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Post by flatapex on May 17, 2015 0:21:49 GMT
I feel so stupid when people spot such things. I just wonder how you were urged to search about it, I really can't understand! I wasn't really searching for it. I was just playing Marble Madness and spotted it. I do have a natural instinct to look at high score screens though for reasons like this! I think number one is a music theme, maybe the programmers musical tastes? Excellent shout! I think you're probably right there. Yeah I think you might be on to something, if you look at nr. 4 this could perhaps be the favorite sci-fi/fantasy/horror book authors? Again, excellent suggestion. I think you must be right. I had a go at number 2 and came up with these: PIX = Pixies ALI = Alice Cooper? Alice in Chains? NIK = Nik Kershaw MJA = Mick Jagger? Michael Jackson? MAK = Make-Up? A G = Andrew Gold? Aluminum Group? I M = Iron Maiden J L = Jesus Lizard? John Lennon? michael jackson would make sense, as there was a game planned based on thriller but axed by atari, the original creators of m.m were due to work on it i think...... j.l could also be julian lennon, in the late 80s/early 90s he was trying to make a career for himself, my main memory of which was a song called 'saltwater' which was all over the radio at that time, and was sort of a pseudo environmental-hippie ballad which i grew to loathe. The conversion was done by a british guy, which would mean it would need to be bands that released material over here, and as I said in my post above I am a bit of a nerd about what was around in that era due to my love of the itv chart show. pixies were very prominent, alice in chains were too, nik kershaw was probably a bit too prominent, michael jackson i reckon was the one for mja. make-up were later (mid 90s) as were aluminium group, andrew gold might be a bit too easy listening especially for someone that we have worked out is clearly a fan of good music on the whole. does anyone know the year it was released? i am guessing early 90s as v.r.b.n.o was up till 91, shame there are no mary whitehouse references in there (could have had a rotation of high scores with initials that spelt out 'thats you that is'
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Post by flatapex on May 17, 2015 0:27:41 GMT
not at all, i discovered them in 1989 courtesy of the itv chart show (one of my other nerd subjects) and saw them on the reunion tour in 2005. That's awesome! Are they a good live act or studio Madonna's? Trumpe me Monde was the album that sank its hooks into me, I think it was 91/92 maybe. They will be in Philadelphia in early June and I'm considering getting tickets. Not sure though? Your review may help me decide. Thanks. they were fantastic, kim was with them on that tour, she is gone for good now isnt she? (good, never liked her much anyway), Frank, Joey and David were all fantastic and if I hadn't have been on holiday last time they were playing live here I would have gone again trompe le monde was always my favourite too, although the song that got me was velouria. The first and only time it was played on the itv chart show (the day i saw it) should be on youtube so when I get chance I will find the link, it can only really be uploaded by one of about 3 or 4 people
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db
Alis
Posts: 264
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Post by db on May 17, 2015 3:26:12 GMT
Great band, The Pixies! My favorite is Doolittle. For years I tried to figure out the who did the song Monkey Gone To Heaven and was met with blank stares and long, "ummmmms" from the record store clerks. I finally figured it out myself and have been a fan ever since. I've never had the good fortune to see the live yet but I saw The Breeders along with Ned's and Blur at thing called Edgefest in Toronto around '94-95. I can also highly recommend Frank Black's solo album called Teenager of the Year, released around the same time. Great stuff!
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Post by Transatlantic Foe on May 17, 2015 9:25:30 GMT
Great to see some Trompe le Monde love, probably in my top 10 records! Also, superb thread derailing
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Post by ian on May 17, 2015 14:10:48 GMT
Trompe le Monde? What does Smurfs 2 have to do with anything?
