Under the Microscope: Iron Storm: Operation Files

In this edition, I’m examining World Advanced Daisenryaku: Sakusen File for Saturn. It’s a sequel to Iron Storm that was released exclusively in Japan in 1996. It’s difficult to play if you can’t read Japanese, but there’s good news: (1) There’s a new English language translation patch available from Hemulen, and (2) I found some previously unreported cheat codes that make it easier to explore the game.

Details about the cheat codes are below…

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Place items anywhere

Before a turn starts, there will be a screen that shows the date:

Enter this sequence on that screen:

Up, Up, Down, Up, Left, Right, L, R, X, Z, Y

Now you can press C anywhere on the map to use the Make / Allocate menu (C button) — even places that don’t make sense:

The equivalent code in Iron Storm is:

Up, Down, Up, Down, L, A, Z, Y

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Enable CPU/User Options

Normally you can’t access the CPU/User Options in Campaign mode, but you can if you follow these steps:

• Go to the Sound options.
• Play sound effects in this order: 4, 14, 24, 1
• Play BGM in this order: 22, 4, 8, 22

The equivalent procedure in Iron Storm is to play sound effects 5 and 66.

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Enable cheat options

First do the “Enable CPU/User Options” cheat above. After that, highlight the bottom row of the Options screen and enter this sequence:

Start, L, R, Start, X, Y, Z, Start, Y, Z, X, Start

The CPU/User Options screen will now have options for adjusting money, alliances, and more:

The equivalent code in Iron Storm is:

Start, A, Down, A, X, Z, Start

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Enable scenario select

First do the “Enable CPU/User Options” and “Enable cheat options” procedures above. Then enter this sequence on the CPU/User Options screen:

X, Y, Z, X, Y, Z, Start, L, R, Start

A new MAPNR (シナリオ in the Japanese version) option will appear:

Your choice will take effect when you leave the Options screen. I don’t think there’s an equivalent code in Iron Storm.

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“All battles” mode

First do the “Enable CPU/User Options” and “Enable cheat options” procedures above, but not the “Enable scenario select” one. Then enter this sequence on the CPU/User Options screen:

Down, Down, Left, Right, Down, X, Y, Z, X, Start

When you leave the Options screen and end your turn, what follows will be an uninterrupted sequence of battle animations.

I don’t think there’s an equivalent code for this effect in Iron Storm.

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Second controller tricks

This effect is already documented for both Operations File and for the original Iron Storm, but I’ll include it here in the name of completeness. On the stats screen before a battle, press A on Controller 2 a few times:

A menu will appear that allows you to adjust (with Controller 1) the display parameters for the battle:

I found another spot that’s looking for Controller 2 input. The Scenario status screen allows you adjust to three numbers with the buttons on the second controller (L, R, X, and Y). These seem to adjust the progress of the scenario, but in a way that wasn’t clear to me.

Leave a comment if this effect makes sense to you!

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Technical details

The “Place items anywhere” code works like this: when the screen that shows the date is visible, the function at 0608f608 is listening for input. The function has logic that looks like this when translated to pseudo-Python:

target_button = button_sequence[counter]
# The last sequence element is -2, which means "stop looking for this code"
if target_button != -2:
    if target_button == pressed_button:
        counter += 1
    else:
        counter = 0
# The next-to-last sequence element is -1, which means "apply the code's effects"
elif target_button == -1:
    cheat_effect = 1
    play_sound_1(6, 2)
    counter += 1

This is garden variety cheat code detection logic. The code compares player button presses to a sequence of patterns, advancing the comparison position each time a match is detected. At the end of the sequence, an effect gets applied and a sound effect plays.

For the Options screen codes, there is code that does similar sequence tracking. But instead of button presses, it tracks which sound effects or BGM tracks have been played:

if pressed_button & C_BUTTON:
   play_sound_2(se_cursor, 1)
   if (game_type == CAMPAIGN) and (access_cpu_screen != 3):
       target_sound = se_sequence[counter]
       if se_cursor == target_sound:
           counter += 1
           if target_sound == -1:
               se_sequence_done = 1
       else:
           counter = 0

The other button sequence cheats have similar sequence tracking code.

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Outro

Be sure to get Hemulen’s patch from SegaXtreme. I contributed a quality-of-life modification that makes the default control scheme easier to use.

Thanks for reading! I’ll be back with another Under the Microscope next week. Check out my Substack blog for more retro game reverse engineering in the meantime.