mills5
@mills5.bsky.social
I post interesting finds in software and games. ゲームやソフトウェアの面白い発見を投稿しています
NEW: Sega's "Wing War" (1994) hides the message "PLEASE GIVE ME MATRIX GRAPHICS!" in its service mode's CRT test. Presumably a programmer's desperate plea. The function to display it was dummied out before release; here's the message reactivated in MAME.
NEW: Sega's G-LOC R360 (1990) hides two developer message screens: one launches a special mission to "BREAK DOWN MATCH'S AMBITION" (Match was a programmer for this), the other thanks "YU BIN SIM HIRO PAPA" (?) The button combo uses Start - a safety stop on the real cabinet - so here's MAME footage.
NEW: G-LOC Air Battle (Sega, 1990) hides a very cryptic secret: hold Afterburner + Vulcan + Missile + Start as Expert Mission 4 begins. Three green APC-like vehicles spawn below. In this mission only, holding the combo occasionally spawns another. Kill it while holding the combo and ANOTHER spawns.
Leave Konami's 1988 arcade game Gang Busters (Crazy Cop in Japan) idle for about 7 minutes without touching anything, and an invincible flying robot turret appears out of nowhere, killing you with a barrage of missiles. (This enemy also doesn't seem to be used anywhere else in the game...?)
The PC release of the VN Grisaia: Phantom Trigger (Vol 1) mentions the real-life Setouchi Sea Jack Incident (瀬戸内シージャック事件). The Switch version removes the reference. Been comparing VN scripts across releases - mostly routine console censorship, but this was an interesting thing to look up.
New: Taito's Violence Fight also hides a code that flashes "SPECIAL EDITION" on screen (lol) and changes the CPU to a special difficulty mode. To activate: 1P mode and first stage only, enter Punch, Right, Right, Kick, Punch, Jump during the pre-fight walking animation.
NEW DISCOVERY: In Taito's "Violence Fight" (yes, it's really called that), a secret button combination pressed at the right time lets you play as the so-called "unplayable" boss characters. During pre-fight walking animation: Jump, Down, Right, Left, Left, Left (2P mode only, either can enter it)
Another new hidden message in Pro Yakyuu World Stadium (1988): At the game start screen, a special fanfare plays followed by a "PROGRAMMED BY JUN AMANAI" message at the top of the screen. Unfortunately, the actual button combination to display this is broken due to a code bug. :(
NEW: Namco's arcade baseball game Pro Yakyuu World Stadium (1988) has a hidden message. At the results screen, hold all Player 1 and 2 buttons, AND hold P1 Up + P2 Left. Message on left side of screen in vertical Japanese: "After playing baseball, I suddenly got a little sleepy. I love Namco!"
Taito's 1988 arcade flightsim Top Landing has a documented UFO flyby easter egg requiring a specific stage, weather, and certain repeating last 2 score digits. New discovery: a special orange UFO can appear, ONLY on exactly the 88th game since the cabinet was started, and ONLY on the 3rd round.
New: Taito's 3D arcade helicopter firefighting game Air Inferno (1990) hides some strange, specific secrets. High score names are limited to 3 characters. If you enter "ANN", the game displays "ANNE" on the ranking display. This is a deliberate special case, not a general 4-character name feature.
New Discovery: Dynamite League (Taito, 1990) has a hidden CPU-vs-CPU mode. To activate it, insert credit(s), then hold down both buttons for Player 1 and 2, then press Player 1 Up. Both "players" will be controlled by the CPU. 24/7 twitch stream with betting when ??
HUGE new hidden message discovery in 1943: Midway Kaisen (Capcom, 1987). Make the high-scores' middle initials all spell out "KEIKO". Start a new game, die without a high score, then hold 2P Button B. After game over, "Welcome Maririn! Are you happy?" appears, and high-score names become hearts ♥.
Late Halloween post: Rafflesia (Arcade, 1986) is such a weird and eerie shoot em'up game, with nightmare fuel graphics. Seems to be so obscure that not many know of it, however. Would definitely give me nightmares if I played it as a kid
41-year-old easter egg newly discovered in a Japanese PC-88 adventure game! During the credits sequence of Abyss 2: Tears of Emperor (1985, HummingBirdSoft), hold keys 1 + 3 + 5 + 7, and programmer M.Maeda's name will change to "LILASS!" ...I'm serious.
Revisiting Abyss 2: Tears of Emperor (1985, HummingBirdSoft), a PC-88 game I thought had no secrets: Enter exactly 30 '$' (the max) at the command prompt, then press CTRL+Q. It will print "<SHALU>". No in-game effect. CTRL or Q aren't otherwise used anywhere. Some kind of reference? Dev in-joke?
Taito's Operation Wolf (Arcade, 1987) hides a copyright message behind very specific steps: clear Airport with 0 hostages rescued, Service Mode on, set all SW2 DIPs OFF except SW2:3, then flip SW2:3 from 7->6 after the cutscene ends. Your reward: "© TAITO CORPORATION 12 Aug 1987". Why so complex?
The tcrf page for Sega's Alien Syndrome (Arcade, 1987) mentions that sprites of other Sega characters Flicky, Pengo, and Opa-Opa appear in the game's internal object list. They're not unused. You can actually see them by destroying certain sections of the terrain during the Round 3 boss battle.
NEW DISCOVERY: Konami's rare Black Panther (1987) hides an extremely obscure message. To see it: play on Hardest, have 0 extra lives, and kill a specific random enemy 6+ times. "PROGRAMING BY.NAK", will flash letter by letter, in the lower-right corner on Stage 4 (the final stage). Who is NAK?
There are dead, bloody corpses hidden around some of the holes in Golden Tee 3D (1995). These were discovered in Golden Tee '99, but I had no idea that they were still hidden in as early as this version!
New find: Land on the island on Hole 8 of Oak Valley in Golden Tee 3D Golf (1995), and you'll find a gravestone marked "JIMMY HOFFA". This easter egg was previously documented in a 2008 Golden Tee game, but apparently its 1995 appearance had gone unnoticed.
Quiz & Dragons (Capcom, 1992) ending text: "The legend of these brave heroes soon spread throughout the land. Their names became household words and were eventually used by an enterprising restauranteur to describe various flavors of canned soup." Maybe the writer wanted to clock out and go home.
"MAKE ROCKETS DOCK" - a phrase many remember from Moon Cresta, a 1980 arcade shmup with a then-innovative ship docking mechanic. Ask AI, and it'll confidently tell you the phrase appeared in it. And it fits. Yet, it never appears in the original release. So where did it come from?
In the Japanese PC-88 port of Ultima 3: Exodus by Pony Canyon, if you try to Talk/Transact (T key) to an enemy monster, they literally say "FUCK YOU!!" in English. Hilarious, and apparently nobody has discovered or posted about this before online in English or Japanese
Tecmo’s Grid Iron (1985; rereleased as "All American Football" in 1987) hides a special win screen: win 7–0 on HARD to see a completely different screen with "FINAL BOWL XI", "Space Dome", with the red team named "Red Impulse." Previously undiscovered. Is this a reference to something?
NEW DISCOVERY: Developer credits hidden in Tehkan's Gridiron Fight (1985), re-released as All American Football (1987). Undiscovered for 41 years. To unlock: Hold P1's button, insert a coin, then release. Press P1 ×3, P2 ×6, P1 ×3, P2 ×6. Music changes, and the message will scroll across the top.
Moon Cresta (Nichibutsu, 1980) has an interesting little undiscovered bug where if you die while the internal wave timer is about to rollover, your ship won't respawn, thus softlocking the game.
