Sonic Wings/Aero Fighters 2 & 3 full debug/dev menu found

Digmac

Leona's Therapist
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So I popped my Sonic Wings 3 cart into my AES to practice on some of the stages. I enabled debug dips for the level select to practice, and played as usual. I didn't realise that I had A, B, C and D held down as the game over screen came up, and then what I found blew my mind... A full developer menu used to debug everything in the game.

1QTHHoG.jpg


I was in disbelief what I had stumbled across. I knew this had to be fully documented and preserved for others to see and use. Once I checked and documented everything for the Sonic Wings 3 menu, I went and popped in my Sonic Wings 2 cart to see if the menu was present there as well. To my surprise again, the debug menu is present in Sonic Wings 2 as well. To my knowledge this has never been documented before, anywhere. Yagamikun checked around for me and found a thread from 2007 on it, in which no one believed the OP when he talked about it since he never posted any proof or how it was done. The thread can be viewed here: http://www.neo-geo.com/forums/showthread.php?160586

Well, after 13 years since that thread, I can confirm that the debug menu exists. Here is a full write up, documenting everything about the debug menu in both games. Since I found the Sonic Wings 3 menu first, we'll talk about that, and then the Sonic Wings 2 menu, and what's different between the two.

To access the debug menu in both games, enable debug dips in your unibios before the character select. You do not have to turn any of the dips on, just enable them. Start a game, pick any difficulty or any pilot, it doesn't matter. Then, lose on purpose. When the "Game Over" screen appears, hold down A, B, C, and D. You will then access the debug menu. Joystick Up/Down scrolls through the options. Press A to access a check. Press A+B to go back to the menu.

Sonic Wings 3 debug menu functions:

Sprite Dump & Fix Dump
Spoiler:
Both view raw sprite data and can change palettes of the sprites being viewed. Joystick Up/Down scrolls, joystick L/R changes palette.

Sound Check
Spoiler:
This is self explanatory. You can change the memory address to listen to all of the music and sound effects in the game. Joystick L/R to change track. Press A to listen to the selected track. Music starts around 20.

Object Check
Spoiler:
This views sprites/objects, most with animation, some static. Joystick Up/Down changes the object being viewed. Joystick L/R changes the frame of animation/scrolls through the animation. Hold A and move the joystick to move the object. Hold C and move the joystick to control the bottom options, and press A while holding C to toggle them.
Ep3Eqsq.jpg

Fixed Check
Spoiler:
This is similar to Object Check, and uses the same controls, however it only views static sprites with no animation.
toRSqO0.jpg

Fighter Check
Spoiler:
You can test each plane using this menu. Joystick L/R selects the plane. Press A to deploy it. You can then use the joystick to move the plane as if you're playing, and you can shoot with A and test the bomb with B. While the plane is deployed, press C to change the shot power level. Press D to select another plane.
Nxqpgdj.jpg

Enemy Check
Spoiler:
Views the same objects as the Object Check, however if you select an object that is an enemy with the A button, it will preview the selected enemy's fire pattern. Once the pattern is over it will display "DEAD" on the screen. Press A again to select another object. Pressing C brings up a menu, but I can't seem to get it to do anything other than display unique enemy HP data.
gmBQ9cH.jpg

Map Check
Spoiler:
This allows you to scroll through every background in the game. Joystick L/R selects the background. Joystick Up/Down scrolls the background.
bHgblBO.jpg

Time Scadule Check
Spoiler:
I believe they misspelt "Schedule" with this one, lol. This seems to have been used to check everything in the game. You can watch each stage play out with all the enemies as if you were playing the game. You can watch all endings for all characters in English and Japanese. You can also watch the attract mode loops, end credits and opening. Joystick Up/Down selects the ID to view. Press A to view it. Press A again to go back and select another ID to watch.
qD8OYq5.jpg

Color Check
Spoiler:
This displays color bars like the MVS hardware test. Nothing too interesting.

System Return
Spoiler:
This exits back to the game normally.

Game
Spoiler:
This exits back to the game as well, however, if you press start you can freeze the game at any point. I believe this is how they got screenshots for magazines, ads, and the game artwork.
 

Digmac

Leona's Therapist
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Posts
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Sonic Wings 2 Debug

So how about Sonic Wings 2 then? It does have the same menu with some changes. The way you access it is exactly the same as Sonic Wings 3, and the controls for the menu and it's options are the same, so please reference the Sonic Wings 3 info even for Sonic Wings 2. Now let's get into the differences in the menus.

AYRkMeB.jpg


There is no Fixed Check or Fighter Check in the Sonic Wings 2 debug menu. The sprites that could be viewed in Fixed Check in 3 are just viewable in the Object Viewer in 2.

SNK Font Check
Spoiler:
This displays the built in font for Neo Geo system messages like the memory card manager. No controls here. Use AB to exit.

Credit Check
Spoiler:
This displays the credit status of the game. If in AES mode or MVS mode with credits in the game, it displays "PUSH START BUTTON". If in MVS mode with no credits, it displays "PLEASE INSERT COIN". No controls here as well. AB to exit. Inserting a coin on this check returns you to the game!


There are hidden, unused graphics in Sonic Wings 2. These were never made to be in the game, and likely the developers messing around. Partial nudity alert.

