(Sega AM1's universe)
The following is a comprehensive list of all unused content from Sega AM1's 1996 rail shooting game The House of the Dead. The game has numerous unused enemies, graphics, and sounds. Such content may be unused due to time constraints, hardware limitations, controversy, or negative player feedback.
Screenshots confirm that one unused asset will not return in The House of the Dead: Remake. It is unknown if any of the other content will be restored.
Contents
Alternate "creature Sophie" ending room
If the player's final score is under 62,000 points with a ones digit of 0, they will get an ending where Sophie Richards appears in the Curien Mansion's foyer as a creature. An alternate unused room for this ending, under the filename PN_room_6bb_zsof, instead places her in what appears to be Chariot's area, where she is seemingly killed at the end of Chapter 1.
Cabinet features
There are two development sketches which show scrapped features and concepts related to The House of the Dead's arcade cabinet.
| Image | Notes |
|---|---|
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A cabinet design with a feature called the "Reflection System". Players stood between two monitors and shot at approaching enemies. Sega AM1 was unsure if the idea would be revisited in a future House of the Dead game.[1] The House of the Dead 4 Special would utilize a similar design, though it has not been confirmed if this was intentional. |
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The light guns originally used air compressors for a "blowback" effect. The feature was used on location test cabinets, but was mechanically unreliable; thus, Sega AM1 removed it from production cabinets.[2] The House of Dead, a prototype of the game, has an option in the test menu to enable to disable the gun blowback feature. |
Character concepts
Concept art exists of various scrapped characters, or ideas for characters that are absent in their final designs.
| Image | Notes |
|---|---|
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A male character who had superhuman abilities. Designer Hiroyuki Taguchi does not remember if Playboy was either an enemy or ally.[3] |
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An early version of Dr. Curien, who was scrapped because of his resemblance to the titular character from the 1993 science fiction horror film The Invisible Man. Taguchi does not remember why the character's name is "Happy".[3] |
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Dr. Curien's second iteration. He was named "Dr. A" and had a different-colored jacket, but otherwise this more "humane" appearance changed very little in development.[3] This concept art appears in the EFI Genome Ward stage of The House of the Dead III. |
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A playable female character who Taguchi described as "intellectual". This evolved into Sophie Richards.[3] |
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4 scrapped enemies: a spider-like creature; a dismembered hand; a skeletal, hooded being with what appears to be a rose and a cane; and a slime creature. Sega AM1 stated that the creature designs improved as development progressed, resulting in the creatures from the first half of development never being used.[4] |
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Concept art shows that Chariot originally wielded a sickle instead of a bardiche. |
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The third stage boss, Hermit, originally resembled less of a spider. |
Chariot fireplace entrance
In Chapter 1's final room, the fireplace was used in an early iteration of Chariot's fight. It would open to reveal a ladder after Chariot sustained enough damage; while unarmored, Chariot would climb up the ladder after the player.[5][excerpt 1]
The fight was ultimately simplified, with the fireplace becoming static. Sega AM1 replaced the old room model, room_6bbb, with the updated room model room_6bb which removed the hidden passage entirely. The room_6bbb model is still present in the game files.
Creatures
Textures, models, and animations for several unused creatures remain in the game code. Sega AM1 confirmed that one creature was removed to avoid controversy.[6] Warren Hawkes, a graphical artist for The House of the Dead's Sega Saturn port, speculated that others were removed for being sexually suggestive.[7]
| Image | Filename | Notes |
|---|---|---|
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"baba" | Scrapped because Sega AM1 worried that her elderly appearance would cause controversy.[6] The filename Baba could refer to 婆 or 祖母 (alternative pronunciation), meaning old woman and grandmother respectively. |
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"syndy" | A buxom croquet mallet-wielding female. Speculated to have been removed due to her risqué appearance.[7] |
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"MrG" | A muscular male creature who wears a gimp mask, latex pants, and a heart-shaped belt buckle. Like Syndy, his sexual appearance is theorized to have been the cause of his removal.[7] |
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"disiprin" | Another female gimp-inspired creature. Her filename appears to be a Japanese pronunciation of the English word discipline, which further hints at the creature's sexual theme. |
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"lubin" | A small claw-wielding creature who resembles Rubin, but is shirtless, wears a cap, and sports what appears to be Greek text on his face and chest. |
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"hiru" | A blue leech. It has 6 animations[8] and resembles the Buyo enemy from The House of the Dead 2, though it is unconfirmed if this is intentional. |
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"neozom" | An unused variant of Sam with large scratches instead of open flesh wounds. |
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"debu" | An unused variant of Bentley with different-colored pants, lacerations on his body, missing portions of his scalp and mouth, and no missing eye. |
Gallery
Hermit fly head
Hermit has an alternate head model with glowing-red fly eyes. Although the creature's final design lacks this, its weak point diagram appears to still have the fly eyes. The House of the Dead: Remake retains Hermit's final appearance.
Music
In the arcade version's sound test, audio tests 8, 10, and 13 are unused music tracks. It is unknown where 8 and 10 were intended to be used. Test 13 is a shortened version of Magician's theme.
Subtitles
In the game code for the arcade and Sega Saturn versions, there exists subtitle text for two unused lines:
This is the warning from Dr.Curien.
Stay away from this house! Or else....
The subtitles likely belonged to Hangedman when he kidnaps Sophie in the first chapter; they are located near the subtitles for Hangedman's final dialogue in the first two chapters. The first line noticeably lacks a space between the words "Dr." and "Curien". Neither line exists in audio form in the sound test.
Sources
- Excerpts
- ↑ Excerpt from The House of the Dead Dennou Shinan: Dr. Curien no Houkoku Sho, p.156-167:
"三本木：鎧をつけた状態で倒すと後ろの暖炉が開き、奥にはしごが。そこにローガンとソフィがいて下から装甲がなくなったボスが現れて襲いかかるはずだったんです。"
- References
- ↑ "Urgent planning SPECIAL! The House of the Dead", Sega Saturn Magazine, August 1997, page 194.
- ↑ "代表作：『ザ・ハウス・オブ・ザ・デッド』シリーズ ディレクター" (Japanese) pp. 1. SEGA Interactive Inc.. Archived from the original on October 10th, 2019.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Kori (September 7, 2012). "Development of The House of the Dead Part 1: Characters". The Website of the Dead. Archived from the original on April 19, 2020.
- ↑ Interview: The House of the Dead", Sega Saturn Magazine, issue 23, September 1997, pages 58-63.
- ↑ The House of the Dead Dennou Shinan: Dr. Curien no Houkoku Sho, pg. 156-157
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Interview: The House of the Dead", Sega Saturn Magazine, issue 23, September 1997, page 62-63.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 "The House of the Dead", Retro Gamer Magazine, issue 160, 2006, page 63.
- ↑ Tim Ritiau [@egregiousguy] (March 11, 2021). Tim Ritiau on Twitter: "Up for today we have BO_hiru. A quick google translation defines hiru as "leech" which makes sense. It has 6 animations and differ from the Murrers and "Name" from Chapter 1. #hotd #houseofthedead #unusedcontent #hiru" (English). Twitter.
v • e content
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| v • eUnused content | |
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| The House of the Dead • III • Scarlet Dawn | |
