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GoldS_TCRF
@golds-tcrf.bsky.social
120 followers 10 following 23 posts
Like an airborne primate savior hanging ten
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golds-tcrf.bsky.social
If you buy Midnight Landing on Arcade Archives this week, you'll receive a Biorhythm calculator at no extra cost! You can use it to measure your humors or whatever, I don't know. I'm not from the 70s.

(Original find by Phil Bennett - see article for details)

tcrf.net/Midnight_Lan...
Have you ever seen a biorhythm chart before? No? Well, imagine a rectangular graph, wider than it is tall, with many vertical lines and a single blue horizontal line running through the middle. Values at the bottom of the graph range from 1 to 31. There's a vertical yellow line going through the 20th. There are three sinusoidal waves weaving through the graph: A red "Body" line, a green "Feeling" line, and a blue "Intellect" line. Text at the top reads "JUL 2022 BIORHYTHM" because that's when I added the article to TCRF. Oh, and there's a birthday below that: "24 AUG 1953". Can you guess the significance of that date? Anyway, that's what's in the picture. Enjoy landing planes at midnight.
October 23, 2025 at 12:51 AM
golds-tcrf.bsky.social
Getting into the groove of making articles again. Here's one for Strategy X, which was released on Arcade Archives a few weeks back. Includes version differences with the older Stern set, an unused enemy, and evidence for a possible older Konami set buried in Stern's version.

tcrf.net/Strategy_X
Picture of the starting area of Strategy X (Konami set). There's a large cyan arrow pointing upwards with the text, "GO AHEAD !!" below the arrow. Hopefully this is pointing at the TCRF link.
July 13, 2025 at 1:24 AM
golds-tcrf.bsky.social
(TCRF-Adjacent Content??)

Finally talking about something I've been working on for about 2-and-a-half years: Scans of 134 drafts from 100 episodes of The Simpsons, covering Seasons 1 to 16 (mostly the first 6). This was a big time sink. Hope you'll enjoy them.
#Simpsons

