WALL•E (PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, Windows, Mac OS X)

WALL•E
Developers: Asobo Studio, Savage Entertainment (PSP) Publisher: THQ Platforms: PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, Windows, Mac OS X Released in US: June 24, 2008 Released in EU: July 4, 2008 Released in AU: September 4, 2008 This game has unused areas. This game has unused playable characters. This game has unused code. This game has hidden development-related text. This game has unused cinematics. This game has unused music. This game has unused sounds. This game has unused text. This game has debugging material. This game has regional differences.

Asobo Studio's take on WALL•E is a rather interesting platformer with speed mechanics reminiscent of the classic Sonic series. It does, however, appear that the game underwent various changes during development, possibly at the requests of THQ and/or Disney.

To do: Unused videos. Unused stuff in Bigfiles (DPC files), there's a treasure trove of stuff. Check other command line arguments, there are ones that appear to do nothing, like -L (for logging).

Sub-Pages

Unused Text and Dialogue

Script Observations

A defining feature of games using the Zouna engine is the scripting system in the form of .TSC (or .CSC in some games) files. These contain commands that typically get run at game launch, starting with User.tsc. These are text files that can be viewed with a text editor, and can reveal various development info. (TSC commands can also be executed in-game using the debug console or PS2User.tsc, these are described in their respective sections)

• In Levels.tsc, remnants of early progression can be seen. Notably, the game was supposed at one point to feature two hub worlds, for Earth and the Axiom. In the final game, these are the levels "Home Sweet Home" and "Docking Bay" (the Axiom section of "Epilogue"). In addition, "High Speed Flight" (WO_EXTIN) was supposed to be a story level between "Work Day" and "Hidden Treasure", the "Plant Collection" minigame (PG_HUB) was supposed to be a playground level alongside the two final ones and the two scrapped ones ("Trash Area Playground" and another playground for Hidden Treasure's trash tower). Finally, "Life at the Axiom" (TU_AXIOM) was explicitly stated to be the Axiom tutorial area, a connection to "BnL Tune-Up" that is seemingly lost in the final game.
• Extras.tsc has a "BUZZMASK" cheat commented out, when uncommented, it doesn't do anything.
• menu.tsc appears to be a file for the debug level select menu like in Ratatouille. No such menu has been found to date in this game.

Unused Data

In the PSP version, all Bigfiles (.DPP files in this version) are accompanied by .NPP files and .DPP.LAYOUT files (usually referred to as name files and layout files). These are basically auto-generated development text files not required for the functionality of the game, which is why they're not in most other Asobo games. One other game where such files are also present is Garfield 2 for Windows.

DATAS Folder

At least two files are unused here, both containing player characters for cut/repurposed levels of the story.

• P_WA_EXT (file extensions for Bigfiles will be omitted due to them being different on every platform) is WALL-E flying on a fire extinguisher (seen on the screenshot on the left). Originally, the level "High Speed Flight" was supposed to bridge "Work Day" and "Hidden Treasure" as well as serve as clever foreshadowing for "Cosmic Speedway" with it having playable WALL-E on a fire extinguisher. In the final game, High Speed Flight is a multiplayer minigame with two EVEs, and WALL-E on a fire extinguisher only appears as a "clone" object in Cosmic Speedway.
• P_W_BUTT is a very unfinished character (seen on the screenshot on the right) presumably intended for the scrapped story level "Under Pressure".

WORLD Folder

Various unused level files are present in the PSP and Mac OS X versions. While Mac has more of them, they cause the game to crash because of being built for an earlier version of the game. Several of the levels also have lines of text for their names.

