Prerelease and unused content in Animal Crossing

From Nookipedia, the Animal Crossing wiki
For prerelease and unused content in Doubutsu no Mori, see Prerelease and unused content in Doubutsu no Mori.

The following is a list of prerelease and unused content in Animal Crossing.

Early builds[edit]

E3 2002[edit]

In the prerelease build of the international version of Animal Crossing shown at E3 2002, a Fireworks Festival is shown taking place on a Saturday in August like in the Japanese version, rather than on July 4 like in the final international release.[1]

Unused content[edit]

Items[edit]

Super Mario Bros and Legend of Zelda[edit]

Super Mario Bros PG Model.png
Legend of Zelda PG Model.png
Super Mario Bros and Legend of Zelda

Super Mario Bros and Legend of Zelda are fully functional NES games that are unobtainable in Animal Crossing. Super Mario Bros was obtainable in Doubutsu no Mori+ via a Nintendo GameCube Memory Card that was sent to winners of a sweepstakes run by Famitsu. It is unobtainable in Animal Crossing and Legend of Zelda is unobtainable in both. Both items are lucky, have an HRA score of 1983, and sell for 10,000 Bells. Like all NES game items, Super Mario Bros and Legend of Zelda have different designs in Doubutsu no Mori+ and Animal Crossing; Legend of Zelda also contains the Disk System version of the game in Doubutsu no Mori+. Both items were completely removed in Doubutsu no Mori e+.

The fact that in Animal Crossing, Super Mario Bros and Legend of Zelda cannot be obtained via a secret code, an attribute only shared by e-Reader card items Ice Climber and Mario Bros, suggests they may have been planned to be obtained via e-Reader cards that were never released.

Another item also named "Legend of Zelda" (filename: hayakawa_famicom)[nb 1] appears identical to the NES item and crashes the game when interacted with in Animal Crossing. In Doubutsu no Mori+, it is fully functional and contains the cartridge version of the game; however, it is still modeled after a Famicom Disk System.

Clothing[edit]

Eight clothing items—plum kimono, somber robe, red sweatsuit, blue sweatsuit, red puffy vest, blue puffy vest, summer robe, and bamboo robe—are worn by villagers during various events and can be obtained and worn by the player only through the use of memory editing. The plum kimono appears in the houses of Monique and Chrissy, despite being normally unobtainable as item.

Fossil bases[edit]

All eight fossil bases placed in a room

The bases for the fossils when placed as furniture appear as unobtainable furniture items. The items include tricera D, T-rex D, bronto D, ptera D, HUTABAD,[nb 2] mammoth D, stego D, and stego D2, with "D" standing for display.

Unused chair[edit]

The unused chair in Doubutsu no Mori+

The unused chair (filename: sum_gst_chair01) is a fully functional ghost-themed chair in Doubutsu no Mori+. In Animal Crossing, the chair is replaced with a DUMMY model and is nonfunctional.

DUMMY items[edit]

The DUMMY model

DUMMY is an furniture item that, due to an oversight, can be obtained from igloo campers. It is a white triangle with the Japanese text "ダミー" ("dummy") on it. The model for this item is also used by several other unobtainable items, including the zabuton, chest, rack, unused dresser, unused monkey, modern den chair, golf trophy, tennis trophy, and kart trophy.[nb 3] In addition to these items, many DUMMY items share names with items only present in Doubutsu no Mori+ and are likely leftovers from that version.[nb 4]

Sickle[edit]

The sickle as it appears when dropped outside

The sickle is an tool that can be equipped but has no model or functionality. It appears as a net in the player's pockets and uses an otherwise unused sprite of a toolbox when dropped on the ground.[nb 5]

Corrupted or unusable items[edit]

There are several items normally unobtainable that have corrupted or missing names, or that have no function. Some are indeed used in game, but never appear in the player's pockets.

