Metal Gear Solid (PlayStation)/Debug Menu

This page sucks. If you could make it suck less, that would be awesome.

To do: Replace that ugly-ass YouTube video (in progress). Also, complete the documentation of the debug menu here.

A debug menu can be accessed by using a hacked game save or a cheating device. This menu most notably features a level selector, but also has a checkpoint selector, a vibration editor (for cinematics), and a sound test.

These kinds of debug functions are inside basically any version (of any game in the series). The first Metal Gear Solid is no exception, whoopeedeedoo.

How to Access

To access this useful testing menu with all of the equipment provided you by the game, you may enter one of the GameShark codes in the first column, depending on your region/version, and go to the PREVIOUS OPERATIONS section of the SPECIAL menu. While if you want to start out with nothing for some reason, enter the code from the second column and choose VR MISSIONS from the main menu.

Japan

80119724 815E

80119790 815E

North America (1.0)

80316F00 85E4

80316F84 85E4

North America (1.1)

80316F00 85E2

80316F84 85E2

UK

80316F18 8250

80316F84 8250

Germany

80316F18 8211

80316F84 8211

France

80316F18 8233

80316F84 8233

Italy

80316F18 8240

80316F84 8240

Spain

80316F18 8203

80316F84 8203

INTEGRAL (Japan)

80316E88 8B0B

One may also use any of the save files from the following download:

Download Metal Gear Solid (debug save files) File: MGS_PS-saves.zip (1.6 KB) (info)

(Save Files: RedCode Interactive)

Main

This is the main select stage, from here you can access a number of sections which can make you jump in any area of the game, check the cutscenes and some other stuff. Remember that this menu is like an actual level of the game and it doesn't really set any value, so if you die and get back here, unless you cure yourself with a ration before teleporting into each stage or seeing a cutscene, your game is doomed.
Note that Integral only features Title, Demo All and Sound Test as valid options, even though unreferenced, buggier versions of the SC stage selects lay around.
It is also of note that by using this menu and skipping to the appropriate part you can actually play the entire game on just one disc, but any cutscenes not present inside will be skipped by a prompt, and most of the other disc's exclusive codecs will be mute.

Title

Go back to the title screen.

Disk Change

It's supposed to let you change disks, but doesn't look like it does anything.

SC 00-04

Enter game stages from title through s04b, with your current equipment/life.

SC 05-09

Enter game stages from s05a through s09a, with your current equipment/life.

*s08a spawns you inside an untextured elevator, to exit you must use the elevator controls*

SC 10-14

Enter game stages from s10a through s14e1, with your current equipment/life.

SC 15-20

Enter game stages from s15a through s20a, with your current equipment/life.

• As a side note please remember some stages may spawn you outside of playable areas/outside normal play area bounds. i will investigate this and update with any stages that do this, as i found one earlier and had to activate an elevator from outside the map to spawn back into the playable area.*

Demo All

• Disk 1: select demos (cutscenes) from the first disc.
• Disk 2: select demos (cutscenes) from the second (and some of the first) disc.

Keep in mind that after the cutscene is over, you will find yourself playing the game, and since you get teleported in more or less arbitrary coordinates, you may be stuck so you'll need to commit suicide. Since no story/game flag is set, everything will behave erratically unless you reach a turning point that will set the appropriate flags, just like teleporting into any stage will. You will also keep the entire equipment you entered the Debug Menu with.

Interestingly, the Disk 1 demos seem to stop just after you've been captured, reflecting an earlier design where the disc changing screen would have appeared right in front of a cliffhanger. The number of numeric gaps between the various demos may have something to do with a plethora of scrapped scenes which then diluted Disc 1 to the second Wolf boss fight.

The fact that the Integral prompt is more accurate to the released version of the game supports this.
Another giveaway is the fact that prototype versions of the game had cutscene audio locked at 22050Hz Mono instead of the final's 33075Hz Stereo, so they could once fit more on one disc.

Var Init

To do: I will soon document each option and their subsections.

Just as the name suggests, you can boot from every point of the story, and the game will set the appropriate flags, give you all the appropriate equipment and teleport you to the most appropriate stage.

Beware though, this also looks like something that was used in earlier revisions of the game, and as such some options are broken or straight up nonsensical, some will work without a sweat, some will glitch your immediate codec calls because the game sets wrong flags, or you will just be plain stuck with no option but to reset the console or quit to the main title.

Sound Test

To do: Some versions have a broken sound test, which reference Disc 2 files on the first one, and that is no good. I will document which ones soon enough.

This sound test menu is basically a huge .VOX file browser, which can play streamed audio files from VOX.DAT, with their production name intact. After selecting one of them, the actor numbers and their lip/eye sync info are displayed on top, while subtitles (if any) are displayed below. It is interesting to note that some subtitles don't necessarily match with what's being said or what appears on the codec, and there are a lot of outtakes and unused/empty files as well, as well as many numeric gaps. After the file is over, or you interrupt it with the X button, it will play again on the browsing screen.
Remember that once you enter here the main game engine will be killed, with no means for you to get back on the upper menu, so you have to restart.

Vibration Editer [sic]

Slight typo aside, it's pretty clear what this function does. It helps you script vibrations for the Dual Shock controller, used in parts of the game (mostly the cutscenes). All the commands are written on screen, but saving the results and exiting the editor are glitchy, so you're again forced to restart after reaching here. It's probably meant to communicate through the parallel port, if the code references are anything to go by.