F-Zero GX

F-Zero GX
Developer: Amusement Vision Publisher: Nintendo Platform: GameCube Released in JP: July 25, 2003 Released in US: August 25, 2003 Released in EU: October 31, 2003 Released in KR: 2003 This game has unused areas. This game has unused code. This game has hidden development-related text. This game has unused modes / minigames. This game has unused graphics. This game has unused models. This game has unused sounds. This game has debugging material. This game has a hidden sound test. This game has regional differences. This game has a prerelease article

F-Zero GX is the faster, prettier SEGA-assisted sequel to F-Zero X and boasted unique data sharing capabilities with its Triforce counterpart F-Zero AX.

Regional Differences Apparently "beer" is just a regular "drink".

Unused Material

F-Zero GX contains an abundance of unused data. However, since most of the leftover F-Zero AX code is perfectly usable, the following regards assets that are not used by either game.

Debug Menu

The Japanese F-Zero GX contains remnants of the debug menu used by Sega during the game's development. Just about everything is accessible, from sound effects to the many object viewers, except for one dummied out menu option and another that crashes the game.

F-Zero GX Debug Menu All the details on how to enter the debug menu and navigate it can be found here.

Audio

Many of the unused audio clips are flat-out remakes of classic F-Zero X dialogue. Things such as "Too bad, you lost your machine!" and the screams when a player falls off the course were entirely remade. Other audio clips involve narrator interaction.

Sound Effect Pack 1

Sound bank 1 contains a lot of unused audio clips, a small yet substantial portion of which include F-Zero X remakes.

First Place!

It sounds like a variation on F-Zero X's "Alright! You got first place!"

Bingo!

F-Zero X's Versus mode "VS. Slot" audio clip remade for GX. It appears VS. Slot was considered to make a return.

Too bad, you lost your machine!

A beautiful return of F-Zero X's "Too bad, you lost your machine!" It would appear that GX started out a lot like X, but slowly developed its own personality.

You got your machine!

Conversely, if the player defeated five opponents during a race, this would have played.

Clear!

An alternate version of the narrator yelling "Clear!", rather than "Mission clear!"

Goal!

Another variation of "Mission clear!"

Danger!

The narrator concernedly shouting for the player to watch out.

Hurry Up!

This was presumably going to be used when the timer made it to 10 seconds, alerting the player that not much time remains. It was effectively scrapped in favour of a per-second siren. This phrase is used in most Monkey Ball games, which may relate it to the unused "Fall Out" texture (see below).

Draw

It appears as though there was going to be a draw exception.

Graphics

Warning Message

A message warning that "there is not enough memory to render this model". Its 3D model, found within common, is named "WARN_MES_OVER".

Powered by Hardware R&D

An odd little message found bundled with the title cards for the pilot movie endings as well as in the GameCube advertise screen archive. Since it appears in the ending credits of OutRun 2, it's possible that it was meant to be used for the ending credits here as well.

Fallout

FALLOUT is the term used in the Monkey Ball series when the player falls off the stage. Seeing as the game was built upon the Monkey Ball engine, it is likely they used this until "Off Course" was chosen as the out-of-bounds cue.

Casino Laser Sign

The textures for LASER_CASINO, a rotating sign hologram like the Triforce and Gamecube logos seen in Sonic Oval. It lays dormant exclusively in the Japanese bg_com (Sonic Oval) texture archive.

The sign's projection texture.

Parental Advisory Warning

This warning is found in the same folder as the Nintendo, SEGA, and Amusement Vision logos. It would have been displayed upon startup, except it isn't. This was probably made for AX.

MAGCARD

Early AX License Design	Final AX License Design

Shorthand for "Magnetic Card", the F-Zero AX license card used to store one's AX data. It is quite peculiar as each side of the model use its own texture. What's of great interest is the prototype card texture, which has F-Zero T_RANS X written on it instead of F-Zero AX. MAGCARD is found in card, an older version of both operation and operation_us, a file used in the AX advertise screen.

