The House of the Dead (Arcade)

The House of the Dead
Developer: Sega AM1 Publisher: Sega Platform: Arcade (Sega Model 2C CRX) Released in JP: March 1997 Released in US: May 1997 Released in EU: June 1997 This game has unused areas. This game has hidden development-related text. This game has unused enemies. This game has unused music. This game has regional differences.

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(evil voice): THE HOUSE OF THE DEAD!

A horror-themed rail shooter that led to sequels, spinoffs, a 2022 remake, and two poorly-received films.

According to Sega AM1, lots of content was scrapped due to time constraints, hardware limitations, poor player feedback, and even fears of controversy.

To do: Cover the unused rooms PN_room_6bb_zsof (an alternate room for the bad ending) and room_6bbb (Chariot's room with the scrapped fireplace entrance, a remnant of an earlier version of the fight). Unused branching path from Chapter 2. Unused enemies: "baba", "syndy", "MrG", "disiprin", "lubin", "hiru", "neozom", and "debu". Unused fly head model for Hermit. Three unused music tracks from the sound test. Unused subtitles for a Hangedman line. Create a page for the prototype, The House of Dead [sic], which has numerous differences.

Unused Graphics

Attract Mode Ads

Two graphics exist for InVision Interactive and the "Recycle It, Don't Trash It!" screens. InVision Interactive was seemingly a leftover from Cool Riders, another Sega AM1 game.

Development Text

All of these are present in the main CPU.

At 0x21660:

N_E_Num   :%02x
N_E_A_Num :%02x
0123456789ABCDEF : enStFlag
0123456789ABCDEF : EnmID
%1d
*
X
AtcPlFlg[0]:%d
AtcPlFlg[1]:%d

At 0x295B0:

FCNO:%2d
HIT  
NOHIT

At 0x9C740:

NoBias      %s
ON 
OFF
MotFinish   %s
MotFinishUp %s
SplFinish   %s
SplFinishUp %s
FixMode     %s
Supplement  %s
SupplementU %s
WMotion     %s
DevideEnd   %s
DevideNoRep %s
Stay        %s
StayUp      %s
Height      %f
Direction   %04x
World.yp    %f
World.ya    %04x
FrameNum    %04d

(Source: Original TCRF research)

Unused Enemy

Baba is an unused enemy who resembles an elderly woman. Unlike other unused enemies that have no animations, this one starts in a default pose before glitching out and crashing the game. In an interview found in Sega Saturn Magazine , it was confirmed it was cut to due concerns of possible backlash of shooting someone that looked like an old woman. Interestingly enough, there's data for it during the intro, but it goes unused. Its textures only load properly in areas that use the same texture group as the enemies used in the first level inside the mansion, suggesting they were only going to be in the first level.

Regional Differences

...But what does it mean? This game has text or audio that needs to be translated. If you are fluent with this language, please read our translation guidelines and then submit a translation!

There are three regions in the Game Assignment section of the service menu: Japan, USA, and Export. Export appears to be identical to USA, though missing the "Winners Don't Use Drugs" screen.

Japan	USA

The screen shown before starting the attract mode is completely different. USA has the standard "Winners Don't Use Drugs" screen common of the era, while Japan has a copyright notice screen. Export has no screen whatsoever.

Japan	USA

The game's subtitles are formatted differently between the two versions, with Japan's being at the top-right and USA's being at the bottom. Although a Japanese game's subtitles being in Japanese is completely unremarkable...

Japan	USA

There's at least two instances of subtitles completely missing from the USA version in the attract mode. The first is Sophie calling on the phone, and the second is Curien's mini speech.

Japan	USA

Each stage in the Japanese version has the chapter's name in Japanese directly below the English one.

At the beginning of Stage 1 (Tragedy), a mission briefing is displayed. This briefing is completely absent from the USA version.

(Source: Original TCRF research)