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One of the most popular 3rd party N64 releases would be Turok 2: Seeds of Evil. It was first released on December 10th 1998 and was immediately met with positive reviews and strong sales. The sales were so strong that it went on to sell over a million copies in less than 6 months. The game's original MSRP was $69.99 but this was to change. Because the game sold over 1 million copies, it was now able to be re-released under the Player's Choice emblem. The new Player's Choice version of Turok 2 came out in spring 1999 with a lower MSRP of $39.99. Here's what they looked like:
Acclaim had always talked about the sleek black cartridge that Turok 2 came in. The black carts were no more as the Player's Choice Turok 2 came in a standard gray cartridge. The label that was used on the gray carts was just the exact same as the one on the black ones. Acclaim didn't bother to update it with a Player's Choice emblem and the newer product code. The cost of having a coloured N64 cartridge cost a little bit more to manufacture, so it made sense for Acclaim to switch the cartridge colour gray.
So, what are the ROM differences between the black and gray copies? Well we've taken a good look at the two carts and have found 2 noticable differences. These differences are glitches that exist in the black carts, but were patched in the gray carts.
The No Blood Cheat
The first glitch we've found is rather embarrassing for Acclaim.
The second level of Turok 2 is the River of Souls. It's quite long and maze-like, but the objectives are more straightforward than the last level. The objectives in the River of Souls involve killing 3 Sister's of Despair, and 2 Soulgates. Whenever you reach an area with a Soulgate or Sister, there will be an infinite amount of Deadmen spawning around you. This forces you to have to work fast to destroy the Soulgate or Sister of Despair. The regular Deadmen have one attack and that's to shoot blood at you. The larger Deadmen known as the Lords of the Dead have two attacks. One is shooting blood, and one is shooting fire.
Now in the options menu of Turok 2 there's an option for the blood. You can change the blood colour to green if you like. It doesn't really serve a purpose it's more just an option for the hell of it. You can also turn the blood to off, just in case you'd like to make the game a little less violent. One major problem comes with this. The Deadmen lose their attack if you turn the blood off!
Yes, the Deadmen just stand there throwing nothing at you. They are unable to damage you. The Lords of the Dead are also unable to hurt you with their blood attack but their fire attack still works. As you can imagine turning the blood off really makes these fights a lot easier.
The above is what happens in the black carts. So what happens when you turn the blood off in the gray cart?
The blood does indeed stay off, but the Deadmen can damage you. Instead of blood they will shoot dust at you. Occasionally you can see that strange blue electricity that you saw in the demo.
Using this glitch does not count as cheating so you're still capable of unlocking the cheat codes in Turok 2. If you're having trouble with the Sister's of Despair or Soulgates, then I'd recommend giving this glitch a try.
Multiplayer in Campaign Levels
For this glitch you'll want to enter the big cheat. The big cheat is BEWAREOBLIVIONISATHAND. You'll then want to start a multiplayer match with all the settings you want. Once done, go to cheat menu.
The black cartridge is the left screenshot, and the gray one is the right. Notice something? Acclaim forgot to remove the warping cheat for the Campaign. This means you can warp your multiplayer matches to a Campaign level. This also opens up a lot of glitches on its own.
When you warp, your characters will be inside each other, but you can get out. There's a lot you can do in the Campaign levels, though you won't make it very far in them.
In the second level you can actually get on the dinosaur and fire with it. It just looks like you're running in place on the other persons screen. All the enemies from the campaign are here as well.
Those were just a few things I noticed within a few minutes. There's a lot you can do with this cheat and it's fun to fool around with. One thing to note is that this cheat does lag with more than two players in it. That's expected as these levels were intended to have just one player. This is a glitch to try out if you're up for some major screwing around.
Written by Kevin Ames
April 27 2013
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