Looney Tunes: Back in Action (Game Boy Advance)

Looney Tunes: Back in Action
Developer: Warthog Publisher: Electronic Arts Platform: Game Boy Advance Released in US: November 11, 2003 Released in EU: January 30, 2004 This game has hidden development-related text. This game has unused text. This game has a hidden sound test. This game has a hidden level select.

Debug Menu Text

Various strings related to a debug menu are scattered throughout the ROM. One of them would have appeared as the second entry of the pause menu:

0802dae0  addr  s_PAUSE_08222968      = "PAUSE"
0802dae4  addr  s_RESUME_08222960     = "RESUME"
0802dae8  addr  s_DEBUG_MENU_08222954 = "DEBUG MENU"
0802daec  addr  s_QUIT_0822294c       = "QUIT"
0802daf0  addr  s_OPTIONS_08222944    = "OPTIONS"
0802daf4  addr  s_HINTS_0822293c      = "HINTS"

This is also confirmed by the following table of menu handlers, where index 1 skips to index 3, matching the entries visible in-game:

0802dcac  ddw   0h             = index 0 ("PAUSE")
0802dcb0  ddw   7FFh
0802dcb4  ddw   0h             = no handler, just a title
0802dcb8  ddw   0h
0802dcbc  ddw   1h             = index 1 ("RESUME")
0802dcc0  ddw   1FEFFh
0802dcc4  addr  FUN_080170ec+1 = handler function for index 1
0802dcc8  ddw   0h
0802dccc  ddw   3h             = index 3 ("QUIT")
0802dcd0  ddw   1FFFFh
0802dcd4  addr  FUN_08017058+1 = handler function for index 3
0802dcd8  ddw   0h

No handler function exists for index 2 next to the other handlers.

Furthermore, there are distinct tables of text entries for each of the 5 languages available in the game. Only the English table contains some entries which likely would have been part of a debug submenu:

08036f78  addr  s_CLEAR_BACKUP_DATA?_08223384     = "CLEAR BACKUP DATA?"
08036f7c  addr  s_CLEARING_BACKUP_DATA_0822336c   = "CLEARING BACKUP DATA"
08036f80  addr  s_ALL_DATA_WILL_BE_LOST!_08223354 = "ALL DATA WILL BE LOST!"
08036f84  addr  s_DEBUG_LEVEL_SELECT_08223340     = "DEBUG LEVEL SELECT"
08036f88  addr  s_CLEAR_SRAM_08223334             = "CLEAR SRAM"

(Source: Original TCRF research)

Level Select

Although the debug menu logic was stripped, the level select function is still present at 0x0801b98c, but it's unreferenced. It also includes a sound test: use Left / Right pad buttons to select a sound, then Left / Right shoulder buttons to play that sound.

We can replace the call at 0x08018fee, which loads data for the first level when the New Game option is selected at the title screen. To instead call the level select function, apply these GameShark v1/v2 codes:

Patch	Raw codes	Encrypted codes
00018FEE = 02 F0 00018FF0 = CD FC	6000C7F7 1000F002 6000C7F8 1000FCCD	63854E99 60C657FB 140B95A4 D247AB71

Due to the way the level select is loaded, some boss sequences may be glitched. As a workaround, we can load a new game as normal with the cheat disabled, then enable the cheat, quit the game, and load a new game again, this time loading the level select screen, which should work as expected.

(Source: Original TCRF research)