Wacky Races Dreamcast's Unused Voicelines
August 11, 2026
...yeah, about fucking time.
(I'm sorry that it took so long to make my "Annual Wacky Races Post" for 2026. It's mainly because of how busy i've been with Project Midway.)
I've always had a fascination with the development of video games. That should be obvious just by looking at my
Hidden Palace page. (which i'm now realising i forgot to put into my list of other pages like a complete moron) I also love Wacky Races on the PS2 (& technically the Dreamcast) and that game has a LOT of unused material that's been uncovered over the years, from old prototypes, hidden levels inside of those old prototypes, screenshots of features that we still haven't been able to explain and so much more.
Although, there's always been one aspect of the game that i KNEW would be a treasure trove of unused content if we were ever able to dig through them, and those were the voice lines. I knew this would be the case for a couple of reasons. Firstly, i tried to extract the Dreamcast version's audio data myself, and even though i was unsucesfull in my attempts the few voiceline snippets i was able to rip almost exclusively consisted of unused stuff. On top of that, during one of my playthroughs of the early prototypes, i decided to try and load into the game by activating a save state while playing something completely different. This will almost always cause for the game to sustain some kind of corruption, and in WRDC's case it ended up completely jumbling the instructions for what voicelines should be played where, and as a result some of the lines i heard during the corruptions also included stuff from this unused treasure trove. The problem with both of these finds was that i had so little of the actual clips that i couldn't really come to any conclusions. And so, the idea of ripping into this game's voicelines sat in the back of my mind for years...
...until 2026, where on the 26th of May ShyYoshiGuy made a HUGE discovery after finding that subtitles for every voiceline in the game is stored somewhere in the game's memory at all times, probably for the devs to identify what voicelines are playing just by looking at the game's output. Somehow, Shy was able to rip every single one of these, and he put them all in a text file that he uploaded to the Wacky Races PS2 Discord server later that day. Not too much time later he was able to figure out how to rip out the complete audio data. Granted, it is a little distorted, but it's undeniably a complete set of every voiceline in the game. At that point the audio sounding like it came out of a Supermarket speaker doesn't really matter.
Now that we have a master list for every voice line in the game, there was only one job left to do. Someone would need to read every voiceline in the game to figure out what's used and what isn't. This is where i come in. When it comes to deeply rooted facts about how WRPS2 and WRDC work, i'm probably the most qualified in the world. Although it does tend to flip between me and Oklaico due to his inhuman knowledge of the game's bugs. Regardless, i've got a photographic knowledge for the game's voicelines and i could tell just from a minor glance what appears in the game and what doesn't. Below you'll see a breakdown of every unused voiceline that was found from ShyYoshiGuy's efforts. Everything will be put into a category to make understanding what they are a lot easier. I won't be including the actual voiceline on this page, though. I'll upload them all to archive.org or TheSoundsResource at some point. What you will see, however, is the raw subtitle data that the game pulls from.
Category 1: Kinda Used
0x00005753 : Select your game-mode RACER!
0x00005770 : Please select your game-mode
We're starting off with something that a lot of you may be calling bullshit on. I can already hear you going "But these ARE used in the game! They play when you enter the mode select for Arcade Mode!". And yes, you are correct, but that only applies for the PS2 version. Remember, these voicelines were ripped from the Dreamcast version... which doesn't have an Arcade mode. This is really interesting because we know from an email interview i gave to the head of the game, Antony Crowther, that the PS2 version didn't exist to finish unfinished content from the Dreamcast version. However, these hidden voicelines completely contradict that claim.
0x0000C2A6 : And there's the Arkansas Chug-A-Bug with Luke & Blubber Bear, Sneaking along last is that Mean Machine with those double dealing do-badders Dick Dastardly and his sidekick, Muttley.
