The Cutting Room Floor (TCRF) is a website dedicated to the cataloguing of unused content and leftover debugging material in video games. The site and its discoveries have been referenced in the gaming press.
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Type of site | Wiki |
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Founder(s) | Rachel Mae |
Key people | Xkeeper[1] |
URL | tcrf.net |
Launched | 2002 2 February 2010 (current form) | (original form)
Content licence | CC BY 3.0 |
The site started out as part of a blog but was reworked and relaunched as a wiki in 2010. The reworked site is considered by Edge to be a major catalogue of unused video game content.
History
editThe Cutting Room Floor was started by Rachel Mae[2] in 2002 as part of a blog.[1] It mainly focused on Nintendo Entertainment System games,[3] and was occasionally updated.[1] In the late 2000s, Alex Workman, better known as Xkeeper, reworked the site into a wiki, which launched on 2 February 2010.[3] The site has since specialised in what gaming media, including Edge and Wired,[1][4] have likened to video game archaeology;[5][6][7] Kotaku described them as "routinely responsible" for it.[8] Its members analyse video game code and content using various tools, such as debuggers and hex editors,[1] and if something interesting is found, an "uncover" starts.[5] According to Xkeeper, the site's members co-operatively analyse their findings to work out how to re-enable content.[5] The site's goal is to catalogue "as many deleted elements as possible from all sorts of games".[9]
In December 2013, Edge considered The Cutting Room Floor to be the largest and best-organised catalogue of unused video game content.[1] Around this time, the site had 3,712 articles.[1] In June 2016, Xkeeper said that the website has largely avoided copyright issues.[5] Amongst the more noted discoveries are the secret menus in the Mortal Kombat games,[8][10][11] and The Legend of Zelda prototype, which was "extensively" catalogued and what The Cutting Room Floor moderator GoldS considers the site's most important article.[1][5][12] The Cutting Room Floor's community is reported to have paid 700 dollars for an unreleased Tetris DS prototype.[5] A coding error in Super Mario Bros. that changed the behaviour of the Spiny eggs also made the gaming press.[13] In May 2018, Kotaku and Eurogamer reported on a Pokémon Gold and Silver prototype and its assets that had been documented on the website.[14][15] Other material catalogued include hidden messages,[4] as well as regional and revisional differences, such as differences between versions and ports.[16]
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ a b c d e f g h "The Explorers: The gaming archaeologists digging through the code you were never meant to see". Edge. 16 December 2013. Archived from the original on 18 February 2014. Retrieved 28 March 2018.
- ^ "User:Rachel Mae". The Cutting Room Floor. Archived from the original on 18 December 2022. Retrieved 17 December 2022.
- ^ a b "The Cutting Room Floor:About". The Cutting Room Floor. Archived from the original on 25 October 2020. Retrieved 28 March 2018.
- ^ a b Kemps, Heidi (May 2013). "The Funny, Occasionally Dirty, Hidden Messages in Your Favorite Games". Wired. Archived from the original on 15 February 2016. Retrieved 28 March 2018.
- ^ a b c d e f Smith, Ernie (16 June 2016). "A Link to the Past: Unused Content in Video Games". Tedium. Archived from the original on 8 July 2019. Retrieved 28 March 2018.
- ^ Peterson, Joel (10 August 2017). "Hackers uncover long lost Super Mario Bros. 2 enemy". Destructoid. Archived from the original on 30 October 2019. Retrieved 28 March 2018.
- ^ Wilson, Mike (3 December 2017). "Check Out This Unused 'Bloodborne' Content!". Bloody Disgusting. Archived from the original on 20 July 2019. Retrieved 28 March 2018.
- ^ a b Yarwood, Jack (29 March 2016). "The People Obsessed With Uncovering Gaming's Deepest, Darkest Secrets". Kotaku. Archived from the original on 16 May 2016. Retrieved 28 March 2018.
- ^ Channell, Mike (31 December 2013). "Discover The Deleted Scenes From Your Favourite Games". Outside Xbox. Archived from the original on 5 January 2014. Retrieved 28 March 2018.
- ^ Orland, Kyle (24 February 2016). "Decades later, players are still unlocking secrets in classic Mortal Kombat". Ars Technica. Archived from the original on 24 July 2019. Retrieved 28 March 2018.
- ^ Paget, Mat (25 February 2016). "Mortal Kombat's Secret Menus Discovered 20 Years Later". GameSpot. Archived from the original on 28 March 2018. Retrieved 28 March 2018.
- ^ McWhertor, Michael (27 December 2010). "A Rare Look At What The Legend of Zelda Used To Be". Kotaku. Archived from the original on 11 March 2020. Retrieved 28 March 2018.
- ^ Theriault, Donald (24 April 2016). "New Error Found In Super Mario Bros". Nintendo World Report. Archived from the original on 30 July 2019. Retrieved 28 March 2018.
- ^ Jackson, Gita (31 May 2018). "Old Pokémon Gold And Silver Demo Shows Features That Never Made It". Kotaku. Archived from the original on 1 June 2018. Retrieved 19 August 2018.
- ^ Phillips, Tom (31 May 2018). "20 years later, fans uncover never-before-seen Pokémon left on the cutting room floor". Eurogamer. Archived from the original on 2 March 2019. Retrieved 19 August 2018.
- ^ Ben Stegner, Ben (30 May 2014). "4 Useful and Interesting Video Game Websites You've Never Heard Of". MakeUseOf. Archived from the original on 28 March 2018. Retrieved 28 March 2018.