F-Zero T_RANS X could be an earlier title preceding the 2002 F-Zero AC title, which later became F-Zero AX.

The back side of MAGCARD which reads the following:

<Be sure to face this side down.>

• This card records your original "F-Zero AX" data magnetically. If you bend, soil or cut this card close to the magnetic fields, the card reader may not be able to read your data.
• SEGA is NOT responsible for any lost, stolen or damaged cards.
• This card has no cash value and is non-refundable.

3D Models

Flag

FLAG is located in common, bundled along with other, far less detailed pylon cones. Its intent is unknown, but could have been used in story mode.

Test Cones 00-04

TESTCONE00 through TESTCONE04 each come in their own colour, sporting their namesake number. They are highly primitive objects. Their use is unknown, but was surely used in early development.

Pylon

PYLON can be found in both common and efcmodel. It could have served such purposes as a tool for testing the vehicle handling mechanics, for use in objective driven missions, or perhaps, when used in pairs, to designate the starting line.

Coin

COIN is supposed to be a background object for the Casino Place venue, though it does not seem to appear in either Split Oval or Double Branches. The model has a reflective quality to it.

The texture, which reads "F-ZERO NINTENDO & AMUSEMENT VISION"

Elevator Screen

ELV_SCREEN01 was supposed to be a monitor screen used in Cosmo Terminal, much like the Space Elevator Information screen seen near the starting gate in Trident. It ultimately went unused, sporting a placeholder texture as it does not have its own.

GameCube Memory Card

A rather large and fairly detailed 3D model of a GameCube Memory Card, present in card along with MAGCARD.

Stages

GX had plans for a 14th venue (taking into consideration that Sonic Oval is its own venue referred to as com) and contains remains of one additional course, though its data may be either corrupted or empty as it loads different assets depending on how it is viewed.

AUR Venue

There is a Course Select venue backdrop graphic named bmp_stg_aur that references an unused venue. "aur" is the shorthand name of this venue, and does not correspond to any venue from GX or AX. It only appears in the Japanese GX and AX ROMs, and has not seen any progress since its inclusion in AX, suggesting it was scrapped rather early in development.

Unfortunately, the image used is a "DUMMY" placeholder, leaving no insight into what "aur" stands for.

Stage 00

GX has an unused course named st00 in the stage folder of the ROM. It will call the assets from Sand Ocean with the track Screw Drive (Aeropolis) when unarchived or viewed through GX's model viewer debug option. Strangely, though, when using either cheat codes to access the stage in-game or using the game's debug stage viewer, it will only load universal assets such as zippers and the starting gate, along with the collision data of Twist Road (Mute City). Its only purpose appears to be to prevent the game from crashing when starting up the stage viewer, as it always loads st00 first.

Viewed through the F-Zero GX's asset viewer from the debug menu.

"stg00" viewed in Blender after exporting it through GXGMA

"Sand Ocean ---" loaded through cheat codes

WiiRD/Gecko Code (NTSC-U)
48000000 801A6B70 DE000000 80008180 1001C959 00000000 E2000001 80008000

Action Replay Code (NTSC-U)
AW48-J1VD-AH5YB F6DK-FPJ5-NGN28

Camera Data

Each AX Cup track has unused camera pans. The files, named livecam_stage_31 through livecam_stage_36, each contain 3. However, AX Cup's short previews force the camera pans to stop after 300 frames (6 seconds), meaning the latter 2 never get a chance to play. The pans last 350, 400, or 350 frames respectively. The video linked here plays all 3 pans in succession.

Translation Notes

There exists a reference note called game_msg_jp.txt, which translates the English menu options and result texts to Japanese.

