Gitaroo Man

Gitaroo Man
Developers: Koei, iNiS Publishers: Koei, THQ (EU) Platform: PlayStation 2 Released in JP: June 21, 2001 Released in US: February 18, 2002 Released in EU: June 21, 2002 Released in KR: March 21, 2002 This game has unused code. This game has hidden development-related text. This game has unused graphics. This game has unused music. This game has unused sounds. This game has a hidden sound test. This game has regional differences.

Gitaroo Man is a rhythm-action music game that chronicles the story of the loser U-1 and his talking dog Puma as they battle the Gravillians with a legendary musical weapon, the Gitaroo. iNiS, the creators of the game, later went on to make the Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan series and Elite Beat Agents.

Sub-Pages

Development Text Digging through garbage data.

Console Output Strings Welcome to GitarooMan Album!

Regional Differences Your mother is worried! Sniffle~

Unused Graphics

Title Screen Graphics

Cut-off Arrows

Original assets	Seen in-game

The arrows are partly cut off on the title screen. Also, the bottom-most arrow isn't used at all; instead, the game uses the second arrow twice.

(Source: Original TCRF research)

HUD and Interface Graphics

COMBO Label

An unused label with the word "COMBO." It may have been intended for a combo counter or something similar.

Red Health Bar

Red health for the health bar, rather than the usual green. Red health bars appear in some pre-release screenshots.

Puma Expressions

There exists a full range of Puma's facial expressions for the current phase indicator. In the final game, only the first expression in each row is used.

Large Attack Point

Unused	Used

The Attack Point that starts each note has a larger unused version. It's also fully opaque, while the used one has a translucent center.

Blank Multiplayer Character Icon

Since Resurrection only has two playable characters in multiplayer, the other four character icons are blacked out.

(Source: Original TCRF research)

Model Texture Parts

U-1 (Normal)

Unused	Used

U-1 smiling while blushing, and another face with closed eyes and no blush.

(Source: Original TCRF research)

U-1 (Gitaroo Man)

Unused	Used

Gitaroo Man with tears coming out of his eyes while his mouth is open.

(Source: Original TCRF research)

Panpeus

Panpeus with an angry expression.

(Source: Original TCRF research)

Blue Panpeus

The blue Panpeus in multiplayer mode has a full set of facial expressions, but only the first one is used.

(Source: Original TCRF research)

Flying-O/Little-O

Additional facial expressions for Flying-O and/or Little-O.

(Source: Original TCRF research)

Mojo King Bee

Unused	Used

Mojo King Bee's hat with closed eyes.

Textures that could be Mojo King Bee's eyes. They are not mapped to any part of his model.

Face textures for unused smiling and frowning expressions.

Scattered around Mojo King Bee's texture are additional unused eyebrows and a mouth.

(Source: Original TCRF research)

Bat

Unused	Used

A bat with a more open mouth, probably for singing like the frogs.

(Source: Original TCRF research)

Woofer-Mazing

Various facial expressions for Woofer-Mazing.

(Source: Original TCRF research)

Ben-K

Ben-K with red eyes and a frown.

(Source: Original TCRF research)

Kirah (Normal)

Kirah with slightly different eye sparkles than the used versions.

(Source: Original TCRF research)

Sanbone Trio

Additional facial expressions for the Sanbone Trio, including some shocked-looking ones.

(Source: Original TCRF research)

Gregorio III

Gregorio III with his mouth slightly open.

Gregorio III with tears in his eyes.

Unused	Used

An unused copy of Gregorio III's face with blood trickling from the corner of his mouth. Both of his eyes are the same color, unlike the one used in-game.

Some mouths opened wider than the ones seen in-game.

(Source: Original TCRF research)

Ghostly Singer

Unused	Used

A ghostly choir singer with his mouth open as though singing.

(Source: Original TCRF research)

Kirah (Gitaroo)

Unused	Used

Kirah talking while smiling. The used version has more slanted eyebrows.

Unused	Used

Kirah grimacing with sweat drops on her face.

(Source: Original TCRF research)

U-1 (Final Form)

Unused facial expressions for U-1's final form.

(Source: Original TCRF research)

Zowie (Final Form)

Zowie with blank eyes.

Unused	Used

An angry Zowie with demonic-looking slit pupils and a wider mouth than the used version.

Zowie's smiling mouth.

(Source: Original TCRF research)

Zowie (Normal)

Unused facial expressions for normal Zowie in multiplayer mode. The last face's top half is cut off.

(Source: Original TCRF research)

Stage Select Graphics

Highlighted Blank Circle

A large, highlighted circle that doesn't contain a boss picture.

Number 1

This number 1 never appears. By the time stage select is available, the slot for Stage 1 already says "Next" instead, and clearing the stage replaces it with an picture of the boss.

