Hi. I don't run this game (I only own a PAL plug'n play) but I wanted to inform this place about a concern I have. This game contains codes to enable/disable debug features: https://tcrf.net/OutRun_2019
The main menu code (the Start/Options/Records screen) checks for two codes that turn on and off several interesting features.
- To turn these features on, press Up twice, A once, B twice, and C seven times.
- To turn these features off, press Up twice and C once.
After entering a code, press Start to confirm. These must be the only buttons you press on the main menu before pressing Start, and you can press the buttons in any order. Once you press Start, if you entered a code correctly, the sound effect you hear when you select an item from the main menu should be different, and you should be taken to the Options screen (since that option is selected since you pressed Up twice in both cases).
Once the debug features are enabled, the options screen allows access to additional settings:
- stage - 0 is normal gameplay, 1 is ending sequence. Other values select the route to start at. This could be useful for practice.
- mode - A 4-bit value (0-15) which can disable most car collisions, enable infinite time, and/or override the horizontal display resolution.
- control - A 2-bit value which can enable a debug HUD and/or disable the retire prompt in the pause menu.
While these could be useful for practicing specific routes in each stage, my concern has to do with the mode value. Disabled collision and infinite time grants an unfair advantage. If done right, the only visual indication of any debug features being enabled is in the options menu. Quite a few runs here seem to start from the "try again/next stage" menu, which means there is no guarantee of their legitimacy anymore. The rules make no mention of them, either.
That aside, the debug features should be listed in the guides section for future reference. I may do it myself if no one else does it first.
I'm not actually sure if disabling collision is actually an advantage in this game as some of the faster ways to hold on to boost involve bouncing off an NPC car or scenery object. I'll have to test these out to be sure though.
I feel like it would be obvious if a run was disabling collision as I don't think I've ever seen a run on the leaderboards that avoided hitting a car at least once.
As for the runs, most people have submitted times that were done on a Twitch/Youtube live stream. I guess a rule could be made to go back to the main menu on resets but it would make doing runs extremely tedious with how often resets happen when going for pb's.
I'm going to nicely suggest that no one should be creating forum posts calling into question the legitimacy of runs for a game they have not run. If you think you've found something that calls lots of runs into question for a game you don't run chances are probably 99.9% that you're wrong. It's unlikely in any game that multiple runners have exploited a cheat that none of the mods or other community members were able to identify.
"the only visual indication of any debug features being enabled is in the options menu."
Incorrect! Watching the run will expose these features.
If you turn on infinite time it's going to be obvious because the timer will either not move or when it hits zero it will not game over. Either way its going to be plainly obvious when watching the run.
If you turn off collisions it's going to be obvious when you drive straight through something and don't crash. Should you manage to avoid everything that will make you crash then it doesn't actually matter that you turned collision off. However in this game there are damage boosts where you actually want to collide with objects in order to stay on the road in a tight turn and not lose speed. If you watch the Stage 1 WR for more than the first few seconds you'd see it hit objects on the side of the road multiple times which means that collision must be on. In fact it would almost certainly be impossible to WR with collision turned off because ThatguyLFS uses damage boosts so effectively.
