Crazy Taxi (Sega, Driving Action Game, DCast) Secrets FAQ V1.1 2/2/00 Written by: Richard Uyeyama (ru e ama best com)* * Instances of the letter "y", the "at" symbol, and all periods have been removed (replaced with spaces) from the above e-mail address in order to prevent unscrupulous UCE (unsolicited commercial e-mail) bot processes from adding to the amount of e-mail I already get... The latest version of this file can be found at: What Are You, Crazy?!? http://www.best.com/~ruyeyama/dcast/waycrazy.html Document formatting, organization, and wording Copyright 2000 by Richard Uyeyama. Permission granted by author to duplicate (unaltered) this document in its entirety for non-profit purposes only. All other rights reserved. Author reserves the right to rescind specific or general permission, if he sees a reason (such as loophole abuse) to do so. Unauthorized duplication of this document is a violation of all applicable national and international laws. Crazy Taxi is Copyright 1999, 2000 by Sega Enterprises, Ltd. All rights reserved. Table of Contents: 0. Document History I. Basic Stuff 1. The purpose of this document 2. Notation and stuff II. Pre-Cabbie Select 1. No destination mark 2. No arrows 3. Expert Mode III. At Cabbie Select 1. Special Taxi (Bike) 2. Another Day 3. Both Special Taxi and Another Day IV. In-Game 1. View Change, and Speedometer V. Crazy Box 1. Finishing Crazy Box mode VI. Some Technique Notes 1. Crazy Dash notes 2. Crazy Backdash notes 3. Limiter Cut notes VII. Thanks and Stuff ------------------- 0. Document History ------------------- V1.1: 2/2/00 Special Taxi scores are marked in Records. Technique Notes section added. Site recommendations added to Thanks and Stuff section. Minor editing in a couple sections. V1.0: 1/31/00 Launch version. (1/27/00: Dreamcast Crazy Taxi now on sale) -------------- I. Basic Stuff -------------- I.1 The purpose of this document This document is an informational resource for the Dreamcast version of Sega's Driving Action game Crazy Taxi. In this Secrets FAQ (side note: I'm using "faq" herein with its more colloquial definition of "document of organized information", rather than its more traditional definition, which implies organizational headings in the form of questions...), I'll be covering codes and secrets and other such information which may be of interest to Crazy Taxi fans. I will not be comprehensively covering game techniques in this document, since there are already a number of resources on the Net (for the arcade version, but all of the techniques (including the Limiter Cut) are still the same in the home version) covering those. Neither will I be covering game strategies in this document; you should probably consult a more general FAQ (as opposed to a Secrets FAQ) for that. =) This document is based upon the J version of the game. However, I suspect that at least some of the information presented herein will probably apply to other versions of the game as well. Crazy Taxi basic info: 1 Disc (HDR-0053) 1 Player Works with: Racing Controller, VMU (23 blocks), PuruPuru Pack, VGA Box Note on codes: Codes have been tested with the standard Dreamcast controller. Alas, I don't have a Racing Controller, so I don't know how the codes may differ when using one of those... I.2 Notation and stuff In order to avoid any potential confusion, here are some of the standards of notation I'll be using in this document: A A button on Dreamcast controller B B button on Dreamcast controller X X button on Dreamcast controller Y Y button on Dreamcast controller L Left trigger on Dreamcast controller R Right trigger on Dreamcast controller Dr Hit "Drive" gear Rv Hit "Reverse" gear AccON Hit accelerator AccOFF Release accelerator BrkON Hit brake BrkOFF Release brake + at the same time as , then --------------------- II. Pre-Cabbie Select --------------------- II.1 No destination mark Before the Cabbie Select screen, hold down: L+START. When the Cabbie Select screen appears, the message "no destination mark" should be printed (in red) in the lower left corner (and will remain there during your entire next game). Select your cabbie, and during your game, instead of the normal green cage that marks your passenger's destination, there will only be a green outline on the ground. II.2 No arrows Before the Cabbie Select screen, hold down: R+START. When the Cabbie Select screen appears, the message "no arrows" should be printed (in yellow) in the lower left corner (and will remain there during your entire next game). Select your cabbie as normal, and during your game, you won't have any directional arrows indicating