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db
Alis
Posts: 264
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Post by db on May 17, 2015 18:02:21 GMT
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Post by flatapex on May 17, 2015 22:11:58 GMT
Trompe le Monde? What does Smurfs 2 have to do with anything? Lol ? I had another line of enquiry for the credits/initials thing, possibly bands or albums produced by Gil Norton, as clearly there is love for the pixies. Didn't realise how much of my music collection him and Dave eringa were involved with
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Post by ian on Jan 1, 2018 22:21:57 GMT
I discovered another easter egg yesterday. The programmer for Marble Madness, who included various references in the high score screen (as discussed earlier in the thread), was also the programmer for Pac-Mania. It looks like he's included his favourite music artists again, as we see the re-appearance of PIX, ALI, NIK and MJA. Anyone have any ideas for the others? JAS: Jason & the Scorchers? Jas Mann (The Sandkings)? EGG: Egg (English prog rock band)? JEF: Jefferson Airplane/Starship? JRH: Jeffrey Ross Hyman (Joey Ramone)? Also lurking in the code is something a bit naughty. If you change the ROM address of $403 to 00, you will see the following at the high score screen: I'm not sure if there's a way to trigger this in-game. Maxim, do you reckon you could have a look?
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Post by Centrale on Jan 2, 2018 20:12:03 GMT
JAS: Jason & the Scorchers? Jas Mann (The Sandkings)? Oh wow, you've heard of Jason & the Scorchers? They were a Nashville band (where I grew up). There were always amazing underground bands in Nashville that were forever overshadowed by the country music industry.
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Post by ian on Jan 3, 2018 0:12:32 GMT
Oh wow, you've heard of Jason & the Scorchers? They were a Nashville band (where I grew up). There were always amazing underground bands in Nashville that were forever overshadowed by the country music industry. I haven't heard of them if I'm being honest. I just came across the name when I was looking into potential bands for 'JAS'.
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Post by Centrale on Jan 3, 2018 1:13:50 GMT
LOL, well check 'em out some time!
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Post by Maxim on Jan 3, 2018 19:51:44 GMT
My analysis: it's a coding trick which is just a little fruity, but never shows in the game. When you enter your high score, it works through the high score table to see where to insert your score. In order to do this there is an "invisible" position zero in the table which holds the maximum possible score, so if you score more than 10,000 it knows to "insert" you at position one. It slightly simplifies the code. It then makes sure to only draw positions 1-8. So the only way to make it say FUK would be to score more than 99,999,999 - which I suspect is impossible - or simply to enter that as your initials, which is rather easier.
Raw data:
FUK 99999999 PIX 00010000 ALI 00009000 NIK 00008000 JAS 00007000 EGG 00006000 JEF 00005000 MJA 00004000 JRH 00003000
Marble Madness uses the same technique, but with initials NUL. Here's the raw data:
NUL99999 PIX01000 ALI00955 NIK00900 MJA00850 MAK00800 A G00750 I M00600 J L00500
NUL99999 VAC01070 RO00900 OVE00600 S B00550 IG 00500 NIG00404 HT 00309 OOT00200
NUL99999 T P02000 S K01200 HGW00600 J S00500 B S00500 W G00400 PJF00300 H H00200
NUL99999 ORB01000 ENO00900 BIT00800 NIN00700 Y 00600 D K00500 D M00400 V P00300
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Post by ian on Jan 3, 2018 22:16:24 GMT
Thanks for looking into that for me. I have no doubt your theory is correct.
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Post by ian on Aug 20, 2018 15:24:53 GMT
I was having a look at Sonic 2 maps and noticed that the programmers had slipped their names in some of the level layouts. Here's what I found: Sky High Zone - Act 1: 'TOM' and 'END' can both be seen on the large platform area at the end of the level Aqua Lake Zone - Act 2: 'RAY' is spelt out in the rings near the middle of the level Green Hills Zone - Act 1: 'TOM' and 'END' both appear again, spelt out in the ground and in the rings It's easier to see these if you look at a whole level map zoomed out. If you spot any more, let me know.
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Post by asterix on Aug 21, 2018 19:53:58 GMT
Cool spotted 👏
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