Need for Speed: High Stakes (PlayStation)

Need for Speed: High Stakes
Also known as: Need for Speed: Road Challenge (EU), Over Drivin' IV (JP) Developer: EA Canada Publishers: Electronic Arts (US/EU), EA Square (JP) Platform: PlayStation Released in JP: June 17, 1999 Released in US: March 1, 1999 Released in EU: March 30, 1999 This game has unused graphics. This game has unused text. This game has regional differences. This game has a prototype article This game has a prerelease article

Need for Speed: High Stakes is the fourth entry in EA's premier street racing series, back when they had a very different opinion on tuned Honda Civics.

Sub-Pages

Prototype Info

Prerelease Info

Unused Tuned Cars

To do: The cop HSV GTS has a tuned version - get a screenshot for it.

The Mercedes-Benz CLK GTR, McLaren F1 GTR and all of the playable police cars have tuned variants modeled, despite none of them being accessible to the player.

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  Mercedes-Benz CLK-GTR

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  McLaren F1 GTR; note the modifications turning it into the McLaren F1 GT, the homologation model for the longtail F1 GTR.

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  Chevrolet Caprice

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  Porsche 911, police version

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  Chevrolet Corvette, police version

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  Lamborghini Diablo, police version

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  BMW M5, police version; shown from rear, as the modifications simply add a small spoiler.

Unused Track

A few minor pieces of data for a removed track called Millennia can be found within all versions of the game. It is interesting to note that Millennia is named TR01 in the files, indicating that it was possibly the second track to be implemented into the game before it was removed.

Strings

SNOWY RIDGE
MILLENNIA
DOLPHIN COVE
ROUTE ADONF
KINDIAK PARK
CELTIC RUINS
LANDSTRASSE
DURHAM ROAD
RACEWAY
RACEWAY 2
RACEWAY 3

While the Millennia strings also appear in different languages, it should be said that the track names themselves are not translated.

Minimap

Despite the assets being entirely removed, the minimap still remained inside ZHUD.PSH. It is named mp01, corresponding with its order number in the text strings.

Car Shadow & Horizon

/* TR01 */
192,192,192,    128,128,128,
192,192,192,    128,128,128,
128,128,128,    0,0,0,
128,128,128,    0,0,0,

Found in ZTRACK.DAT, the track had, evidently, seen enough development to have car shadow and horizon colour data defined for each state (from top to bottom; normal, weather, night, weather & night).

Unused Text

Hot Pursuit Restriction Message

CAR NOT AVAILABLE. THIS CAR IS RESTRICTED FROM A HOT PURSUIT RACE.

Normally, the Ferrari and Mercedes-Benz cars are skipped over when selecting a car in the Hot Pursuit mode (owing to manufacturer-imposed restrictions), preventing this message from being used. However, if one attempts to forcibly select cars from those manufacturers (or in the Japanese version, the Nissan Skyline GT-R R34), this error message will be displayed.

If these cars are somehow forced to be used in a Hot Pursuit race, the police radio simply refers to the cars in question as a "sports car".

Debug Text

This needs some investigation. Discuss ideas and findings on the talk page. Specifically: Is the code to display this still in the data?

The first few strings in ZTEXT.ENG seem to refer to some sort of debug functionality:

view vram
view memory
dump frontend
Show me the money
Color Option
Menu Pieces
Gray Menu
Icons
Options
Options Items
Black Text
Grey Text
White Text
Ochre Text
Yellow Text
Blue Text
Bright Blue Text
Dark Grey Text
Red Text
Dark Red Text
Cyan Text
Dark Blue Text
Green Text
Orange Text
Pink Text
Light Blue Text
Options Blue
Options Bright Blue
Options Dark Blue
Options Light Blue
Text Size
Justification
Unselected
Selected
Hilighted
Tiny Size
Normal Size
Large Size
Title Size
Left Justify
Right Justify
Center
Left Justify Drop
Right Justify Drop
Center Justify Drop
Title
FlyBy Help
Border Info
Framed Info
Screen Info
Screen Info Header
Options
Framed Money
Pop Up Text
Pop Up Title
Demo
Track Records
Text Type
Text Size
Text Justify
Text Unselected
Text Selected
Text Highlighted
Drop

Unused Vidwalls

A number of "vidwalls" – static images shown on a "screen" behind car models and track maps – are present in the game's data but are never seen during regular gameplay.

