Bo
@bbayles.bsky.social
RINGS OF SATURN: https://32bits.substack.com SONIC WEEKLY: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/sonic-weekly
I found several previously-unreported cheat codes in *Blam! Machinehead* for PlayStation. They enable alternate credits, a cool fractal viewer, and more… not all of them have safe-for-work effects, though - ha. 32bits.substack.com/p/under-the-...
Under the microscope: Blam! Machinehead (PlayStation)
These codes are not quite safe for work
32bits.substack.com
Battle Garegga on Sega Saturn has a well-known cheat code to activate guest ships from previous Raizing games. But it also enables you to activate more cheat codes during the game, which no one knew about before! @bbayles.bsky.social has the details: www.segasaturnshiro.com/2026/08/03/u... #セガサターン
Under the Microscope: Battle Garegga
It’s well known that Battle Garegga, the innovative shoot-em-up from Eighting/Raizing, recognizes a cheat code. Here’s how GameFAQs describes it: Access a Mahou Daisakusen character: At the title s…
segasaturnshiro.com
Battle Garegga is well-known for its adaptive difficulty system. If you shoot down every opponent and collect every powerup, the game will reward you by making things much harder. Playing well requires some strategic restraint…. unless you cheat. 32bits.substack.com/p/under-the-...
Under the microscope: Battle Garegga (Saturn)
Subverting Battle Garegga's adaptive difficulty system
32bits.substack.com
*Hankou Shashin* is a visual novel for Saturn. There's an undocumented cheat code for it - hold A+C+X+Z+L+R on controller 2 while picking a save file to activate debug mode. You'll see a scene number display on the HUD. You can skip and revisit scenes with Controller 2.
Mobil 1 Rally Championship has an unreported cheat code. If you enter your driver name as the developer's website, a special menu is enabled. You can use the menu to unlock all tracks and cars, and enable mirror mode. 32bits.substack.com/p/under-the-...
Under the microscope: Mobil 1 Rally Championship (PlayStation)
Advertising your website with a cheat code
32bits.substack.com
I found a batch of previously-undocumented Easter eggs in Command & Conquer: Red Alert: Retaliation for PlayStation. Some of them require the PlayStation mouse to activate! 32bits.substack.com/p/under-the-...
Under the microscope: Command & Conquer: Red Alert: Retaliation (PlayStation)
Using the PlayStation mouse for fun and profit
32bits.substack.com
*Sega Touring Car Championship* checks to see whether you have save data for *Sega Rally Championship* - but why? I broke out the reverse engineering tools to find out. 32bits.substack.com/p/under-the-...
Under the microscope: Sega Touring Car Championship (Saturn, Sega PC)
Sega Touring Car and Sega Rally - two great tastes that taste great together
32bits.substack.com
SegaSoft published Three Dirty Dwarves for Saturn and PC in 1996. I previously examined the Saturn version and found some cool hidden elements, but what about the PC version? Good news - there's a level select cheat that's stayed hidden for the last 30 years. 32bits.substack.com/p/under-the-...
Under the microscope: Three Dirty Dwarves (Sega PC)
Using Ghidra to recover a secret in a 30 year old PC game
32bits.substack.com
*Command & Conquer: Red Alert* for PlayStation has a previously-undocumented mission select cheat: a special password pattern lets you jump straight into the level of your choosing. 32bits.substack.com/p/under-the-...
Under the microscope: Command & Conquer: Red Alert (PlayStation)
How to find hidden functionality in old games
32bits.substack.com
*Jikuu Tantei DD: Maboroshi no Lorelei* (Dracula Detective) for Saturn has a monster 30 button cheat code that's very difficult to enter before the title screen times out... its only effect is to let you pause cutscenes with the Z button.
The Saturn has a coaching simulator based on the Battle Athletes manga, and @bbayles.bsky.social found a hidden minigame that lets you blast the main character with a Virtua Gun! www.segasaturnshiro.com/2026/07/20/u... #sega #saturn #segasaturn #retrogaming #retrogames #videogames #セガ #セガサターン
Under the Microscope: Battle Athletes
The Battle Athletes franchise has produced multiple anime series, a manga, and three video games. This article is about the 1996 Saturn game from publisher Increment P. The game is a sports coachin…
segasaturnshiro.com
*Battle Athletes* is a sports coaching simulation game for Saturn. But I found a surprise hiding in it - a scrapped lightgun mini-game! 32bits.substack.com/p/under-the-...
Under the microscope: Battle Athletes (Saturn)
The scrapped lightgun mini-game hiding in a Saturn title
32bits.substack.com
There's a prerelease demo of *Wild Arms* for PSX from about a month before the final game. It normally limits what you can play, but I patched out the restrictions. There are some notable differences with the retail version, unfinished, scenes, and more. 32bits.substack.com/p/extending-...
Extending the demo: Wild Arms (PlayStation)
Hacking into a prerelease build of Wild Arms (1996)
32bits.substack.com
I reverse engineered the cheat code system for the Nintendo 64 version of Command & Conquer, revealing a low level debug mode code with some cool stuff - including a message to the programmer's cat. 32bits.substack.com/p/under-the-...
No cheat code stays hidden forever with @bbayles.bsky.social on the case, and that's true for the easter egg he found in the Saturn version of Batman Forever! Check it out in today's Under the Microscope: www.segasaturnshiro.com/2026/07/13/u... #sega #saturn #segasaturn #retrogaming #セガ #セガサターン
Under the Microscope: Batman Forever: The Arcade Game
In this edition, we’re looking at the Saturn version of Batman Forever: The Arcade Game. This was a console port of Acclaim’s and Iguana’s 1996 ST-V arcade title. Some cheat sites have codes listed…
segasaturnshiro.com
*Batman Forever* for Saturn has an unusual Easter egg. On the logo screens, both players need to put in codes. But there's a catch - they have to stay in sync. If they do, photos of the devs pop up! 32bits.substack.com/p/under-the-...
