Hot Wheels World Race (PlayStation 2, GameCube, Windows)

Hot Wheels World Race
Developer: Climax Brighton Publisher: THQ Platforms: PlayStation 2, GameCube, Windows Released in US: October 29, 2003 Released in EU: November 28, 2003 This game has hidden development-related text. This game has unused graphics. This game has unused models. This game has unused cinematics. This game has unused items. This game has unused sounds. This game has debugging material. This game has a prototype article This game has a prerelease article

Oh dear, I do believe I have the vapors. This page contains content that is not safe for work or other locations with the potential for personal embarrassment. Such as: Vulgar threats at other programmers in the executable, and obscene filenames.

Hot Wheels World Race is a game based on the Cartoon Network movie of the same name to coincide with Hot Wheels’ 35th Anniversary. It is a surprisingly decent game which has a fair share of unused content.

To do: Get the debug menu working, and find a way to play the test track.

Sub-Pages

Prototype Info

Prerelease Info

Unused Opening

CREDITS.PSS contains an early version of the opening developer credits with unused transitions. The final game has each developer credit as a separate file without transitions.

One thing to note is the end contains a "Highway 35" logo containing a different font from what's used in the rest of the series. Interestingly, this file is not present in the PC version. This is present in Milestone 9 and Version 303.

Unused Items

Gallery Videos

Along with pictures of every car, there were plans to have unlockable videos in the Gallery as well, as shown in gallery_info.xml (along with a frustrated developer's notes):

<!-- Gallery Videos - name changed below cuz we aren't having the movie anymore....but leave it here in case someone
changes their mind again-->
   <GALLERY_ITEM_NOT_USED internal_name="credits" locked="true" descriptive_name="GALLERY36" item_type="movie"/>

Unused Graphics

Boy_Band.bog

A poorly-rendered image of the team leaders, located in the frontend folder. Note that all drivers in the game use 2D drawings instead of 3D renders. This can be seen in a lot of early builds for a placeholder title screen.

Goat.bog

A stock image of a goat, located in the init folder.

35_logo.bog

Leftover from early development builds, located in the frontend folder.

track_select_backgrounds.bog

A leftover from the May 12, 2003 prototype, located in the "frontend” folder. The only background used in that prototype is the Vast Jungle 2 one, leaving the rest unused.

logo_bar.bog

The game's company logos, meant to display on the legal information but doesn't due to them already having a video file. Located in the frontend folder.

Tlang_blocker.bog

According to the May 12 prototype, this graphic was meant to display on the barriers of blocked paths. Located in the models folder.

characters.bog

Another leftover from the May 12 prototype, these are test renders of the team members. Located in the frontend folder.

Debugging Material

In track_info.xml, setting "boost_boxes_visible" in any given track to "true" highlights all boost pads and ramps on that track with a green box.

• 

Unused Models

crate.rom

An object shaped like a jack. It might have been used at one point by being an obstacle for the racers to avoid. This goes along with the smashcrate.wav sound file.

(Source: Glitchedblood)

Unused Sounds

File Name	Audio	Notes
fe_angel.wav		A simple ding.
fe_messagepop.wav		Used in the Game Boy Advance version, albeit highly compressed.
smashcrate.wav		No crates exist in this game, but they do in the next game Stunt Track Challenge, where this sound is also used.
fe_xorg.wav		Seems like a placeholder.
wipe.wav		Perhaps an alternate pause menu transition sound?
wrongway.wav		Considering the name, it would have appeared to play when you went the wrong way.

Unused Music

Despite it being there for the intro, Smash Mouth's "Hot" is never used for anything else in the game. It's probably a placeholder for Steve Rockett's remix later on in development.

(Source: Original TCRF research)

Vulgar Developer Messages

Located in the executable at hex offset 00201E50 is a vulgar message of a developer threatening another Climax developer named Duncan. The "Dodgy bog standard (Jesus, Duncan!)" is a common message used in other Climax PS2 games.

Unhappy with texture '%s'!
Can't set ARGB4444 for '%s'!
Unhappy with targa '%s'!
Failed to load texture '%s'!
Fuck off!  Unsupported image format '%d' in '%s'!
Dodgy bog standard (Jesus, Duncan!)

Located at hex offset 001FA340 is a funny little message about fragmented memory.

Warning, you have fragmented memory!
Oops Fragmentation Increase
twat

Located at hex offset 001EE720 is a message about the stats of tricks in the air, with fails colorfully labeled as "FuckRate".

RewardTorqueScale...
RewardMaxSpeed...
RewardMaxSpeedRange.
RewardTime..
FuckRateReturn..
FuckRate

(Source: Glitchedblood)

Obscene Filenames

Located in the Tracks folder, for CLNG (Tezla's Cube), VJ1 (Emerald Crater) and VJ2 (Vast Jungle), there's a file called "greyshit3". It is a texture of a sewer grate.

(Source: Glitchedblood)

Internal Project Name

The game's internal project name is hotwheels, to nobody's surprise.

Oddities

Unused AI Opponents

Power Rocket and Greased Lightnin' cannot be raced against as an AI. As it turns out, this is because their hitboxes are too long and the AI driver isn't designed for it.

Attempting to load them as AI opponents will crash the game.

Old Track Names

Mist Mountain is referred to as "Oriental Mountain" in the folders for the track itself and in the game's executable. Similarly, Lava Twists is called "Oriental Mountain 2" in the executable.

PC Version Issues

Demo

The game crashes sometimes whenever the demo appears after a loading screen.

Unplayed Sounds

A lot of the sounds from the console versions of this game don’t play in the PC version.

Unloaded Fog Effect

Even though it is still in the code, the fog effect for both cloud levels are missing, making the levels look unfinished.

PS2	Windows

Sound Effect Pitch Changes

Due to the developers hastily porting over the PlayStation 2 version's code to the PC version, the sound driver got messed up, resulting in all the sound effects being higher-or lower-pitched in some cases. This can be easily heard with the tire screech sound effects.

PS2/GameCube	Windows

PS2/GameCube	Windows

PS2/GameCube	Windows

Missing Flame Aura Palette

Even though it is still in the code, the Flame Aura palette whenever the player performs three tricks in a row with button combos is missing in the PC version.

PS2	Windows