Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 (March 2000 demo)
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 (March 2000 demo) | ||||||||||||||
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Download Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 (March 2000 demo) (info) |
An early demo of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 for the Sony PlayStation.
On May 15, 2000 this demo was initially featured on the PlayStation Underground: Jampack Summer 2000 (SCUS-94587) and Official PlayStation Magazine 34 (SCUS-94593) demo disc in the US and simultaneously debuted on the June issue of the Official PlayStation Magazine (Euro Demo 59 | SCED-02633) in Europe and Australia, the latter also initially receiving the demo as a standalone disc (SLED-02879).
This demo was notable because it featured instructions to enter the "Big Score Competition". From May 15 until July 28, players could submit their high score online to Activision's website along with a passcode that would spawn in the post-run menu if they managed to end the run with a score above 25.000. Twelve winners (eight from the US and one each from the UK, France, Germany and Australia) were flown out to San Francisco to the Summer X-Games to meet Tony hawk and compete for cash prizes totaling $25,000.
There are several different versions of this demo. Besides the obvious NTSC/PAL builds, some have French and German translations of the contest instructions as well as versions without any mention of the competition. All demos match in every other aspect. Each region received a standalone copy of the game. Since Australia got theirs first, the other regions followed suit with post-competition versions respectively. According to the contest rules on Activision's website, residents in Germany were able to request a free copy of the demo from the publisher's local division to be sent to them. If indeed this was also a standalone copy is currently unknown, as is any other information on that disc.
Available for download here are the three currently known standalone versions of this demo:
Region | Competition Version | Release Serial | Build Date | |
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Australia | PAL | Yes | SLED-02879 | Mar 29, 2000 |
Europe | PAL | No | SLED-03048 | Jun 2, 2000 |
US/Canada | NTSC | No | SLUS-90086 | Jun 2, 2000 |
Although the build dates differ, all versions have been sourced from the same point in development. Modification dates of this demo's files featured on magazine discs are untrustworthy since they've always been seemingly overwritten with the disc creation date. The earliest build date of this demo found is the PAL variant built on March 29. Some files on the NTSC standalone disc indicate the actual point in development being anywhere between the 9th and 29th of March 2000.
Notes
- The Neversoft intro video matches the one used in Tony Hawk's Pro Skater (1999).
- An earlier version of the game logo is used.
- 2 Player is called Multiplayer on the main menu.
- Although only Trick Attack is selectable, holding down R1 while selecting a course in the level select, loads into Graffiti mode.
- The manual stat is called Invert.
- The extra menu in the skater selection, that gives the player the option to pick a style/edit the skater's appearance or tricks, stats or visit the Skateshop is absent from this demo.
- Also, none of the above mentioned features have been implemented at this point.
- The level select background art uses a red color tone, as opposed to the blue one in the final.
- Also, the level order is different and seems to somewhat match the order the levels were developed in.
- The Hangar was located in Tadzhikistan, rather than Mullet Falls MT.
- Career mode, aside from a few cosmetic changes in the menus, seemingly has not undergone any work yet and is unchanged from the previous game.
- The cash amount and medals obtained shown in the player and level select menu are dummy numbers.
- Since Marseille occupies the same level ID slot that Warehouse did in the first game, it is actually possible to obtain the High Score and Pro Score tapes in that mode.
- Gaps can not be placed in the Park Editor.
- The secret area in Marseille is locked off with a fence and a sign that reads "Work in Progress". However, the player can collect five 500-point pick-ups. Being a leftover of the previous game, this would be the last appearance of these objects, as they would be replaced by cash pick-ups some time before the E3 demo.
- There are invisible rails sitting parallel on each side of that fence, which, when correctly grinded on, can clip the player through the fence or even behind the cave area if the player keeps grinding. However, landing in that void or jumping into the hole traps the skater in an endless mid-air animation. Without an option to land the combo, the game soft locks as soon as the timer runs out. Check the "Toggle HUD" notes in the cheat code section below to find out what to do should this occur.
- The trick multiplier locks at 19. This cap is in place because going over 20 will glitch out and crash the game on hardware.
- Big Drop has not been implemented at this stage.
- All numbers and symbols in the trick string are yellow. Any numbers that are part of a gap name will appear green.
- While weak trick modifiers are also present in the final game, in this demo any such trick is also labeled this way e.g. Weak Tail, Weak Fish, etc.
- This demo features two songs, edited down to two minutes: "Heavy Metal Winner" by Consumed and "Cyclone" by Dub Pistols.
Accessing locked options
Due to this build being a demo, it is restricted in it's functionalities. However, with a bit of memory editing, the other game modes and options can be accessed as well.
Make sure you get to the level select screen in Single Session before changing any of the following values (except for the Park Editor ones) to avoid a game crash. Note that the following information is written in regard to the NTSC-U standalone build (SLUS-90086).