archive.org/details/@gol...
Page from an early draft of The Simpsons episode "Bart Gets Hit by a Car". Transcription follows: "INT. COURTROOM - NEXT DAY The courtroom is BUZZING with excitement. The jury box is empty and everyone in the courtroom is watching the door to the room where the jury members are sequestered. Finally, the door opens and the jury files in. HUTZ: (TO HOMER) Here they come. Keep your fingers crossed. BURNS: Cross my fingers, Smithers. JUDGE: Has the jury reached a verdict? FOREMAN: We have, your honor. After carefully weighing the facts and taking into account the defendant's obnoxious behavior, we find for the plaintiff, in the amount of ten million dollars. HOMER: Who's the plaintiff? HUTZ: You are! HOMER: I'm rich! I'm rich! The courtroom erupts into PANDEMONIUM. Papers are thrown in the air. The spectators are CHEERING. The Simpsons are hugging each other. A HIGH SCHOOL MARCHING BAND comes marching in PLAYING SOMETHING BY SOUSA. Burns stares straight ahead, looking thunderstruck. " Page from an early draft of The Simpsons episode "The Telltale Head". Transcription follows: DOLPH: Simpson, you dip. Dolph drops the rock and runs off. BART: I can't believe I have to guard this stupid thing for a whole year. JEBEDIAH (BACK ON HIS SHOULDERS): Dip. Hahaha. That's a good one. Bart is stunned to see the statue still talking to him. BART: Oh no. JEBEDIAH (CONT'D): Come on, Simpson. Step lively. 0h, while you're at it, there's a piece of gum on my bear. Get rid of it. Speaking of which, did I ever tell you about the time I killed a bear with by bare hands? Bart GROANS JEBEDIAH (CONT'D): It was early in the morning. I was hungry. I looked around to see if there was any game I could kill. I thought there might be some deer or squirrels nearby. Well, I was in for a very big surprise, let me tell you right now. All of a sudden there on my left I see this angry grizzly. He is looking at me like I'm his lunch. PULL BACK as we leave Bart listening to the statue." Page from an early draft of The Simpsons episode "Treehouse of Horror II". Transcription follows: "INT. MOE’S TAVERN Marge enters. MARGE: Homer? The Robot and Homer both turn. ROBOT / HOMER Marge. / (GUTTURAL NOISE) The Robot indicates that Marge should sit on his lap. Homer extends his arms and puckers his lips. Realizing what the other is doing, they turn angrily and GROWL at each other. Homer slugs the Robot. The Robot grabs Homer and they start rolling around on the floor. MARGE: Homer, no! It was just flirting! EXT. MOE’S TAVERN WIGGUM: (THRU BULLHORN) Attention Robot Perpetrator! This is Police Chief Wiggum! I order you to come out with your... oh, there you are. At that moment, the Robot and Homer SMASH through the wall of the Tavern, onto the sidewalk. Marge follows them out through the hole in the wall. She sees all the raised guns. MARGE: Don’t shoot! Don’t shoot! WIGGUM: Ignore the woman. Ready, aim... Burns and Smithers rush up. BURNS: Stop! Don’t kill my baby." Page from an early draft of The Simpsons episode "Cape Feare". Transcription follows: "He tosses the coffee out the window. SIDESHOW BOB: (MUFFLED SCREAMS) EXT. STREET - DAY The car passes a sign reading "PORCUPINE CROSSING". SIDESHOW BOB (O. S.) (CONT'D): Yarrrrrrrgh! EXT. SIMPSON CONVERTIBLE ~- ROAD - LATER A truck labelled "SULFURIC ACID" has overturned. Strong fumes are coming up out of the sewer. The truck DRIVER is standing, looking at the truck, scratching his head dimly. The Simpsons drive through the spill. SIDESHOW BOB: (STIFLED SCREAMS AND COUGHING) CLOSE UP of a road sign that reads "MOLTEN LAVA - NEXT 16 MILES." A WIDE SHOT reveals a series of active volcanos in the background. A pterodactyl flies by. Molten lava runs over stretches of road. The Simpsons’ convertible passes over it. SIDESHOW BOB: (MOANS) I hate lava. The Simpsons convertible passes a sign the reads "CHINCHILLA CROSSING." SIDESHOW BOB (CONT’D): (SOOTHED) Ahhh... We hear small, angry, high-pitched rodent ATTACKING NOISES. SIDESHOW BOB (CONT’D): (MUFFLED SCREAMS)"
June 7, 2025 at 12:15 AM
golds-tcrf.bsky.social
So the prototype we have is oddly put together. Everything in it comes from a later date than the prototype featured in these screens except for the sprite graphics ROMs, which date from _before_ this prototype. Note the different HUD in those screens compared to the dumped proto; same as final.
Screenshot from the Street Fighter prototype. Ryu has just launched a Hadouken at Retsu. Ryu is using an older design with brown shoes, not the finalized design seen in the aforementioned screenshots. This sprite is using an erroneous light blue color on some of his pants, possibly a leftover from when he had a blue gi.
April 16, 2025 at 4:42 AM
golds-tcrf.bsky.social
Just in case you were wondering if she has her own ending, unfortunately she does not. Completing the game with 2P solo just gives the standard 2P-only ending slides. They might have run out of room in the FG/BG graphics ROMs.
March 9, 2025 at 3:05 AM
golds-tcrf.bsky.social
Seems like the most appropriate day to post this:
In Dragon Unit / Castle of Dragon (article to come) if you hold 2P Start and then insert 2 coins, the second player - usually a palette swap - will instead be a lady knight with unique sprites. This only works if the game's license is set to Athena.
A screenshot of Dragon Unit / Castle of Dragon in which both players are in the Vs Fight arena that shows up after starting a 2P game. The first player, the one in blue, has just been defeated by the second player, the one in red. Instead of the standard palette-swap of the usual male knight, 2P is instead a female knight with her own set of sprites. Text at the top says "CHALLENGE STAGE! VS FIGHT!" A gameplay screenshot from Castle of Dragon / Dragon Unit from the start of the first stage. The first player is the standard blue knight, while the second player is again using the female knight, who has more armor in this screenshot but is still missing her helmet and leggings.
March 9, 2025 at 3:01 AM
golds-tcrf.bsky.social
This is a week late, but here's a TCRF article on Dead Connection that I made a few years back. Notable finds include a big debug menu, scrapped 4P support, a location test screen, hidden cameos from Zak and Mel of Pu-Li-Ru-La fame, and a mess of unused destructibles.
tcrf.net/Dead_Connect...
Screenshot of a "Screen Character Test" debug tool from Dead Connection. On the left is a bitmap of a brown-suited man with a brown hat. He looks pretty peeved. The player select screen from Dead Connection with Philip (with one "l") and James selected, but the cursors say 3P and 4P? Wuh?!? A location test screen from Dead Connection. The background is a sepia tone version of the standard Game Over backdrop. The usual Taito location test copy is displayed, which reads as follows: "THANK YOU FOR PLAYING UP TO THIS STAGE. YOU ARE A VERY GOOD PLAYER. AREN'T YOU? BECAUSE THIS GAME IS NOW UNDER LOCATION TEST, WE ARE VERY SORRY NOT TO SHOW YOU THE NEXT STAGE OF THE GAME. WE ARE TERRIBLY SORRY FOR THIS AND HOPE TO SEE YOU AGAIN, SOMETIME AND SOMEPLACE." The high score screen, with the top two names being "JIR" and "KAT". The severed heads of Pu-Li-Ru-La's player characters, Mel (Girl, blue hat) and Zak (Boy, pink hat), adorn the bottom-left corner of the screen.
March 7, 2025 at 12:09 AM
golds-tcrf.bsky.social
Don't worry, they're fine.
The fight is over; Blue Pants has trumped over Orange Pants. Orange Pants kneels in the left corner. Text reads, "THIS WAR IS OVER. BUT, THEY LEAVE NOTHING TO BE REGRETTED, BECAUSE THEY ARE FELLOW SOLDIERS WHO HAVE SURVIVED BY HELPING EACH OTHER IN FIGHTING..." Same text on screen, but now Orange Pants has risen from the ground and is shaking Blue Pants' hand. HAPPY END
January 30, 2025 at 10:21 PM
golds-tcrf.bsky.social
Thunder Fox has one of those Double Dragon-style twists wherein after the final boss is defeated in a 2P game, both players are compelled by forces beyond their control to fight each other. Behold:
Screenshot from the end of Thunder Fox after beating the game with both players present. The background is darkened. Text reads, "THE TERRORISTS HAVE BEEN ANNIHRATED[sic]. BUT, AFTER DEFEATING THE STRONGEST ENEMY, A DESIRE TO KNOW WHICH IS THE STRONGEST FIGHTER ARISES IN THE FEELINGS OF THE TWO." The scene continues. In the first screenshot: the blue-panted player unsheathes their machete. Blue text reads "ALTHOUGH WE HAVE NO GRUDGE AGAINST EACH OTHER ....." In the second screenshot, the orange-panted player unsheathes their machete. Red text reads, "A FIGHTER'S BLOOD RUNS IN THEIR VEINS, BEING AFIRE." The scene continues. In the first screenshot, Blue Paints points their machete at Orange Pants. Blue text reads "WHICH IS THE STRONGEST MAN?" In the second screenshot, Orange Pants points their machete at Blue Pants. Red text reads, "BRING IT TO AN END." The scene adds, background is back to full brightness. Both players point their machetes at each other. Text at top-center of screen says "FIGHT"
January 30, 2025 at 10:18 PM
golds-tcrf.bsky.social
I'm going to try to explain how Thunder Fox's game clear score bonuses work. It's a little confusing and more than a bit buggy. This only applies to a 1CC game; otherwise, the player gets no bonus.
1. The player gets 400,000 points for each life remaining. The "100000PTS" text is incorrect.
Image from the end of Thunder Fox. Blue Pants here just cleared the game on one credit without getting hit (through the stage select, because he's a big cheater). Text says "1 CREDIT ALL CLEAR BONUS", followed by "3 X 100000PTS", which is a lie. There's another chunk of text below that which says "TIME BONUS"; the player has a bonus of "126 x 1500 PTS", which is not a lie.
January 30, 2025 at 1:43 AM
golds-tcrf.bsky.social
Thunder Fox is coming to the Arcade Archives! Here's the TCRF article on the game I made like 3 years ago, which has an alternate, radder title, details on debug functions, and many, many alternate and unused graphics.