(Source: Original TCRF research)

Multiplayer Select Graphics

Blank Player Marker

A blank marker for showing which player has chosen which character. Instead of this, the final game uses markers containing the numbers 1-4.

±/-/+ Symbols

Unused plus and minus symbols. They may have been related to the health bar somehow.

(Source: Original TCRF research)

Collection Graphics

Separate Flying-O and Little-O

Unused	Final

Collection item graphics in which Flying-O and Little-O are separated. In the final version, they are found together, Little-O's mouth is shorter, and both have touched-up details like the antenna bobs.

✕ Menu Button

Unused	Final (Japan)	Final (North America)

An unused version of the ✕ Menu button. The final Japanese version made the ✕ more visible, lightened the shadow, and removed the messy outline around the letters. The North American version of the button was redesigned further.

(Source: Original TCRF research)

Save/Load Menu Graphics

Multitap Memory Cards 1-A to 1-D

The game can access memory cards 2-A through 2-D in a Multitap plugged into Slot 2. The same is not true of Slot 1, which means graphics for memory cards 1-A through 1-D are unused. (The "1" from here is still used to label memory card 1.)

Japan	North America

More labels for memory cards 1-A through 1-D.

English 〇 Yes/✕ Cancel

Unused	Used (Japan)	Used (North America)

These unused buttons for 〇 Yes and ✕ Cancel are written in English but oddly found only in the Japanese version. By contrast, the final Japanese one is written in Japanese, while the final North American version one is written in English but uses a different font and button.

Unhighlighted OK

Japan	North America

This normal, unhighlighted version of "OK" is never used. "OK" is used when saving and loading, but it's always highlighted.

(Source: Original TCRF research)

All-Star Certificate Graphics

Still-Image Certificate

Unused image	Final video

An unused still-image version of the Japanese-exclusive All-Star Certificate. Aside from being an image instead of a video, the only differences are:

• The unused image is clearer, better-quality, and takes up more of the available space.
• Slight color differences; the unused image has a grayish background and a paler ham.
• The final video's certificate is vertically squished a bit and surrounded by a border.

This unused image isn't even referenced by the executable, and it was removed altogether from non-Japanese versions of the game.

Alternate Scroll Icon

Unused	Final

An unused version of the scroll icon for replaying the All-Star Certificate movie. Compared to the final version, it has a darker △ button and a lighter, more saturated blue color on the scroll.

(Source: Original TCRF research)

Unused Audio

Puma's Tutorial Grading

It appears Puma would have originally said something depending on how well you did in the tutorial stage:

	Audio	Transcription	Translation
Res_00_S		なーいす！プーマ感激！	Nice! Puma was deeply impressed!
Res_00_A		やるじゃねえか！その調子だ！	Well done! That's it!
Res_00_B		なかなかやるじゃんか。後は実践あるのみだな。	You're looking good. Practice makes perfect.
Res_00_C		まぁまぁだな。ま、もう一回ぐらい特訓受けとけよ。	Not bad. You should take the lesson once more.
Res_00_D		まだまだだなぁ。これじゃ先が思いやられるぜ。初めから特訓しなおしだ！	You are not good enough. I feel uneasy about what happens in the future. Let's take the lesson from the beginning again.

(Source: Original TCRF research)

Character Damage and Other Reactions

Unused sound effects for characters taking damage or otherwise reacting to player performance. atms, gdms, and gdok may respectively stand for Attack Miss, Guard Miss, and Guard OK.

Gitaroo Man Lives! later used the atms and gdms sounds for player-controlled characters in single-player and multiplayer.

	atms	gdms	gdok
U-1
Puma
Kirah
Pico
Miranda
Mr. Yasuda
Yung
Noren
Panpeus
Blue Panpeus
Flying-O
Little-O
Mojo King Bee
Bear
Woofer-Mazing
Ben-K
Carrot, Pine/Soda
Gregorio
Zowie
Ming Ming
U-1 (final form)
Zowie (final form)

(Source: Original TCRF research)

Twisted Reality Background Music on Gitaroo Track

On the players' Gitaroo tracks, there is usually just silence between the notes. However, sometimes you can also hear faint background music that was picked up by the recording equipment. This in-between audio is normally silenced by the game or drowned out by in-game audio.

In particular, U-1's Gitaroo track in Twisted Reality contains a nearly complete set of background music and the opponent's Gitaroo audio:

	Original U-1 Gitaroo track (warning: sudden increase in volume)	Same track with amplified background audio
A1
B1aT/B1aL
B1bT/B1bL
B2aT/B2aL
B2bT/B2bL
C1a/C1b

For some reason, the spoken vocals are missing from the background music. It's unknown whether this recording happened before spoken vocals were added or if the vocals were just temporarily muted to aid with recording.

(Source: Original TCRF research)

All-Star Certificate Standalone Music

This unused audio is the music from the All-Star Certificate movie, though for some reason the stereo channels are swapped. It's stored among the Collection screen audio in all versions of the game.

