Beetle Adventure Racing

Beetle Adventure Racing
Developer: Paradigm Entertainment Publishers: Electronic Arts, EA Square (JP) Platform: Nintendo 64 Released in JP: November 26, 1999 Released in US: February 28, 1999 Released in EU: September 4, 1999 This game has unused areas. This game has debugging material. This game has a hidden sound test. This game has a hidden level select.

To do: Document Australian version ('HSV Adventure Racing') - basically with Beetles swapped out for Holdens.

Beetle Adventure Racing is a race between grossly oversized beetles that look almost like cars. And they act like cars, too!

Debug mode

Using the code 80025E7F 0001 (US or European PAL) will enable a rather comprehensive debugging system. Pressing Down on the D-Pad anywhere outside of actual gameplay (i.e. a race or demo mode) will bring up a title bar near the top of the screen, as well as a mouse cursor that's controlled using the analog stick. The title bar caption interestingly enough reads "NEED FOR SPEED", implying that the game started life as a Nintendo 64 entry in the Need for Speed series.

Hovering said mouse cursor over the title bar brings up a selection of seven different menus.

RACE menu

• NUM PLAYERS: Number of player-controlled cars
• AI: Number of AI-controlled cars
• AI RECORD:
• STEER ASSIST:
• * PLAY *: Start a race with the current configuration
• * BATTLE *: Start a battle with the current configuration

DBG menu

• OPEN CARS: Temporarily unlock cars
• OPEN TRACKS: Temporarily unlock tracks
• OPEN MTRACKS: Temporarily unlock multiplayer tracks
• OPEN TOURNS: Temporarily unlock championships
• PLAY SFX: Play one of 250 sound effects
• PLAY MIDI: Play one of 16 music tracks
• TXTCOUNT:
• DEBUG: Toggle different debugging modes (ZBUFFER only works on real hardware)
• FRATE DISPLAY: Toggle display of frame rate and related data
• DEFAULTMATER:
• ABORT MODE:
• PLYR LEAD:
• DBG MX SPEED:
• HUD: Toggle certain in-game debug displays (position in level, surface under wheels, etc.)
• AI DBG:
• PROFILING:

OPTS menu

• MINDT: (Some sort of frameskip option?)
• INF LAPS:
• MAX TXTS:
• MUSIC: Set music volume, same as in regular Options screen
• SFX: Set sound effect volume, same as in regular Options screen
• SUSPENSION:
• TILE SORT:
• REPLAY: Shows a replay of the latest track you raced on
• RECORDINTRO: Allows you to record your own intro (won't be saved)
• CAR:
• SHADOW:
• LOSCHECKOFF:
• VEL CAM:
• DRAWINGOFF:
• GLARE:
• FRAMERATE:

DISP menu

• MASKS:
• VI GAMMA:
• VI GAMDITH:
• VI DIVOT:
• VI DITHER:
• ANTIALIAS:
• TXTFILTER:
• TXTPERSP:
• TXTDETAIL:
• MIPMAP:
• X SCALE:
• Y SCALE:
• BRIGHTNESS:

DSBL menu

• GOOD FRAMERA:
• NO MIDI: Disable music
• NO SFX: Disable sound effects
• NO SND: Disable the sound
• NO PARTICLES:
• NO DOBJS: Disable objects
• NO FOG: Disable the fog
• NO ENVDRAW: Stops the drawing of the environment sky
• NO SOBJS: Disable objects like trees
• NO TOBJS: Disable the track model
• NO TRANSP:
• NO SKID:
• NO BRDR: Disable the border

TOOLS menu

• MODELS: Open model viewer for the selected track
• CARS: Open model viewer for the selected car
• UFO: Starts a race with all cars as AI cars, allows the player to move the camera freely
• INTRO: Play the intro
• DEMO: Start the demo mode
• CREDITS: Play the staff roll
• VICTORY: Show the victory screen
• TASKEDIT: Opens the track object editor
• AIEDIT: Opens the track car AI editor
• TEXTURE VIEW: Crashes the game
• COLOR BARS: Shows, well, a test pattern similar to the SMPTE color bars
• SELECTION: Go to main menu
• PROF CAR: Open car viewer

SCENE menu

• TRACK: Select a track
• WEATHER: Select weather conditions
• EDIT ENV: Doesn't do anything
• PRINT ENV: Doesn't do anything
• FOGTYPE: Select type of fog
• FOGSTART: Set fog start
• FOGMAX: Set fog density
• FARPLANE: Set draw distance
• FOG RED: Set red component of fog color
• FOG GREEN: Set green component of fog color
• FOG BLUE: Set blue component of fog color

SCENE EDITOR

The car viewer and the model viewer has a lot of menus to select.