RANKING:ランキング
POINT:ポイント
RUNNING:走行中
COURSE:コース
VIEW:ビュー
RESULT:けっか
RESET:リセット
(LATER):(よてい)
RANK:ジュンイ
TOTAL:トータル
BEST LAP:ベストラップ
PUSH A or MENU BUTTON:Aまたはメニューを押して下さい
MAX SPEED:さいこうそく
LAP:ラップ
GOAL:ゴール
REPLAY:リプレイ
RETRY:リトライ
DISQUALIFIED:失かく
YES:はい
NO:いいえ
OK:はい
EXIT:終了
CANCEL:キャンセル
NEXT STAGE:次のステージ
RETRY:リトライ
REPLAY:リプレイ
GHOST:ゴースト
SAVE:保存
LOAD:読込
STATUS:ステータス
EDIT:へんしゅう
DESTROY:はかい
CAR:車
SETTING:セッティング
FORCE:強制
WIN:勝利

Leftover F-Zero AX Code

Curiously enough, F-Zero GX contains all the code required to play (a slightly butchered version of) F-Zero AX on the GameCube. Using the Action Replay or Gecko/Ocarina code below, GX will boot into AX. The game will still load all save data from GX when possible, and will only allow the player to select Bahamut (Custom Machine), Blue Falcon, Golden Fox, Fire Stingray, and Wild Goose plus any unlocked AX machine (Version 3+ of the code unlocks AX characters by default and Version 6+ allows players to enter any custom vehicle).

The game will also load the player's Time Attack data, which creates hilariously slow records for any map using more than the GX 3-lap standard such as Sonic Oval, where the player must complete 8 laps while in AX mode. It will even load the 16:9 aspect ratio preference of GX, allowing the player to view objects outside the AX menus (the arcade game used 4:3 monitors). AX boot in GX also uses the C-Stick to change the player's color, rather than the L and R buttons.

While the course selection menu behaves correctly in the Japanese version, the US/PAL versions shifted the placement of Mute City Sonic Oval to the far right as opposed to its far left position. This offset causes the menu icons and audio not to match the selected track (offset visible in AX code Version 1 {video uses Version 1 PAL}).

(Source: Ralf (NTSC-U codes, PAL codes), Nekokabu (NTSC-J code translation), CosmoCortney (video))

F-Zero AX Code Archive A list of every code to boot into F-Zero AX since the original. With so many revisions, you may want to look back at some of the older versions.

Miscellaneous

Hidden Messages

fz.sample.rel

This Japanese test menu file contains the word "BAKA" at offset 0x7F8.

fze.sample.rel

To be consistent, the English version contains the word "FUCK" at the same offset. Stay classy.

Gachinko Difficulty

While F-Zero AX employs five difficulties accessible through the game's internal setup menus used to set the arcade cabinet's difficulty and lap settings, F-Zero GX does not. However, there is an internal listing for a difficulty called Gachinko (a word meaning "game played earnestly"). Forcing the game to load it during a Grand Prix grants the player 10 extra lives. The difficulty is hard to distinguish between Novice, so it may simply be using the same AI logic.

Unused Cups

The file fze.sel.rel contains a number of unused cups on top of the Gachinko difficulty.

AC Cup

In F-Zero GX, the AX Cup orders the tracks starting with Aeropolis [Screw Drive] and ends with Mute City [Sonic Oval] as it is not used during a Grand Prix. AC Cup is the same, only it orders the tracks by difficulty rating, thus begins with Mute City [Sonic Oval], just how it is listed in F-Zero AX.

WHF Cup

WHF stands for World Hobby Fair. In January 2003, Sega demoed F-Zero GX at the 17th World Hobby Fair. While this Cup setting was made specifically for it, unfortunately none of the the 12 track listings match with any stage slot remaining in either F-Zero AX or F-Zero GX. The Cup points to stages 82, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 81, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, respectively.

However, this article notes that there were only four playable stages at the 17th World Hobby Fair: Mute City [Twist Road], Port Town [Long Pipe], Green Plant [Intersection], and Port Town [Aerial Dive]. In other words, the E3 Cup lineup.

E3-0

This is a cup with four tracks to demo at E3 2003. As noted above, it was also used for demoing at the World Hobby Fair in 2003, months prior to E3. It features the following courses: Mute City [Twist Road], Port Town [Long Pipe], Green Plant [Intersection], and Port Town [Aerial Dive].

