Hard Fish

Jak catches too many fish in the river, leading to a food crisis in the nearby village and loss of employment for local fishermen.

Dass sharing the discovery of Hard Fish in the OpenGOAL discord server.

Page 82 of the Japanese strategy guide showing how to activate Hard Fish.

Hard fish is a version of the fisherman mini-game that allows Jak to play the mini-game after collecting the fisherman power cell. By inputting Left, Left, Right, Right, Left, Left, Right, Right, X after you collect the power cell from the fisherman, a "Press O to talk" prompt will appear. Pressing the O button will allow Jak to play a much more difficult and endless version of the fisherman mini-game.

Tutorial

To activate hard fish, you must first complete the "Catch 200 pounds of fish" mission. After you've done that, stand next to the fisherman and input Left, Left, Right, Right, Left, Left, Right, Right, X on the controller. This will bring up a "Press O to talk" which allows you to talk to the fisherman and play the hard fish mini-game.

Technical

The code that looks for the controller inputs for the cheat is listed below and can also be found here in the OpenGOAL GitHub repository.

(when (task-complete? *game-info* (-> self entity extra perm task))
      (when (nonzero? (-> *cpad-list* cpads 0 button0-rel 0))
        (let ((v1-9 (-> self cheat-temp)))
          (cond
            ((zero? v1-9)
             (cond
               ((cpad-pressed? 0 left)
                (+! (-> self cheat-temp) 1)
                )
               (else
                 (set! (-> self cheat-temp) 0)
                 0
                 )
               )
             )
            ((= v1-9 1)
             (cond
               ((cpad-pressed? 0 left)
                (+! (-> self cheat-temp) 1)
                )
               (else
                 (set! (-> self cheat-temp) 0)
                 0
                 )
               )
             )
            ((= v1-9 2)
             (cond
               ((cpad-pressed? 0 right)
                (+! (-> self cheat-temp) 1)
                )
               (else
                 (set! (-> self cheat-temp) 0)
                 0
                 )
               )
             )
            ((= v1-9 3)
             (cond
               ((cpad-pressed? 0 right)
                (+! (-> self cheat-temp) 1)
                )
               (else
                 (set! (-> self cheat-temp) 0)
                 0
                 )
               )
             )
            ((= v1-9 4)
             (cond
               ((cpad-pressed? 0 left)
                (+! (-> self cheat-temp) 1)
                )
               (else
                 (set! (-> self cheat-temp) 0)
                 0
                 )
               )
             )
            ((= v1-9 5)
             (cond
               ((cpad-pressed? 0 left)
                (+! (-> self cheat-temp) 1)
                )
               (else
                 (set! (-> self cheat-temp) 0)
                 0
                 )
               )
             )
            ((= v1-9 6)
             (cond
               ((cpad-pressed? 0 right)
                (+! (-> self cheat-temp) 1)
                )
               (else
                 (set! (-> self cheat-temp) 0)
                 0
                 )
               )
             )
            ((= v1-9 7)
             (cond
               ((cpad-pressed? 0 right)
                (+! (-> self cheat-temp) 1)
                )
               (else
                 (set! (-> self cheat-temp) 0)
                 0
                 )
               )
             )
            ((= v1-9 8)
             (cond
               ((cpad-pressed? 0 x)
                (set! (-> self hard) #t)
                (set! (-> self difficulty) 5)
                (set! (-> *FISHER-bank* max-caught) #x70000000)
                (ambient-hint-spawn "FIS-LO03" (the-as vector #f) *entity-pool* 'stinger)
                (set! (-> self cheat-temp) 0)
                0
                )
               (else
                 (set! (-> self cheat-temp) 0)
                 0
                 )
               )
             )
            )
          )
        )
      )

Discovery

Hard fish was discovered by Dass on June 5, 2021. On September 20, 2021, it was discovered that the button combination was listed 19 years prior in both Japanese strategy guides for Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy under the name "Super Fishing Game!".