Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 (March 2000 demo)

An early demo of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 for the Sony PlayStation.
On May 15, 2000 this demo was initially featured on the PlayStation Underground: Jampack Summer 2000 (SCUS-94587) and Official PlayStation Magazine 34 (SCUS-94593) demo disc in the US and simultaneously debuted on the June issue of the Official PlayStation Magazine (Euro Demo 59 | SCED-02633) in Europe and Australia, the latter also initially receiving the demo as a standalone disc (SLED-02879). 
This demo was notable because it featured instructions to enter the "Big Score Competition". From May 15 until July 28, players could submit their high score online to Activision's website along with a passcode that would spawn in the post-run menu if they managed to end the run with a score above 25.000. Twelve winners (eight from the US and one each from the UK, France, Germany and Australia) were flown out to San Francisco to the Summer X-Games to meet Tony hawk and compete for cash prizes totaling $25,000.
There are several different versions of this demo. Besides the obvious NTSC/PAL builds, some have French and German translations of the contest instructions as well as versions without any mention of the competition. All demos match in every other aspect. Each region received a standalone copy of the game. Since Australia got theirs first, the other regions followed suit with post-competition versions respectively. According to the contest rules on Activision's website, residents in Germany were able to request a free copy of the demo from the publisher's local division to be sent to them. If indeed this was also a standalone copy is currently unknown, as is any other information on that disc.
Available for download here are the three currently known standalone versions of this demo:
Region 	 	Competition Version	Release Serial	Build Date
Australia	PAL 	Yes 	SLED-02879 	Mar 29, 2000
Europe 	PAL 	No 	SLED-03048 	Jun 2, 2000
US/Canada	NTSC	No 	SLUS-90086 	Jun 2, 2000
Although the build dates differ, all versions have been sourced from the same point in development. Modification dates of this demo's files featured on magazine discs are untrustworthy since they've always been seemingly overwritten with the disc creation date. The earliest build date of this demo found is the PAL variant built on March 29. Some files on the NTSC standalone disc indicate the actual point in development being anywhere between the 9th and 29th of March 2000.
==Notes==
*The Neversoft intro video matches the one used in Tony Hawk's Pro Skater (1999).
*An earlier version of the game logo is used.
*2 Player is called Multiplayer on the main menu.
**Although only Trick Attack is selectable, holding down R1 while selecting a course in the level select, loads into Graffiti mode.
*The manual stat is called Invert.
*The extra menu in the skater selection, that gives the player the option to pick a style/edit the skater's appearance or tricks, stats or visit the Skateshop is absent from this demo.
**Also, none of the above mentioned features have been implemented at this point.
*The level select background art uses a red color tone, as opposed to the blue one in the final.
*Also, the level order is different and seems to somewhat match the order the levels were developed in.
*The Hangar was located in Tadzhikistan, rather than Mullet Falls MT.
*Career mode, aside from a few cosmetic changes in the menus, seemingly has not undergone any work yet and is unchanged from the previous game.
**The cash amount and medals obtained shown in the player and level select menu are dummy numbers.
**Since Marseille occupies the same level ID slot that Warehouse did in the first game, it is actually possible to obtain the High Score and Pro Score tapes in that mode.
*Gaps can not be placed in the Park Editor.
*The secret area in Marseille is locked off with a fence and a sign that reads "Work in Progress". However, the player can collect five 500-point pick-ups. Being a leftover of the previous game, this would be the last appearance of these objects, as they would be replaced by cash pick-ups some time before the E3 demo.
**There are invisible rails sitting parallel on each side of that fence, which, when correctly grinded on, can clip the player through the fence or even behind the cave area if the player keeps grinding. However, landing in that void or jumping into the hole traps the skater in an endless mid-air animation. Without an option to land the combo, the game soft locks as soon as the timer runs out. Check the "Toggle HUD" notes in the cheat code section below to find out what to do should this occur.
*The trick multiplier locks at 19. This cap is in place because going over 20 will glitch out and crash the game on hardware.
*Big Drop has not been implemented at this stage.
*All numbers and symbols in the trick string are yellow. Any numbers that are part of a gap name will appear green.
*While weak trick modifiers are also present in the final game, in this demo any such trick is also labeled this way e.g. Weak Tail, Weak Fish, etc.
*This demo features two songs, edited down to two minutes: "Heavy Metal Winner" by Consumed and "Cyclone" by Dub Pistols.
=== Accessing locked options ===
Due to this build being a demo, it is restricted in it's functionalities. However, with a bit of memory editing, the other game modes and options can be accessed as well. 
Make sure you get to the level select screen in Single Session before changing any of the following values (except for the Park Editor ones) to avoid a game crash. Note that the following information is written in regard to the NTSC-U standalone build (SLUS-90086).
 	 	RAM Address	Value	Notes
Game modes 	Career Mode 	0x800DC19C 	01 	Do not load the level select while already in this mode as it will crash the game due to missing art assets.
Game modes 	Free Skate 	0x800DC19C 	02 	
Game modes 	Create-A-Skater 	0x800DC198 	03 	In the level select, set the value at 3, then press Triangle to return to the previous menu, instead of the player selection page, you will be loaded into an early version of Create-A-Skater.L2 and R2 will change the brightness of the selected clothing option.
