F-Zero GX

F-Zero GX is the faster, prettier, Sega-assisted sequel to F-Zero X, boasting unique data-sharing capabilities with its Triforce counterpart F-Zero AX. F-Zero GX contains an abundance of unused data. However, since most of the leftover F-Zero AX code is perfectly usable, the following regards assets that are not used by either game.

Prerelease Info Regional DifferencesChanges to graphics, access to special content, and more. AX Game ModeF-Zero GX is capable of loading an F-Zero AX game mode. This sub-page details what functionality is available and how to access it. F-Zero GX Debug MenuA comprehensive debug menu. Debug scenes, models, textures, animations, sounds, input, and more!

Unused Audio#

It is interesting to note that many of the unused voice clips in the game are duplicates of dialogue lines spoken in F-Zero X for the Nintendo 64. It would appear that GX was designed to be closer in design to F-Zero X initially before developing its own personality.

Sound Effect Pack 1#

Sound bank 1 contains a lot of unused audio clips.

First Place!

It sounds like a variation on F-Zero X's "Alright! You got first place!"

Bingo!

F-Zero X's Versus mode "VS. Slot" audio clip remade for GX. This implies that the VS. Slot minigame was considered to make a return for the multiplayer mode.

Too bad, you lost your machine!

A return of F-Zero X's "Too bad, you lost your machine!" when the player loses a machine (life).

You got your machine!

If "You lost your machine!" would have played when the player loses a machine (life), the presumably "You got your machine!" would have played when the player defeats 5 other competitors in a single race which results in a machine (life) gained.

Clear!

The narrator yelling "Clear!", possibly an alternative to the used "Mission clear!"

Goal!

Perhaps another variation of "Mission clear!"

Danger!

The text "Danger" is displayed in Chapter 6 Black Shadow's Trap when your speed falls below the minimum and triggers the bomb attached to Blue Falcon. Presumably it would have been played then.

Hurry Up!

This phrase is used in most Monkey Ball games when 10 seconds remain. Similarly, F-Zero GX has a siren sound for every second when 10 seconds remains in a mission or in the AX game mode.

Draw

It appears as though there was going to be a check for a draw during a Time Attack race. A tie with a Staff Ghost has been observed before, but this audio clip did not play. (See Discussion page for details.)

Unused Graphics#

Warning Message#

A message warning that "there is not enough memory to render this model". Its 3D model, found within common, is named "WARN_MES_OVER".

Fallout#

FALLOUT is the term used in the Monkey Ball series when the player falls off the stage. Seeing as the game was built upon the Monkey Ball engine, it is likely they used this until "Off Course" was chosen as the out-of-bounds cue.

Casino Laser Sign#

The textures for LASER_CASINO, a rotating sign hologram like the Triforce and GameCube logos seen in Sonic Oval. It lays dormant exclusively in the Japanese bg_com (Sonic Oval) texture archive.

MAGCARD#

Early AX License Design	Final AX License Design

Shorthand for "Magnetic Card", the F-Zero AX license card used to store one's AX data. It is quite peculiar as each side of the model use its own texture. What's of great interest is the prototype card texture, which has "F-Zero T_RANS X" written on it instead of F-Zero AX. MAGCARD is found in card, an older version of both operation and operation_us, a file used in the AX advertise screen.

F-Zero T_RANS X could be an earlier title preceding the 2002 F-Zero AC title which later became F-Zero AX...however, as the logo effects are very similar to the final F-Zero AX logo, and the F-Zero AC logo used a striped blue metallic texture for the AC part with entirely different fonts, it may have been designed after the AC name.

The back side of MAGCARD which reads the following:

This is less text than actual Japanese MAGCARD, which read the following:

An English card also exists, which reads the following:

Unused Models#

Flag#

FLAG is located in common, bundled along with other, far less detailed pylon cones. Its intent is unknown, but could have been used in story mode, especially since the first mission requires going through specific locations on the track.

Test Cones 00-04#

TESTCONE00 through TESTCONE04 each come in their own color, sporting their namesake number. They are highly primitive objects. Their use is unknown, but was surely used in early development.

Pylon#

PYLON can be found in both common and efcmodel. It could have served such purposes as a tool for testing the vehicle handling mechanics, for use in objective-driven missions, or perhaps, when used in pairs, to designate the starting line.

Coin#

COIN is supposed to be a background object for the Casino Place venue, though it does not seem to appear in either Split Oval or Double Branches. The model has a reflective quality to it.

Elevator Screen#

ELV_SCREEN01 was supposed to be a monitor screen used in Cosmo Terminal, much like the Space Elevator Information screen seen near the starting gate in Trident. It ultimately went unused, sporting a placeholder texture as it does not have its own.

GameCube Memory Card#

A rather large and fairly detailed 3D model of a GameCube Memory Card, present in card along with MAGCARD.

