If you’re a NiGHTS fan you’ve heard of the infamous ‘cheat code’… everyone has. You know, the one that requires tapping in the phone directory backwards, building a barn and then collecting 50 blue chips. Yeah… that one.

Remnants of the debug mode were still present on the CD but nobody looking into the game could ever get it to work.

Well despite years of hoax claims by people (And magazines!) unaware that the ability to use the code was removed from retail version and only available on review copies given to the press- A MIGHTY MALAN has given us something quite tangible in the form of the Action Replay Debug Mode. Ok so it’s not the Abracadabra cheat but it does the exact same thing. Well done that man! Go visit his awesome site and shower him with pineapples.

The original dirty dirty LIE:
"On the Sonic Team screen press A,B,Right,A,C,A, Down, A, B, Right, A (ABRACADABRA). If you did this correctly, you should hear the sound you hear when you run out of time. Then at the title screen, press Up, Down, Left, Right, A+Start. You should hear a chime. Highlight one of Elliot’s dreams and press X,Y,Z,Y,X and push start. As Elliot, pause. Then press Right, A, Left, Left, and Y (RALLY). Press start again. Collect 50 orbs and jump. In midair, pause the game. A debug menu should come up. With it you can change the time limit and get rid of the Alarm Egg, access all levels AND in the 2 Player VS!"

THE TRUTH! Courtesy of Malan:

Ok guys, after some days of research, I have enough details, so here’s the codes you need:

As you probably know, SEGA has deleted the Debug Menu access. But the Debug Mode is still in the game! You just need an action replay to activate all options you want to (because there is no menu to select them).

Master code
F6000914 C305
B6000B00 0000

160FFC1C 0008 : Activate the Debug Mode

Controls
– Unpaused –
X : gives you the Ideya of the current Mare (you don’t see it but you can dualize)

– Paused –
A / B : next frame
X : go to the Nightmare (crashes if you are already in the Nightmare)
Z : crash the game (in my mind, it once displayed the Debug Menu, but since it was deleted, you get a crash instead)
R : hide all data in the screen (to make some beautiful screenshots!)
L+R+Y : display the Sound Test of the level and the DSS INFO

Now, I found some other debug options that you can’t activate without the Debug Menu :

160FFC1C xxxx

0001 : Unlimited Time
0002 : ???
0004 : ???
0008 : Activate the Debug Mode
0010 : Make your own demo (start a new game, press A+B+C+START when you’ve finished)
0020 : ???
0040 : Ideya Capture test (you can’t finish the mare)
0080 : ???
0100 : ???
0200 : ???
0400 : Display time and score tables (pause)
0800 : ???
1000 : ???
2000 : ???
4000 : Hide all data (same as L button in the debug mode)
8000 : ???

Concerning the "???" I already tested them but I didn’t notice anything usefull (only some bugs)

If you want to activate several options, you just have to add numbers (be careful, it’s hexadecimal, so 0008+0002=000A, not 0010)

If you notice something I did not, feel free to post it in this forum topic here:
http://www.nightsintodreams.com/forum//index.php?showtopic=1974