The Unused Themes of Splatterhouse, At least the first one.

Yeah, Namco, could you stop riddling a game with so much stuff that 20 years in we're still digging on all o' that? (Blue orbs, mask spirits and such alike, I'm lookin' at you). With that in mind I hope this isn't old news.

I was fiddling around with the dip switches on the Arcade after I heard that in the FM Towns sound test there was a song unheard in the game. While I've not been informed or heard it for myself, I decided to tackle the game's sound test myself and see if the Arcade didn't have 'em.

And it did. Nothing to exactly write home about (which is more or less the norm with unused themes), but they're there. And now ripped for your convenience.

http://rapidshare.com/files/395671678/The_...latterhouse.rar
http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?wky3nr3xdwd

I didn't include commentary on the file, so here they go out sorted by their sound test number:

00 - A classic horror sting. Way too classic, I guess - it would feel out of place in SH. To boot it also appears to be a stereo tests of sorts since the first sting plays in one channel and the second in another.
2B - A "you fucked up" tune. Maybe they were thinking of using that when Rick died? After all that was norm when Splatterhouse was released. No less, doesn't exactly sound all too fitting, either.
25 - This sounds like some work-in-progress version of Jennifer's battle theme, or maybe Biggy Man's, without the extra instruments, mostly drums.
31 - A higher-pitched version of the Poltergeist Room theme.
34 - The first arrange of "Sento nel Core", when you meet Jennifer again. It plays like only 2 seconds extra from what you hear in the game and serjio's rip where it's embedded with the battle theme, so thought it well to bundle it in.
40 - An ethereal sting. No less, this is exactly the number of the FM Towns song they said was unheard in the game.
46 - And the oddest of all beasts: this track is mostly percussion, but it has extra tracks depending on which song you played prior to it. It sounds pretty disjointed overall and is likely a board system test of sorts, but I included in the one that had the most beginnings of a tune.

Unrelated to the unused tracks but of note in the Sound Test:
- Hell Chaos' theme has the "Rick Taylor!" (or whatever he's trying to yell) scream embedded in it; it plays so soon as it starts. The thunderbolts are also bundled in the tune. You can't go some time in the song without HC screaming or thunderbolts raging, and that's not exactly how it works in the game... It makes for nice ambience, but if you want to listen to just the song...
- For almost every digitized voice sample there are 4 variants: low volume, bit louder, loud, and even louder. There are times in the voice test entire hundreds of digits had something that sounded like a leftover laugh or scream of the Jokers. Then you have about 50 takes of the mask cackle as well, and some experimentalism on the moaning of the first stage - some have Biggy Man's moans embedded together, maybe to try to make for a stronger ambience, but ultimately it was left out.

But that's pretty much it. I don't remember about SH2 or SH3 having anything unused, but in case they do, why not post it here? :lol

That is TOO cool. Always interesting to see/hear things that didn't make the final cut.

Very interesting indeed. Damn, will there ever be an end to the junk that keeps popping up in this game? :lol

You know, actually I remember playing with (US, cart) SH2's sound test way back when it initially came out, and I think there actually might be an unused track in there. I'll give it a look through again.

I will mention a minor oddity about SH2's music I noticed: The majority of the stage and boss tracks end up being used EXACTLY twice throughout the game, strangely enough. This breaks up toward the final three levels of course (Lake Thing shares Metamorl's theme; Hideous Pantheon shares Deadman Fat's theme as the main exceptions) but I find it interesting. ^^

Also I'm probably the only one thinking of this, but does anyone hear a slight remix between the themes of Stage 8-1 in SH2 (the rising elevator escape) and the Boss 1 tune (Cannibal, Hell Teddy) in SH3?

I knew I recognized that first one... I had to play it back a few times, but it's the opening to Beethoven's 5th at a very fast tempo.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7pQytF2nak

Awesome!!! Great find, shin!

Cool! I'll listen to it right away! Thanx for sharing this with us.