File Name	Level Title	Present on Mac?	Present on PSP?	Screenshot (PSP)	Description
MG_BUTT2	UNDER PRESSURE	Yes	No
PG_JUNK	TRASH AREA PLAYGROUND	Yes	No
PG_SKY		Yes	No
SOUND		Yes	Yes		This level was used to test WALL-E's noises on different surfaces. As with the other levels, pressing the charm reject bot button plays the song used when the RATJUKEBOX cheat is activated.
T_BRICK		Yes	Yes		Unfortunately, trying to load this level on PSP crashes the game.
T_CHECKB		Yes	Yes		A test level for the various puzzle objects in the game. Behind where you spawn are two platforms surrounded by red glass. To the left is a block that, when interacted with, starts a laser cut section. At the very end of the room is a giant plant logo.
T_CUBES		Yes	Yes		A very large test room with various destructible objects that also features some unused models and a few clocks moving on the floor in a set pattern. Looking to the left crashes the game. Pressing the charm reject bot button plays the song used when the RATJUKEBOX cheat is activated, regardless if unlocked or not.
T_ENMY		Yes	Yes		A hallway used to test the various enemies and companion robots in the game along with cubes and even a completely unused light cube! There are more unused blocks of unknown purpose and a tornado object that spins boxes when you approach and hurts WALL-E.
T_GPLAY		Yes	Yes		Going out of bounds (with the Debug Cam or EVE) reveals that there are a lot of rooms in this level, like one full of cubes and ramps used to test different surfaces. There are also various companion and enemy bots scattered around. Some rooms have the word "Sortie" above the entrance, which is French for “exit”.
T_LIGHT		Yes	Yes		A very small level, presumably used to test light effects. It also features a weird WALL-E object that crashes the game if you get close to it. Pressing the charm reject bot button plays the song used when the RATJUKEBOX cheat is activated.
T_SPEED		Yes	Yes		This level was used to test EVE's controls and features an extremely long cylinder with untextured blocks. You can very easily escape the cylinder and explore the skybox.

(Source: VonKarma12 (ancient discoveries))

RTC and RTE folders

These contain Real-Time Cinematics and (presumably) Real-Time Events (which are just Cinematics during which WALL-E can move, this distinction only lasted for this game). The file Rtc.tsc in GameTsc/Story contains the commands to load them. By running the command DPlayRtc (or just dpr) followed by the RTC filename, you can instantly play the cinematic. Note that some are incorrectly played at the 0 coordinates using this command.

• Common:
  • COL_11 makes WALL-E do a victory pose. It's unknown what the filename means.
  • T_PORT00 is a "test" cinematic that places the player at the 0 coordinates.
• Home Sweet Home (Truck Sweet Truck, Epilogue):
  • SP_START and SP_WIN appear to be the same cinematic of the captain making a T-pose.
• Work Day:
  • CO_P_03 is an early version of the transition to the final section, in which WALL-E makes use of a fire extinguisher to make it into the building.
  • COL_REVE is a cinematic for an unused artifact.
• Shipyard:
  • PZ_C_02S, PZ_C_03S, PZ_C_03 are various cinematics with the camera overlooking the area. Such cinematics were used a lot in previous Asobo Studio games such as Garfield 2 and Ratatouille.
• Life on the Axiom:
  • TU_A_01 and TU_A_02 are some more camera cinematics.
  • TU_A_END moves WALL-E to a corner of the main hall. The filename makes it seem like the end of the level was in that area.
• Robot Rescue:
  • PZ_E_KL1 is a static camera cinematic that appears to show unloaded areas in the final game.
  • PZ_E_T7A is a cinematic that shows WALL-E falling out of a wall and standing up in a rather funny way.
• A Robot's Last Stand:
  • MG_B_01 is an odd cinematic that appears to have had some connection to the scrapped level Under Pressure.

Unused Music

Various tracks are unused in the PS2 and PSP versions. These are existing songs not written specifically for this game, likely used by the developers as placeholders.

• AXIOM04 is Mir by Murcof.
• AXIOM05 is Blow Out by The Crystal Method.
• EARTH04 is The Penguin by Dave Harris & the Powerhouse Five.

But the fun doesn't end there: LASERCUT on Windows appears to be a loop for the first section of "Fixing EVE" (which would've fit the minigame a lot better than the music that plays there in the final), and IMPACT on PSP is a series of hit sounds.

Localization Excel Spreadsheet

Download Localization XLS File File: WALL-E_PC_TraductionTextes.xls (info)

For some reason, the UK Windows release of the game contains the file Traduction_Textes.xls, which was used by the developers to coordinate the localization of the game into most languages.

