Today - January 16th, 2006 - I shall provide the final copy of the Nitros Oxide Compendium Report. To prevent it being overwritten by pages over time, I have decided to place it here, where it will rest.
Excerpt from the pinned topic below/above this one:
Nitros Oxide Compendium Report-NOCR-v 5.0
Project started: October 27, 2005
Project finished: November 25, 2005
Welcome to the Nitros Oxide Compendium Report! Enclosed in here you will find as follows:
- Nitros Oxide's possible statistics
- Why Nitros Oxide's ghosts and races are so hard to win
- Proofs for why Nitros Oxide's characteristics are too good for an unlockable
- Possible strategies for unlocking Nitros Oxide; why they are incorrect
- Determination of Nitros Oxide's advantages
- A funny bogus rumor to get Oxide involving a twisted second form of Ripper Roo and an endorsement mascot
- A short analysis of GameShark/Action Replay codes and what they can offer us; how they cannot offer us Oxide
- A brief index explaining the history of CTR variations and how they have changed during progress
Well, these are the eight things (or at least the eight most important things) that you should be looking for. I hope you enjoy the report, and once you think you are ready to do some serious reading, then just press 'page down' and begin!
So, many CTR players have raced and successfully beaten Nitros Oxide, the crabby super-fast alien who threatened the fate of Crash Bandicoot's planet. Well, ever since the bosses known as Ripper Roo, Papu Papu, Komodo Joe, and Pinstripe were unlocked by completing the Gem Cup Challenges, people became suspicious and predicted a possible presence of our extraterrestrial friend in their character menu. The question was, "How do I get him?"
First we should determine what you're asking for. You want a super-fast alien, driving a hover car with six exhaust pipes attached to the rear, who can jump shortcuts with more ease and easily but unfairly cut off fellow racers and resist more weapon damage. Alright then, let's get working to calculate his speed. If you race Oxide with Tiny, who has a base 4 Speed stat, excluding the Turbo pads, shortcuts and power-slides, you'd find some unusual things. The guy- who you thought to surpass all in racing- Nitros Oxide- is struggling to pass Tiny! Why is this happening? Because Oxide also has a base 4 Speed, and when two respective base stats are pitted against each other in a straightaway, Acceleration and Turning (Oxide's better stats) are canceled out, and so unless you gain some hang-time turbos or one of you clumsily falls off an edge, you'll both be always near each other.
Next point: Acceleration. How do we determine acceleration? Well, according to our good friend MP Sniper, 'the exhaust pipes featured on the back of Oxide's vehicle function for acceleration, not speed'. Let's double-check that. Definition of 'exhaust': The discharge or release of used steam, gas, etc. from a steam or gas turbine or from the cylinders (Oxide's 6 pipes) of an engine at every working stroke of the pistons. Now, we see that any character gains a .5X speed boost which is added to their base speed from the beginning of the race. Oxide's base speed is 4, so if we add a .5X base acceleration multiplied by the other four exhaust cylinders, Oxide gets a .20X boost, which is just enough to outspeed Coco and N.Gin. Divide the base speed (4) by the .20X boost, and we have our Accel- 5.
Third Point: Turning. As we see by Oxide's ghost records, he can swirve across turns quite nicely- not as nicely as Penta, but nicely. Let's examine some turns to see how far Oxide can actually go. First turn: An average power slide. A power-slide tilts your kart at a 90 degree angle and gives you a standard boost. Let's take a simple turn in Papu's Pyramid for example, the one with the plants guarding it. Oxide cruises through that nicely. Next: The Turbo Track area with the two metal walls. This is a 180-degree angle. All characters have trouble, even Oxide, but he seems to be the better one in this category. He does stop, if not slow down, but tends to move around it better than others. Lastly: The Slide Coliseum turns. There are some good turns which surpass the 180 degree angle which Oxide can handle-with a little difficulty, but he can handle them. Thus we say, 'if a character that's not Penta can do so well, let's divide his base speed by the highest angle he can pass': 180 divided by 4 equals 45. Thus Oxide's base turning is 4.5.
Note: This has not been validated as 100% accurate. I was bored, and thus tried random calculations in an attempt to determine Oxide's possible statistics. I have included this message so that you will not be convinced by these and believe that they are accurate. It is very well possible that the real stats of Nitros Oxide are not 4, 5, and 4.5
So, thanks to some math (please excuse my offensive language), we've been able to calculate accurately Oxide's three base stats- Speed =4, Accel=5, Turn=4.5. Next, let's brainstorm a bit, for some possible reasons why Nitros Oxide may be a little too good to be true, and is a royal-pain-and-a-half to get by if your fat doesn't cut him off like Tiny. Here are what I've got:
The vehicle Oxide drives has a unique quality- it is a hover car, though many of you already knew this. Well, I've discovered that Oxide's vehicle only levitates (about 2 cm above-ground) when he's speeding up. That explains his power-slides before shortcuts and why he cruises through them so well.