More Cups

There appears to be two nullified entries called "E3 1" and "E3-1".

E3 VS

This "Cup" links to a single track: Casino Palace [Split Oval]. The name suggests it had something to do with versus mode.

Unused Track Names

GX upholds a convention where each track has a venue and name. This includes Story mode and extra tracks. Story 1 and 2 have unique track names, but they do not get loaded. They're referenced in fze.story.rel.

	Venue	Course Name
Story 1	Mute City	Virtual Circuit
Story 2	Sand Ocean	Under Construction
Story 3	Casino Palace	---
Story 4	Big Blue	---
Story 5	Lightning	---
Story 6	Port Town	---
Story 7	Mute City	---
Story 8	Fire Field	---
Story 9	Phantom Road	---
Grand Prix Podium	Mute City	---
Victory Lap	Mute City	---

Regional Differences

Exclusive Custom Parts

GX has 15 "special" custom parts which could only be unlocked through Japan-only promotional events which took place shortly after the game came out, in 2003 and early 2004. However, all versions of GX have these parts, although the only alternative to unlock these parts is to use cheat codes.

The special parts were distributed in two ways:

• With special AX License Cards. Bring the License Card, along with a GameCube Memory Card with GX data, to an AX machine. Insert the Memory Card and License Card, then play a round of AX. When the race is over, the License Card's specified parts will be unlocked on the Memory Card's GX data.
• Through download stations at particular events or shops. Bring a GameCube Memory Card with GX data, insert it into the station, and follow some instructions. The parts available in the download station will then be unlocked on the Memory Card's GX data.

The 15 special parts were given out in five groups of three. Each group of three parts formed a machine with a special name:

Machine Name	Body	Cockpit	Booster
Bahamut	Mad Bull	Crazy Buffalo	Mars -EX
El Dorado	Metal Shell	Round Disk	Shuttle -M2
Gladiator	Galaxy Falcon	Rush Cyclone	Hornet -FX
Thunder Storm	Rage Knight	Hyper Stream	Velocity -J
Chrono Symphony	Blood Raven	Maximum Star	Crown -77

Here were the events that offered the special parts:

Event	Date	Location	Machine(s) and distribution details	Other details
Cards in GX game cases	N/A	N/A	Bahamut - License Card. Came in a limited number of F-Zero GX game cases, only in Japan.
Download stations in stores	2003/10/04 - ?	29 stores throughout Japan	Gladiator - Download station
F-Zero Galaxy Cup in Akihabara	2003/10/04 - 2003/10/05	Club Sega Akihabara	Thunder Storm - Download station El Dorado - License Card given to tournament participants	There were two Vs. Battle tournaments, with 64 participants each.
F-Zero Galaxy Cup in Tokyo Joypolis	2003/11/08	Tokyo Joypolis	Chrono Symphony - Download station El Dorado - License Card given to tournament participants	The Vs. Battle tournament had 32 participants. The overall event was called "F-Zero Climax", and also promoted the new F-Zero: GP Legend anime and upcoming game.
F-Zero Galaxy Cup in Ikebukuro	2003/11/30	Ikebukuro GiGO	Chrono Symphony - Download station El Dorado - License Card given to tournament participants	There were two Vs. Battle tournaments, with 64 participants each. Participants of the first tournament got the License Card. Participants of the second tournament got a special GameCube Memory Card case.
F-Zero Galaxy Cup in Umeda Joypolis	2004/01/17	Umeda Joypolis	Chrono Symphony, Thunder Storm, Gladiator - Download station El Dorado - License Card given to tournament participants	The Vs. Battle tournament had 32 participants.
Download stations at the 19th World Hobby Fair	Four weekends from 2004/01/18 to 2004/02/08	Osaka Dome, Makuhari Messe (Tokyo), Nagoya Dome, Fukuoka Dome	Chrono Symphony, Thunder Storm, Gladiator - Download station

The tournaments seem to have involved 2-player or 4-player simultaneous matches of F-Zero AX. It's worth noting that El Dorado was only given out to tournament participants, and as a result only up to 320 people could have gotten it.