Level Oddities

You can see your current coordinates using the PosPersoDebug or PersoSPEED debug displays and move around with the "Camera User" option of the Popup Menu (see below).

Home Sweet Home

• A trigger is present around coordinates 19, -13, -117 (behind the exit door of HSH). When you touch it, a textbox appears with the otherwise unused text "Do you want to reach WORK DAY level?" (see image on the right). Choosing "Continue" crashes the game in most circumstances, except when playing the PSN re-release of the PS2 version. This trigger can be reached with a tricky jump without the use of debug features. It's also present in both Truck Sweet Truck and Epilogue.
• At -1038, -8, -105, far out of bounds to the left of the starting point, a door can be seen with an otherwise unused object right next to it. Standing in the door allows you to go into (a partially functional version of) BnL Tune-Up.

Work Day

The second-to-last section of Work Day features a debug trigger placed above the big yellow "crane" around the tall vertical rods. Using the debug cam or carefully climbing the rods will enable you to touch the debug trigger, which will then operate the "crane" as if the 50-battery lock has been activated, but without the accompanying real-time cinematic.

Shipyard

• A normally unreachable trigger that likewise asks if you want to "reach" Home Sweet Home is present around -159, 14, 3 (behind the start of the level). This one doesn't crash the game, rather it loads Home Sweet Home with its missions, but with the environment of Epilogue.
• An older version of the metal sheet used for the laser minigame in the second-to-last section can be seen under the level right where the final one is.

Tanker Playground

An object is located out of bounds behind the start of the level around 2, 18, 64. Touching it prompts you to go to Shipyard, warping you into the bridge section. It's possible that Tanker Playground and the bridge section of Shipyard were interconnected when the game had hub worlds during development.

Taking Flight

• In the video cutscene before this level, you can see the finish line in the EVE chase section, which was removed from the final version of the level.
• At approximately -15. -40. -42, under the floor midway through the level, an unused "BnL coin" object can be seen. This gameplay element does not exist in the final Asobo Studio game, but coins are present in the WALL-E game for the Nintendo DS.

Surprise Departure

In the video cutscene before this level, you can briefly see the unused object (that also appears next to the door out of bounds in Home Sweet Home) when WALL-E leaves his house.

Epilogue - Back to Shipyard

• A warp to Taking Flight is present at -79, 0, 53, but it crashes the game.
• A warp to Epilogue is present at -159, 14, 3.

Epilogue - Docking Bay

Since this little subsection was repurposed from what once was the Axiom hub area in development, there are a bunch of unused warps:

• Lido-Deck Dash: -137, 5, 786
• EVE Pursuit: -151, 5, 766
• Trash Shoot: -154, 5, 717
• Epilogue: -181, 3, 721
• Life on the Axiom: -159, 1, 860
• Fixing EVE: -155, 5, 799

Lido-Deck Dash

• Another BnL coin is present at 92, -227, -716, well below the level.
• By editing Chapters.tsc, it's possible to start this level (or Home Coming) as WALL-E instead of EVE, which will allow you to view EVE's otherwise unused first-person view overlay. It's likely that it can be viewed in other levels the same way by editing Rtc.tsc to disable the real-time cinematics of these levels first.

(Source: teawhydee and others)

Command Line Arguments

The letters are case-sensitive.

• -mce: If ran with this argument, exiting the game will try to execute %SystemRoot%\ehome\ehshell.exe, which on old Windows was the Media Center executable.
• -I: Makes the game crash at startup, likely did something during development.
• -W: This one makes the game run in windowed mode, however the presence of the Popup Menu indicates that said windowed mode was for debugging only. Curiously enough, the first time this argument was revealed to the public appears to have been by Codemasters (the publishers of Fuel by Asobo Studio) on their own forum, seemingly with complete disregard for the availability of the Popup Menu.

Debug Stuff

Debug Commands

The game's scripting system includes various debug commands. Simply add one on a new line to any .TSC text file (such as User.tsc, which is the one that gets loaded on startup and has instructions to load other stuff) or enter one into the debug console.

