Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire (Nintendo 64)

Debug Mode
This game has an unusually complicated Debug Mode to activate which makes the one in Zanac look like a piece of cake. There are quite a few interesting options available for experimenting if you do manage to unlock it, however.

Start a game on the Medium difficulty setting, using "_Wampa__Stompa" as your entry name (note that there is one space before Wampa and two spaces before Stompa).

After that, begin the game on any level and pause the game. Hold C-Up, C-Right, C-Down, C-Left, L, R, Z, and Left on the D-Pad. While holding all those buttons, move the control stick halfway to the left, and hold until you hear a sound effect, then move the control stick halfway to the right until you hear the sound effect again. Repeat this, holding the control stick halfway to the left, then the right and finally the left again. If done correctly, you should see some purple text appear at the top of the screen with some information below it (see screenshot).

This is the debug menu. While the menu is active, you can use the L and R buttons to move forward or backward through the options and the control stick either up or down to change whatever values are enabled at that time. To activate an option, press A while it is onscreen; the game will un-pause, and the option will activate. To re-enter the debug menu, input the button code as before, but instead of moving the control stick five times, you only need to move it to the side once. A list of the available options can be found below.

NOTE: Some debug options are not available in US revisions later than 1.0.



Regional Differences
In the US and European versions, there are 14 letter slots, necessary for activating the debug mode with the name "_Wampa__Stompa". However, in the Japanese version, there are only 11 slots, which may mean one of three things: you cannot access the debug mode through an in-game trick, there's another way to do it, or perhaps it was removed entirely for some reason.

Another noticeable change to this part of the game is the way the cursor moves about the letters. In the US/European version, the cursor glides over the entire selection of letters freely in a very fluid motion. When you stop moving the cursor, it snaps to the nearest letter. In the Japanese version, the cursor has a more rigid motion, so it can only be directly over the letters and not over the spaces in between the letters. The lack of rigid placement in the American/European versions also explains the lack of sound effect that the Japanese version has when the cursor moves from letter to letter.

The Japanese version uses cheats of _R_Testers, Credits, _Wolfy, _Wampa__St and _WIPE_ALL according to RAM. Although untested as to whether it can be activated the normal way, the debug menu can be activated by GameShark cheats of 800DE087 0001 (Activate debug menu) and 800DE083 0001 (Activate pink menu). The options are the same. The _Wolfy cheat also appears in NTSC, but its effect is unknown.

Hidden Text
This space is intentionally left blank. If you can read this, you need to get a life. Elf needs food... Badly. If found, drop in any mailbox. Postage is pre-paid. Do not submerge or take internally. No user-serviceable parts inside. Any similarity to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. This end up. Do not stack more than four high. Dry clean only. One size fits all. and (sic) Weena Merkatur as The Hopping Woman. Baby Wampas! Baby Wampas! Baby Wampas! Baby Wampas! Baby Wampas! Baby Wampas! Baby Wampas! Baby Wampas! Baby Wampas! Baby Wampas! Baby Wampas! Baby Wampas! Baby Wampas! Baby Wampas! Baby Wampas! Baby Wampas! Baby Wampas! Baby Wampas! Baby Wampas! Baby Wampas! Baby Wampas! Baby Wampas! Baby Wampas! Baby Wampas! Baby Wampas! Baby Wampas! Baby Wampas! Baby Wampas! Baby Wampas! Baby Wampas! Baby Wampas! Baby Wampas! Baby Wampas! Baby Wampas! Baby Wampas! Baby Wampas! Baby Wampas! Baby Wampas! Baby Wampas! Baby Wampas! Baby Wampas! Baby Wampas! Baby Wampas! Baby Wampas! Baby Wampas! Baby Wampas! Baby Wampas! Baby Wampas! Baby Wampas! Baby Wampas! Baby Wampas! Baby Wampas! Baby Wampas! Baby Wampas! Baby Wampas!

The above message, repeated 12 times in the American ROM, is located at. The European ROM begins the massage at and repeats it seven times, while in the Japanese ROM it starts at  and is repeated 11 times.