If you've been involved in Oxide's AD mode challenges, then you should know of his size- and this isn't an exaggeration- he's huge. And when that guy gets in front of you- I should know, I've raced him and survived the exhaust- he cuts you off hard in them straightaways. This also gives him an advantage by pushing enemies into nearby obstacles/walls like the ones in Polar Pass.
Nitros Oxide- the damage absorber. Didn't notice? Let's explain: The average character gets knocked to the ground and spends some time bouncing rapidly on it after getting hit by a good tracking missile. Oxide, however- he takes the damage less seriously. For example, tracking missiles only make him spin. Red beaker clouds have almost no effect. Take this scenario: It's Crash vs Oxide. The two foes are neck-to-neck with barely nothing left to pass. Just a few more seconds and it'll be a tie. But two tracking missiles hit our contestants. Crash gets knocked up, while Oxide spins across the finish line. What gives???
The base stats of N.Oxide are too high, and given a limited amount of players permitted to choose one character (1), he'll always win the VS battles.
^Above are some applicable proofs or reasonable arguments to the N.Oxide rumor.
Do you hate it when people try to get the best of you, to prove you incorrect because you haven't done this or that, and perhaps that is the way to get N.Oxide? Well, I have done many things: Completed all time trial records, obtained all Platinum relics (for proof, compare the times I've posted in Best Times thread with Platinum relic times), completed the game 101%, so use me as a human shield (lol). Below are some possible methods of which I have heard to give you Oxide, and the truth behind them:
Complete all N.Oxide ghost records in Time Trial mode. -False.
Obtain all Platinum time relics in Adventure Mode. -False.
Fully complete Adventure with all characters. -False.
Beat Oxide in Adventure mode. -False.
Use Gameshark (see second following paragraph)
Main Menu code (also see second following paragraph)
NEW INFORMATION: Though many people may not know this info, N.Oxide WAS in CTR in early projects Alpha and Beta. Producers of Naughty Dog had to incorporate the crabby extraterrestrial in the game. Game testers were the 'record-setters', and they actually got to play as Oxide to set the ghost records and the race in Oxide Station. How lucky! The same went for N.Tropy and the bosses, so as we know it Naughty Dog's game testers could totally PWN us!
Back to the point, Oxide and friends had the power to release projectiles (ie Beakers, TNT Crates, etc.) from the back of his hover craft. How? This is because Naughty Dog inserted a unique chip in the early game database to quickly produce any chosen weapon at the push of a certain button combo, and this is how no matter what, Oxide, Papu Papu, Ripper Roo, Pinstripe, and Komodo Joe will always use the same items in the same remote location! Unfortunately, in Project Beta they recorded all data into the CTR discs from the Master copy after removing the chip. So it's too bad we couldn't use Oxide or repeated weapons.
Action Replay/GameShark/Main Menu codes
Some people know this, some people don't. For those who don't, welcome to MORE knowledge! *hears booing* And to those who know, keep quiet and don't ruin it for the others.
What are codes? They're hexademical alterings put into the game's disk drive to change things. For example, certain GameShark codes can produce hidden characters, improve turbo force and/or set the game's production memory to one specific weapon! Very fascinating indeed, don't you think? Weird thing is, how exactly do the main menu codes work? I believe they work off the fact that L1 and R1 were special 'trigger' buttons, as I call them, and at certain screens you could hold them down and enter a code. Ever seen the Matrix? TV video-game programs? Notice that both have a common building factor- zeros, ones and twos appear everywhere. This is actually a similar database to the one in CTR's Disk Drive. Several numbers inhabit the memory, and I think that when you hold down L1 and R1 buttons, all of the other buttons are converted- from their original purposes to that of hexademical digits. So, the ARROW code isn't actually A-R-R-O-W entirely. It's also a series of special digits, associating to change the boost given by Turbo pads. Cool, huh? Probably Naughty Dog made the digits resemble words so that it's easy to make them out.
