Genesis Altered Beast. Deleted arcade sounds still in sound test. Why?

[Xian042]

The Genesis version of Altered Beast has some sound effects removed from the game, but they can still be found in faithful reproduction in the sound test mode. So why delete them? Would it really have used up that much memory?

Also, its pretty fun to mess with the AB sound test mode, sounds like they added a bunch of sounds they were experimenting with while creating them. Good demonstration of the systems sound capabilities at the time.

[AB Positive]

I would think if they're in the sound test, they're available for the game programming to use. The only memory needed would be the code to call those sounds - which are being done anyway to call the sounds that you hear in-game.

Having only recently started my M68K assembly learning I'm not that knowledgable but I can't see how using one sound sample over another would change the memory... when the sound's already in the code to begin with. That's highly odd.

So... can someone hack the game now to reference the already-in-the-cart arcade samples? Shouldn't be too hard for a good rom hacker...

[XYXZYZ]

Could have been one if those "get it out by Christmas or you're fired" things that got left behind when they yanked it out of the programmers' hands.

Are those sounds in the Japanese Megadrive version? Could also be one of those "we have to take cool things out of the western version just for the sake of doing it" things that happen.

[Shadow Kisuragi]

There are two separate deals here for size: cartridge storage and memory. They had the cartridge storage available, which is why the sound samples are still on the cartridge. However, in-game memory could have factored into why these are no longer in game, amongst other things. The amount of memory used on the front-end (menu) and in-game are different, and there may have been some sounds that utilized larger buffers.

However, more likely - the sounds were cut. Many samples are recorded and end up being cut due to various reasons. Maybe the sample wasn't appropriate for the situation it was being used? Maybe the stage was cut? Who knows?

[Kitsune Sniper]

I remember the SNES version of Final Fight had unused sound effects too.

Maybe the sound guy programmed them in, but nobody ever used them.

[Shadow Kisuragi]

The sound test is actually just a debug feature to test the sound files. It seems logical that the sound files were left on the cartridge, yet still available via sound test if they were cut or unused.