The unique icon for "Unknown"
  • "Unknown" is an item with a unique icon in the player's pockets that cannot be interacted with within their pockets.
  • The following items reuse existing icons and have corrupted English names:
  • §ÿ³„Ñ à – uses the icon of an unopened letter; Japanese name is クエストてがみ (quest letter)
  • §ÿ³„ÕØ – uses the icon of an item of clothing; Japanese name is クエストぬの (quest clothes)
  • §ÿ³„ÁÂÖ – uses the icon of 1,000 Bells; Japanese name is クエストおかね (quest money)
  • money1000Bell – uses the icon of 1,000 Bells; Japanese name is おかね1000ベル (1,000 Bells of money) — this is the item handed to Tom Nook at the start of the game, disguised as "1,000 Bells."
  • ÁàÅ – uses the icon of a Pitfall; Japanese name is おみくじ (omikuji) — this is the item seen handed to the player by Katrina on New Year's Day, however instead of going to their item inventory they will get the fortune as a letter.
  • 🗙♀☂Þ🐷 – uses the icon of a Present; Japanese name is ムラノまっぷ (town map) — this is the map item Tom Nook hands the player during their part-time job allowing them to access the map, however it never appears in their inventory.
The unnamed "bluefish" item
  • An unnamed item, colloquially known as the "bluefish", can be dropped outside, where it has a unique sprite of a fish. Once dropped, it cannot be picked up. Interestingly, there are many different versions of this item.

Characters[edit]

Shaki[edit]

Shaki
Main article: Shaki

Shaki (シャキッ) is a unused squirrel character. Through memory editing, her model can appear in the game in place of another character, though she has no unique dialogue or functionality. She can either have the name "Secret Code Key.pngKù«–•B¡¡" or "Jambette" depending on which memory address she is spawned in, and she will use Kapp'n's dialogue.

Debug Gyroid[edit]

The debug Gyroid, as it appears in Animal Crossing

The debug Gyroid is an unused Gyroid Assistant that appears in various test maps. It cycles through multiple corrupted textures and it always shows a blank dialogue bubble when interacted with. Its name is corrupted, and it displays as "Secret Code Key.pngù«–•B¡¡". It has no animations.

In Doubutsu no Mori, the Gyroid is textured normally and its name is not corrupted. It is called "ジョニーB", which translates to "Joni B" or "Johnny B." When spoken to, the Gyroid has multiple dialogue options that are for debugging text commands. Some seem to be nonsensical, such as the Japanese hiragana "あ" repeated 64 times. Notably, in one of the dialogue options that tests inserting strings into dialogue, the Gyroid mentions the PlayStation 2 and Dreamcast, which were competing video game consoles at the time. Much like its appearance in Animal Crossing, the Gyroid has no animations and sits completely still. A transcript and English translation of all of the debug Gyroid's dialogue can be found here.

Objects[edit]

Mbg[edit]

The yellow cube moving left and right
PG Yellow Cube.png
PG Yellow Cube Bright.png
The yellow cube as it initially appears (left) and when it becomes bright (right)

The mbg (ac_mbg)[2] (an abbreviation for "Move BG") is a test actor which can be placed outside. It has a corresponding unnamed item that can be dropped outside to spawn the object. Initially, it is invisible, but once the player enters a building and returns, the item becomes a dark yellow cube that moves left and right on a sine curve while rotating counter-clockwise. The block has collision and will push the player if they are in its way. Occasionally, the cube's color fades to a bright yellow, before returning to dark yellow. It was used to test background (BG) actor collision during development.

Four mbg objects appear in one of the game's test maps.

In Animal Crossing, the mbg has a corrupted icon, and in Doubutsu no Mori e+, it uses the same icon as the mosquito.

Airplane[edit]

The icon for the mbg and airplane items
Several paper airplanes on the ground

The airplane (ac_airplane)[3] is an object that can be placed outside. It has a corresponding unnamed item that can be dropped outside to spawn the object. Like the mbg, it is initially invisible. When the player enters a building and returns, the item becomes a paper airplane. If the player presses A while standing on the paper airplane, it will disappear, indicating that the player has picked it up. After doing so, if Z is held and the Control Stick is flicked, the airplane will fly from the player as if being thrown; the trajectory and distance it is thrown depends on how the Control Stick was flicked. Once the paper airplane lands, the player is unable to move, softlocking the game.