What do these codes offer us? In general, they offer us new things, either shortcuts through the gameplay or early unlockables. Some people have been saying they offer us Oxide. No, it's not true. Though people don't know it, hexademical digits between main menu codes and GS/AR codes are similar in the way that most content is the same (ie N.Tropy, Penta Penguin, etc) and usually buying one of these devices is a waste of coin, because in CTR all GS gives you that's 'more' than usual content is a 'Beat Adventure Mode Quick" cheat. Action Replay- I don't think this has been released yet for an 'older' system; I've only seen GC, PS2, XBOX and GBA ones. What I've been trying to say through all of this blabbering is that cheat device codes aren't useless, per-se. All I mean is that, you can't really get much more out of them, and since this is a NITROS OXIDE Compendium Draft, what I mean is- you guessed it, same old stubborn CW- You can't get Oxide.
Below is a funny little 'fairy-tale' about a new form of Ripper Roo and an endorsement Pillsbury mascot- Enjoy.
You must beat Adventure mode 100% by getting past every course first try using Ripper Roo under 1 minute, no weapons nor powersliding. You also must not let Ripper Roo laugh during the whole game. When you finally face Oxide, Ripper Roo will turn into Sane Roo, as Sane Roo, you must pause for ten minutes every lap done, as Sane Roo will have a tea and biscuit break, you should never overtake Oxide, because otherwise Sane Roo will start crying as it will break his polite personality and he will get replaced by Mr. Pop 'n' Fresh for the rest of the game. Whether that's a good or bad thing that's up to you. (He uses Chef's hats instead of masks for weapons)Anyway always stay just behind Oxide, and when you get to the last row of ? boxes in the race, you will get a Green/Red beaker, throw the beaker in front of Oxide to make it look like an accident/suicide, then take 1st place and win the race, you will get Oxide.
As Oxide, you can race against all 4 Teletubbies, Mr Pop 'n' Fresh, and 2 randomly picked awfully over-rated pop singers at Oxide's home planet.
Note this is fake, and there are some grammatical errors; DON'T BLAME THEM ON ME!!!! XD
The Nitros Oxide ghost records- How are they so good?
Really, how are they? Notice many people have to use a Turbo code just to equalize him. We already contemplated his stats above, alongside basic characteristics, so it's already an obviousity that he's not going to walk us through the Coco Park. No, he's going to fist-slap you back to Michigan. You heard me. Nitros Oxide surpasses us all, with potential to pick us up, slam us on the ground, wipe his car with our faces, and make us inhale exhaust. But how do we beat him, then? In the final battle, our only means of keeping up are Super Turbo, power-sliding, infinite masks and weapons. We can't beat Oxide without those elements. In the ghost trials, we get hard times just keeping up with Super Turbo! But let's take a look at what his advantages truly are, okay?
1. He power-slides in straightaways to keep ahead.
2. He power-slides before jumps to activate levitation, thus giving him a hang-time turbo.
3. He takes all shortcuts with ease.
4. He gets in your way, translucent or not.
5. Pwns Pop 'n Fresh.
6. Pwns Sane Roo.
7. Starts before you in Oxide Station.
8. Pushes you away in Oxide Station.
9. Ghost passes through obstacles.
10. Very high base stats.
11. You can't use him, they can.
These are all true.
*FINAL INDEX*
Alpha Disk Drive Of CTR
This drive was the first variation of CTR. It had several glitches, and most likely the Super Spring and Oxide. In Alpha Drive, Naughty Dog Testers programmed the master copy and inserted the Oxide data in there. Modification chip and boss recordings were completed.
AlphaPal
Thanks to Modlocer and psyche_beamer, I learned a great deal of info regarding these things. Super Spring was removed due to possible unfairness, Pal was the first version to be released in stores and sold successfully. Rumors arise that feats un-accomplishable on Platinum may be plausable on this version...
Platinum was...well, the Platinum edition of CTR. Some added features were included, and, if above rumors were true, Oxide removed from the drive. Interesting, huh?
And so ends the little index. I know, it's skimpy, but there's not too much to learn about them seeing as we're not game programmers.
Conclusion- The Nitros Oxide is non-existent in Platinum version CTR. If you read all this, most of it was a brief history lesson, then you'll know why. So yeah, the book is finished. Go do what you were doing before. Spare me the grief.
Creditory
I would like to give my thanks to the following people who assisted me in creation of this report:
Cheatingking10
Chrissieboy
DigDug Dude
FireDragons
gigorga
Laxus
Modlocer
MP Sniper
psyche_beamer
the_ff_master
*ANNOUNCEMENT*
I am no longer to be doing major work on this. If there are any suggestions, direct them to me in the CTR forum. This report/analysis is copyrighted by me for SuperCheats, and anywhere else I wish to place it. If you steal it, you will lose the respect of many people on SC and get tortured by my evil chalkboard scratching...
Cipher_Wizard
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« Last edited by Cipher_Wizard on Aug 14th 2006 »If you see me posting, it's because I've been asked to. Which I guess would mean I'm taking requests.