Again, you may be calling bullshit on this one. However, there's a lot more to this than there may be on the surface. Even though this voiceline is technically used, it's not stored as a real voiceline. Infact, none of the intro voicelines are outside of the first few sentences for the start of the Track Challenges. That's not the only reason why i included this though, because on top of that the delivery of the second half of the line is completely different to how it's delivered in the game's intro. Because the voiceline contains an audible breath being taken by the narrator inbetween where it splits in the intro, that tells me that the intro took two takes to get right with the devs completely forgetting to remove the second half of the original take from it's corresponding voiceline. Luckily for them the game doesn't call for this voiceline at any point, so they got away with it.
Category 2: Why aren't you used?
This category is dedicated to voicelines where despite being unused, i can't really piece together why the game never calls for them. A lot of these have pretty obvious use cases that the game compeltely skips out on. There are some pretty interesting examples though, and i'll underline those with an explanation when they come up.
0x000059D0 : Keep your ears peeled for new characters entering the hub, they'll be ready for a challenge
0x00005A2C : You're able to locate Boss characters by listening to them as they appear in the hub
0xEWN03013 : Mastering the Handbrake is the key to becoming a Wacky Race master
0x00005E6C : You need to collect more stars to enter this challenge!
The reason i highlighted this one is because it's position in memory is placed smack dab in the middle of all of the other voicelines that the game uses to tell you you're short on stars. Like the name for the category suggests, i've got no clue why it's not used.
0x000071F2 : It looks like Dastardly's reluctant to hand over the keys to the Mean Machine!
0x00008503 : And awayyyy go the Wacky Racers on another track of the Wacky Race!
0x0000943B : The Mean Machine passes everyone!
0x00008802 : And here come the rest of the cars down to the finish!
The use case for this line is pretty obvious. It'd probably play if the frontrunning driver has a huge gap on the rest of the field as the runner up starts to aproach the line. This was probably either scrapped because the code wouldn't work or because they just forgot they made it.
0x0000A1B8 : Why not try a different challenge!
0x0000A51C : You're in the final round with Team double zero!
0x0000A54D : You've made it to the final against the Mean Machine!
0x0000A752 : Now try and beat this time!
This one's weird to me, because there's a lot of obvious places you could put this, but i'm not entirely sure where the game would use it. Your guess is as good as mine.
0x0000A211 : WELL DONE!!! You finished in second place!
0x0000A23C : That's great! You finished in 2nd position! Try for Gold next time!
0x0000A280 : You just missed out on 1st place! Better luck next time!!!
0x0000A2BB : Good job racer! You finished in 3rd place, you should try for the Gold star next time!
0x0000A312 : You can do better than that! Better Luck Next Time!!!
0x0000A348 : Well Done!!! You should go for 1st position next time!
0x0000A37F : You finished in 3rd Place! Try harder next time!
0x0000A48F : Good job racer! You finished in 3rd place, you should try for the Gold star next time!
This last batch of voicelines is funny to me because of how big of an emphasis the game puts on winning the race. It seems like it was originally going to be a little less bashful over your performance.
Category 3: I've got no idea lol
0x00005B33 : Who knows what wacky wheels will wisk down the road for today's race!
I'm putting this here because i have no idea where to categorise this. It could be something that plays before a race, it could be something that plays when you enter the boss area, it could be something that plays during the item selection, i have no idea.
Category 4: Minor Differences
Now we're getting into the good stuff. Every voiceline from here points towards either an unused feature or a significant difference in how the game was structured. Underlining from here won't be necessary as every group of more than one line will generally fit under the same context for all of the lines included.
0x0000578D : Here's a new secret Wacky Cheat Code for you to try
In the final version of the game, you don't get instructions on any of the cheats included in the game, but i think the reason why is because of how few cheat codes there are. Three of them are unlock cheats, one of them is a secret difficulty and the last one is a bighead mode. With only two cheat codes that significantly change how the game is played it would be kinda stupid to have the game tell you what these cheats are. To me, this indicates that the cheat codes were originally going to be a lot more robust with the game telling you about more of the codes the more you completed it before eventually being scaled back to the cheat code system in the final game.