GEN:

• BRAKEON: Turns the brakes on/off
• MOTION PART:
• DOBJS: Control how many objects you want to be visible
• MODEL ID: Look through models (some are used, some are unused).
• TEXTURE ID:
• ENVIRONMENT: Change the environment.
• TERRA: Change the track model.
• TEXANIM: Doesn't do anything.
• TIRE STEER:
• TIRE MPH:
• RSCALE MPH:
• CSCALE MPH:
• CAM MODE: Select between UFO and the car viewer camera

COLOR:

• MODE:
• LDIR X:
• LDIR Y:
• LDIR Z:
• DIF SCALE:
• RED:
• GREEN:
• BLUE:
• ALPHA:
• FOG HACK OFF: Button does work but nothing more than OFF/ON happens if pressed.
• FOG START:
• RECOLOR:
• PRINT OUT: Doesn't do anything
• FARPLANE:
• TEXTURE XREF:

COMB 1:

• COLOR A1:
• COLOR B1:
• COLOR C1:
• COLOR D1:
• ALPHA A1:
• ALPHA B1.
• ALPHA C1:
• ALPHA D1:

COMB 2:

• COLOR A2:
• COLOR B2:
• COLOR C2:
• COLOR D2:
• ALPHA A2:
• ALPHA B2:
• ALPHA C2:
• ALPHA D2:

COMB2:

• K4:
• K5:
• PRIM R:
• PRIM G:
• PRIM B:
• PRIM A:
• ENV R:
• ENV G:
• ENV B:
• ENV A:
• ACLAMP:

TANIM:

• T1 POSX:
• T1 POSY:
• T1 VELX:
• T1 VELY:
• T2 POSX:
• T2 POSY:
• T2 VELX:
• T2 VELY:
• TSEQ: An animation will be shown on the screen
• TSEQ RATE: Change the frame-rate of the animation.

The rest of the debug menus

These are the rest of the debug menus in the Debug Menu.

PROF CAR:

PROFILE:

• NUM CARS: Set how many cars you want to be visible

ANIM:

• WHEEL POS:
• WHEEL ROLL:
• JUMPOFF:
• ZSMOOTH:
• S C SCALE:
• S E SCALE:
• COLOR: Select between the default car colors
• RED: Change the red color
• GREEN: Change the green color
• BLUE: Change the blue color
• MAX NO BLUR:
• CAR: Change car model
• MTRLID: This one has a list of the surface names, but the actual function is still unknown
• LONFRIC:
• ROLLFRIC:

Camera controls

The camera controls for the different model viewers, etc. are as follows:

• Analog stick: Change direction
• C-buttons: Move camera up/down/left/right
• A button: Move camera forward
• B button: Move camera backwards

Hold down the L trigger to speed up camera movement.

Other debug data

Alternatively, some of the data display options can be toggled using the following codes, which will make a bunch of miscellaneous data show up on the right side of the screen:

80025DAF 0002
8001F783 0002

More debug information can be made to trigger with the code 80025CF3 000?, where ? is a number between 1 and E.

Unused tracks

To do: There are more unused tracks

Use the track modifier 80025D37 00??.

Test road

Value: 01

Contains nothing more than a single road going off into the nothingness. The collision doesn't seem to match up with the level, so you'll most often be driving in the air.

Test grid

Value: 02

A simple test level that is checkered blue and yellow.

Checkers test

Value: 03

As is evident in the preview, this is supposed to be another test level... but as the starting position makes you end up right above the water, there's no way to explore it.

Round test

Value: 04

A level consisting of a donut-shaped island with a road going around it. The elevation drops immediately to the left but only smoothly to the right of the road, so this may have been intended to test jumping physics and such.