In this edition, we’re examining Fire Pro Gaiden: Blazing Tornado, the 1995 game from Human Entertainment. It wasn’t published outside of Japan, but an English translation patch was made available by Saturn enthusiast Malenko in 2022.
This game is full of little Easter eggs — Japanese cheat sites (like this one) list several. But there are more! I found:
- A code that activates an alternate set of credits with jokes from the staff.
- A “Free Watch” mode Easter egg that cycles through the tutorial scenes.
Here’s a video of the alternate credits! Details are below…
The alternate credits
The cheat sites have a code listed for this game that makes the ending scene and staff credits start playing. While playing in Circuit Mode, enter this sequence:
Up, B, A, C, A, Down, B, A, C, A,
Up, B, A, C, A, Down, B, A, C, A.
It’s not been documented before, but there’s another credits-related code. Let the title screen time out. When the attract mode demo starts playing (with Press 1P or 2P Start flashing), enter this sequence:
Down, C, A, B, A, Up, C, A, B, A,
Down, C, A, B, A, Up, C, A, B, A
This launches an alternative set of staff credits!
This staff roll features lots of inside jokes and developer nicknames:
Some of the scenes have goofy cartoons and artwork:
Screenshots don’t really do it justice — check out the video above for the full experience.
At the end of the staff roll, this screen pops up:
“L” Select Command: HO + ← + B + L + R
This matches a code that’s on Japanese cheat sites. Highlight Hayate (“HO,” I guess) by coming from the right. Keep D-pad Left held down, then hold B, then L, then R. You’ll then be playing as the hidden character H. Ludwig (“L,” I guess).
Free Watch mode
I found another Easter egg in Blazing Tornado. If you launch Instruction mode from the main menu, then hold L+R…
…then the tutorial scenes play with the banner FREE WATCH in the corner:
This seems to mean that all of the tutorials will play in a row. Normally, only the one you select from the menu plays.
Technical details
I found the alternate credits by investigating how the previously known credits cheat works. The handling for that cheat is in the function at 0603ea2c, which runs when the game is paused. It’s a standard cheat code listener. It checks:
- Whether the current game type is
0x00(Circuit mode). - Whether the player just pressed a controller button.
- Whether that button’s bit pattern matches the next item in the code sequence stored at
06044b42.
Once the end of the code sequence is reached, it loads a file called ENDING.SH2.
Right next to this function is another one, at 0603e99c. This one is also a cheat code listener, but it’s checking two different things:
- For a game type that’s greater than
0x04. - For a button sequence that’s stored at
06044b6a.
After entry, this function loads the file called ENDING2.SH2.
Which game type is greater than 0x04? Circuit Mode is 0x00, as above. Elimination is 0x01; Power Battle is 0x02; Instruction is 0x03. That’s all of the ones you can select on the main menu. It took me a bit to find that the attract mode demo also counts as a game type – it’s 0x06. Just what we need! There doesn’t seem to be an 0x05, oddly.
I found the free watch mode cheat by setting a read breakpoint for the memory address associated with player input and then navigating to each of the menu screens. The Instruction mode screen looks for the button pattern 0x88, which is the logical OR of this game’s hex representation for the R button (0x80) and the L button (0x08).
Outro
For more on Human Entertainment’s wrestling games, see my article on hidden extras in Fire Pro Wrestling S: 6Men Scramble.
Many thanks to Malenko for consulting on this article. Malenko and I previously collaborated on the Kingdom Grandprix English patch.
Thanks for reading! I’ll be back again with more from the vault soon.
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