KeyboardMania (Arcade)

KeyboardMania
Also known as: KeyboardHeaven (KR) Developer: Konami AMD Publisher: Konami Platform: Arcade (Konami FireBeat) Released in JP: February 6, 2000 Released in KR: 2000 This game has hidden developer credits. This game has unused graphics. This game has regional differences.

Konami went from somewhat unrealistic guitars to realistic drums to a real keyboard. What is this, an uncanny jam session?

Unused Graphics

Placeholder Graphics

Inside MU_SEL.ZCC are several placeholder song entry graphics. While only 21 songs are playable in this game, there are graphics for unused entries 22 to 25 or 27.

mu_bpm22-25

mu_data22-24

mu_data25

se_gcd22-27

se_ocd22-27

Armajiro

The folder 03ARMAJR, which contains background animation data for the song Armajiro, has two sprite sheets that are not called by ARMAJIRO.MSQ, the animation controller:

ANIM01.ZCC
Contains an animation labeled "test". The file is dated October 2, 1999, a month prior to the other sprite sheets.

ARM07.ZCC
A slightly longer variant of ARM06.ZCC, which is used in the song's ending.

(Source: tikal.)

Developer Credit

The file gq974-ja contains a set of security strings, one of which contains a developer credit:

MoDe:SeRViCe/PRoGRaMeD BY USR01979(HaJiMe SaiTo)

This string is present in most Konami FireBeat games, and refers to Hajime Saito, who worked as a programmer at the time.

Regional Differences

KeyboardMania was released in Korea under the title of KeyboardHeaven. The only known difference is in its songlist: the songs kimi ni ai ni yukou, Mighty Guy, Shiritori and Shining Dream are absent due to Korean law at the time censoring songs with Japanese lyrics.