F-Zero: Climax: Rat Race Added to Survival Mode

F-Zero Climax has a course in its code that is not accessible through normal play. The course, Fire Field: Rat Race, is only accessible through a single-pak link cable game, which is difficult or impossible to use with certain emulation setups.

This patch inserts Rat Race into Survival Mode, as the 5th race of the Tour difficulty. The original course, Fire Field: Heat Circuit, is still available in Grand Prix and Time Attack modes. This makes every course in the game accessible on all setups.

The patch is compatible with the Japanese original, as well as the English and Spanish translations done by the F-Zero Climax: Translation Project Team. As a 1-byte patch, it is likely compatible with most other patches. It is contained by default within the larger patch "F-Zero: GP Climax"

Title: F-Zero Climax - Rat Race Added to Survival Mode
Author: PowerPanda
Version: 1.0
Applies to: F-Zero: Climax (All Versions)

Contents: fzc_ratrace.ips - The patch for all roms

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-=Intro and Description=-

F-Zero Climax, like GP Legend and Maximum Velocity before it, has a race course that is exclusive to a single-pak multiplayer game. That is, 2 GBAs joined by a link cable with one GBA having an empty cartidge slot. The track's name is "Fire Field - Rat Race". When played, the track contains no music, due to the link cable data transfer limitations. While this required a specific setup on original hardware and was hard to access, it is completely inaccessible on most emulation setups.

Climax has a Survival Mode, which contains a mix of Grand Prix courses and exclusive courses. There are 4 levels of difficulty: Tour, Challenge, Battle, and Violence. The final course of the Tour difficulty is a 3-lap race around "Fire Field: Heat Circuit". This patch replaces Heat Circuit with the otherwise inaccessible Rat Race, enabling every course to be played.

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-=Patching Instructions and Compatibility=-

This patch can be applied to the Japanese original rom and both the English and Spanish translations done by the "F-Zero Climax: Translation Project Team". Neither of the translation projects re-order the portions of the rom that hold the course lists. It can be applied with Lunar IPS.

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-=Credits=-
Hacking: PowerPanda

Programs Used: HxD (Hex Editing), no$gba (Debugging), VBA (Testing)
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-=Code Changes=-

09/93F8 > Change from 0B (Fire Field: Heat Circuit) to 36 (Fire Field: Rat Race)

Database match: F-Zero - Climax (Japan)
Database: No-Intro: Game Boy Advance (v. 20210227-023848)
File/ROM SHA-1: 6EB9208C493E8BAA43ECC0DACF71A8CB631BE7CA
File/ROM CRC32: DBDC71E3