Beating Breath of Fire: The 20 Year Saga
Yes, it’s a photo of my TV screen.
Never Meet Your Heroes: Rally Cross 2
I can not fully express what demo discs meant to me during the Playstation era. Demo discs opened up a door to a world that most people had never even seen the door to before. Demo discs not only gave us a glimpse of what was up and coming, but often times gave us a brief chance to experience it. Most playable demo did express that it did not reflect the completed product, but it was still an advertisement of sorts to stir up interest before that finished product was put on the store shelves. Admittedly many playable demos from those discs did have me hooked on a game before it was released.
One of my favorite playable demos was that of Rally Cross 2. The demo started off as if I was playing the full version. The 989 Studios logo showing up, followed by that unforgettable deep, digitized voice saying “9-8-9 Studios!”. Then the loading. Back in the day there was a lot of loading. Although I knew the demo was limited, I still played what was available. I must have played it hundreds of times. The racing alone was amazing, but Rally Cross 2 offered the ability to create your own track! Sadly the track editor was only advertised, it wasn’t available until the full release. The demo led me to believe this game was going to take the racing genre on the Playstation in a whole new level. Gran Turismo had already revolutionized racing games, but if Rally Cross 2’s demo was to be believed, amazing racing and the ability to build your own tracks would become THE standard.
Well, since that didn’t come to be, we all know Rally Cross 2 didn’t revolutionize the racing genre in the way that demo had me hoping it would. It took me quite a few years before I actually even got my hands on a copy of Rally Cross 2. To say I played that demo hundreds of times might be an underestimation, so when I finally found a copy I was excited to experience the masterpiece I expected it to be. I was quickly let down. I’ve played a lot of rally style racing games and I fully understand the controls are usually slippery. Rally Cross 2 has controls that make oil on teflon seem more controllable. I tried to stick it out, but I simply couldn’t get the hang of it. So, I went back to the demo. The controls were a bit slippery, but far, FAR more easy to control.
Now that I have the complete version though, how about that track editor? It’s actually kind of fun, albeit simplistic. You’re given a grit where you place tiles of track. You can create a circle track, or a winding track, but the only rule is you need to make a complete circuit, or else it won’t work. Where the track begins, it must also end. I believe you can even create shortcuts on the track, but I’ve not tried it. The normal tracks have shortcuts, so I don’t see why you couldn’t make them with the track editor. The issue, again, is that you’re racing against AI that don’t have to adhere to the same slippery controls as you. Even on your own track you may find it difficult to eke out a win.
One thing I’ve thought about is maybe it’s an experience curve. Maybe the car in the demo is set up for later in the game when vehicles become easier to drive. A tactic used in some racing games is to make the beginning car(s) so horrible the player strives to get a better car, that performs better. Maybe if I stuck to it, suffered through all the frustration I could unlock the same car used in the demo, as well as the same track, and compare them to some degree. Then I feel it could be a definitive conclusion as to whether the demo accurately represents the finished product, or whether it has been changed far beyond what the demo prepared me for. Maybe I’ll try that and report back, pending that I still feel as if Rally Cross 2 sorely let me down after I had been so hyped to give it a try.
TVG DIY: Fancy Mario (aka Dream Mary) Mod w/ a Switch
A few years ago there was a famous Super Mario Bros. ROM hack by the name of Fancy Mario, aka Dream Mary, that was included on many Famiclones and multicarts. The hack was simply a reversed mirroring effect that made the game more challenging. Many of the original NES games had mirroring options right on the PCB in the form of solder pads for vertical or horizontal. When, and why the ROM was hacked is beyond my understanding, but it was quite popular. One of my favorite Famiclone blogs by the name of 133MHz offered a tutorial on how to convert a cartridge of Super Mario Bros., or Super Mario Bros. and Duck Hunt, into your own version of Fancy Mario.
The tutorial is a very straight forward and simple option to turn your copy of Super Mario Bros. into the, at that time, highly sought after Fancy Mario. Simple cut a trace between the mirroring pads and solder the other two together. You may also find one is bridged with solder already, this will require you to desolder that pair and solder the other pair. Each set will usually be marked with V and H, for obvious reasons. This flips the normal mirroring and gives you exactly what you get when you’re playing Fancy Mario. Although I already had Fancy Mario on a multicart, I’m always a tinkerer and decided to use a spare copy of Super Mario Bros. to create my own version. It was just as simple as the 133MHz tutorial made it out to be.
Mirroring Pads on Gyromite
Fast forward to 2024 and I’m a bit bored, so my brain is creating its own problems to solve, much to the dismay of myself and my therapist. As I’m looking through my NES collection I remembered my copy of Fancy Mario and wondered if I could modify it by adding a switch so that I could choose which version I wanted to play. I found the lowest profile switch I could find and modified the cartridge to fit the switch into. Then I soldered three wires to the game’s PCB as well as the switch and I was done. It works! My own version of Fancy Mario that now can be switched back to normal Super Mario Bros., should I want to play it.
Ugly Soldering, but functional
This mod is also super simple, firstly you follow the normal tutorial for making your own permanent copy of Fancy Mario. This time you’ll need to stop before you solder the two pads together, instead you’re going to solder a wire between the common pad and the center lug of the switch. Then you solder two more wires to the opposing mirroring option pads and connect those to the top and bottom lugs of the switch. My soldering isn’t the best with such small wire and solder pads, but I did ok. It does work, and that’s really all I was hoping for.
All finished!
This modification does have one major drawback that I kind of saw coming, but still failed to circumvent. This is totally playable on an NES top loader and any of the Famiclone style NES consoles, but this is NOT compatible with the original NES toaster console. Even though I used the lowest profile switch I had it still hits the metal crossbar on the cartridge cradle. If you’ve removed this crossbar, or are using some other form of cartridge insertion device in your NES console that does not have this metal crossbar, you should be good to go. Using a Game Genie may also be a workaround, but original, unmodified NES consoles are a no go.
I’m not even sure Fancy Mario is still popular, sought after or has even been thought about by anyone other than myself in the past ten years, but this mod is a fun little project to add a bit more playability to an already incredibly playable game. With Super Mario Bros. being as ubiquitous as it is you shouldn’t have any problem finding a copy to use for this mod. Maybe play around with different switch placements. I wanted to keep the label complete and this seemed like the best place for a switch, but I still didn’t manage to make it fit into the original NES console.