Category 5: Character Voicelines
The game has a decent chunk of unused character voice lines, however most of them aren't worth writing home about. The majority of them were used in the PS1 game so it's not like we're digging into new ground bylooking into them. However, there was one batch of them that caused me to raise an eyebrow.
0x0001145E : Now try and beat my time, hee-heh-heh-heh
0x00011488 : Beat my time!
0x00011496 : So you think you can beat my time eh?
0x000114BC : You've got no chance of beating my time!
0x000114E5 : Try and beat my treacherous time-trial!
0x0001150D : So you've come to challenge one of my Dastardly time Trials?
As it turns out, Dastardly was originally going to take a page out of N-Tropy's book by boasting about how good his time trials were. It's a shame that these were cut, because the final game's pitiful pool of time trial voicelines get real old real fast.
Category 6: Character Voicelines
Another thing i found from looking at the unused voicelines was that the game was supposed to have a LOT of voicelines reserved for multiplayer mode. Some of the voicelines in the hex batch these voicelines can be found in were used, but the majority of them weren't.
0x00007878 : Player-1 is in the lead!
0x00007891 : Player-1 seems to be winning!
0x000078AF : Player-1 is winning!!!
0x000078C6 : In the Lead we have Player-1!
0x000078E4 : Player 1 is way-out in the lead!
0x00007905 : Come on player-2!!!
0x00007919 : Player-2 is playing catch-up!
0x00007937 : Player-2 is staging a comeback!!
0x00007958 : Player-2 is in the lead!
0x00007971 : Player-2 seems to be winning!
0x0000798F : Player-2 is winning!!!
0x000079A6 : In the Lead we have Player-2
0x000079C3 : Player 2 is way-out in the lead!
0x000079E4 : Come on player-1!!
0x000079F7 : Player-1 is playing catch-up!
0x00007A15 : Player-1 is staging a comeback!!
0x00007A36 : It's neck and neck on the score cards!!!
0x00007A5F : Both player are drawing!!!
0x00007A7A : Both players are on equal scores!
0x00007A9C : This is a close match-up! Both players are neck and neck!!
0x00007AD7 : Player-3 is in the lead!
0x00007AF0 : Player-3 seems to be winning!
0x00007B0E : Player-3 is winning!!!
0x00007B25 : In the Lead we have Player-3!
0x00007B43 : Player 3 is way-out in the lead!
0x00007B64 : Come on player-3!!!
0x00007B78 : Player-3 is playing catch-up!
0x00007B96 : Player-3 is staging a comeback!!
0x00007BB7 : Player-4 is in the lead!
0x00007BD0 : Player-4 seems to be winning!
0x00007BEE : Player-4 is in the lead!
0x00007C07 : Player-4 seems to be winning!
0x00007C25 : Player-4 is winning!!!
0x00007C3C : In the Lead we have Player-4!
0x00007C5A : Player 4 is way-out in the lead!
0x00007C7B : Come on player-4!!!
0x00007C8F : Player-4 is playing catch-up!
0x00007CAD : Player-4 is staging a comeback!!
0x00007CCE : Player 1 select you vehicle
0x00007CEA : Player 2 select your vehicle
0x00007D07 : Player 3 select your vehicle
0x00007D24 : Player 4 select your vehicle
Category 7: Huh?
This category is reserved for voicelines that likely represent mechanics that exist in the final game. However, the names for them are completely different. There is always a chance that these represent mechanics cut from the final game, but i doubt that due to the game's structure not making sense with multiple structural mechanics that sounds near identical to eachother.
0x00005815 : Collect more Merit Stars to open up more areas, challenges and events
0x0000597B : The more Merit Stars you collect the more areas, challenges and events you can enter
0x00006F32 : Try to access the Final Dastardly Challenge by collecting all of the Emerald Stars!
(I found this out from the video that kitty of chaos made on the Duke, and you can watch that here.)
Not bad for a controller made for the sake of damage control.