Fans have reverse engineered the unlock codes to a 4K port of TimeSplitters 2 hidden within Homefront: The Revolution; just days after it was known and thought to be lost.
As previously reported, a Twitter discussion on Easter Eggs developers had hid in their games led to Homefront: The Revolution developer Matt Phillips revealing the TimeSplitters 2 Easter Egg was more substantial than first thought.
While it was known players could play the first two levels, dataminers had found other levels from the original game. Phillips revealed he had hidden an entire native 4K port of TimeSplitters 2. The downside is that the unlock code had long been lost by himself and his colleague. Fans lamented at this terrible loss… For about four days.
Spencer Perreault, now acting as a Principal Software Engineer at Microsoft, tweeted out the unlock code on April 8th. “You mean this code? LT+Up, LT+Up, Down, LT+Right, RT+Left, RT+B, LT+Y, LT+Y, RT+X, LT+A.” It was later claimed by Phillips the tweet had gone mostly unnoticed as Perreault had been shadowbanned by Twitter.
Phillips tweeted a Discord screenshot on April 9th. A TimeSplitters fan community member had reached out to Perreault (discovering his Microsoft connection and that his tweet had gone unnoticed), while Fanoto reverse engineered the input checks on the PC version of the game. Fanoto then discovered how to unlock the Story, Arcade, and Challenge modes.
This level of reverse engineering may eventually lead to players (and developers) to extract the 4K port from Homefront: The Revolution. YouTuber RyanUKAus had previously found the other maps via hex editing; modifying the game’s code at the binary level. Phillips noted that this makes it “even more impressive.”
It should be noted THQ Nordic owns the IP rights to TimeSplitters, with co-creator Steve Ellis joining them and stating he is set to “plot the future course” of the franchise. SpellForce 3: Fallen God also features in-game items as Easter Egg of other THQ Nordic games; including a reference to a TimeSplitters 2 remake. This was later denied as being “just an innocent Easter Egg.”
What was once a joke may now be all the more possible. We will keep you informed as we learn more.
Homefront: The Revolution is available on Windows PC (via Steam), PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.
TimeSplitters 2 was available on Nintendo Gamecube, PlayStation 2, and Xbox.
