Heroes of Might and Magic III: The Restoration of Erathia

Heroes of Might and Magic III: The Restoration of Erathia
Developer: New World Computing Publisher: 3DO Company Platform: Windows Released internationally: March 3, 1999 This game has unused graphics. This game has unused items. This game has unused sounds.

To do: Get a better Fear spell icon. Figure out how to convert .def sprite files into usable formats.

Heroes of Might and Magic III: The Restoration of Erathia is a successful turn-based strategy game with RPG elements released for Microsoft Windows in 1999. Despite its age, it still has a cult following and a huge playerbase, especially in slavic countries.

Unused spells

In the game's files, one can find a description for a unused 4th level spell Fear:

Strikes an enemy unit with such fear that it becomes unable to attack and nearly unable to move.
Cost: 16 mana points
Movement penalty: 25%

{Basic Fear}
Strikes an enemy unit with such fear that it becomes unable to attack and nearly unable to move.
Spell Point cost is half that of Normal Fear.

{Advanced Fear}
Strikes an enemy unit with such fear that it becomes unable to attack and nearly unable to move.
Penalty to movement is twice that of Basic Fear.

{Expert Fear}
Strikes an enemy unit with such fear that it becomes unable to attack and nearly unable to move.
Penalty to movement is three times that of Basic Fear. 

It's impossible to receive this spell by any means, although in unpatched versions of the game it could be randomly found in Pyramids. It's fully coded and works as intended (it uses Death stare ability's animation, but it has its own unique sound). It's unknown why it was cut. Armageddon's Blade expansion added new Azure Dragon creature to the game, which has an ability with the same name, but different animation and effect (it makes the enemy randomly skip the turn).

Unused graphics

Centaurs and Centaur Captains have an animation for throwing a spear, even though they can't shoot in the final version of the game. It should be noted that in the HoMM2 Centaurs could indeed shoot. Perhaps this ability was meant to be carried over to the sequel, but was dropped early on. Similarly, Harpy hags, Vampire Lords and Efreet Sultans have an animation for casting a spell, despite not being able to do so in the game.

There is an seemingly unused interactable map object called "Market of Time", which doesn't have any programmed functionality. It doesn't appear anywhere except one scenario, most likely forgotten about by the devs.

Unused sounds

There are loads of sounds imported straight from the previous game, HoMM2, all of which were replaced with the new sounds anyway. Possible placeholders during development?

In the unpatched versions of the game there were a lot of references to negative luck, even though in the final release having negative luck does nothing. However, there is still a sound file related to negative luck. Some mods can restore this feature to the game.
Unused bad luck sound

Heroes of Might and Magic III: Armageddon's Blade

Heroes of Might and Magic III: Armageddon's Blade
Developer: New World Computing Publisher: 3DO Company Platform: Windows Released internationally: September 30, 1999

The first expansion to base HoMM3. It included six new campaigns, added a new allignment - Conflux (which was originally meant for Shadow of Death, but was brought instead of the Forge alignment due to negative reaction towards it from fans), and introduced new creatures, artifacts, map objects.

Unused sounds

Two neutral creatures introduced in the Armageddon's Blade use the same soundbanks as existing creatures. The Rogues sound like Gremlins, and Sharpshooters sound like Archers. Strangely, the Rogues do have their own soundbank but they go unused. The Sharpshooters have nothing.
Unused Rogue sounds

Heroes of Might and Magic III: The Shadow of Death

Heroes of Might and Magic III: The Shadow of Death
Developer: New World Computing Publisher: 3DO Company Platform: Windows Released internationally: March 31, 2000

The second, standalone expansion to HoMM3. It added seven new campaings, new terrain types and combination artifacts.

Unused artifacts

There are three unused combination artifacts: Diplomat's Suit (worn as a cloak), Ironfist of the Ogre (worn in the right hand), Mired in Neutrality (worn on the torso). They all have placeholder icons, overworld sprites and description: "This is a kick-ass artifact". Wearing them does nothing.

Armageddon's Blade features in The Shadow of Death

The Shadow of Death originaly would require installation of Armaggedon's Blade to enjoy first expansion's content. It was discovered however that AB's new features are actually present in SoD files out of the box but are designed to remain hidden, and that they can be enabled by creating a few dummy files in correct folders.