The Cutting Room Floor:Common Things

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Sometimes, you can find a random piece of unused content or two in one game. And sometimes, that little piece can be found in many, many other games. This page aims to list all the egregiously common things in games, mainly to reduce the redundancy on every single page. If something is listed here, it's not worth mentioning in an article.

Sub-Pages

Text Strings
Information about text strings that can be found in many different games.

General

Pressing the tilde (~) key or a similar key above the Tab key (the grave key) during gameplay brings up a console in a large number of Windows, Linux, and Mac games.
Games made with commercially-available engines such as Game Maker, Multimedia Fusion, RPGMaker, Unreal Engine, and Unity will have default assets within the game's folders and/or files.
Similarly, many games create logs during gameplay. Unless the functionality of these is disabled by default or the game happens to include one of these hidden in its directory, these are usually not worth covering, especially with computer games.
Dialogue and graphics relating to control methods (i.e. keyboards, dedicated controllers) can change depending on which platform the game is being played on.
Many modern Japanese games will have a warning screen noting that piracy over the Internet, including distributing the game without the owners' permissions, is illegal. An example of such a screen can be seen below:

Or on the other hand, the warning screen is displayed in other languages and can be found in SNK-published games, such as The King of Fighters XIV, Samurai Showdown (2019), SNK Heroines: Tag Team Frenzy, etc.:

Japanese

English (official)

<ご注意>
ゲームソフトを権利者の許諾なく、インターネットを通じて配
信、配布する行為、また、違法なインターネット配信と知りな
がらダウンロードする行為は法律で固く禁じられております。
みなさまのご理解とご協力をお願いいたします。

WARNING
Duplication and distribution without permission from the copyright holder,
transmission and distribution through the internet, 
and downloading of this game software is prohibited by law. 
We ask for your understanding and cooperation.

(Source: Chaos Productions Inc.)

Arcade

Service Mode

Almost every single arcade game will have an operator's menu. The details of these are usually included in the operator's manual (note that scans may not always be available for a particular game) and is generally accessed either with a test button (not to be confused with a service button, which adds a credit) or a DIP switch, the latter possibly requiring a power cycle. The purpose is usually to assure the machine is still able to accept coins, test for controls, play sounds, and test the monitor. Pictured below is an example from Hebereke no Popoon:

Input test to assure working controls
Sound test
Colored bars to test if CRT or LCD output is working
Alignment grid
Check DIP Switch settings

Tilt

Just like pinball machines have a "tilt" feature to penalize cheating and violence against the unit, the JAMMA connector features a dedicated pin for a tilt input (mapped by default in MAME to the T key).

Rarely connected in most cabinets, the consequence of triggering this input varies from absolutely nothing (as in most games), an audible alarm, a warning screen followed by a reset (as in Bubble Bobble), to an immediate reset. It is therefore most analogous to a pinball machine's slam tilt.

Nintendo

Famicom/NES

Codemasters

All NES games developed by Codemasters are based on the same stub library. As a result, all of these games, including those on multicarts, include a "smiley test" that verifies the integrity of the PRG ROM and CHR RAM chips.

To activate the PRG ROM test, hold Up + Down + Left + Right + A + Select + Start and press Reset. To activate the CHR RAM test, hold Up + Down + Left + Right + B + Select + Start and press Reset. (These tests can also be run simultaneously by holding both A and B, and the results will be ORed together in RAM.) If the PRG ROM checksum matches with the internal value or the CHR RAM chip has no bad cells, the program will display a happy green face; otherwise, it will display a sad red face. The code also attempts to write the test results to an unknown device at $4400, possibly an automated cartridge tester.

Note that the tests cannot be performed with an unmodified controller, as the design of the D-Pad prevents more than two directions from being pressed at once.

Passed	Failed

Namco

There are a series of Namco games, made by the same programmers Haruhisa Udagawa and Kumi Hanaoka, that contains the same self-test for the data integrity (Babel no Tou, Dragon Buster, Family Jockey, Lupin Sansei: Pandora no Isan, Mappy-Land, Pro Yakyuu: Family Stadium, Sanma no Meitantei, Sky Kid, Super Xevious: Gump no Nazo, and Valkyrie no Bouken: Toki no Kagi Densetsu). In the cases of Mappy-Land and Pro Yakyuu: Family Stadium, only the Japanese versions contain such tests.