• MakeAVI and CloseAVI are leftovers from a video recording feature, which would pop up the Windows video compression dialogue and then start recording a video into "C:\Temp\zob.avi". In this game it does not work.
• SwitchCameraUser 0 activates the Debug Cam, an option that's also available in the Popup Menu.
• PosPersoDebug activates a coordinate display in the top-left.
• ScreenShot takes several screenshots and saves them into "C:\Temp" provided this directory is present.
• DisplayFPS activates the performance display at the bottom.
• EnablePopupMenu activates the Popup Menu, which is a debug menu, in the console versions. In the Windows version it's instead enabled by the -W command line argument.
• EnableL2R2 activates an interesting feature: when both Shift keys and both Ctrl keys (or all shoulder buttons on PS2) are simultaneously pressed, the game runs the script PS2User.tsc, which is normally not part of the retail game, but can be created and filled with any commands.
• PersoSPEED activates a more fancy coordinate display at the top.
• EnableDebugTools and DisableDebugTools don't normally do anything, and in fact the former is ran in the final game, but it requires the "C" patch flag to work.

Popup Menu

On Windows, run the game with the -W command-line argument and right-click anywhere in the window. On PS2/PSP, run the game with one of the .TSC files modified to include an EnablePopupMenu command, then in-game hold △.

This is a debug menu with various options. Many of them don't work, but one of the options that does is "Camera User" -> "Viewport 1", which activates the Debug Cam - essentially a free movement mode. Also of note is the Show Console option on Windows. While it normally does nothing and no console is displayed, you can use this Frida .js script to reactivate it. However, much of the functionality seems to be removed from the final game, with the only notable feature being the command field.

const CONSOLE_FLAG = 0x40;
const FLAG_MEMBER_OFFSET = 0x00006C6C;
const WINDOW_HANDLE_MEMBER_OFFSET = 0x00006C8C;
const SET_FLAG_ADDRESS = new NativePointer("0x0059b0e0");
const CLEAR_FLAG_ADDRESS = new NativePointer("0x0059b0f0");

const SHOW_WINDOW_FUNCTION = new NativeFunction(Module.findExportByName("User32.dll", "ShowWindow"), "bool", ["uint32", "uint32"], "stdcall");

Interceptor.replace(SET_FLAG_ADDRESS, new NativeCallback(function (winconsole, flag) {
    var flag_member = winconsole.add(FLAG_MEMBER_OFFSET).readU32();
    flag_member |= flag;
    winconsole.add(FLAG_MEMBER_OFFSET).writeU32(flag_member);
    if ((flag & CONSOLE_FLAG) != 0) {
        var window_handle_member = winconsole.add(WINDOW_HANDLE_MEMBER_OFFSET).readU32();
        SHOW_WINDOW_FUNCTION(window_handle_member, 1);
    }
}, "void", ["pointer", "uint32"], "thiscall"));

Interceptor.replace(CLEAR_FLAG_ADDRESS, new NativeCallback(function (winconsole, flag) {
    var flag_member = winconsole.add(FLAG_MEMBER_OFFSET).readU32();
    flag_member &= ~flag;
    winconsole.add(FLAG_MEMBER_OFFSET).writeU32(flag_member);
    if ((flag & CONSOLE_FLAG) != 0) {
        var window_handle_member = winconsole.add(WINDOW_HANDLE_MEMBER_OFFSET).readU32();
        SHOW_WINDOW_FUNCTION(window_handle_member, 0);
    }
}, "void", ["pointer", "uint32"], "thiscall"));

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  System Infos

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  Message

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  Script

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  Memory

(Source: widberg (research, script))

It has to be noted that the Windows version "overwrites" the console versions' Popup Menu behavior with the right-click version that's easiest to activate with the -W argument. If you wish to restore the console behavior, then at 0x0019AD6F and 0x0019ADEA replace the instances of 44 58 with 3C 90 (Steam English executable). Do not forget to run the EnablePopupMenu command. The keyboard controls for this menu are: hold Esc to use the menu, and press the arrow keys to move around, forward or back and to select or deselect options.