Under the microscope: Batman Forever: The Arcade Game (Saturn)
Using Ghidra to discover an unusually cooperative cheat code in a Batman game
32bits.substack.com
What do *Grind Session* and *Razor Racing* for PSX have in common (besides killer soundtracks)? Cheat code entry systems! The two games use identical functions to detect button sequences. 32bits.substack.com/p/under-the-...
Under the microscope: Grind Session & Razor Racing (PlayStation)
Shared aesthetics and shared code in turn-of-the-century extreme sports games
32bits.substack.com
My first article on reverse engineering a Game Boy Advance game - a shmup from 2003 that nobody seems to have liked, haha. I also go into the PlayStation version. 32bits.substack.com/p/under-the-...
Under the microscope: Strike Force Hydra (Game Boy Advance, PlayStation)
They can't all be Ikaruga
32bits.substack.com
Today, @bbayles.bsky.social dug into the Sega Saturn port of Command & Conquer! Some of them are very useful, like skipping a mission or building structured you normally can't, plus he found hidden developer messages. Read about it in Under the Microscope: www.segasaturnshiro.com/2026/07/06/u...
Under the Microscope: Command & Conquer
In this edition, we’re covering the Saturn version of Command & Conquer. This 1996 port of the influential PC game has some secrets hiding in its game data: A couple of special messages from de…
segasaturnshiro.com
I found a trio of new cheat codes for an old game - Ford Street Racing on PS2, Xbox, and PSP. Unlock all cars & tracks! 32bits.substack.com/p/under-the-...
Under the microscope: Ford Street Racing (PlayStation 2, Xbox, PSP)
Reverse engineering a cheat code system that makes you wait
32bits.substack.com
I found two previously-undocumented cheat codes for the PlayStation version of *Alone in the Dark 2* * Benny Hill! mode: Speeds up the action to a comic degree * God! mode: Enables invincibility 32bits.substack.com/p/under-the-...
Under the microscope: Alone in the Dark 2 (PlayStation)
The long-lost “Benny Hill!” and “God!” modes in *Alone in the Dark 2*
32bits.substack.com
The debug code listed on websites for the Saturn's Alone in the Dark 2 doesn't work, so @bbayles.bsky.social gets to the bottom of the real code — plus newly discovered ones! He talks to the original developers, too: www.segasaturnshiro.com/2026/06/29/u... #sega #saturn #segasaturn #セガ #セガサターン
Under the Microscope: Alone in the Dark 2
In this edition: The cheat sites list a bogus “Debug menu” code for Alone in the Dark 2. I went looking for the real code in the game data — and found it. …Along with three never-…
segasaturnshiro.com
I found some never-before-seen Easter eggs in the Saturn version of Alone in the Dark 2 - pictures of the programming staff. One of the developers sent me the one of the source images! 32bits.substack.com/p/under-the-...
Under the microscope: Alone in the Dark 2 (Saturn)
The Star Wars-themed Easter eggs hiding in Alone in the Dark 2
32bits.substack.com
Here's a cheat code for *Black/Matrix* on Saturn that I don't think has been published before. At the title screen, press Z, Y, X, C, B, A, Start. You'll get an alternative background for the main menu. As far as I can tell, this is the only effect!
There's a demo of *Tokyo Xtreme Racer 2* for Dreamcast that has unfinished menus, evidence of a scrapped Versus mode, and a different set of cars than the final version. I made a patch to make these elements available: 32bits.substack.com/p/extending-...
Extending the demo: Tokyo Xtreme Racer 2 (Dreamcast)
a.k.a. Shutokou Battle 2, Tokyo Highway Challenge 2
32bits.substack.com
*O.D.T.* (Escape... Or Die Trying) for PlayStation has several cheat codes, but I found another one lurking in the game data that managed to stay hidden for 28 years. 32bits.substack.com/p/under-the-...
Under the microscope: O.D.T. (PlayStation)
Escape... Or Die Trying
32bits.substack.com
This week, @bbayles.bsky.social discovers new cheat codes in Fire Pro Gaiden: Blazing Tornado, a Sega Saturn-exclusive wrestling game with an English fan translation! See what he found in the latest Under the Microscope: www.segasaturnshiro.com/2026/06/22/u... #segasaturn #retrogaming #セガ #セガサターン
Under the Microscope: Fire Pro Gaiden: Blazing Tornado
In this edition, we’re examining Fire Pro Gaiden: Blazing Tornado, the 1995 game from Human Entertainment. It wasn’t published outside of Japan, but an English translation patch was made available …
segasaturnshiro.com
*Fire Pro Gaiden: Blazing Tornado* for Saturn has lots of cheat codes and Easter eggs. But I found another one that's stayed hidden for over 30 years - an alternate set of staff credits. These feature goofy artwork and developer inside jokes. 32bits.substack.com/p/under-the-...
Under the microscope: Fire Pro Gaiden: Blazing Tornado (Saturn)
Uncovering a 31 year old Easter egg in a Japanese Saturn game
32bits.substack.com
There’s a preview of *Disruptor* on the "PlayStation Picks" sampler disc from 1996. This was the first game from Insomniac Games. The demo is from a month before the final. I patched it to make 3 extra unfinished stages playable and enable cheats. 32bits.substack.com/p/extending-...
Extending the demo: Disruptor (PlayStation)
Before Spyro, there was... Disruptor.
32bits.substack.com