Sexy unused graphics
Spoiler:
bbqsvps.jpg
Ipc9Hdt.jpg
 
Last edited:

Heinz

Parteizeit
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Fucking awesome man! Great to see secrets can still be found even today.
 

max 330 mega

The Almighty Bunghole
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This is cool as shit. Seriously great job documenting this!
 

yagamikun

Art of Typing Wiz
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When Dig pinged me about this yesterday I genuinely surprised. We don't often get to get in the minds of the developers. I only have Sonic Wings 2, but man is there some weird shit hidden in these files.

[video]https://drive.google.com/file/d/1bt3KZO7ICj2ANHqSS0ei9bgRgJOfjM1a/view?usp=sharing[/video]

What I've found to be the coolest feature is that the sprite sets in Object Check are all in sequential animation. Pressing left/right to move through the sprite animations is a lot like using a flip book for animation. These sets include explosion animations, the individual parts of larger bosses, etc. Some really neat details you just don't have time to notice while playing.

If you have either game, make sure to dig in and check these out. I had quite a bit of fun last night going through all the files. Great find, Dig! Another Neo Mystery solved!
 

ForeverSublime

6400|!!|Kyo Clone
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Great find!

Note: Maybe this is a thing for each Video System game? Pop'n Bounce, Power Spikes II and Final Romance are the other games they're list as developer
 

Gremlin

Hi, I'm Gmegbln
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Super cool! I've contributed to TCRF before and love unused/hidden content in games, so I'm hyped to see this exists. Good work!
 

ggallegos1

Cholecystectomy Required.,
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Great find!

Note: Maybe this is a thing for each Video System game? Pop'n Bounce, Power Spikes II and Final Romance are the other games they're list as developer

Imagine if all games had this and you could access it through a Unibios.
 

Digmac

Leona's Therapist
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Great find!

Note: Maybe this is a thing for each Video System game? Pop'n Bounce, Power Spikes II and Final Romance are the other games they're list as developer

This doesn’t work for those games, I already checked. It’s possible there are debug menus left in those games, however they’re accessed differently.
 

Burning Fight!!

NIS America fan & Rent Free tenant
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I like how seemingly every japanese developed game with a reasonable ROM chip size ends up having 2D waifus hidden in the binary.

Awesome find! You'd think everything that is to be found already has in 2020, especially with an "easy" button combo.
 

bulbousbeard

Iconic Romhacker Analinguist
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You should create an entry on tcrf.net. Other people would benefit.
 

wyo

King of Spammers
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Great find, Digmac! Might be worth playing around with other Video System games to see if they have similar hidden menus.
 

traveno

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Nice find, I’ll try this when I get home. Nothing like anime tiddays after a long day at work.
 

LonelyWarbler

Crazed MVS Addict
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Super interesting. I lost my shit at the anime girls. I didn't think you had used sexy literally in the spoiler tag.
 

heihachi

Krauser's Henchman
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Cool find. I messed around a bit with it in aerofighters 3 earlier today. It’s nice to be able to look at some of this stuff a little more closely without having to pause in game.
 
Last edited:
Joined
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Posts
349
Thanks for the discovery and write-up!

To access the debug menu in both games, enable debug dips in your unibios before the character select. You do not have to turn any of the dips on, just enable them. Start a game, pick any difficulty or any pilot, it doesn't matter. Then, lose on purpose. When the "Game Over" screen appears, hold down A, B, C, and D. You will then access the debug menu. Joystick Up/Down scrolls through the options. Press A to access a check. Press A+B to go back to the menu.

Based on what you mentioned, I suspected that the trigger only needed to be done just prior the Attract Mode, which would mean during the eye-catcher.

These are my findings:
1. Mode must be Console, not MVS.
01 UniBIOS splash.png

2. During the eye-catcher
02 eye-catcher.png
press Start+Select to enter the Universe BIOS' In Game MenU.
01a UniBIOS In Game MenU.png

3. Enable developer mode.
03 enabled developer mode.png

4. Exit the Universe BIOS screen and while it is still the eye-catcher screen, press A+B+C together (D is not required).
04 developer options.png

You can alternatively just enable the developer mode any time during the Attract Mode, and keep A+B+C held down. Once the Attract Mode cycles one pass, it will trigger the developer options screen.

(Technically, the trigger threshold is on BIOS_USER_REQUEST Command 2 of the USER subroutine)
 
Last edited:

Digmac

Leona's Therapist
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Thanks for the additional info Clear Paper. I found that the menu always worked while in MVS mode as well. Was this not the case for you? Or do you need it to be in console mode for getting the menu to appear after the Neo Geo eye catcher?
 

Finch

Hardened Shock Trooper
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This is seriously awesome, now I wish I owned either game :-P, time to get hunting!

I guess I should see if it works on the 161-in-1 versions *ugh*
 
Joined
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Posts
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Thanks for the additional info Clear Paper. I found that the menu always worked while in MVS mode as well. Was this not the case for you? Or do you need it to be in console mode for getting the menu to appear after the Neo Geo eye catcher?

Oh, good to know. I think it's because button presses are not registered by the system during the eye-catcher of the MVS. And the eye-catcher is not shown again in MVS mode once the game starts.

The trigger threshold hence might instead be on the end of the BIOS_USER_REQUEST Command 1 of the USER subroutine.
 

traveno

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Thanks Clear Paper. I was having trouble getting the dev screen to trigger using OP's instructions. You explained it very well.
 
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