Under the Microscope: Tennis Arena
GamePro said this of Tennis Arena: Hands down, Tennis Arena clinches the match as the single best tennis game for the PlayStation, delivering addictive, fast-paced gameplay. Given the pathetic competition…
GamePro said this of Tennis Arena: Hands down, Tennis Arena clinches the match as the single best tennis game for the PlayStation, delivering addictive, fast-paced gameplay. Given the pathetic competition…
In this edition: Cotton Boomerang has a well-known cheat code that grants you extra options. I found that adding a couple of buttons to it unlocks more bonus items. Terra…
Eidos planned to publish Chill, a snowboarding / cryptid hunting game, for both PlayStation and Saturn in 1998. But the Saturn version never materialized, leaving Swagman as Eidos’s final Saturn…
The manual for Hyper 3-D Pinball doesn’t hold back: it declares pinball to be the ultimate form of gaming: So you think you’re a hardened gamer? Think again. All those…
Sega developed and published games for several anime series in the ’90s. In this edition I’m looking at two of them that have heretofore-unreported cheat codes: Neon Genesis Evangelion: 2nd…
The Manic Media Productions development studio is listed as having made three games on MobyGames: Manic Karts (1995, for PC) SuperKarts (1995, for PC) Formula Karts (1997, for PC, Saturn…
In this edition: I break the password encoding scheme for The Crow: City of Angels while looking for cheat codes. I don’t find any, but I do find an exploitable…
In this edition we’re looking at Thunder Force V Sample ROM, a demo disc for Thunder Force V. It normally lets you play a single stage, but there’s data for…
Over at the Sonic Retro forums, user Black Squirrel pointed out that the PlayStation version of Casper has some cheat codes listed on sites like GameFAQs. He was able to…
This is the introduction to Sky Target, the 3D flight combat game from Sega: A super jet fighter plane, nicknamed “White Sword,” was developed by the U.S. Army in strict…
Congo the Movie: The Lost City of Zinj is a Doom-like FPS that’s set in the world of the 1995 film Congo. It doesn’t use the movie characters or scenes,…
In a previous edition I looked at Shining the Holy Ark for Saturn. I found an unusual method for enabling that game’s debug menu in that game, so I naturally…
Here is how GamePro’s review summed up Criticom: Criticom is the worst fighting game of the year. A 1996 Usenet user had this to say: i had the playstation version…
Radiant Silvergun is a well-regarded shoot-em-up from Treasure, whose game Silhouette Mirage was previously covered on Rings of Saturn. I looked into this game’s code a while back, but didn’t…
Omakase! Savers is an adventure game for the Saturn that was published by Sega in 1996. It tells the story of three girls who stumble upon an ancient secret that…
Shining the Holy Ark, the 1996 RPG for Saturn, has the strangest hidden feature I’ve ever seen. It has unused code for a sound matching minigame that works like this:…
In this edition I’m examining Strikers 1945 (Saturn and PlayStation) and Sengoku Blade (Saturn), which are both shooting games from Psikyo. In wrote previously about patches for the Saturn versions…
In this edition I’m examining Gunbird, the vertical shooter from Psikyo. I found four new cheat codes for it: The Test mode menu. NoDeath mode, which makes you invincible. Skip…
Zen Nihon Pro Wres Featuring Virtua is was produced by Sega and Scarab. As the name suggests, it’s a Japanese pro wrestling game that features two Virtua Fighter characters. The…
In this edition we’re analyzing Asuka 120% Limited Burning Fest. for Saturn. This game, like the rest of the ones in the Asuka 120% series, didn’t get released outside of…
In this edition: The trial disc for Fighting Vipers secretly has a full build of the game behind its demo restrictions. That build is from 1996-07-24, right in between the…
In this edition: I reverse engineered the password system The Lost World: Jurassic Park, revealing some long-unknown cheat codes. The new codes enable a stage select screen, an invincibility mode,…
In this edition: Keio Flying Squadron 2 has a cool debug mode: it has a stage select menu, hitbox display, a higher jump, and more. The code to enable it…
In honor of the 30th anniversary of its original release, I took a look at Astal. Here’s what I came up with: An alternate title screen A more complete level…
In this edition I’m examining Madden NFL 97: I found a cool free camera mode that’s enabled by a special player name. And alternate method of unlocking the bonus teams….
In this edition, I’ve got some new cheat codes for Grid Runner (a.k.a. Grid Run). Enter them at the Restore Game > Enter Password screen: Read on for details! Intro…
The 3DO game Shock Wave was ported to the PlayStation in 1995 and to the Saturn in 1996. On those systems it was released as Shockwave Assault. GameFAQs lists some…
There are a lot of 2D fighting games on the Saturn. Battle Monsters is… certainly one of them. Look, it’s no Street Fighter. It’s no Primal Rage. Surely somebody likes…
In this edition: I found some previously unknown cheat codes for the Saturn game G Vector, the 3D shooter. They give you extra modes, invincibility, a new character, and more!…
In this edition: The Incredible Hulk: The Pantheon Saga has a hidden cheat menu that grants infinite items, the ability to skip levels, and more. Action Replay codes to enable…
In this edition: I found a previously unreported cheat code for Highway 2000, the Genki racing game for Saturn. It unlocks an unlimited “free” time mode. I also found a…
In this edition: Before they joined Sega in 1999, Visual Concepts produced two sports games for Saturn. Those two games, NHL 97 and NBA Action 98, both have unreported Easter…
Saturn enthusiast Shadowmask has just published a new translation patch for Mobile Suit Gundam, the 1995 Saturn game from CRI and Bandai. Check it out! Shadowmask’s work prompted me to…
NiGHTS Into Dreams has strange little Easter egg at the end of its Splash Garden level. Sometimes if you defeat the boss, Puffy, a door opens and something falls out…
In this edition: Power Stone for Dreamcast has a hidden debug menu that lets you test various functions, alter game parameters, and view/edit character animations. Power Stone 2, also for…