the direction of your passenger's destination. II.3 Expert Mode Before the Cabbie Select screen, hold down: L+R+START. When the Cabbie Select screen appears, the message "EXPERT" should be printed (in white) in the lower left corner (and will remain there during your entire next game). Expert Mode is a combination of "no destination mark" and "no arrows"! --------------------- III. At Cabbie Select --------------------- III.1 Special Taxi (Bike) The Special Taxi, which is basically a bike-drawn cart (a rickshaw sort of thing), is accessible in one of two ways: via a code (which is, btw, different from the arcade version code), or by finishing Crazy Box mode (see the Crazy Box section of this document for more info). Here's the code: At the Cabbie Select screen, input the following quickly: L,R,L,R,L,R. Basically, alternate L and R quickly three (or more, if you want) times. Alternatively, you can hit L+R quickly three (or more) times, which also seems to work sometimes. Now select your cabbie as normal, and you should hear a bicycle bell chime twice. When the city loads, you should have the Special Taxi (the bike & cart), instead of your cabbie's normal taxi. The Special Taxi, if I'm not mistaken, has better acceleration, braking, and top speed than any of the normal taxis. However, it has the worst (by far!) traction, and so is quite easy to lose control of. If you haven't mastered the Limiter Cut, then using the Special Taxi will probably improve your scores, but if you can pull off the Limiter Cut with ease, you're probably better off going with a taxi with more stability. Unless you're just playing for fun, of course; the Special Taxi is a whole lotta fun. =) Oh, btw, after a game in which the Special Taxi was used, if you exit back to attract mode, the Special Taxi will be used during the next cycle of attract sequences. =) (High score note: For records (Arcade, Original, and Crazy Box Modes) shown in Records Mode and Crazy Box Mode, scores for which the Special Taxi was used will have the cabbie listed in yellow, instead of white. The Top 20 lists shown during attract mode, however, do not seem to mark Special Taxi scores in any way.) III.2 Another Day (note: for those of you familiar with Reverse Mode (or Reverse Track) in the arcade version... that's what this is) At the Cabbie Select screen, input the following: R,R(hold, and select cabbie) So basically, hit the R trigger once (or more, if you want), then again, holding it down while you select your cabbie. After selecting your cabbie, the message "another day" should appear (in green) in the lower left corner (and will remain there during your entire next game), and you should hear a car horn honk twice. In Another Day, things will be slightly different. Mostly, it looks like the passengers will be located in different places, and will have different destinations (and the general flow of passenger destinations will be going in a different direction than normal). You also won't start out in the same place as normal (in Arcade Mode, you'll start out on the other side of the street, and facing the other direction; in Original Mode, you'll start out in a completely different location). III.3 Both Special Taxi and Another Day Yep, you can do both codes for the same game. Either do the Special Taxi code followed by the Another Day code, or simply hold the R at the end of the Special Taxi code, while selecting your cabbie (the Another Day code will ignore the L inputs from the Special Taxi code), as follows: L,R,L,R,L,R(hold and select cabbie) ----------- IV. In-Game ----------- IV.1 View Change, and Speedometer If you have a controller plugged into the P3 slot (port C), then after starting a game (Arcade or Original), press the START button on the P3 controller to activate the following commands on that controller: A standard camera view B first person view X speedometer (kph) (press X button five times to activate; thereafter, X button is on/off toggle) Y third person view ------------ V. Crazy Box ------------ V.1 Finishing Crazy Box mode Crazy Box mode starts out with 9 stages, designated 1-1 through 3-3. After you finish all three stages along a particular row or column, a fourth stage will appear. When complete, your Crazy Box stage select should look like this: 1-1 2-1 3-1 S-1 1-2 2-2 3-2 S-2 1-3 2-3 3-3 S-3 1-S 2-S 3-S S-S Stage S-S will appear after all other stages have been completed. If you finish Stage S-S (hint: mastering the Limiter Cut makes things a *lot* easier... though it is possible to finish without it), you will earn the use of the Special Taxi (the Bike) in all modes of the