Crash Bandicoot 2: N-Tranced

Crash Bandicoot 2: N-Tranced
Also known as: Crash Bandicoot Advance 2: Gurugurusaimin Dai Panic!? (JP) Developer: Vicarious Visions Publishers: Universal Interactive (US/EU), Konami (JP) Platform: Game Boy Advance Released in JP: December 4, 2003 Released in US: January 7, 2003 Released in EU: March 14, 2003 This game has hidden developer credits. This game has hidden development-related text. This game has unused music. This game has debugging material. This game has regional differences.

Crash Bandicoot 2: N-Tranced is the second Crash Bandicoot platfomer game for Game Boy Advance.

Debugging Features

This needs some investigation. Discuss ideas and findings on the talk page. Specifically: I think there's more debugging features built into the game besides a speed modifier. One will have to look and see what there is, if anything else really does exist. According to HCS forums, a music debugger can be loaded by hacking the Current Level Identifier (03007DA8:XX). There may also be debugging material left from The Huge Adventure/XS.

Gameplay Speed Modifier

To do: Find the offsets of this and get codes for the Japanese and European versions.

By setting 0x02000014 in the RAM or 0x7FBD18 in the ROM to a non-zero value in the US version, or using GameShark SP/Codebreaker code E99B8028 EC01 on the US version, you can double the speed the game runs at. However, only visuals run at that speed - the audio still plays at the normal speed. As well, setting up a link game is impossible, as either game will fail to recognize each other, unless both games are using this code.

Sound Engine Debugger

To do: The fact that this exists proves that there is some kind of way to access other errors or potential menus for testing. Look into this.

If one modifies the engine in some way, or goofs up in programming it, and the engine doesn't like it, it'll actually spit out an error! The following error was generated by modifying the pointer to the sound table so that it read garbage data.

Check the below section for a list of potential errors that can show on this screen.

Development-Related Text

There is all sorts of development-related text for the GAX Sound Engine present in the ROM.

The following text is from offsets 0x51CBD0-0x51CDB4 in the Japanese version:

GAX2_INIT

Related to initiation of the sound engine in the game, the GAX Sound Engine by Shin'en Multimedia.

OUT OF MEMORY

Just after the above text, a warning signalling that the sound engine has run out of memory.

GAX2_NEW

More sound engine-related text.

PARAMS ARG IS NULL

Yet more engine text.

GAX2_NEW_FX.FXPARAMS ARG IS NULL

And even more...

WHEN USING DIFFERENT FX_MIXING_RATE, FLAG GAX_FX_REVERB AND GAX_HALFRATE_FX ARE NOT ALLOWED.

Some kind of comment on what the engine can and cannot do.

GAX2_JINGLE.GAX_NO_JINGLE FLAG IS SET

Some kind of warning.

GAX_IRQ.GAX_PLAY HAS NOT FINISHED BEFORE GAX_IRQ. USE LOWER MIXING RATE OR LESS FX CHANNELS OR PUT GAX_PLAY IN VBLANK IRQ

Another player warning.

GAX_FX..YOU TRIED TO PLAY A SPEECH FX BUT HAVE NOT USED THE GAX_SPEECH FLAG WITH GAX2_INIT..GAX2_FX.FXPARAMS->FXID IS GAX_DEFAULT

Another set of warnings.

The following text is from 0x51CED4-0x51CF1D in the Japanese version:

GAX ENGINE V3.01 Sep 13 2002

The version of the sound engine, and its build date.

EXCEPTION. PROGRAM HALT...ÔÎQ.FUNCTION NAME:

A piece of debugging text, most likely for finding errors in the sound engine.

The following text is in the US version 0x529C50:

GAX Sound Engine 3.01 (Sep 13 2002) © Shin'en Multimedia. Code: B.Wodok

Just like above, the version of the sound engine, complete down to the date and version number. This also contains a copyright and the name of the person that coded the engine. Version v1.99d of the same engine is used in Iridion 3D. B.Wodok = Bernhard Wodok.

crash 1 <-> crash 2
crash 2 <-> crash 3

A string is buried in the ROM that shows the way that the games communicate. However, this also shows that there was the potential for a third Crash Bandicoot Game Boy Advance game, which ultimately never materialized. This third game is also hinted once the final boss is defeated.

