally locked and hidden by default in the latter, the same method's outcome is like trying to select a locked level (the game won't let you). Luckily I managed to figure out where TMB stores the IDs of levels once they're selected (which gets used to determine which level will actually get loaded in by the game engine when a match starts). Programmatically changing the aforementioned ID allowed me to go in-game in any level of my choosing, regardless of whether they're locked or hidden. This allowed me to launch matches in TMB's version of Mini Junkyard.
I was initially pretty disappointed with both TMB and TMBO's versions of Mini Junkyard (especially the latter's). First impressions were that TMB's version was identical to the normal Junkyard, but with a glitchy HUD and no airliner (at all; not even pre-crashed). TMBO's seemed identical the regular Junkyard. Having said that, over time as I kept coming back to TMB's mini level, I noticed pickup differences and eventually performed more direct head to head comparisons. These lead to several interesting discoveries of (mostly minor) differences in both the level itself and its UI. All of these are covered in the attached YouTube video. TMBO's version of the level has its own twist; it seems to be a hybrid of Mini Junkyard and the regular Junkyard (this'll be covered in more detail in a future post/video).
Anyways, in tandem with all these little discoveries in the mini level, one of my priorities was to create hacks (for cheat devices like CodeBreaker/GameShark/PCSX2 Pnach) that would allow Mini Junkyard to be easily selected from both games' level select menus, just like any standard level. Thanks to some assistance DarkForce previously gave me in setting up a way to analyze TMB's executable (ELF) file, I figured out how to get Mini Junkyard to appear (albeit as locked) in the level select menus for most of TMB's game modes (Challenge, 2 Player, and possibly 3-4 Player). That was definitely a good start, but as long as the level was locked, the hack was still useless as-is.
This is where DarkForce came in once again. He passed me a few TMB level unlock hacks he found on the net, which hinted to the general area in which TMB stores level lock/unlock flags in the PS2's memory (RAM). With that information in hand, I succeeded in getting the level to appear as unlocked in the aforementioned level select menus.
Was that all? Nope
... By default, when Mini Junkyard gets selected, TMB's game engine doesn't load its level ID (19) into the "level ID to load" slot I talked about earlier. So I added another hack into the mix to perform that task.
So at this point a pretty good Mini Junkyard unlock hack was finally established for TMB
(although with room for improvement).
Onto TMBO, I believe creating a similar hack for it will be much harder than it was for TMB. TMB's executable file contains a plenty of leftover function and variable labels (i.e. text that briefly describes how some of its programming works), but TMBO's executable doesn't. The aspect of the TMB hack that allowed me to "reveal" Mini Junkyard in some of its level select menus was discovered via some of the aforementioned labels... So without some pretty extensive hacking, at this time the only options for TMBO are things like button press hacks (i.e. press button ? to make Mini Junkyard the selected level) or level replacement ones (i.e. outright replace a level you don't like with Mini Junkyard in level select menus). DarkForce is currently doing the latter with poor old Loop
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Finally, all of this lead to me creating an overview video of TMB's version of Mini Junkyard, using a variety of purpose-oriented hacks. Also figured it would be for the best to simultaneously release the video with all the hacks that were shown in it, as well as this ridiculously long TMA thread.
Hope everyone found this to be an interesting watch/read
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