game, including Crazy Box. In Crazy Box mode, simply scroll to the right of Gus to access Cabbie & Bike selections. In Arcade and Original Modes, simply press up on the d-pad at the Cabbie Select screen. ------------------------ VI. Some Technique Notes ------------------------ Here are some notes which may not be entirely obvious, in regards to some of the techniques in Crazy Taxi. I've decided to write up this info here because some (some) of it I have not previously seen in any English language resources... VI.1 Crazy Dash notes The Crazy Dash (AccOFF+BrkOFF, Dr, AccON) does not necessarily have to be done from a complete stop; it can be done at any time, even while moving. Doing a Crazy Dash while moving may briefly give you a small burst of speed, so doing the command repeatedly on unpaved ground (or other conditions of slight hinderance) may actually help you out (speedwise) a bit; if you're on paved ground, however, the gradual accumulation of speed after a single Crazy Dash should get you to a velocity higher than if you do multiple Crazy Dashes. VI.2 Crazy Backdash notes If you've done a Crazy Backdash (Crazy Dash, R), you've probably noticed that after the initial boost of backwards speed, your taxi's velocity drops to a more normal rate. The Crazy Backdash, though, like the Crazy Dash, does not have to be done from a complete stop. So if you're trying to drive backwards to something a moderate distance away (for example, if you're trying to pick up the passenger to the back of the starting location in Arcade Mode), just do multiple Crazy Backdashes. VI.3 Limiter Cut notes The Limiter Cut (after Crazy Dash, AccOFF+Rv, (wait), Dr, AccON) is basically like a Crazy Dash in a Crazy Dash. As mentioned above, however, if you simply do a Crazy Dash followed by a Crazy Dash, you'll only get a small, brief burst of speed out of the second Crazy Dash. So basically, you have to "reset" things so that the second Crazy Dash will give you a boost of speed similar to the first Crazy Dash, allowing you to surpass the normal velocity limit a Crazy Dash has; that's what you're doing when you do AccOFF+Rv. The wait is critical, though; if you don't wait for long enough, you'll probably end up with a Crazy Drift instead. So here are some timing notes: The timing actually seems to be fairly forgiving on the far side. So if you're having trouble pulling off the Limiter Cut, simply increase the wait. As far as the near side... well, try timing it to the music. If you're familiar with the song used during the Arcade Mode attract (it's also used during the game sometimes), think of the phrase "Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah!" (the first phrase of the song). If you do AccOFF+Rv on the first "Yeah", then wait until the second "Yeah" before doing Dr,AccON (the actual minimal wait is slightly shorter than that, but once you get the hang of the Limiter Cut, you can experiment on your own to find the actual minimal timing). If that still gives you trouble, then try waiting until the third or fourth "Yeah". One last timing note: After your first Crazy Dash, you have to wait a little while before doing a Limiter Cut, or your Taxi will jump a bit (and waste some time). You don't have to wait until your taxi is at its top speed, but you do have to wait a little bit. There is no such wait necessary after doing a Limiter Cut, before doing another, though; the timing for doing multiple Limiter Cuts is similar to that for doing multiple Crazy Dashes. Anyway, hope the above makes things clearer, for those of you having trouble doing the Limiter Cut! Once mastered, the Limiter Cut is a lot of fun, and should improve your scores significantly! =) --------------------- VII. Thanks and Stuff --------------------- Thanks to: The Dreamcast secrets site at (http://www.geocities.co.jp/Playtown-Dice/6400/urawaza.html), for pointing me in the right direction on the Another Day code, the Special Taxi code, and the P3 controller codes... BFL's Crazy Taxi page (http://www.nanatic.tokio.ne.jp/~bfl/taxi.htm), for helping me out with the Limiter Cut! And for confirming some of the DCast version codes... And some sites I would recommend, for more Crazy Taxi info: BFL's Crazy Taxi page (Japanese) http://www.nanatic.tokio.ne.jp/~bfl/taxi.htm The Arcade city map has been quite helpful (and it looks like a Dreamcast city map is planned too!), as has the techniques page. Overall, a very informative and organized site. Prisoner's Crazy Taxi page (English) http://www.tcp.com/~prisoner/taxi/ Informative English language page. Also has links to lots of other Crazy Taxi pages. (eof)