Each of the atlasphere levels have a name referenced from the level entries. These are Test, Prototype, Standin, Demo, Single, Double and Triple. The last 3 are the ones used in the main game, while the first 4 are for the multiplayer levels.

Hidden Developer Credits

As is with most GAX Sound Engine games, the song writers' name is credited in the footer of the audio file.

"theme" © Manfred Linzner

From the main title screen theme.

"warproom" © Manfred Linzner

The overworld theme for the game, where one accesses all the various levels.

"persian" © Manfred Linzner

Used in desert-themed levels.

"volcano" © Manfred Linzner

Used in volcano-themed levels.

"fake" © Manfred Linzner

Used in the level vs. Fake Crash.

"ntropy" © Manfred Linzner

Used in the level vs. N. Tropy.

"egypt" © Manfred Linzner

Used in Egypt-themed levels.

"jaws" © Manfred Linzner

Used in the three wakeboarding levels when the shark approaches.

"drums" © Manfred Linzner

Used during invincibility.

"mayan" © Manfred Linzner

Used in Island Intro and in Atlas Sphere levels.

"cutscenes" © Manfred Linzner

Unused. Plays the previous games' opening cutscene song.

"bonus round" © Manfred Linzner

Used in bonus levels.

"evil coco" © Manfred Linzner

Used in the level vs. Evil Coco.

"ntrance" © Manfred Linzner

Used in the level vs. N. Trance.

"evil crunch" © Manfred Linzner

Used in the level vs. Evil Crunch.

"coco" © Manfred Linzner

Used in space-themed levels.

"cutscenes spooky" © Manfred Linzner

Used in cutscenes featuring the antagonists.

"cutscenes normal" © Manfred Linzner

Used in cutscenes featuring Crash and various other protagonists.

"wake" © Manfred Linzner

Used in wakeboarding levels, when the shark is not approaching.

Unused Time Trial Values

To do: Find out why it does this. Is it to prevent similar times when saving time trial records?

Time trials visibly count to the nearest tenth of a second on-screen, however, what isn't visible is that it counts to the nearest 100th of a second. This is not the case in the atlasphere levels, weirdly enough, where the hundredths are displayed.

In the level metadata there are time trial values set for the boss stages, even though they do not have time trials in-game. The values for these are all the same, with sapphire being 35:05, gold being 27:05 and platinum being 23:03.

Unused Atlasphere Character Entry

In the character array for the atlasphere levels is an unused entry named "BONXBONX". Selecting it will allow you to play as a version of Crash with green pants instead of blue, used in the Atlasphere multiplayer mode whenever Player 2 selects Crash. It has no icon graphic.

Unused Audio

cutscenes

The song "cutscenes" is a leftover from the previous game, The Huge Adventure, where it is used during the game's copyright screens upon booting.

Unused Text Coloring bit

Within the text engine, hex byte 0x02 can change the text to a white color, however, the only places white text appears is in text whose colors alternate, such as menu screens to show the currently-selected option. This therefore renders this byte unused because the color for the menu selector is programmatically changed.

Aku Aku's Invincibility

Through memory editing, it's possible to start a level with Aku Aku's third stage, rendering Crash invincible for the regular duration that getting three Aku Aku crates provides, if the level allows for him. However, because Aku Aku's stage counter cannot be set to a value higher than 2 unless you hit an Aku Aku crate within a level (and it resets to 2 if you finish a level while invincible), this feature goes unused. The same routine responsible for this, however, does ensure that if Crash has his first or second stage, he keeps it.

Evil Crunch

While it is impossible for Crash and Evil Crunch to ever make contact as the AI will move Crunch away from Crash if approached, Crash can still take damage if the two do touch.

Regional Differences

To do: There's much more. There may be translations that are different, as well.

Graphical Differences

Europe	US	Japan

The European release has a drastically different version to the US release, which was the base design used for the Japanese localisation. The color of the gears was changed from silver to blue in the Japanese version.

Europe	US	Japan

The copyright screen was also updated because Konami released the title in Japan. While it remains identical between the US and EU releases, The screen also uses a more bold text.