(Source: SabeMP)

Debug Tools

The string PATCH_FLAGS_p_D_b_L_M_c can be found at address 0x003BB7F8 in the Steam (English) executable. Changing the "p" to uppercase will make the game attempt to load videos from the "PAL" directory as opposed to the "NTSC" directory. Changing the "c" to uppercase will enable a bunch of debug cheats that can be entered with the directional keys. Another requirement for these cheats to be active is the EnableDebugTools command, but it just so happens to be present in one of the .TSC files.

Main Menu

• Down, Right, Up, Left: Runs the DisplayFPS command (performance statistics in the bottom-right)
• Down, Down, Up: Enables the ability to skip all videos and skippable real-time cinematics
• Up, Left, Up, Right, Down: Unlocks all chapters

Chapter Select

• Up, Left, Up, Right, Down: Unlocks all chapters
• Right, Left, Left, Left, Left: Unlocks the highlighted chapter and each one before it
• Right, Left, Right, Left: Enables the display at the top of the screen that is also seen in the "Unlock" menu

Pause Menu

• Up, Left, Up, Right, Down: Opens the "Unlock" menu
• Up, Right, Right, Left: Runs the WinCurrentMission command (self-explanatory)
• Up, Down, Left, Up, Down: Hides or shows the HUD
• Up, Up, Down: Runs the PersoSPEED command (speed and position display at the top)
• Down, Down, Down, Up, Up, Up: Turns on the (slightly broken) input display
• Up, Left, Down, Right: Appears to increase your blue energy charge count by 1998
• Up, Down, Up, Down: Refills your laser completely

"Unlock" Menu

• Up, Down, Up, Down: Changes "False" to "True" and the state of several flags in the level

Extra Materials/Cheats

• Up, Up, Right, Right, Right: Increases your score by 8000 points

(Source: widberg (reverse-engineering), TwoSpacesSG (further research))

Other Unused Windows

Miscellaneous Dialog resources found in the EXE file that don't have a known way to access them, and may or may not have functionality in the release version:

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

Unused Game Setup Options

Two checkboxes for the graphics options menu are not seen under normal circumstances. By editing setup.cfg, these can be reactivated.

• Change 0x00002220 to 01 to activate the "High-Dynamic Range Rendering" feature by default. This is the renderer that was used in Fuel, here it's normally unused and not suited for this game.
• Change 0x00002224 to 01 to reveal the checkbox for the "High-Dynamic Range Rendering" feature.
• Change 0x00002228 to 01 to activate the "Wait VSync" feature by default. However, it doesn't appear to actually do anything.
• Change 0x0000222C to 01 to reveal the checkbox for the "Wait VSync" feature.

Normal Renderer	"High-Dynamic Range" Renderer

(Source: widberg)

Regional and Platform Differences

• The music track for "Repair-Ward Playground" was replaced between versions. In the PS2 version and various retail releases of the PC version (such as the Russian release) it's different from other releases of the PC version, such as the Steam release and retail North American.

PS2/Windows (Early Releases)	Windows (Later Releases)

Miscellaneous

• All music in the Windows version is stored in Asobo's proprietary .AIF format (no relation to Apple Audio Interchange Format). However, if the game can't find the AIF file, it will attempt to play a standard .WAV file with the same filename. No music in this specific game uses WAV, so this feature is unused.
• In addition, the disc versions have functionality to load music, dialogue files (Sound Bigfiles) and videos from the installation folder as opposed to from the disc. However, the installer doesn't copy these into the installation folder, and not only that, but if these are copied manually, then the game still requires the disc to start up, which has these folders that take priority. The 2015 Steam release, while pretty much the same in the vast majority of ways, makes use of this feature.
• The PS2 version has a hidden feature to skip video cutscenes that are normally unskippable: as the video starts, hold the right analog trigger, which will then enable you to press the button to skip the video.
• This game has a swear filter for the profile name screen with a set of banned names. While documenting swear filters is out of this website's scope, this one is remarkable in that it only rejects specific names of 3 characters in length, even though the max length for the profile name is 18 characters. In addition, the later builds of the game, such as the PC version, added several more 3-letter words for some reason, including some inexplicable ones such as "GAY".