SUMMIT: Virtual Pro-Wrestling Gamma is a ROM hack of WWF WrestleMania 2000, created by RagDas. In his own words:

This is a hack of WWF Wrestlemania 2000 that brings characters from Virtual Pro Wrestling 2 and WCW/nWo Revenge into the roster, replacing 18 characters in the existing roster, most of which were either very low on the card or, generally speaking, weren't actually wrestlers. There is a story to this hack, in spite of the original game not exactly having one[...]

For story information, please see "THE STORY SO FAR..." in the README file.

Features

Feature list summarized by freem:

New Characters

RagDas has this to say about some of the new characters:

You will notice that some of these guys, especially the VPW2 guys, use fighting styles that aren't in WM2K, which only features the standard 'pro wrestling' style. That brings me to my next change: the restoration of the shoot and hybrid fighting styles for use in WM2K (mostly). Sayama and AKI Man both use the hybrid fighting style, and therefore will use the combo meter instead of Strong B grapples. The rest of the UFO guys are all shoot fighters, so they can do most of you would expect them to do in their VPW2 incarnations.
With this roster also comes a number of move changes. Things like Razor Ramon's super Razor's Edge, Hayabusa's Phoenix Splash, Scott Steiner's tackle strike, and many more moves now occupy slots that were either previously unused by existing roster members, or were used by roster members that are no longer in the game. Misawa, Akiyama, Onita, and H all have super specials as well (only front, as back moves are quite limited).

More info can be found in the README.txt file, also included in the download.

Screenshots


Mitsuharu Misawa in Edit Mode.


AKI Man showing off the restored Combo/Hybrid fighting style versus Masato Tanaka.


Bas Rutten delivering a mounted punch to the face of Ken Shamrock.

Downloads

Patching

The patch for this ROM hack is in .xdelta format, and expects to be patched on an unmodified WWF WrestleMania 2000 ROM from the NTSC-U region in Z64 format.

Patching instructions are similar to what you'd do for VPW2 freem Edition or WCW/nWo REVENJI.

Base ROM Information

Information on the unpatched, unmodified WM2000 NTSC-U ROM in Z64 format:

Patched ROM Information

ROM information after patching with SUMMIT:

Frequently Asked* Questions

That * is best explained by RagDas as well:

This is a bit of a misnomer. At the time of writing, none of you have played this hack yet. This is just what I think you would logically ask once you've had some time to play the game.

Q. Why didn't you include Hulk Hogan, Sting, [someone else I wanted], etc. in the hack?

A. Honestly, my threshold for tolerance comes down to the weirdest moves. A big limiting factor for VPW2 guys is that one chop that most characters have that isn't in WM2K, and bringing it in would force me to change someone else's weak strike which would just lead to a lot of moveset changes in general for something so small. For Revenge characters, it's 100% likely that I didn't include your favorite because they have THAT backdrop suplex. It's a unique move that didn't make it to the post-Revenge era, and bringing it in would take a move slot that I couldn't afford, because I brought back the VPW2 back suplex instead. There are other reasons for omissions that I'll get into in other parts of this section.

Q. Why are there combo moves in the Back Special section?

A. When AKI made WM2K, they dummied out both the shoot and hybrid wrestling styles. The shoot style actually has been known to exist for 15-20 years, give or take, but the hybrid style was only found this year (2022). The issue with this style though is that combo moves aren't strikes, but grapples. Each move has a unique 'sell' animation to go with the strike and the style itself exclusively uses moves from the Back Special list. As a result, moves like the Burning Hammer and the Scorpion Death Drop have been replaced by combo strikes.

Q. The combo style's pretty cool, but I notice when they reverse one of the strikes, I do a hip swivel. What gives?

A. It's a bit of a technical question, but I'll explain it as best I can. While the hybrid style calls Back Specials, combo moves themselves are NOT the same as Back Specials. The inconsistency in move formats is to blame for this specific glitch.

Q. Why can't I armbar or choke people as a shoot fighter?

A. This is another technical issue. The game will not recognize the move even if it exists in the moveset. You could actually use a memory editor to change one value to bring the functionality back for each shoot fighter, but it'd be emulator only. This is a technical issue that would take assembly to fix, so it's beyond me.

Q. Why do shoot fighters have a sleeper as their back finisher?

A. Similar to the hybrid fighter thing, the automatic back move that the game defaults to calls only weak back grapples. So far there has been no way identified to change it to call strong back grapples.

Q. Why aren't the movesets of WCW guys completely accurate?

A. I made compromises in certain cases. I know it seems inconsistent, but generally speaking, if a move existed in Revenge as a weak back grapple in Revenge, but a strong back grapple in WM2K, I would allow that, and maybe switch the strong move for its weak equivalent. It's personal, subjective code I adopted, but I stand by it. AKI Man and Manami Toyota are the only characters where certain liberties had to be taken. In Toyota's case, it's because her moves are two generations behind, so some hybridizing between World Tour and VPW64 was necessary, as well as some logical shifts to accomodate her in the world of WM2K. AKI Man is partially my interpretation due to some moves not being accessible in WM2K. For what it's worth, both of them are 'guest' characters, and have no bearing on the story.

Q. Why isn't Misawa a hybrid fighter?

A. There are a total of five slots for combo moves, so to have just one wrestler with it would require the removal of five Back Specials. This sacrifice was made for Satoru Sayama, as well as AKI Man (who uses Sayama's combo moves in this game). However, he is still accurate, as his moveset was taken from WWF No Mercy, where his moveset, as well as others from VPW2, is converted to the 'pro wrestling' style, and hidden in the ROM.

Q. Why do Misawa, Hase, and Akiyama have weird fourth costumes?

A. Echo fighters! They're each referencing an AJPW wrestler that's not in this hack.

Q. How can I create CAWs of shoot fighters and hybrid wrestlers?

A. I didn't enable the menus, but my advice would be to clone base characters and change their moves accordingly. Frye, Ogawa, and Rutten are full on shoot fighters with the mount. Sayama is a hybrid fighter with a mount instead of a pin. AKI Man is a hybrid fighter with the ability to pin.

Q. How do I do a super finisher?

A. Once you reach special status, complete a taunt, and the flashing symbol will change to the super special logo from VPW2.

Q. Does the old Gameshark code to unlock all characters still work?

A. Yup!

[Editor's note: said Gameshark code is 8109ED5A FFFF, according to GSHI]

Q. Why is Bas Rutten in the UFO? He never fought for them.

A. Valid point. There were rumors on Japanese news sites at the time that Rutten was going to come to the UFO camps to train around the year 2000. This, of course never came to pass, although he would later wrestle for NJPW, which makes narrative sense for this hack. In the end it did serve the story better, given Rutten's history with Shamrock -- it gives Pancrase more of an indirect presence. On this topic though: NJPW is not in this hack because of limited roster slots and the aforementioned difficulty with adding the VPW2-specific chop that most NJPW guys have to this hack.

Q. How come Hayabusa, AKI Man, and Sayama all use Misawa's diving attack taunt?

A. The honest answer is that there is only one slot for such a move in the game from the movelist, and Misawa was the first non-shoot fighter I added to the roster. His accuracy took precedence over a LOT of things. It didn't occur to me til much later that Hayabusa, AKI Man, and Sayama would be stuck with his taunt. I know it makes more sense to have them use the Tiger Feint, and for Misawa to ALSO have it because he was Tiger Mask II, but I rationalized it as "Vanilla WM2K has the tiger feint anyway, so why not keep this move in SUMMIT so it can be a bit different?". Hope that makes sense.