After loading up the Commodore 64 version of the game and waiting until the title screen appears, going to address 8F40 with a memory viewer will reveal a hidden developer message. The message to discourage hackers from cracking the game is presumably from the game's creator Manfred Trenz, and reveals the date that the game began development:
"HI FOLKS, THE MANIAC IS BACK !!! ONE QUESTION: WHY DO YOU WANT TO CRACK THIS PROGGY ??? CAN YOU IMAGINE HOW MUCH WORK I DID TO MAKE A GAME LIKE THIS ???
HERE SOME INFORMATIONS ABOUT: STARTING TIME: 01.02.1989 (OH YES) ALL THE IDEAS,GAMEDESIGN,ALIENROUTINIES,GRAPHICS,PLAYBILITY,TECHNICAL PROBLEMS AND MUCH MORE TOOK A LOT OF TIME AND WAS VERY OFTEN NERVE-RACKING!
ECHT AETZEND YOU WOULD SAY ... SOMETIMES I WORKED MORE THEN 14 HOURS A DAY, ONLY INTERRUPTED BY ESSENTIAL THINGS LIKE FOOD,COKE AND MTV.
I MADE THIS GAME NOT ONLY FOR TO EARN MONEY BUT NEVERTHELESS I'M SURE YOU AGREE WITH ME, THAT I WANT TO EARN FOR MY WORK.
SO DO ME A FAVOUR AND DON'T CRACK AND SPREAD THIS GAME !! IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS CALL: 0211/5280-0 BYE NOW AND THINK ABOUT !
PS.: DO YOU KNOW WHAT A GROELATZ IS ?? YOU BETTER DO NOT !"
In the Commodore 64 version of the game, there are two known messages written with destroyable blocks that are hidden out-of-bounds in two levels of the game. In Level 1-1, the year "1989", referring to the year the game began development, can be found in the middle of the map. The other message is hidden in Level 1-3, where the letters "DTE" can be found in the middle of a land mass in the bottom-right corner of the map.
In Sonic the Hedgehog, there is an unused "PRESS START BUTTON" graphic. This would eventually be used in an exclusive revision of the game included in the Sega Top Ten compilation cartridge for Brazil and Asia. This version of the game is otherwise identical to the original release.
The Commodore 64 version of Bionic Commando has a soundtrack provided by chiptune composer Tim Follin. Every song begins as a direct cover of its source material, but eventually completely changes into a techno-inspired tune with a more unique sound. The composition of these pieces was, according to Follin in the C64 disk magazine Lethal News, quite reflective of their production, where the job began as a port of the original song before naturally changing to something different:
"Actually it's an arcade conversion... or lets say it started like an arcade conversion! what happened was, i started converting the titletune, and it just developed, slipped out of my grip and became something, what was very different from what i had in mind, at the beginning. quite messy!"
In the original release of the game, the hidden ending that follows the optional final boss battle against Hasebe and Mami reveals that Spoiler:Kyoko and Misako are not actually Kunio and Riki's girlfriends, but rather are simply delusional stalkers, with Hasebe and Mami being the boys' real partners; Kyoko and Misako then angrily punch Kunio and Riki into the sky after being reminded of this. This was written as an inside joke regarding the Kunio-kun franchise's convoluted localization history, specifically the fact that River City Girls Zero (the only prior game where Spoiler:Kunio and Riki actually dated Kyoko and Misako) had not yet received an English localization at the time of this game's release. As River City Girls was developed with Western audiences in mind, the joke was thus meant to be that Spoiler:Kunio and Riki have no memory of a title that wasn't officially available for this game's target audience.
However, the esoteric nature of the gag and the plot holes it opened regarding the game's premise resulted in it generating backlash from players who were not in on it. Because of this, the game was updated on January 18, 2020, changing the secret ending so that Spoiler:Kunio and Riki go out for food with Kyoko and Misako, implying that the latter two actually are their partners.
Both the original GameCube release and the Nintendo Switch remake are rated E by the Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB), but the GameCube version's rating was simply given the descriptor "Mild Cartoon Violence". The remake’s ESRB rating was updated to replace it with the descriptors "Mild Fantasy Violence" and "Mild Suggestive Themes". These "Mild Suggestive Themes" most likely refer to flirtatious dialogue (i.e. "Aren’t you a fine specimen of a man"; "Perhaps if I…grabbed you and gave you a little sugar") and a character with a large chest/exaggerated proportions, referencing Madame Flurrie.
A popular belief within the Friday Night Funkin' fandom is that the game's main protagonist Boyfriend used to be in a relationship with Pico, the main protagonist of Pico's School and the opponent of Week 3. This gained so much traction that Tom Fulp (the creator of Pico's School) jokingly said it was "official Pico 2 canon". Programmer NinjaMuffin99 initially claimed this was just a joke, but later changed his mind and confirmed it was canon. The cutscene for the song "Stress" alludes to this, as Tankman mockingly refers to Pico as Boyfriend's "sexually ambiguous, angry little friend."
