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The Paintings on the walls of Hogwarts in the PC release are copies of famous portraits that have their heads replaced with the developers' heads to avoid copyright infringement.

Midway through making the game, PC version developers KnowWonder had to do a hard reset and completely restart their development of the game after the lore restrictions employed by Rowling made their original game uninteresting and a "glorified walking simulator", as they put it. Specifically, much of the KnowWonder's ideas had to be abandoned or worked around because many of the spells they wanted to adapt to gameplay they couldn't because first year Hogwarts students didn't have access to such abilities.

Going back to the drawing board caused the redone game to be rushed and the developers to experience crunch, but despite this, they still "found their groove" that helped them create the final game. The team also greatly understood Rowling's strict demand as they were huge fans of the source material.

Rowling also helped KnowWonder by creating a new spell for the team which didn't appear in her novels or on-screen before: Flipendo, a movement spell. Developer Christo Vuchetich opines that Rowling knew what went into making a game by giving his team vague and simple descriptions for the list of first year spells (i.e. "Flipendo moves things").

Despite being developed by different studios, in all versions but the Game Boy Color version, during the final battle with Voldemort Spoiler:/Professor Quirrell, the player must use the Mirror of Erised in the middle of the room in order to strike and defeat him. This does not happen in either the book or movie version of the story. Spoiler:In those stories, Harry involuntarily "defeats" Lord Voldemort when the villain tries to touch him only for Lily Potter's protection spell that she put on Harry to disintegrate Quirrell and in turn Voldemort's physical vessel.

Due to a loop hole with the Tolkien estate, Vivendi Games was able to make the game independently from Peter Jackson's film adaptations and have it more based on the book. However, despite this, the game's console and PC versions still open with a narration by Lothlorien Elf Galadriel where she describes the history, lore, and creation of The One Ring, which is something that happens in the very beginning of Jackson's Fellowship of the Ring film and not the original novel.

In a video interview with former Capcom game designer Shinichiro Obata, he stated that the reason why the character Pet Shop is so overpowered to the point of being banned in competitive play is because he was originally intended for the PlayStation version and not arcade one, as such he wasn't really intended for competitive play.

However when the updated arcade version JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Heritage for the Future was in development, Pet Shop was added as a playable character and Mr. Obata couldn't help but notice how weak this version of the character was. So he started doing everything he could to buff Pet Shop, with Mr. Obata himself remarking that he “might’ve overdone it”.

On the Credits of the PC version, switch from the Scrolling Credits over to the Photo credits featuring headshots of the developers who worked on the game. From this point, quickly click on the photos as they appear on-screen. After an unknown amount of clicking, a secret minigame will begin where you must click the photos before they disappear to score points.

In the SNES version, the main antagonist General Akhboob is sent to prison, unlike all other versions of the game where he is sentenced to the electric chair for his crimes. In regards to the final boss fight against his giant head, the SNES version depicts his muscular final form as dark green, while all other versions depict it as being red human muscle.

To detect if the Steam version of the game is a pirated copy, the game registers a fake DLC ID with SteamAPI. If a Steam emulator unlocks all DLC, the game won't progress past the first chapter and will open browser windows to the Steam page of the game every frame, potentially freezing your computer for having too many tabs on your browser.

pack/database/stat.rbrb also contains this text about a popular Steam emulator. It's referenced in the exe so it's not completely unused, but if it actually triggers anything is unknown.

"steam_api.dll.ali123
ALI123.INI
- STEAM NOT DETECTED! RESTART GAME TO ENABLE STEAM FUNC! -"

As of 2.00 the game also checks the integrity of steam_api.dll and will softlock after defeating a boss in Chapter 2 by disabling your controls.

In the original arcade build of Pac-Man, there is a specific area on the board that can be used as a hiding spot where the ghosts cannot see you. To access it, enter the upward tunnel, located just to the right of where Pac-Man spawns in on the board, from the right underneath, and keep Pac-Man facing up (do not do this as your first move when the level immediately starts, move slightly before trying this, for instance looping around the small left pathway from where Pac-Man starts and then going to the hiding place). This exploit can be used the same way on every level in the game except for the Strawberry level (the second level of the game). The Strawberry level has a slightly different way of pulling it off that can only be done there, requiring you to enter the same tunnel, but entering it while traveling left towards Pac-Man's spawn spot instead of entering by going to the right.

