Golf (Virtual Boy)

Golf
Also known as: T&E Virtual Golf (JP) Developer: T&E Soft Publishers: T&E Soft (JP), Nintendo (US) Platform: Virtual Boy Released in JP: August 11, 1995 Released in US: November 1995 This game has unused code. This game has a hidden developer message. This game has unused text. This game has debugging material. This game has regional differences. This game has hidden bonus content.

Golf for Virtual Boy is the only golf game set in hell.

Save Feature

Download Save Restoration Patch for Golf (US) File: Golf-USA VB Save-Support.zip (332 bytes) (info)

Golf was released without battery-backed save support in both regions. Its developers had intended the game to include saving, but ultimately progress can only be retained using a password system. Other features such as player names are not saved at all. To ease the blow somewhat, the first "save" slot is populated with a pre-named character, which averts the need to start a new profile every single time the game is booted.

While neither release has physical save hardware, the Japan version's ROM does support saving. It is able to save when played in emulators or on flash carts with saveRAM on-board. The game checks the saveRAM is available and functioning correctly and if that check is successful, enables a full save setup, including freeing up the preset default slot. However, if that check fails for any reason, the game falls back to the password system.

Conversely, the US version has had saving disabled in the ROM itself, with the saveRAM check hardcoded to fail. The above patch restores saving in the US version by porting the hardware check from the Japanese release. The rest of the saving code was left completely intact in the US version.

Debug Camera

Download Debug Camera Restoration Patch for Golf (US) File: Golf-USA VB Debug-Camera.zip (264 bytes) (info)

A debug mode for adjusting the camera's stereoscopic settings exists in the ROM, seemingly inaccessible in the final build. The above patch attempts to restore this feature in the US version. It can be used in conjunction with the save patch if desired.

Controls:

• Hold Select between shots to trigger the debug camera
• Left D-Pad Left/Right: Adjust Z-axis
• Left D-Pad Up/Down: Adjust depth
• Right D-Pad Up/Down: Move 2D elements like the minimap in/out of screen
• Right D-Pad Left/Right: Render out a new frame with current settings
• Cancel (B or L in Control Set A, A or R in Set B): Exit debug camera

This patch is far from a perfect restoration of the debug functionality. It's unknown where or how it would originally be triggered. The way it's triggered in this patch, it can only be enabled once per shot and the debug text does not update cleanly, rendering over the top of the previous values until the digits become unreadable. Rendering out a new frame with the Right D-Pad temporarily resolves the issue.

No Wind Cheat

An undocumented cheat can be used to permanently lock the wind direction and speed to 0. In addition, the default player name (if playing without save support) is changed to VICTORIA.WON. It is unclear to whom Victoria refers.

To enable this cheat, hold the following buttons while the game is booting:

• Select
• Left D-Pad Left
• Right D-Pad Right

Mizumo Easter Egg

In the Japanese version only, holding Select while opening the Tournament Play scoreboard results in the text SPORTS MIZUMO being printed at the bottom of the list. This feature was completely removed from the US build; the code and text are no longer in the ROM. There is a Japanese sports equipment manufacturer called Mizuno, which could be the intended reference.

Palette Information

This needs some investigation. Discuss ideas and findings on the talk page. Specifically: This could probably be restored but the core functionality looks to have been compiled out of the retail build, so ... effort.

While it doesn't appear to be active in the final builds of the game, there is a function to print the current palette values (red, redder and reddest?). This string is found at 53993 in both regions' ROMs.

BRTA %c%c  BRTB %c%c  BRTC %c%c BKCOL %c 

BRTA, BRTB and BRTC refer to the brightness values used to set the visible red shades on the Virtual Boy display, while BKCOL is the default value of any pixel that hasn't been manually set by the running program. The function which printed this strings can be found at 64BC in the US ROM, but is never called from anywhere else.

Working Titles

Located at 54C10 (US)/54C0C (JP) is a presumed working title:

VUE.BeachGolfLinks

VUE is the codename of the Virtual Boy itself, and T&E Soft had previously released Pebble Beach Golf Links games on other platforms (e.g. SNES and Genesis). It is possible this game was originally going to be a port of a previous Pebble Beach game, but the final game does not feature that course, instead being set at the fictional Papillon Country Club.

As part of the routine which verifies saves are functioning correctly, the following string from 13B3DC (US)/136E18 (JP) is written to and read back from the saveRAM:

T&E VR GOLF p12

VR Golf was the title of the game when it was first demonstrated publicly.

Regional Differences

Save support in the ROMs was disabled between releases as noted above, although official carts don't save regardless of region.

Title Screen

While the Japanese title was already in English, it was most likely changed when Nintendo came on as publisher for the US version. This ties it to Nintendo's previous golf games on the NES and Game Boy which were also simply called Golf.

• in line with the change of publisher, the text LICENSED TO NINTENDO was added to the US release
• the PUSH START is static in the Japanese version but blinks slowly in the US build

US	Japan

Default Player Name

The default player name in the Japanese game was T&ESOFT, which was changed to Duff in the US release. A "duff" is golf slang for a swing which hits the ground before the ball, which is usually regarded as poor form. Note that there is no "default player" when playing with save support enabled, so this change may not be visible in emulation, on flash carts or while using the above save patch.

Competitor Names

In Tournament Play mode, the competing players' names were changed to be slightly more interesting in the US version.

US

Japan

R.Cromby A.Williams T.Bechtel S.O'Connor C.Frady B.Osborn C.Miller B.Johnson C.Palmer D.Olsen E.Waase J.Wornall P.Sandhap J.Hutte D.Jameson N.Linden D.Whipple M.Kelban S.Evans K.Brown K.Sheck P.Shinoda D.Domino J.Norberg H.Fletcher M.Millen M.Stiles C.Filori R.McMann C.Neidham T.Andrews R.Herman R.Girard S.Peifle J.Cordall J.Jacobson G.Swansen S.Petersen G.Ford J.Whistler B.Barry P.Beck K.Wright P.Honeman H.Lo S.Milton P.Reeves

Player M.T Player K.T Player G.N Player A.K Player T.N Player L.S Player O.K Player I.N Player M.N Player C.V Player S.H Player E.A Player F.S Player G.D Player H.G Player I.H Player J.J Player K.K Player L.W Player M.E Player N.R Player Y.A Player P.Y Player Q.I Player R.O Player S.P Player T.K Player U.G Player V.D Player W.S Player S.D Player A.M Player J.M Player K.C Player G.K Player T.J Player S.G Player R.F Player J.D Player I.W Player D.E Player L.H Player R.J Player H.S Player A.H Player Y.H Player J.V

(Source: Original TCRF research)