MegaRace

MegaRace
Developer: Cryo Interactive Publisher: The Software Toolworks Platform: DOS Released in US: 1993 Released in EU: 1994 This game has unused enemies. This game has unused graphics. This game has unused text.

MegaRace is a futuristic racing game known for being one of the first games to feature pre-rendered levels and full motion video.

Unused Graphics

There are several filenames listed inside RACEPRG.EXE that refer to game assets that are either missing or unused.

The surviving unused images can be found inside the MEGARACE.DAT file. Most image files use two different methods of compression, which makes it more challenging to view these art assets outside of the game. The files are compressed in Cryo's custom HSQ format (which appears to be similar to LZ77 and LZ78), and the actual sprite pixel data itself is compressed using Run-length encoding (RLE).

Unused opponent car sprites

_JOS.HSQ, _LUI.HSQ, _OUZ.HSQ

At the start of a new game, only three cars are available to the player (Jose, Luis, and Ouzbel). Two of these cars never show up as regular NPC opponents in a race, while a unique version of Luis is used exclusively for the Skyholder racetrack. Despite this, there are unused regular versions of these cars that can be used as sprites for opponents. All the opponent sprite filenames start with an underscore (this can be seen in RACEPRG.EXE at address 0x11C28). The names of the three unused files are:

_JOS.HSQ
_OUZ.HSQ
_LUI.HSQ

By changing the filenames of the other opponent sprites inside RACEPRG, we can load these unused sprites in-game.

_LUF.HSQ and missing "front view" sprites

As mentioned earlier, a special file is used for the front-facing Luis sprites used for Skyholder. The sprite filename is called _LUF.HSQ (the "F" meaning "front"). Since all the regular opponent sprites only show the rear and rear-side views of the car, this file only shows the front and front-side positions of the vehicle. Interestingly, there is a list of files in RACEPRG at address 0x11E8E that shows the developers were intending to have front-facing sprites for all of the opponent vehicles. Unfortunately, these were removed from the final game, with only the front-facing Luis sprites making it to the final build.

_RAF.HSQ
_JOF.HSQ
_OMF.HSQ
_OUF.HSQ
_PAF.HSQ
_LUF.HSQ
_HOF.HSQ
_MAF.HSQ

The opponent car sprites are also the only known graphics in the game that do not use RLE compression for the pixel data. As a result, when these files go through HSQ decompression and are loaded into memory, they are completely decompressed and the current opponent car sprites are viewable in a raw memory dump. Meanwhile, the current player car sprites use RLE compression so when the file is loaded into memory the graphics are still in a compressed state, even after HSQ decompression. In order to draw the player car sprite during gameplay, the program does RLE decompression on-the-fly as it writes the sprite data in VRAM for every frame.

CASQUE.HSQ

The purpose of this image is unknown. "Casque" is the French word for helmet; maybe this helmet belongs to the player character or an opponent racer?

Missing Test Music Files

At address 0x12B3C in RACEPRG.EXE, two unknown music files are listed alongside with the other music filenames.

SN1.HSQ
FREQ.HSQ

What's interesting is that these two filenames still have valid sound IDs, even though the files are missing in MEGARACE.DAT. Using DOSBox's debugger, a breakpoint can be placed at 01FA:0215 which is part of the routine that loads the NEWSAN.HSQ music data. Changing the value inside the AX register will change the song for the first racetrack. Because 7 and 8 are valid sound IDs, the game will attempt to load either SN1.HSQ or FREQ.HSQ but will crash with a "File Not Found" error.

MegaRace Music IDs

0 = Silence
1 = NewSan
2 = Maeva
3 = Factory Land
4 = Fractalian Space
5 = Terminal City
6 = SkyHolder
7 = SN1.HSQ (game crashes with File Not Found error)
8 = FREQ.HSQ (game crashes with File Not Found error)

Unused or Alternate Videos

EXPLO.HNM

Rare beta gameplay footage of MegaRace, showing the unused EXPLO.HNM video playing as the player's car explodes. Taken from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDzQajeBBh4&t=118s

This slightly corrupted video appears to be a larger version of the explosion sprite seen in-game (EXPLOSE.HSQ). It nearly takes up the entire screen (except for the bottom section reserved for the HUD graphics) and appears to have been used instead of the explosion sprite for the player's car exploding in early beta gameplay footage.

BA1.HNM

Some releases of the game have a cutscene that was censored by removing dialogue involving cannibalism. The subtitle files mentioned below show the original dialogue for BA1.HNM and how it was edited.

Unused subtitles

MegaRace has two separate but nearly identical English-language subtitle files, MEGAAMER.SUB and MEGAENGL.SUB. The former isn't actually used by the game, and contains a longer bit of dialog for one of the bad endings.

MEGAENGL.SUB	MEGAAMER.SUB (unused)
"The Enforcer can't take the heat, huh? It's because of quitters like him that vicious speed-gangs miss out on a wonderful rehabilitation program. Tune in next time to Mega Race, when we'll have a real Enforcer to admire! I'm Lance Boyle, and you'd be too, if you were me."	"The Enforcer can't take the heat, huh? It's because of quitters like him that vicious speed-gangs miss out on a wonderful rehabilitation program developed by New Directions in Meat Incorporated, makers of Bleed, the candy-bar poor folks love to be a part of! Tune in next time to Mega Race, when we'll have a real Enforcer to admire! I'm Lance Boyle, and you'd be too, if you were me."

At the end of each subtitle file, there is also a string which doesn't appear in any of Lance's cutscenes. It was probably intended for the introduction to the Skyholder bonus stages, but it isn't heard in game.

• English: "Oh, and by the way... This time the bad guys are coming right at you! So hang on to your face, tough guy!"
• French: "Oh, et propos... Cette fois-ci, les bagarreurs t'arrivent droit dessus! Alors attache tes ceintures, mon pote!"
• German: "Und übrigens... Dieses Mal kommen die Bösewichter direkt auf Dich zu! Jetzt gilts, Rauhbein!"
• Italian: "Oh, e a proposito... Questa volta i balordi stanno venendo proprio da te! Proteggiti la faccia, quindi, uomo duro!"
• Spanish: "Ah!, a propósito... Esta vez los malos vienen directamente a por ti. Resiste, tipo duro!"

(Source: Original TCRF research)