To enable any of these tests, you need a special device that should be plugged into the expansion port. The operation of that device is very simple. It should accept the data bit from the data input port and return it back inverted to the output data port. The device consists of a 4-bit shift register, working as some sort of FIFO buffer. The input bits go to the input and are then shifted to the output after four cycles.

At the game's boot, it tries to send some special data to the device. If the data output doesn't match the data input inverted, then the game continues the normal operation. But if all data (usually 32, rarely 64 bytes) matches, self-tests will be performed. The program calculates 24-bit partial checksums for the PRG (excluding the last 8K) and the CHR data, summing only every 15th byte, and comparing it against the etalon.

Before testing of the PRG data, the background color turns red, before testing the CHR data, it turns green. If any of these tests are failed, the program will jump directly to the reset routine. It means, one of these tests will be performed infinitely, but until the special device is unplugged, or until the tests are passed.

Normally, you'll see the red to green flash just before the game's boot. Or the static red screen if the PRG data is bad, or the flashing red to green screen if CHR data isn't good.

Using one of the below Game Genie codes depending on the game, you can skip tests for the special device presence and jump straight to the integrity tests.

Game	Code
Babel no Tou	GENYEIEI
Dragon Buster	GAUYNTEI
Family Jockey	GANNVTEI
Lupin Sansei: Pandora no Isan	GAXYNTEI
Mappy-Land	GAVYNTEI
Pro Yakyuu: Family Stadium	GAVYNTEI
Sanma no Meitantei	GAVYNTEI
Sky Kid	GEONVTEI
Super Xevious: Gump no Nazo	GEOYNTEI
Valkyrie no Bouken: Toki no Kagi Densetsu	GEONVTEI

(Source: Cah4e3)

Game Boy (Color)/Nintendo DS(i)

All licensed software nominally exclusive to the Game Boy Color must, according to Nintendo's technical standards, run as far as to display an error message if the game is inserted into a Game Boy, Super Game Boy, or similar non-GBC-compatible device. These are only noteworthy if they go completely unused or there are notable regional differences (besides translation).
- Detection of the Game Boy-compatible console model relies on their different bootroms passing control to the program on cartridge with different values in the CPU registers. If the title restarts from its initial entrypoint without the console actually resetting (for example as a consequence of a bug or glitch in the game), this detection will generally fail and the title will assume a non-GBC-compatible console, and will stop updating the color data, etc. often resulting in visual oddities. This effect is sometimes called Glitch Dimension, due to the usage of said term in the Pokémon glitch community.
An equivalent requirement applies to the very limited number of physical DSi-exclusive games, although they contain separate executables for DS and DSi and the onus of running the most appropriate one is the responsibility of the console.
Hybrid and exclusive New 3DS titles, which switched back to a single executable, do not have these features - they all contain a v9.2 or above offline update even for original 3DS consoles, and the v9.0+ launcher will enforce New 3DS exclusivity. (Most N3DS-only titles will freeze almost immediately if forced to launch on an "old" 3DS.)
Any Game Boy game made with GB Studio will contain the following crash handler.

Nintendo DS(i) and 3DS games can have the option to send a cut-down version to other devices through Download Play (mainly demos or multiplayer clients). These should only be documented if there are notable differences from the full games, or if they contain something unusual.

Super Famicom/SNES

Many games will display an error on boot if an unsupported accessory is plugged into a controller port. These are only noteworthy if they go completely unused or there are notable regional differences (besides translation). Below is an example from Yoshi's Island.

Many games will display a region error on boot when attempting to play the NTSC version on a PAL console and vice versa. These are only noteworthy if they go completely unused or there are notable regional differences (besides translation). Below is an example, also from Yoshi's Island.

Nintendo 64

Many games will display a region error on boot when attempting to play the NTSC version on a PAL console and vice versa. These are only noteworthy if they go completely unused or there are notable regional differences (besides translation). Below is an example from Dr. Mario 64.

Sega

Mega Drive/Genesis

Many games will display a region error on boot when attempting to run the game on a console which doesn't match the game's region. These are only noteworthy if they go completely unused or there are notable regional differences (besides translation).