Creator Head#

falcon_face_st9 is a model of a Creator, intended for chapter 9. Since chapter 9 has you racing against a staff ghost instead of an opponent, this does not get used.

Unused Stages#

GX had plans for a 14th venue (taking into consideration that Sonic Oval is its own venue referred to as com) and contains remains of an additional course in order to prevent the debugger from crashing.

AUR Venue#

There is a Course Select venue backdrop graphic named bmp_stg_aur that references an unused venue. "aur" is the shorthand name of this venue which does not correspond to any venue. It only appears in the Japanese versions of GX and AX. Since it has not seen any progress since its inclusion in AX suggests it was scrapped early in development.

Unfortunately, the image used is a "DUMMY" placeholder, leaving no insight into what "aur" stands for.

Stage 00#

GX has an unused course indexed as course 0. It will call the assets from Sand Ocean with the track Screw Drive (in the Aeropolis venue in the final game). Models can be viewed using the game's debug stage viewer. However, playing the stage will only load universal assets such as zippers and the starting gate, along with the collision data of Twist Road (Mute City). This is due to the fact that the stage has no associated "COLI" (rather scene) file. Its only purpose appears to be to prevent the game from crashing when starting up the stage viewer as it always loads stage 0 first.

Translation Notes#

There exists a reference note called game_msg_jp.txt, which translates the English menu options and result texts to Japanese.

RANKING:ランキング
POINT:ポイント
RUNNING:走行中
COURSE:コース
VIEW:ビュー
RESULT:けっか
RESET:リセット
(LATER):(よてい)
RANK:ジュンイ
TOTAL:トータル
BEST LAP:ベストラップ
PUSH A or MENU BUTTON:Aまたはメニューを押して下さい
MAX SPEED:さいこうそく
LAP:ラップ
GOAL:ゴール
REPLAY:リプレイ
RETRY:リトライ
DISQUALIFIED:失かく
YES:はい
NO:いいえ
OK:はい
EXIT:終了
CANCEL:キャンセル
NEXT STAGE:次のステージ
RETRY:リトライ
REPLAY:リプレイ
GHOST:ゴースト
SAVE:保存
LOAD:読込
STATUS:ステータス
EDIT:へんしゅう
DESTROY:はかい
CAR:車
SETTING:セッティング
FORCE:強制
WIN:勝利

Miscellaneous#

Internet Ranking#

During its heyday, players could participate in Time Attack competitions online through the official game website with in-game generated ranking codes similar to Mario Kart: Double Dash!!'s contest codes.

Such codes can be generated for Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald cup courses and then be submitted on the official website (archive) to be placed among the internet rankings. These codes, each unique per cup, are entered in Time Attack's Records submenu while a specific course is selected. There were no codes shared for Diamond or AX cup. Note that codes are only properly generated after a course has been completed in Time Attack, otherwise the "Your Record PASSWORD" will display "There is no data."

Hidden Messages#

fz.sample.rel#

This Japanese test menu file contains the word "BAKA" at offset 0x7F8. This word is used as a kind of key to generate the file location string "enemy_line/line__.bin".

fze.sample.rel#

To be consistent, the English version contains the word "FUCK" at the same offset. Stay classy.

line__.bin#

This file is an encrypted LZ-compressed archive of main.rel hidden in the "enemy_line" folder which contains most of the game's logic. The file fz.sample.rel (fze.sample.rel USA/EUR) loads, decrypts, and unpacks this file to dynamically link it to the main.dol.

Gachinko Difficulty#

While F-Zero AX employs five difficulties accessible through the game's internal setup menus used to set the arcade cabinet's difficulty and lap settings, F-Zero GX does not. However, there is an internal listing for a difficulty called Gachinko (a word meaning "game played earnestly"). Forcing the game to load it during a Grand Prix grants the player 10 extra lives. Novice is set as fallback difficulty. Disabling the fallback value grants the Gachinko difficulty which makes the game significantly harder. The below cheat codes set the difficulty to Gachinko and disable the fallback value.

Cups#

F-Zero GX contains 5 cups; Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald, Diamond, and AX; while F-Zero AX has one "cup" consisting of the 6 AX tracks from simplest to most complex. However, both games internally define 11 cups in the selection code relocation module ./fz.sel.rel (and fze.* and fzp.* counterparts).

An important detail to note is that all cups define 6 courses. The first 5 listed form a Grand Prix cup, while the 6th course is excluded from Grand Prix, but is otherwise selectable in Time Attack. This is how the AX Cup (F-Zero GX) and Race mode (F-Zero AX) list 6 courses. Further, cups can opt out of courses by listing them as course index 0xFFFF. Most cups do so to omit the 6th course.

ALL Cup#

This cup defines no courses (all 6 course indexes are 0xFFFF), but this cup is programmed to load all 111 stage indexes (0-110). This was meant for testing by allowing the selection of any arbitrary course in that range.