tcrf.net/Thunder_Fox_...
An alternate title for Taito's Thunder Fox, "Hell Mission". The title is made up of deep red letters, with bright blue shadows creating a 3D effect. There's a star in-between "Hell" and "Mission". Unlike the final game's title screen, the background is completely black. A screenshot of Thunder Fox with some debug information visible. The 1P character (I don't know if he has a name, let's call him Blue Pants) is firing a flamethrower at a bunch of gray crates while machete-wielding soldiers approach from the left. At the left edge of the screen is a long vertical yellow bar, indicating that the CPU is under fairly heavy load. Three rows of hexadecimal numbers to the very right of that bar display, from top-to-bottom, the X position of the camera, the Y position of the camera, and 1P's current X position.
January 30, 2025 at 1:19 AM
golds-tcrf.bsky.social
Oh, okay. I was asking because Taito of American pulled a Ninja Kids and so setting it to US changes one of the location's names.
December 19, 2024 at 7:33 PM
golds-tcrf.bsky.social
Final Blow is out on Arcade Archives. There's a hidden image that can be triggered in attract mode that's a sly reference to similar images found in Taito Kumagaya Lab's games - see link(s) for more on that and other content.

tcrf.net/Final_Blow_(...
x.com/ZackmannX/st...

#ファイナルブロー
#アーケードアーカイブス
Image of the attract mode for Taito's Final Blow, but there's a picture of a mouse and a dog in the lower-right corner. This is triggered by pressing 1P Up, Down, Left, Right, Up, Down, Left, Right after the timer starts counting down during the gameplay demo.
November 21, 2024 at 2:57 PM
golds-tcrf.bsky.social
A test post.
November 7, 2024 at 5:28 AM