The A.I. for the ghosts works in two different modes, Chase and Scatter. The ghosts start in Scatter and aim for their own corners of the board while ignoring Pac-Man. In Chase mode, they can see and will actively chase Pac-Man. The ghosts will alternate between scattering and chasing Pac-Man in set intervals, and after the fourth Scatter, they will chase Pac-Man until you die or win the level. Due to a programming oversight, the ghosts cannot travel up in the "T"'s above and below the ghost spawning area, forcing them to move right past you. The ghosts also have unique methods of targeting Pac-Man, and all of this info put together allows the hiding spot to be possible. However, there is one exception to this trick. When Blinky switches from the fourth Scatter back to Chase for the rest of the level, he will come down from the top-right corner of the screen, and it is possible for him to enter the tunnel from the right entrance and kill Pac-Man, making it crucial not to perform this trick right before the fourth Scatter switches back to Chase to avoid the risk of death.

This exploit was patched out of future ports of Pac-Man, although ports containing the original arcade build will still retain it.

Due to the Genesis' inferior hardware compared to the CPS1 arcade board, many of the destructible items in the background are now indestructible. Additionally many NPCs are missing, such as the white dog in the first level.

Bone Crusher, the third boss of the game, has three attacks, one where he uses his flamethrower, one where he launches multiple missiles, and another where he rushes into the player. In the Genesis version he just rushes into the player and uses missiles; the flamethrower attack is missing.

There's a short cutscene that plays after the player defeats Scully, the first boss of the game, where Punisher interrogates Scully to find out about Kingpin's location, and once he's done he disposes of Scully. In the Arcade version Punisher kills Scully, while in the Genesis version he just tosses him to the side.

Nick Fury smokes a cigarette in the arcade version, with the cigarette being part of his character select portrait and his in-game sprites. In the Genesis version, he doesn't smoke, with the cigarette being completely removed.

The game's final boss Kingpin smokes a cigarette before the final battle. In the Genesis version he doesn't smoke.

The female ninjas' outfit shows more skin in the arcade version, whereas in the Genesis version they are covered up.

Exclusive to the 3DO version, in the level "The Project", there is a secret exit towards the bottom of the map with a Question Mark caption just before it reading:


Going through the secret exit will boot up a secret Breakout clone, where you control Gex shooting balls up towards isometric cubes. To catch the ball, it must hit Gex's head, or if it is too far away from his head, Gex can shoot his tongue out a short distance to catch it just before it lands. The game's second boss, The Flatulator, also appears in this minigame, and hitting him with the ball will allow Gex to shoot the ball higher, while propellors will occasionally appear to generate more cubes.

This game appears to be another small project that was repurposed into an Easter egg, although there are no known messages or credits that appear during it. It's unknown why this minigame was left out of other versions of the game.

Exclusive to the 3DO version, in the level "The Project", there is a secret exit in the bottom-left corner of the map with a Question Mark caption just before it reading:


Entering this secret exit will boot up a 3D side-scrolling shoot-'em-up level. The game gives you 5 credits and 3 hit points to play through the game. You can pick up remote controls, and after getting enough of them your ship will now have triple shots. For every enemy shot at, the score will change to different quips and numbers at random, including:

•"69 Dude!"
•666 (the Number of the beast)
•90210 (the zip code to Beverly Hills, California and a reference to the 1990 television series "Beverly Hills, 90210")
•"Googleplex" [sic] (Googolplex, the company Google did not exist at the time this demo was made or when Gex was first released)
•"Really high!"
•"Way up there"
•"Astronomical"
•Infinity
•"Score is cool, huh, huh"
•"Are you still counting?"
•"I don't know"
•"I lost count"
•"Who cares!"
•"Who keeps score!"
•"Missed one!"
•"Watch your butt not the score!"
•"Is your controller plugged in"
•"Loser!"
•"You suck!"
•"Sucks to be you!"
•"How bad are you?!"

It was originally a senior college project for Stanford University by programmer Evan Wells, but was repurposed as an Easter egg for this game. On the Game Over screen, the game's credits can be seen:


This Easter egg was first known to have been documented in a pair of grainy YouTube videos from 2007. It's unknown why this minigame was not included in other versions of the game.

Including DLC for both versions, the Xbox One version of the game has 104 achievements in total to obtain, while the PS4 version only has 58 achievements available.

The audio that plays during the Spoiler:Saloon sex scene is different between both the CDTV and DOS versions of the game.

•CDTV Version
•DOS Version

In 2020, an unused level was discovered in the PC version of the game called Ruins of Joy Town that was meant to be played after The Goblin Fort level, but before Joy Castle. The unused level appears to be mostly completed, but lacks background music.