beatmania III THE FINAL

beatmania III THE FINAL
Developer: Konami AMD Publisher: Konami Platform: Arcade (Konami FireBeat) Released in JP: August 26, 2002 This game has hidden developer credits. This game has hidden development-related text. This game has unused graphics. This game has unused text.

With nearly every song from nearly every game, beatmania III THE FINAL would provide the definitive beatmania experience... and end the series with a bang.

Unused Text

Starting from 0x70BDC and 0x712A0 in a decompressed HIKARU.EXE are genre and artist string listings, which contain unused slots:

Genres

0x70C14 - ABSTRACT
0x70EF8 - HAPPY BIGBEAT
0x70EF8 - KARATE
0x711F8 - VIRTUAL DRUMMING

Artists

0x71300 - CAPTAIN JACK
0x713F4 - DIMITRI FROM PARIS
(DIMITRI YERASIMOS)
0x714DC - DJ YUTAKA
feat. DJ AK
0x714F4 - DJ YUTAKA
feat. MC KRUSH
0x715B0 - E-ROTIC
0x71740 - LITTLE TEMPO
0x717AC - MIX MASTER MIKE
0x71834 - DJ nagureo
feat. sana
0x718DC - PAPAYA
0x71964 - REGINA
0x71A8C - THE KINKY BOYZ
0x71B60 - ULTIMATE HEIGHTS
0x71B88 - X-TREME

Titles

Stored right before the song title strings, which start at offset 0x71BF8, are two unused strings:

0x71BDC - dummy stage
0x71BE8 - FORBIDDEN MIX

(Source: tikal.)

Unused Graphics

Graphics for three of the four unused genres previously listed, alongside genres for removed songs, can still be found within the files in the directory SYSTEM/N_ILLUST.

Additionally, due to an oversight, this genre tag for the song KISS KISS KISS goes unused, strangely replaced by the previously unused "HAPPY BIGBEAT" graphic seen since beatmania III APPEND 6thMIX.

(Source: tikal.)

Hidden Development-Related Text

Build Date

A build date is present in the title of the game's main ISO file:

VOL_20020726172220

Security Strings

Starting from offset 0x94904 of a decompressed HIKARU.EXE is a set of security strings which contain a programmer credit:

MoDe:MaNuFaC/PRoGRaMeD BY USR01979(HaJiMe SaiTo)
MoDe:SeRViCe/PRoGRaMeD BY USR01979(HaJiMe SaiTo)
MoDe:EVeNT  /PRoGRaMeD BY USR01979(HaJiMe SaiTo)
MoDe:OVeRSea/PRoGRaMeD BY USR01979(HaJiMe SaiTo)
MoDe:DuMMY01/PRoGRaMeD BY USR01979(HaJiMe SaiTo)
MoDe:DuMMY02/PRoGRaMeD BY USR01979(HaJiMe SaiTo)
MoDe:DuMMY03/PRoGRaMeD BY USR01979(HaJiMe SaiTo)
MoDe:DuMMY04/PRoGRaMeD BY USR01979(HaJiMe SaiTo)

(Source: tikal.)

Additionally, the game's security dongle includes a different comment:

bm3Secu1PutIPmuP
C01######       
                
                
bm3Secu2JDoTysaE
                
                
                
bm3Secu3PuCDlRoW

The three "bm3Secu" lines, when reversed, read "PumPItuP EasyToDJ WoRlDCuP". Pump it Up and EZ2DJ are both competing rhythm games whose creators, Andamiro and AmuseWorld respectively, were in the process of being sued by Konami over patent infringement when the game was released. World Cup presumably refers to the 2002 World Cup, held simultaneously in Japan and South Korea, which took place during the game's development.

(Source: Windy Fairy)