Clockwork Knight 2 (USA Ver.) - Clockwork Knight 1 Unlock Code Finally Found!

Merry Belated Christmas! It's been a while~

One of the biggest Clockwork Knight 2 secrets was finally found on Christmas Day 2023, when a cheat code that was rumored all the way back in 1996 was finally found, making for the ultimate Clockwork Christmas Present!

So, what is the story behind this one you ask? It's been known for years now that Clockwork Knight 2 USA was based on the code of the compilation title "Pepperouchau no Fukubukuro", just with "Part 1" removed from the game... but, back in 1996, rumors started circling on Usenet and the early internet in various places that a cheat code could unlock the first Clockwork Knight game in the USA release of Clockwork Knight 2.

At least one US gaming Magazine ("Game Players Magazine - April 1996"), and even an in-store trailed company called "Video Pipeline" were given this information by SEGA for the trailer they made for the then upcoming US release of Clockwork Knight 2 (This video and more information is linked at the end).

In late 2018, I became aware of such rumors. I also realised that the data for the first game was still on the disc, but I was unable to find much else other than that, and as such I was unable to prove that Clockwork Knight 1 was hidden inside Clockwork Knight 2.

Skipping forward to December 2023, a user called "Bo (aka @memory_fallen on Twitter/X)" joined our discord, and along with a bunch of other cool Saturn hacking they've been doing, they decided to start looking into the Clockwork Knight games.

They had been finding all kinds of cool information about how the games run, and even a bunch of cheat codes, and when they finally got to looking into the data of the USA release of Clockwork Knight 2, they by chance came across a code that did something that had simply been a rumor since early 1996... unlock the WHOLE of the first Clockwork Knight game in Clockwork Knight 2!!!!

You read that right... not just the cutscenes or the bosses galore mode... the WHOLE first game has been playable since 1996, and no one knew the cheat code! The code was then publicly revealed on Christmas Day 2023, almost 28 years after the game was released.

So, why is this a thing? Good question! I originally wondered if the data for the first game was left on the disc simply for convenience reasons, but as time went on this seemed unlikely.

I guess they just left it on as a little surprise, but why not publicize the cheat code then? It's not like it hadn't been alluded to before the game released, and it's not like you got the code for completing things, so what is going on? It's likely we'll never know, but at least now we have the cheat code.

I'd like to give a huge thanks again to Bo for finding this code, and putting my 5 year long search and a 27 year old mystery to rest.

If you want to try the cheat code out for yourself, you have 2 options:
1. At the main title screen press UP, DOWN, LEFT, UP, LEFT, DOWN, RIGHT, UP, L Trigger, R Trigger, L Trigger, R Trigger. When you hear a chime, press start. You can then select "Part 1"!
2. You can apply a patch to a Redump compliant rip of the game to have it always unlocked. This can be found at https://cwk.fyi/CK2USPatch .

Join us on the Clockwork Knight.com Discord server: https://cwk.fyi/D

Sources:
1. Cheat Code Release Tweet:   / 1738923117676802552  
2. Usenet archived post from February 1996: https://groups.google.com/g/rec.games...
3. Game Zero - March 1996 Review of Clockwork Knight 2: http://www.gamezero.com/team-0/final_...
4. Game Players Magazine - April 1996: https://archive.org/details/Game_Play...
5. Video Pipeline/Video Detective Video Reupload with Further Information:    • Clockwork Knight 2 - Video Pipeline/V...