On April 1st, 2021, Tom Fulp updated Pico's School as an April Fools Day joke, with this version ending with Pico revealing to Cassandra that he and Boyfriend are dating and that everybody in the school accepts them. The next day, this version would be released as a separate game called Pico's School: Love Conquers All, being set in an alternate timeline. Given that the game portrayed Pico and Boyfriend's relationship in a positive light, some fans have taken this as a sign that Tom Fulp approves of the idea that they were at one point a couple.
The Game Boy Color version of Frogger's second print of US cartridges replaces the non-gameplay menu graphics, turning the 2D frog illustrations into promotional CGI images from the PS1 Frogger. While most of these replace the 2D images outright, the Game Over graphic simply copy-pastes a CGI Frogger head onto the 2D image from the earlier version.
Space Cadet: 3D Pinball was a demo for a game called Full Tilt! Pinball. Full Tilt! Pinball had two extra boards compared to 3D Pinball, with the main differences in Full Tilt's Space Cadet board specifically being an expanded soundtrack, a more realisitc CGI side-art as opposed to the Buzz Lightyear-esque 2D cartoon art, and a multiball feature.
Video of Multiball in Full Tilt, note that when the video says "Windows version of the game", it means "the version bundled with Windows": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6cvzf8vHzhw
Kirby's Return to Dream Land Deluxe redesigns Wing Kirby's costume, changing the pattern on the headband to a series of straight lines, adding a red jewel on the front (similar to the kind seen on other Copy Ability hats), and replacing the rows of feathers on the back with arrangements that more closely resemble a bird's wings. As the original design was based on a Native American warbonnet, the redesign was likely to avoid cultural appropriation, as real-life warbonnets are regarded as sacred in tribal cultures and consequently can only be worn by those who have earned the right to do so.
The Nintendo Switch version of Batman: Arkham Trilogy pays tribute to Kevin Conroy, a long-time voice actor of Batman including the Arkham Trilogy, who passed away in November 2022. Once the credits roll on the first game in the trilogy, Batman: Arkham Asylum, a black and white drawing of Gotham City appears with the text: “In memory of Kevin Conroy”.
The Japanese and Korean releases radically alter the final boss theme, adding a second movement and raising the pitch of the French horn soundfont. This version of the music also changes the loop to start at the added portion rather than going back to the beginning of the song. The extent of these changes implies that the music was unfinished when the original international release came out.
Within the code of the Atari 7800 version is a hidden developer message stating, "Mommy and me are one". In 1985, experiments to gauge the practice of subliminal messaging had used this exact phrase, which is alleged to have raised self-motivation in test subjects.
The Sega Genesis version of Action 52 was directed by a young Jay Phillip Obernolte, who would later succeed Paul Cook as a Republican member of California's House of Representatives on January 3, 2021.
High Boo's Thought Peek quote, "*sigh* ♪Stomp, stomp, clap. Stomp, stomp, clap.♪", references the 1977 song "We Will Rock You" by English glam rock band Queen. The song famously features a percussion section consisting of two stomped eighth notes followed by a clapped quarter note. Uniquely, this reference is a new addition to the remake; in the original SNES version, High Boo (known there as Li'l Boo) says "Beep pa doodle-dee!♪"
In 1993, an enhanced version of the NES Mario Bros. was released exclusively in Italy and Germany, under the "Classic Serie" label, which reimplements the enemy introduction cutscenes and icicle hazard from the arcade version, and allows Mario to turn in the middle of jumping.
The Virtual Console versions of Mario's Super Picross replace three puzzles, likely due to legal issues:
• The likeness of Marilyn Monroe, which was replaced by a tortoise. • A set of Tetrominos from Tetris, which was replaced by a hermit crab. • The painting The Scream by Edvard Munch, which was replaced by a chameleon.
Despite The Scream and Monroe's likeness entering the public domain in 2015 and 2012 respectively, the Wii U; New 3DS; and Switch versions of the game keep the replaced puzzles.
The cutscene for the final stage in Um Jammer Lammy has Lammy, Ma-San, and Katy Kat all rush to the same door and apologize for being late as they got in a "lot of mess", implying that Katy and Ma-San had similar adventures to Lammy. In the American version of the game, Lammy gets to the door in her camouflage outfit from the censored island stage, and to adjust for this, Ma-San gains a Middle Eastern turban and camel, while Katy gains a military helmet and bullet strap, giving a further clue as to what adventures they could've gone on.
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In the SNES version of Mortal Kombat, the blood is very infamously replaced with sweat. While primarily a form of censorship due to Nintendo's strict content regulations, the sweat also served an extra purpose: unlike blood, sweat quickly evaporates, meaning that less sprites had to be on screen at a time.