(Source: Original TCRF research)

Unused Stage Section

In Stage 10 (Resurrection), there is an unused stage section. It consists of parts normally seen and heard in-game but put together in an unused combination:

• The scene of U-1 and Zowie battling as they fly across the ocean's surface. This normally plays at the beginning of the stage.
• A song chart that, unlike the scene, doesn't normally at the beginning. Rather, it usually plays later in the stage if you fail to deal enough damage at the beginning.
• Unused audio B1BT. It consists of sound effects matching the scene and music matching the song chart.

(Source: Original TCRF research)

Unused Modules

Modules are separate parts of the game, such as single-player mode or the options menu.

Sound Preview

A very simple audio player, referred to as gmSoundPreview and MODULE_TYPE_SOUNDPREVIEW. It loads and plays a single sound determined by the arguments passed to it.

• 

  Sound Preview.

• 

  Sound Preview while audio is playing.

Once a sound is loaded, the player displays a solid red screen. Pressing the Start button will start or stop audio playback, and the screen turns green while audio is playing. There is no known way to exit aside from resetting the game.

Like most other modules, Sound Preview includes help text for the command line arguments required to run it:

Argument syntax:
    -c [imcFile] -s [name]
    -0 n -1 v p -2 v p -3 v p -4 v p -5 v p -6 v p -7 v p -p

    -c              imcFile switch
    [imcFile]       ex. host0:/bgm.imc
    -0              Channel 0 vol/pan switch
    [v p]           ex. 32767 16383
    -1              Channel 1 vol/pan switch
    [v p]           ex. 32767 16383
    -2              Channel 2 vol/pan switch
    [v p]           ex. 32767 16383
    -3              Channel 3 vol/pan switch
    [v p]           ex. 32767 16383
    -4              Channel 4 vol/pan switch
    [v p]           ex. 32767 16383
    -5              Channel 5 vol/pan switch
    [v p]           ex. 32767 16383
    -6              Channel 6 vol/pan switch
    [v p]           ex. 32767 16383
    -7              Channel 7 vol/pan switch
    [v p]           ex. 32767 16383
    -p              Play immediately switch

All of these arguments work as described, loading an IMC audio file and playing it with the volume and pan specified for each channel. However, the module is designed to load sounds from the host filesystem rather than the game disc.

(Source: Original TCRF research)

Test

A very simple test module, referred to as gmTest and MODULE_TYPE_TEST.

gmTest in the Japanese version.

In the Japanese version, the module displays the multiplayer loading screen. The game doesn't actually try to load anything; rather, it enters an intentional infinite loop while the loading screen continues forever. There's no way to exit aside from resetting the game.

gmTest in all other versions. The image that should be displayed on-screen is missing.

In all other regions, the module tries to load the image host0:/PROJECTS/STDATA/IMX/test06/k_ms02.imx. The image should be repeated against a white background, but since it's missing, only the white background appears. Button presses appear to have no effect, and once again there's no way to exit aside from resetting the game.

(Source: Original TCRF research)

Gitaroo Man Wan Leftovers

There is content left over from Gitaroo Man Wan, a maxi single-style demo that was sold only in Japan.

Main Menu Graphics

• 
• 
• 
• 

The North American and South Korean versions contain leftover main menu graphics.

(Source: Original TCRF research)

"U-1" Name Graphic

Unused in Gitaroo Man	Used in Gitaroo Man Wan

This unused "U-1" name graphic is a blue silhouette of the one used in Gitaroo Man Wan.

(Source: Original TCRF research)

Win/Lose Graphics

The Japanese version's tutorial stage assets contain these leftover Win/Lose graphics from Gitaroo Man Wan.

(Source: Original TCRF research)

Save Menu

Used in Gitaroo Man Wan	Gitaroo Man (Japan)	Gitaroo Man (North America)
		(Game freezes before reaching this point.)

Gitaroo Man (South Korea)	Gitaroo Man (Europe)

There is also an unused save menu that creates Gitaroo Man Wan save data. It has been modified from its initial appearance in Gitaroo Man Wan, but the text and functionality are mostly the same as before. The South Korean and European versions create valid save data, but the Japanese version creates save data that can't be loaded, and the North American version freezes while saving.

(Source: Original TCRF research)

Single Loader Module

Single Loader in action.

There is an unused module called MODULE_TYPE_SINGLELOADER that was also unused in Gitaroo Man Wan.

In the Japanese version of Gitaroo Man, this module will start a loading screen, load the model pack for Stage 2 (Flyin' To Your Heart) into memory, then exit back to the game. The models remain loaded in memory, and while the game seems unchanged at first, loading any stage will crash the game due to a lack of memory.

In the non-Japanese versions, the code for this functionality has been removed, so instead the module will immediately exit back to the game.

(Source: Original TCRF research)