RC Pro-AM for NES Secret Mode

[RDConz]

Absolutely not trolling here. I found this thread because, like d3m0n1q_733rz, I remember experiencing exactly this. I quite distinctly recall 2-player mode in R.C. Pro Am, and I'm quite certain I never played R.C. Pro Am II.

I still have the cartridge, but no matter what I do, I can't seem to access this mode. I'm a developer, but not a very experienced "hacker". As a quick pass, I disassembled the ROM for the game. I found the text for the "FOR 1 PLAYER" line on the start screen, but I couldn't find anything mentioning two player. That doesn't mean they didn't just do a character swap for two-players, but it does suggest we might be misremembering.

I just have a very strong nostalgic feeling of playing this game two-player with my brother. Does anyone know of any concrete way to find out if there is such a code by looking through the ROM, etc.? Is it possible that someone at RARE still has the project lying around somewhere and could look into it? I'd love to know if I'm crazy or not.

I too swear that I am not trolling. I didn't own a copy of RC Pro-Am for the NES, but my cousin did. I absolutely remember playing the game in two player simultaneous mode back in the day (late 80s or early 90s). I actually didn't remember that it was apparently a hidden mode until reading some reviews of the game this evening referring to the game being one player only. If I knew the secret, I'd post it.

What I remember of the two player mode though is that it wasn't done as a split screen. Both players controlled cars on a single screen, and if one player fell too far behind, their car would be immediately transported forward so they weren't completely off the screen. I remember at the time thinking how much more awesome the game would be if they had done it as a split screen instead, since the way they did it didn't seem entirely fair, where someone could suck most of the race and still eke out a victory at the end because they were automatically kept within a handful of lengths of the leading player.

This was definitely RC Pro-Am for the NES, not the sequel which I don't think I've ever played (after checking a couple youtube vids).

All that said, this was nearly 30 years ago so who knows, maybe I'm completely wrong. But if anyone has vintage Nintendo magazines from the era maybe the code is in one of them.

[skoda]

Now I'm wondering if this is an instance of the Mandela Effect, and we experienced this multiplayer mode in some parallel universe (now I'm trolling a little):

http://www.vice.com/read/the-berenst...llel-universes

[skoda]

Are you sure you and your brother weren't playing game with one controller disconnected? The littler one always thinks he's playing.

I wasn't that young, but I do admit, it was a long time ago. I wouldn't count out the chance that I'm remembering wrong, but it's a strong enough memory that I'd really like to figure out from the game itself whether there's a chance a hidden two player mode exists.

[ReyVGM]

Are you sure you and your brother weren't playing game with one controller disconnected? The littler one always thinks he's playing.

[skoda]

Absolutely not trolling here. I found this thread because, like d3m0n1q_733rz, I remember experiencing exactly this. I quite distinctly recall 2-player mode in R.C. Pro Am, and I'm quite certain I never played R.C. Pro Am II.

I still have the cartridge, but no matter what I do, I can't seem to access this mode. I'm a developer, but not a very experienced "hacker". As a quick pass, I disassembled the ROM for the game. I found the text for the "FOR 1 PLAYER" line on the start screen, but I couldn't find anything mentioning two player. That doesn't mean they didn't just do a character swap for two-players, but it does suggest we might be misremembering.

I just have a very strong nostalgic feeling of playing this game two-player with my brother. Does anyone know of any concrete way to find out if there is such a code by looking through the ROM, etc.? Is it possible that someone at RARE still has the project lying around somewhere and could look into it? I'd love to know if I'm crazy or not.

[MathUser]

I posted about this in the tcrf forum but noone took any interest. Would be interesting to know if this turned out to be a legit cheat.

[OldSchoolGamer]

So hypothetically and in reality, you wouldn't believe it, heh. Me too.

I feel it's always best to assume these implausible claims as false unless/until it's proved otherwise.

[Doommaster1994]

I would assume the second player would just press start in order to play two players. Otherwise, I don't know how else to activate it. If I was forced at gunpoint whether to believe this or not, I wouldn't, but in reality I'm not sure whether to believe it or not.

[MathUser]

Just cause it's not posted on tcrf doesn't mean noone found it. Perhaps noone has looked at the game yet. A secret tool was found in Mario Paint after it was talked about by people who found it by accident years ago posted in the forum. The Jul forum is the official forum for the cutting room floors wiki, so if you want it found you should post there.

[OldSchoolGamer]

Well you should remove the Wikipedia addition that you added since you can't replicate your claim, it is not verified, and you are the only person to ever even claim that it has 2-Players. That Wikipedia addition is misleading at best, and disingenuous at worst. Until you or someone else can replicate your claim, the claim should be omitted from Wikipedia.

Otherwise a class-action lawsuit will be filed against you by the good people of GH... jk

[d3m0n1q_733rz]

I know what you mean by this as this happens to us all. But from experience, sometimes our recollection turns out to be incorrect. I've sworn that I remember certain things from my childhood that just wasn't so. It happens. Maybe you were thinking of a different video game system or different game or it's sequel. There is 2-Player mode in (NES) R.C. Pro-Am 2. So maybe it was that game that you recalled.

And that Wikipedia edit should be removed until it's been verified or proven. And I doubt that will ever happen because this site has some of the best video game hackers and they haven't found anything. Try posting your '2-Player secret' on the Cutting Room Floor forum http://jul.rustedlogic.net/forum.php?id=12 and see if any of them can find it.

I'm certain it wasn't RC Pro-AM 2 as I've never played the second one. I recall each game I've ever played and its functions. I recall that this happened and rarely, if ever, recall something incorrectly. If I do, I can tell which details are questionable. The 2nd player part was not questionable to me. The specific details are. And no, I've never done any sort of drugs nor do I intend on doing so.

[ReyVGM]

He's probably just confused about it.

I thought he was some RARE dev hinting us about a secret 2 Player mode, but alas, it was just someone tricking us into finding a figment of his imagination

[OldSchoolGamer]

Okay, you all know how you can recall very specific details from your childhood like, "This one time, I was playing RC Pro-AM on NES with my little brother, which we thought was a one-player game, and he pushed something that let him play too," but not little details like, "He pushed ___ to enable it!?" Yeah...that's the situation.

I know what you mean by this as this happens to us all. But from experience, sometimes our recollection turns out to be incorrect. I've sworn that I remember certain things from my childhood that just wasn't so. It happens. Maybe you were thinking of a different video game system or different game or it's sequel. There is 2-Player mode in (NES) R.C. Pro-Am 2. So maybe it was that game that you recalled.

And that Wikipedia edit should be removed until it's been verified or proven. And I doubt that will ever happen because this site has some of the best video game hackers and they haven't found anything. Try posting your '2-Player secret' on the Cutting Room Floor forum http://jul.rustedlogic.net/forum.php?id=12 and see if any of them can find it.

[Hybrid]

horizontal split screens would't work for this game and vertical ones would create flicker problems.

[d3m0n1q_733rz]

split screen on an nes game never seen that before the games were either alternating turns or both players on the same screen. so either its a different game on a different system or your just making it up

Top-Gun 2 was split-screen as well. This is definitely beyond my scope of expertise. I'm thinking someone would have to look at the game code itself and try to find it there.