AC Cup#

While AX Cup orders courses starting with Aeropolis [Screw Drive] and ends with Mute City [Sonic Oval] as it is not used during a Grand Prix, AC Cup orders the tracks by difficulty rating, thus begins with Mute City [Sonic Oval] and ends with Green Plant [Spiral], the order used in F-Zero AX.

The Japanese name "アーケードカップ80" translates to "Arcade Cup 80" and implies it was meant for testing. Two Japanese names appear in the cup name listing, one for 80 laps, another for 50 laps. Notably, these lap counts appear in F-Zero AX as service-mode selectable lap counts.

Ac#

Similar to AC Cup above, the Japanese name implies it was meant for testing at a fixed 30-lap count. Note that the course indexes are different from AC Cup but follow a very similar cadence.

WHF Cup#

WHF stands for World Hobby Fair. In January 2003, Sega demoed F-Zero GX (named F-Zero GC back then) at the 17th World Hobby Fair. Two of the indexes match with test courses in F-Zero AX. Perhaps uninterestingly, those indexes imply this cup was yet another test for F-Zero AX courses.

Of greater interest is that this article notes there were only four playable stages at WHF that year: Mute City [Twist Road], Port Town [Long Pipe], Green Plant [Intersection], and Port Town [Aero Dive] which is the E3-0 cup lineup below. While the cup lineup seems specific to WHF, this might suggest these tracks were intended for testing before the event, for private viewings, or altered after WHF.

E3-0#

The Japanese name "E3 1コースレース用" translates to "E3 1-Course Race". This is fitting as, during the event, you would play a Grand Prix of only 1 course, similar to F-Zero AX's Race mode.

This is a cup with the four courses demoed at E3 2003. As noted above, it was also used for demoing at the World Hobby Fair in 2003, months prior to E3.

E3-1#

The Japanese name "E3 VS用" translates to "E3 VS" or "E3 Versus". This is also fitting, as this was used to demo Versus Mode.

This cup directs to a single course, Casino Palace [Split Oval], which was used to demonstrate the multiplayer mode during E3 2003.

Unused Track Names#

GX upholds a convention where each track has a venue and name. This includes Story mode and extra tracks. Story 1 and 2 have unique track names, but they do not get displayed. They're referenced in fze.story.rel.

Story Mission 9 Staff Ghost Times#

Story Mode's Mission 9 "Finale: Enter the Creators" has the player race against a staff ghost using the Blue Falcon machine. Nowhere in-game is it stated what time the ghost achieves. However, that data is encoded in the staff ghost files and listed below.

Oddities and Obscurities#

While this data can be seen in the game, it is interesting to note as it is so very easily overlooked.

Early Story 3 Course#

The backdrop for the mission "High Stakes in Mute City" features a red-colored track as opposed to the green one that is playable, suggesting the course's color was changed very late in the game's development. Furthermore, Story 3's intro movie depicts the course as being purple, indicating that the track went through multiple color schemes before settling on green. F-Zero AX's version of Story 3 uses this red-colored texture.

Hidden R.O.B.#

Hidden on the outskirts of the stage Aeropolis Multiplex lies a fully animated R.O.B. model from the Port Town courses. It is cleverly placed behind a few of Aeropolis' many buildings off to the left of Mother Q. It can be seen by Space Flying to the edge of the map, though it is very difficult to get into view as the game only renders R.O.B. from close proximity and resides behind some out-of-bounds collision mesh. It is much easier to see it by using the debug menu.

Untranslated Logos#

Despite their efforts ensuring that all Japanese text and graphics were translated for the game's localized releases, they still missed this one texture! It is used on some of the monitors in the back during the interviews. Perhaps the more interesting characteristic is its monstrous 512×256 pixel size.

It may have intended to have been used for something else since it is much, much larger than necessary.

AX's GX Pilot Descriptions#

F-Zero AX (and AX boot) display description cards like these in the left pane to describe the vehicle and pilot. However, since F-Zero AX only uses fifteen machines (the original four, the ten AX characters, and one custom machine), 27 GX character cards go unseen. In order to view the remaining cards, the player must save one of the unused GX characters' vehicles to a slot in their Garage, then hover over that machine during vehicle select.

Sand Ocean Reflective Texture#

A reflective texture used for the solar panels on Sand Ocean. A similar green color can be seen in the WHF 2003 trailer, albeit more saturated.

Story Mode Subtitle Error#

Watch on YouTubeThe prologue to story mode titled Black Shadow's Disgrace begins with a dramatic scene where Deathborn destroys Black Shadow's machine, then grips him by the neck and lifts him up. Before Deathborn has a chance to threaten him, Black Shadow says "Wait! Aaaargh... Just give me one more chance!" but the subtitles read "Help... Aaaargh... just give me one more chance." In case you missed that, he says "Wait" but the subtitles read "Help" instead.

Subtitles can be enabled and disabled in non-Japanese versions of games by pressing Z while the cinematic is playing.

References#