$C0001C

The Mega Drive's VDP internally has a word-length register that affects the operation of its visuals, and to a certain extent the PSG. This register has never been called by any known game. Sega's technical manuals don't list the register. Among programmer circles, it's colloquially known as the "debug register" as it can force the VDP's layers (termed "planes") to show, although the reason for its existence is still uncertain. Bit 6 allows only a single layer to display, and Bits 7 and 8 can force the two respective VDP planes to show. When enabled at the same time as Bit 6 is clear, the layers merge in a certain way that cause colors to merge. By enabling bits 7 and 8 while clearing Bit 6 using a debugger (specifically, by writing word 0x0180 to the register), you can generate transparent visuals. Since no game ever used these, however, all you get is translucent imagery with garish palettes depending on how your game of choice uses layers and colors.

Bits 7 and 8 disabled	Bits 7 and 8 enabled

SNK

Neo Geo Pocket Color

Similar to the Game Boy Color, there's an error message any time a game is inserted into a plain Neo Geo Pocket when a game is meant solely for the Pocket Color. These are only noteworthy if they go completely unused or there are notable regional differences (besides translation).

Unused Content

General

Games released on multiple platforms will sometimes share the same files across all ports, including things like graphics and text referring to the hardware it was released on. As a result, you can sometimes find things like Xbox and PlayStation 2 button prompts in a GameCube port of a game.

SDK Content

Nintendo

Various portions of the GameCube and Wii SDKs can be found in random games.
- rebirth.thp, portions of the U.S. Constitution, etc.
Super Game Boy dummy headers are featured in most Game Boy games from 1994 onward.

Ren'Py

Various engine placeholder graphics as well as audio can be found within the renpy/common directory.

boy.png
girl.png
_transparent_tile.png

Unity

Various graphics from the Unity SDK tend to be common leftovers. These include Unity logos, various types of "beta" or "development" watermarks, a yellow warning sign, a "personal edition" or "free edition" splash image, and many smaller Unity-specific UI elements.

Many Unity games will have starter/placeholder meshes leftover. These models are a few of them, but other shapes can be present such as pyramids, icosahedrons, icospheres, ect.

Unity games will usually have unused common fonts, such as Arial. Only notable fonts should be documented.

There are many Unity plugins that aid in the development processes of games, through various means, and leftover assets from such plugins can often be found in the files of released Unity games. Some plugins are more popular than others, with assets from them appearing in a number of Unity games.
- ProBuilder is commonly used for geometry editing.

GridBox_Collider
(ProBuilder)
GridBox_NoDraw
(ProBuilder)
GridBox_Trigger
(ProBuilder)
GridBox_Default
(ProBuilder)
GridBox_Default [alternate]
gridBox_1meter

Unreal Engine

To do:
Some examples please.

Various graphics from the Unreal Engine UDK tend to be common leftovers.
Some games, like A Hat in Time, share console commands with Unreal Engine 3.

BadSize

Godot Engine

To do:

Check for other default leftovers (pretty sure the default splash screen is one of them).

Various graphics from the Godot Engine SDK tend to be common leftovers. Among these leftovers are a Godot Engine icon (stored as a .svg in 4.x versions and as a .png in versions prior to 4.0).

Godot 1.x/Godot 2.x	Godot 3.x	Godot 4.x

Sega

Sega Pico

This needs some investigation.
Discuss ideas and findings on the talk page.
Specifically:

Is there a way of triggering any of these in-game?
Are the jingles from another game?

All Pico games from mid-2001 onwards began using a standard logo screen that went with the console's rebrand as the "Kids Communication Pico" around that time. It uses its own SMPS sound driver, separate from whatever the game itself uses, and some (but not all) instances of this logo screen actually contain more sounds than the single jingle that is normally used.

Perhaps most interesting is this arrangement of Michael Jackson's "Smooth Criminal":

(Sound ID: 81)

Also unused are these bunch of jingles:

(Sound ID: A1)

(Sound ID: A2)

(Sound ID: A3)

(Sound ID: A4)

(Sound ID: A5)

(Sound ID: A6)

(Sound ID: A7)

J2ME

China Mobile Games-released games

To do:
The notes might also be incorrectly played with the piano instrument. Document this as an oddity or remove it, if that happens on actual phones.

J2ME games released by China Mobile Games contain a standard logo screen, with a jingle playing along it.

Bugged	Fixed

Isolated - Bugged	Isolated - Fixed

The string track (channel 5) of the jingle has two extra notes that go unheard, as a program change event immediately follows them. As feature phones are limited in performance, this probably makes playing the jingle easier for them.

Others

Adobe Flash

Many Flash games with sound will often have a blank .wav file stored in the sound directories. This will often be titled "0.wav" and be 44 bytes in size.

Regional Differences