English Prototype Remnants

To do: Pictures or video.

The Japanese release loads an incomplete English translation when region lock is broken to let foreign consoles run it. Missing elements include the title screen as well as various text, HUD elements, and menu graphics. There's also some "Engrish", but the issue does not occur with the game set to boot AX content.

The game defaults to using English subtitles for Story Mode scenes, which is different from the normal Japanese mode (which normally uses Japanese subtitles) and the final US version as played on a US console (no subtitles unless Z is pressed).

Mario Kart: Double Dash!! Bonus Disc

The GX demo on the Mario Kart: Double Dash!! Bonus Disc contains the same graphics as the Japanese version outlined below. This includes everything from the sign textures to Mute City's and Story Mode 7's backdrops - it even has the dummy aur backdrop neatly hidden in bmp_stg.arc. The main menu uses the Japanese "PRESS START BUTTON" as opposed to the English "PRESS START/PAUSE".

Speaking of menus, the demo loads the all-caps "Engrish" menu options that would display should the NTSC-J version boot in English: for instance, "EXIT" appears instead of "Quit".

Graphical Differences

Most of the edits to the textures were for localization purposes, though some are blatant censoring of foreign content. Closer inspection of the graphics indicates that some images were altered significantly, as some backgrounds were reproduced. They were quite thorough: even the texture from Story 1 have been edited, having passed through a similar filter as the originals.

Mute City & Story 1

Japanese	US/PAL

If it weren't in English, how would we know to 'GO FAST'?

Japanese - Mute City	US/PAL - Mute City

Japanese - Story 1	US/PAL - Story 1

"Mute Dinner" was changed to "Mute Diner" in subsequent releases of the game. The reworked sign is noticeably dimmer.

Japanese - Mute City	US/PAL - Mute City

Japanese - Story 1	US/PAL - Story 1

Can't read Japanese? No worries, you can't read fake alien language either.

Japanese - Mute City	US/PAL - Mute City

Japanese - Story 1	US/PAL - Story 1

Once again, the localisation team changed the Japanese characters into fake text. Its background is ill-recreated, though somewhat less obvious on Story 1's copy.

Japanese - Mute City	US/PAL - Mute City

Japanese - Story 1	US/PAL - Story 1

More of the same. Tampering of the image is also quite noticeable.

Japanese - Mute City
US/PAL - Mute City

Japanese - Story 1
US/PAL - Story 1

Because the Japanese equivalent of "Galaxy Diner" is shorter than the English text, the Japanese version has two extra arrows after "24H".

Fire Field

Japanese	US/PAL

Japanese	US/PAL

For the sake of in-game legibility, the Japanese text was removed and "Cource" was corrected to "Course".

Casino Palace

Japanese	US/PAL

Vegas Palace in Japan was renamed Casino Palace overseas.

Venue Backdrops

Mute City

Japanese	US/PAL

The Japanese venue backdrop for Mute City uses the older, unused track texture seen at E3 2002 and replaces the misspelled "Mute Dinner" sign with "Mute Diner" and is identical to the one seen in AX. The courses textural "error" itself is most likely a result of Amusement Vision deciding to use the com (Sonic Oval) track texture on all Mute City stages late in development. Much like Story 3's backdrop, it was an oversight left in the game. When the North American localisation team went through, they updated all backdrops for Mute City related stages only to correct the sign images, simultaneously and inadvertently updating the track texture.

Story 7

Japanese	US/PAL

The Japanese version once again depicts the AX mut track texture and "Mute Dinner" sign, although GX does in fact use the old track texture for about 80% of the starting pad in Story 7.

Sonic Oval

Japanese	US/PAL

The localisation team was seriously determined to eliminate all traces of Japanese text; they went so far as to blur the sign graphics in this backdrop. Comically enough, they forgot to censor one of the largest images in the game.