A single airplane appears in one of the game's test maps.

Each time the player enters a building and returns, the number of paper airplanes doubles. This repeats indefinitely, until the game crashes due to the number of objects rendered.

Like the mbg, the airplane has a corrupted icon in Animal Crossing and uses the mosquito's icon in Doubutsu no Mori e+.

Mural[edit]

A mural, modified to display properly in-game.

The mural (ac_mural)[4] is a debug test object which was added after the completion of Doubutsu no Mori but before the release of Doubutsu no Mori+ on the GameCube. Its intention is to show a 4x4 grid of shirt textures. It may have been utilized for testing textures during the transition from the Nintendo 64 to the GameCube. However, the object's draw routine was never updated from the Nintendo 64 to the GameCube format, resulting in its textures appearing corrupted.

When Zurumode 2 is enabled (which can be done by setting the game's disc ID to 0x99), the mural's features are unlocked. With a controller plugged into port 2, pressing GCN Start Button.svg + GCN +Control Pad Left.svg will open the "TAKREG" debug register menu. This was a set of debug variables assigned to Gentaro Takaki, one of Animal Crossing's programmers. Modifying the 10th value to be 0 or 1 will enable texture switching. Modifying the 11th value will select the texture on the mural to change. Modifying the 12th value will set the currently selected texture to be the corresponding shirt texture.

A mural appears in one of the game's test maps.

Text[edit]

Two messages that mention E3 exist within the game's data but remain unused:

  • "I'm terribly sorry, but since E3 is being held today, We're not accepting any letters. I apologize for the inconvenience."
  • "Listen, E3 is being held today. We don't save letters during E3. (We're just too busy!)"

Given the content of the messages, it is likely they were planned for an E3 demo and were meant to be spoken by Pelly or Phyllis if the player were to attempt to send or save letters.

Gallery[edit]

Notes[edit]

  1. This filename differs from that of all other NES games, famicom_common. Hayakawa may refer to Kenzo Hayakawa, a programmer for Animal Crossing.
  2. This item name was mis-romanized and left untranslated. Romanized from its original Japanese name, its name would be futaba D, which translates to "plesio D."
  3. The zabuton, chest, rack, nice speaker, unused dresser, unused monkey, and modern den chair have models in Doubutsu no Mori. The golf trophy, tennis trophy, and kart trophy were added in Doubutsu no Mori+, and their original designs are unknown.
  4. Leftover items include the dresser, tansu, sewing box, paper lantern, tea table, shogi board, screen, bus stop, hibachi, tea tansu, pink kotatsu, blue kotatsu, school desk, graffiti desk, towel desk, kadomatsu, kagamimochi, heavy chair, school chair, towel chair, stepstool, giant dharma, dharma, mini-dharma, striped cone, cola machine, barricade, fence, plastic fence, fence and sign, brown drum, red drum, juice machine, trash can, garbage pail, robotic flagman, zen basin, wash basin, warning sign, route sign, men working sign, caution sign, temple basin, bucket, faucet, spa chair, massage chair, bath mat, spa tub, clerk's booth, spa screen, bath locker, milk fridge, lucky cat, lucky black cat, racoon obje, lucky frog, alcove, hearth, post box, moon dumpling, bean set, osechi, spring medal, fall medal, long-life noodle, bass boat, mortar ball, big catch flag, hibachi grill, scary painting, and novel painting.
  5. The toolbox sprite is used for all tools dropped on the ground in Doubutsu no Mori, but in Animal Crossing tools instead have unique sprites.

References[edit]

  1. neopokekun (July 6, 2007). "Animal Crossing E3 2002". Retrieved November 29, 2020.
  2. Cuyler36 (February 27, 2024). "ac_mbg.c". GitHub. Retrieved February 28, 2024.
  3. Cuyler36 (January 6, 2024). "ac_airplane.c". GitHub. Retrieved February 28, 2024.
  4. Cuyler36 (February 28, 2024). "ac_mural.c". GitHub. Retrieved February 28, 2024.