L1 and R1 will modify the color intensity of said piece as well as move the skater around.
Player Select	Play as 'Rodney Mullen' 	0x800D7E44 	02 	Despite him not being selectable in-game, his character's files can be found in the demo's data
Player Select	Play as 'Created Skater'	0x800D7E44 	0D 	The skater's appearance can be modified in the CAS menu, accessible with the instructions above.
Park Editor 	Modify demo piece limit 	0x800DC180 	?? 	While it is fine to raise it, be aware that the PlayStation will eventually run out of memory and crash the game.
Park Editor 	Access 'Save' option 	0x801FD5F0 	02 	Opens the same menu as the "Load" option and prompts to overwrite the pre-made park at the slot you've chosen.
Park Editor 	Access 'Load' option 	0x801FD5F0 	03 	Doesn't load from memory card, rather opens a numbered list with 10 pre-made parks.
===Cheat codes===
While input detection is disabled in this demo, they can be activated by locating them in the cheat code array. At this point in development, the codes are THPS1 leftovers. Some are working, some are not.
1 activates and 0 deactivates the functions. The following codes were written for the NTSC-U standalone build.
 	Input 	Input 	Writes to address	Notes 	 	
Always special 	X, Triangle, Circle, Down, Up, Right 	XTCDUR 	0x800D9668 	 	 	
Big head 	Square, Circle, Up, Left, Left 	SCULL 	0x800D9660 	The code works on Chad Muska only. Hawk, Mullen and the created skater all get a big hand instead. 	 	
Debug coordinates 	Down, Down, Triangle, Down, Down, Triangle 	DDT DDT 	0x800D9650 	Function not present. Displays a panel on the bottom left of the screen, showing the skater's current position and what spawn point has been used. 	 	
FPS and stats display 	Down, Up, Left, Left, Down, Up, Left, Left 	DULL DULL	0x800D9654 	The stats display is a non-updated version of the previous game, where there were only four instead of ten variables. 	 	
Perfect balance 	Right, Up, Left, Square 	RULS 	0x800D9640 	 	 	
Replay save destination 	Right, Circle, Right, Down, Right, Circle, Right, Down	RCRD RCRD	0x800D7DFC 	This code activates a function that saves replays, normally written to a memory card, onto an attached dev kit/computer instead. Will try to save them as demoA.rec, demoB.rec, etc.. The same format used for the THPS1 gameplay videos that play in the main menu after a few moments of inactivity. Will crash without a connection.	 	
Score times 10 	Triangle, X, Triangle, Up, Down, Up 	TXTUDU 	0x800DA9CC 	 	 	
Screenshots 	Square, Circle, Right, X 	SCRX 	0x800D9664 	Press SELECT to freeze the game. The camera can be moved with the following inputs using a Controller in Port 2. However, it seems to work in 2-player mode only.
{| class="wikitable" 	Horizontal Sphere Left / Right	Square / Circle
Vertical Sphere Up / Down	D-Pad Up / Down 	 	 	 	 	
Zoom In / Out 	D-Pad Left / Right 	 	 	 	 	
Rise / Lower 	L1 / L2 	 	 	 	 	
Lock input 	R2 	 	 	 	 	
==Screenshots==
File:THPS2 MAR2000 1.png|Legal screen
File:THPS2 MAR2000 2.png|Main menu
File:THPS2 MAR2000 3.png|Tony Hawk
File:THPS2 MAR2000 20.png|Chad Muska - Career mode
File:THPS2 MAR2000 5.png|Created Skater
File:THPS2 MAR2000 6.png|Hangar
File:THPS2 MAR2000 7.png|Competition ver.
File:THPS2 MAR2000 8.png|Post-competition ver.
File:THPS2 MAR2000 9.png|Gameplay
File:THPS2 MAR2000 10.png|Gameplay
File:THPS2 MAR2000 23.png|Created Skater - "Weak Trick"
File:THPS2 MAR2000 11.png|Hidden area
File:THPS2 MAR2000 12.png|Invisible rail
File:THPS2 MAR2000 13.png|Behind the fence
File:THPS2 MAR2000 14.png|Stuck in void
File:THPS2 MAR2000 15.png|Stuck in void
File:THPS2 MAR2000 22.png|Career mode
File:THPS2 MAR2000 16.png|Competition ver.
File:THPS2 MAR2000 17.png|Post-competition ver.
File:THPS2 MAR2000 18.png|Demo card
File:THPS2 MAR2000 21.png|Create-A-Skater
File:THPS2 MAR2000 19.png|Park editor
File:THPS2 MAR2000 24.png|Rodney Mullen - "Sex Change"
File:THPS2 MAR2000 25.png|Rodney Mullen - "Triple Kickflip"
==See also==
*Big Score Competition rules at Activision.com. | Archived (Jun 21, 2000)
*Related news articles:
#IGN | May 16, 2000 | Aug 28, 2000
#Gamespot | May 16, 2000
*Planet Tony Hawk: Move List | Transfers
*Redump entries: SLED-02879 | SLED-03048 | SLUS-90086
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