Interviews

After successfully completing a Grand Prix, the player gets the chance to interview their selected machine's pilot. Depending on which difficulty is completed, the selection of questions change. Of those, some were censored or removed once brought over from Japan. The following lists those cases.

Baba

In the western release, Baba's first Expert difficulty question was replaced with another previously asked question. His last Master difficulty question was removed with no substitution.

Question	Answer
The winner of the Expert Class. Congratulations!	The F-Zero goddess wins again!
What a powerful, dynamic performance you gave us today!	Never underestimate a man in drag!

Black Shadow

Completing a cup on Standard difficulty with Black Shadow originally had a question in which he proclaimed he would "send you straight to hell!". They simply took an existing question from Master difficulty to take its place.

Question	Answer
Your rivals are howling for revenge!	I'll send you straight to hell! It will be painless, I promise you...

Digi-Boy

Digi-Boy's final Master difficulty question was removed with no substitution.

Question	Answer
Do you believe in God?	Hahaha. Who believes in such illusions?

Pico

Pico's third Novice difficulty interview made a possible Superman reference. For the western release, it repeats a question from Standard difficulty.

Question	Answer
That's a great machine you've got there.	Ahahahaha! Faster than a speeding bullet!

Roger Buster

One of Roger's Expert questions had an instance of "Beer", now replaced instead with "Drink".

	Question	Answer
Japanese	How will you use the one billion space credits in prize money?	First of all, on a nice, cold beer!
English	How will you use the one billion space credits in prize money?	First of all, on a nice, cold drink!

(Source: Distant_Rainbow)

Other Differences

• In the non-western versions there`s no way to remove the subtitles during the story cutscenes, whereas in the western versions you can toggle on/off the subtitles by pressing Z button.

Oddities and Obscurities

While this data can be seen in the game, it is interesting to note as it is so very easily overlooked.

Early Story 3 Course

The backdrop for the mission "High Stakes in Mute City" features a red-colored track as opposed to the green one that is playable, suggesting the course's color was changed very late in the game's development. Furthermore, Story 3's intro movie depicts the course as being purple, indicating that the track must have gone through multiple colour schemes before settling on green. F-Zero AX's version of Story 3 uses this red coloured texture.

Note the alpha of the Clown's hand clipping both some of the track's red texture and the "K!" of the "GOOD LUCK!" sign.

A glimpse at the track during the opening cinematics.

Hidden R.O.B.

What are you doing there, buddy?

Hidden on the outskirts of the stage Aeropolis Multiplex lies a fully animated R.O.B. model from the Port Town courses. It is cleverly placed behind a few of Aeropolis' many buildings off to the left of Mother Q. It can be seen by Space Flying to the edge of the map, though it is very difficult to get into view as the game only renders R.O.B. from certain angles. It is much easier to see it by accessing Multiplex through the debug menu.

Uncensored Logos

Close, but no cigar.

Despite their efforts ensuring all the Japanese texts and graphics were eliminated in US and PAL releases, they still missed this one texture! It is used on some of the monitors in the back during the interviews. Perhaps the more interesting characteristic is its monstrous 512×256 pixel size.

It may have intended to have been used for something else since it is much, much larger than necessary.

AX's GX Pilot Descriptions

F-Zero AX (and AX boot) display description cards like these in the left pane to describe the vehicle and pilot. However, since F-Zero AX only uses 15 machines (the original four, the 10 AX characters, and one custom machine), 27 GX character cards go unseen. In order to view the remaining cards, the player must save one of the unused GX characters' vehicles to a slot in their Garage, then hover over that machine during vehicle select.

Sand Ocean Reflective Texture

A reflective texture used for the solar panels on Sand Ocean. It uses an early snapshot of Sand Ocean where the sky is a deep green.

Sand Ocean Mini Map

The mini map untouched.

There is an unused graphic that appears to be a mockup mini map for the stage Surface Slide. The original file is not oriented the same way the final stage is and it includes rocks from the outside of the track. The map also lacks the inside portion of the pyramid, where it appears blank.

Inverted Horizontally and Rotated	Final Mini Map