Cars

Apart from "Bonus Car 3" – which was cut during development, all vidwalls on this section were intended for alternate versions of cars in the game, but were rendered unused as the regular vidwalls are assigned to them instead.

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  Bonus Car 3. Uses a mirrored McLaren F1 GTR background and Titan's logo.

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  Porsche 911, race-bred version. Uses the full Porsche logo instead of just the writing.

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  BMW M5, police version. Uses the manufacturer's logo instead of plain writing.

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  Porsche 911, police version.

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  Chevrolet Corvette, police version.

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  Lamborghini Diablo SV, police version.

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  Holden HSV VT GTS, police version.

Tracks

Alternate vidwalls are used for tracks during tournaments and special events whenever the next race's time/weather options (Night Driving, Weather or Night Driving + Weather) are non-default. Many track-setting combos never happen at all, however, rendering their vidwalls unused.

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  Landstrasse, Night Driving + Weather.

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  Route Adonf, Night Driving + Weather.

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  Kindiak Park, Weather.

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  Kindiak Park, Night Driving + Weather.

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  Durham Road, Weather.

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  Durham Road, Night Driving + Weather.

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  Celtic Ruins, Night Driving + Weather.

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  Dolphin Cove, Weather.

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  Dolphin Cove, Night Driving + Weather.

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  Snowy Ridge, Night Driving.

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  Snowy Ridge, Weather.

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  Snowy Ridge, Night Driving + Weather.

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  Raceway, Night Driving.

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  Raceway, Weather.

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  Raceway, Night Driving + Weather.

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  Raceway 2, Night Driving.

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  Raceway 2, Weather.

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  Raceway 2, Night Driving + Weather.

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  Raceway 3, Night Driving.

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  Raceway 3, Weather.

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  Raceway 3, Night Driving + Weather.

Leftovers

• The graphic for Need for Speed III's pause menu can still be found in the files.
• The traffic from the previous release were reused for this game, and as such, some vehicles ended up being unused such as the Atlantica-themed city bus.

Regional Differences

Title Screens

The game's title screen differs between regions. While the European and Australian versions just omit the "High Stakes" text, the Japanese version features completely different art to go with its regionalized title.

North America	Europe/Australia	Japan

Region-Exclusive Cars

In addition to the regularly available vehicles, the Australian and Japanese versions of Need for Speed: High Stakes offer extra, national cars.

Australia

The Australian version features four exclusive cars:

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  Holden HSV VT GTS

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  Ford Falcon XR8

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  Mobil Holden Racing Team VT Commodore

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  Holden HSV VT GTS, police version

To accommodate these new vehicles, a couple of changes were made to the base game:

• In order to feature Australian cars in Hot Pursuit mode from the start, Durham Road had its position swapped with Kindiak Park, with its location being changed from England to Australia.
• The Regional Club Circuit's lineup is updated to include the HSV VT GTS and the Falcon XR8.
• The Corvette Pro Cup is replaced by the HSV Pro Cup, where only fully-upgraded HSVs may participate. The prize has also been changed from the race-bred Corvette to the MHRT VT Commodore.

Note: most of the data for the Australia-only cars exists in the other versions of the game. The only exception is the model and texture files, which did not yet exist in the North American and European versions.

In addition, these cars are not referred by name in Hot Pursuit mode's police chatter; they are simply referred as "a sports car". This is also used when cars from makes not meant to be used in Hot Pursuit mode is forcibly used there.

Japan

Similarly to the Australian version, the Japanese region has access to two cars not seen elsewhere:

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  Nissan Skyline GT-R R34 V-Spec

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  GT-R R34 Special, loosely based on the 1999 JGTC Pennzoil Nismo GT-R R34.

The following changes were made to accommodate the new cars:

• The Grand Touring Competition's lineup is updated to include the GT-R R34.
• The Corvette Pro Cup is replaced by the Skyline Pro Cup, where only fully-upgraded R34s may participate. The prize has also been changed from the race-bred Corvette to the GT-R R34 Special.

Note: unlike the other non-Australian versions of the game, the model and texture files for the Ford Falcon XR8 and police Holden HSV VT GTS still exist on the Japanese disc, which would allow the player to obtain them via GameShark. The other Holdens are effectively replaced by the Skylines data-wise, however.

Due to licensing agreement with Nissan, the car, like all Ferrari and Mercedes-Benz models in the game, cannot be used in Hot Pursuit mode without modifying the game, and will trigger an error message if forcefully chosen at the car selection screen as mentioned above.