Paddle Mania

Paddle Mania
Developer: SNK Publishers: SNK (JP, EU), United Amusements (US) Platform: Arcade (Alpha Denshi 68000 hardware) Released in JP: January 1988 Released in US: June 1988 Released in EU: February 1998 This game has unused graphics. This game has unused text.

Paddle Mania stretches the definition of Paddle Tennis as far as it can go before snapping into full blown chaos.

Unused Graphics

Small court icons for an earlier version of the Court Select seen in Player vs Player mode. The final version simply displays the entire court on screen.

An incomplete tileset for some kind of background of, err, somewhere. There are a lot of tiles missing from the ROM, no tilemap exists, and an appropriate palette seems to be missing as well.

Banners, both lit and unlit, for an unimplemented training mode.

Tennis ball barrels that would be used for said mode. Look at that spinning barrel action! Take that, Donkey Kong.

(Source: Original TCRF research)

Unused Court Content

Full	Alternate

All courts are designed to be 256 pixels wide. Only 240 pixels worth of content are ever shown, leaving a 16 pixel width strip of the court unseen. In this case, it doesn't really matter much, since all that's missing is a bit of the service box.

The Sumo, Surfin, and Pool courts have unused tiles in the graphics ROM meant for earlier court layouts, though their tilemaps are no longer in the game. In this case, the early court has goals of equal width for both sides and a different service box design.

Full	Alternate

Most of the parasol and a few of the sunbather's tiles are never seen in the game proper.

The alternate court design is significantly easier for the player(s), with large decorative walls and a nice green welcome mat.

Full	Alternate

There's nothing really unused in the full Pool court, that image is just here for comparison with the alternate layout. Said layout has a number of features that the final layout does not, including lane markers, a properly marked service box, and a "GOAL" graphic at the end of the pool.

(Source: Original TCRF research)

Unused Text

High score names are limited to six characters. However, three of the default high score names are seven letters long. As a result, "CRAPTON", "BAILLEY", and "GABRIEL" have a character cut off at the end. The full list of names can be found in the main CPU at 0x0266E.

Starting at 0x21B60 is text for an early Court Select.

COAT A
COAT B
COAT C
COAT D
COAT E

The D and E strings are actually further apart than the A through C strings, hinting that those courts were added later in development.

At 0x2285E is a more properly spelled, but improperly spaced, set of court text:

COURTA
COURTB
COURTC
COURTD
COURTE

Like the older text block, Court D and Court E aren't grouped with Courts A-C.

(Source: Original TCRF research)