Hidden & Unused in Video Games

[Shademp]

A thread for anyone to post cool, random examples of unused content in games, pre-release material, version differences, demos/prototypes etc.


Chrono Trigger, with some boundary breaks and layer-removal seems like a good example to start off with. I remember some of these observations from when I played around with the game in an emulator. ^___^

Definitely check out the other videos by Shesez!

 

[ChipNoir]

I don't know if I can find it, but in Tomba/Tombi, there's an unused video that implies Clocktown was also a cursed location that they cut out. I found the video on the disc itself when I first started getting into exploring with hacking tools when I was in 8th grade.

 

[Shademp]

Is this the one you're thinking of?

TCRF Source

Spoiler: Title screens for Tomba!

JP

US

Europe

 

[ChipNoir]

Yep! Thats the one. Always wondered about that. Tomba was a big part of my middle school life.

 

[Shademp]

I am shocked. SHOCKED! Can barely find any unused, on-disc content posted about either of these two Castlevania games: Lament of Innocence and Curse of Darkness. Nothing for the former, in fact!

Nothing on TCRF, nothing on YouTube... I've only found two relevant things, both relating to Curse of Darkness.

Trivia from the Castlevania wiki:

This is the only Castlevania game where bats are not an enemy.
However, an artwork in Santa Lilio Sangre's work book depicted a bat-like Bird-Type Innocent Devil, but this was not seen in any aspects of the finished product.

Then there's this item table on GameFAQs for Curse of Darkness.

Observant readers may notice that there are gaps in the hex list (eg: 72-79,
8F-96, etc). These values represent dummy items. They are listed as "??????"
in the game and will cause the game to crash when you interact with them. The
crash rate by equipping dummy items is 100%, so don't expect to find some
hidden goodies -- I've tried them all!

There are eight more dummy items after the end of the table, and then it
begins to list the item icons you see in the weapon list sort screen.
Obviously you cannot use those for anything. I have not mapped any further
than that, as all of the important items have already been covered. If anyone
is feeling ambitious enough to continue mapping the table and happens to find
something useful, then feel free to forward the information to me and I will
update the guide and give you full credit.

Must...resist...urge...to hack...these PS2 games...

 

[Shademp]

On the topic of hacking in general... Assembler Games live again, after being down for months!

 

[Shademp]

 

[Blade]

Guilty Gear Stuff I've been aware of for years.

http://gear-project.tumblr.com/post/168990525294/so-i-started-digging-around-for-color-mod

http://gear-project.tumblr.com/tagged/Easter+Egg/

Other stuff: https://jul.rustedlogic.net/thread.php?pid=443350#443350

 

[Shademp]

Hironobu Sakaguchi recently commented on a hidden developer message found in the NES version of Final Fantasy III.

I haven't found a reference to this on TCRF or any other English site, so the details remain beyond me since both Sakaguchi's Twitter and the blog he commented on are in Japanese.

The gist of it seems to be that there has been some debate as to the meaning of the words used by the hidden NPC.

 

[Shademp]

Playing around in Castlevania: Curse of Darkness and I found a test room.

It is a lengthy, barebones pathway that on one end has four pillars. The pillars and the mounds on the sides along the path have no collision.

 

[Shademp]

A prototype for the SNES version of Ms. Pac-Man reveals early title screen artwork that depicts Ms. Pac herself with a completely different design. The final title screen reverts to how the SEGA Genesis / Mega Drive version’s title screen looked.

- Twitter source

 

[Odysseus]

That's absolutely cursed

 

[Prism]

The funny thing is both are pretty cursed. The original Genesis artwork is...unsettling.

 

[Shademp]

Just below three months after the last big Nintendo leak of source code, the same guy on 4chan has leaked source code for dozens of Nintendo games as well as development repositories. This new leak is being called "Gigaleak".

So far the game source code only appears to cover prototype versions of the games which yield a lot of juicy early- and discarded graphics and music.

 

[crazyrabbits23]

If there's legit Mario World protos in there, I am pumped. It's always been a pipe dream of mine (no pun intended) to see the earliest versions of the game (proto/NES-era, before they moved it to the SNES).

 

[crazyrabbits23]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1286774512596455424

Looks like that famous SMW hack/mod with the "Hidden Laser Suit" that had the helmet wasn't that far off the mark.

pleaselettherebeaSMWproto

 

[Prism]

The chaos and discovery continues for yet another day: a huge treasure trove of N64 files was leaked today. Things such as Luigi's planned model in Mario 64 before he was scrapped, apparent source code for Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask, GBA tech demos (Wario Land 4, apparently) among others.

There's some evidence that the apparent Zelda 64 source code is mostly empty, for some reason. But details are changing all the time.

 

[Odysseus]

After all these years, we finally found Luigi.

...

Now how about the Wario apparition?

 

[Shademp]

For the uninitiated, the Wario apparition is a debunked notion that Wario's face can appear in Super Mario 64 (see 27:57 - 28:52 in this video).

Speaking of SM64, I was unaware that the famous "L is real 2401" text also appeared in Ocarina of Time: Both in the prototype and in the final Dodongo's Cavern.

Spoiler

 

[Odysseus]

Noooo Shad, don't explain the jooooooke.

Does anybody have a link to that Luigi model though? I'd like to see it.

 

[Shademp]

A few fake Luigi models are being passed around. Haven't been able to find a definitive Luigi model being shown to the public yet.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1287127746120998912

Supposedly the textures for Luigi's model is being decoded as we speak. (Click the Twitter link below for more textures in the thread)

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1287145579311697920

And here are Luigi's voice clips.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1287149779114491904

 

[Odysseus]

In due time, then. Man, if the OOT stuff uncovers that Triforce room from that beta footage, all the old rumors will be kinda validated. What a time to be alive.

 

[Shademp]

It's so difficult to discern between fake and real at this point, but apparently this is a Twitter thread of the Luigi model being built.

And this is supposedly Luigi's actual model. It's annoying how so many different sources are posting the discoveries at different stages.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1287212712074846209

 

[Odysseus]

Oh man, L is real.
okay I'll stop

Edit: No I won't

guys

guys

Mario 64 came out on June 23rd, 1996

We found Luigi on July 25th, 2020.

24 years, one month.

L IS REAL 2401.

 

[crazyrabbits23]

Oh lawd, if they find Earthbound 64

We made it, fam