RAM Address | Value | Notes | ||
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Game modes | Career Mode | 0x800DC19C | 01 | Do not load the level select while already in this mode as it will crash the game due to missing art assets. |
Free Skate | 02 | |||
Create-A-Skater | 0x800DC198 | 03 | In the level select, set the value at 3, then press Triangle to return to the previous menu, instead of the player selection page, you will be loaded into an early version of Create-A-Skater. L2 and R2 will change the brightness of the selected clothing option. L1 and R1 will modify the color intensity of said piece as well as move the skater around. | |
Player Select | Play as 'Rodney Mullen' | 0x800D7E44 | 02 | Despite him not being selectable in-game, his character's files can be found in the demo's data |
Play as 'Created Skater' | 0D | The skater's appearance can be modified in the CAS menu, accessible with the instructions above. | ||
Park Editor | Modify demo piece limit | 0x800DC180 | ?? | While it is fine to raise it, be aware that the PlayStation will eventually run out of memory and crash the game. |
Access 'Save' option | 0x801FD5F0 | 02 | Opens the same menu as the "Load" option and prompts to overwrite the pre-made park at the slot you've chosen. | |
Access 'Load' option | 03 | Doesn't load from memory card, rather opens a numbered list with 10 pre-made parks. |
Cheat codes
While input detection is disabled in this demo, they can be activated by locating them in the cheat code array. At this point in development, the codes are THPS1 leftovers. Some are working, some are not.
1 activates and 0 deactivates the functions. The following codes were written for the NTSC-U standalone build.
Input | Writes to address | Notes | ||||||||||||
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Always special | X, Triangle, Circle, Down, Up, Right | XTCDUR | 0x800D9668 | |||||||||||
Big head | Square, Circle, Up, Left, Left | SCULL | 0x800D9660 | The code works on Chad Muska only. Hawk, Mullen and the created skater all get a big hand instead. | ||||||||||
Debug coordinates | Down, Down, Triangle, Down, Down, Triangle | DDT DDT | 0x800D9650 | Function not present. Displays a panel on the bottom left of the screen, showing the skater's current position and what spawn point has been used. | ||||||||||
FPS and stats display | Down, Up, Left, Left, Down, Up, Left, Left | DULL DULL | 0x800D9654 | The stats display is a non-updated version of the previous game, where there were only four instead of ten variables. | ||||||||||
Perfect balance | Right, Up, Left, Square | RULS | 0x800D9640 | |||||||||||
Replay save destination | Right, Circle, Right, Down, Right, Circle, Right, Down | RCRD RCRD | 0x800D7DFC | This code activates a function that saves replays, normally written to a memory card, onto an attached dev kit/computer instead. Will try to save them as demoA.rec, demoB.rec, etc.. The same format used for the THPS1 gameplay videos that play in the main menu after a few moments of inactivity. Will crash without a connection. | ||||||||||
Score times 10 | Triangle, X, Triangle, Up, Down, Up | TXTUDU | 0x800DA9CC | |||||||||||
Screenshots | Square, Circle, Right, X | SCRX | 0x800D9664 | Press SELECT to freeze the game. The camera can be moved with the following inputs using a Controller in Port 2. However, it seems to work in 2-player mode only.
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Skip to restart | Square, Circle, X, Up, Down | SCXUD | 0x800D964C | |||||||||||
Slo-Nic mode | Square, Left, Up, Square, Left | SLUSL | 0x800D965C | |||||||||||
Stats at 3 | Down, Up, Down, X, Square | DUD XS | 0x800D7CA0 | Any value entered will overwrite all the skater's current stat points. Entering 0 will revert to the skater's default stats. | ||||||||||
Stats at 10 | Square, Triangle, Up, Down | STUD | ||||||||||||
Stats at 13 | X, Square, Square, Triangle, Up, Down | XS STUD | ||||||||||||
Toggle blood | Right, Up, Square, Triangle | RUST | 0x800D9658 | Active by default. | ||||||||||
Toggle HUD | Square, Left, Up, Triangle | SLUT | 0x800D963C | Having the HUD disabled can soft lock the game if either the clock runs out on you in a timed mode or if you end the run before landing a combo with a relatively big score, since that would normally make you wait until the score has been transferred from the trick string to the total amount. This can be remedied by holding down SELECT + START for three seconds to be booted to the main menu. | ||||||||||
Unlock all levels | Triangle, Right, Up, Square, Triangle, Left, Up, Square, Triangle | TRUST LUST | 0x800D9644 | Aside from the fact the other level files aren't present on the disc, this does not enable access to them in the level select menu either. |
Screenshots
See also
- Big Score Competition rules at Activision.com. | Archived (Jun 21, 2000)
- Related news articles:
- IGN | May 16, 2000 | Aug 28, 2000
- Gamespot | May 16, 2000
- Planet Tony Hawk: Move List | Transfers
- Redump entries: SLED-02879 | SLED-03048 | SLUS-90086