Unused content in Strider (CPS-1)

This article lists all known unused content found in the Arcade version of Strider.

Unused graphics

Sprites provided by Captain Weird Jr. from the Strider Citadel.

Graphic	Details
	Unused sprites showing the Russian Infantryman nodding his head around as if looking at his surroundings, as well as one in which he appears to stand upright at attention with his rifle pointing upwards. The purpose for both these are unknown.
	An unused sprite for Rascal's eyes displaying a "happy" face. While the Rascal does wink fast while standing idle, there's apparently no instance where he actually uses this sprite.
	A single sprite of what appears to be the back of a Mosqueman blowing up, possibly meant to be used when the machine is destroyed. In the final game, the Mosqueman simply blows up and disappears instantly.
	When Hiryu arrives at the Kazakh council's chamber, the officers can be seen sitting on the background in three different poses: upright with either both hands at the sides of the body, one hand on their chin, or both hands clenched together. There's a fourth unused pose showing them leaning on ther chairs backwards lazily, with their legs up their podium.
	Four unused sprites for a small, green flying bird with a puff of red feathers on its head. It's purpose is unknown, although given its exotic look it was perhaps intended to be a harmless atmospheric element to appear in the Amazon stage, similar to the Piranhas.
	A small sprite of Hiryu in a super-deformed or "chibi" style, similar to the 1UP item sprite. Use unknown.
	An incomplete version of the early "The Falcon" logo likely intended for the title screen. The palette displayed here is not the correct one. This title screen logo was likely used during the game's reveal at the 1988 AM Show, where English magazines attending the event reported on it under "The Falcon" title instead of "Strider". In 2019 a MAME cheat was created restoring this logo's functionality in the "striderj" version of the ROM when used.
	There's a full set of placeholder graphic tiles, probably used early during stage testing. The tileset includes all possible floor, platform and incline variations, in featureless hexadecimal 16x16 gray blocks.

Dead pixels

Certain sprites of Hiryu (like one when running up an incline or climbing) display one or more solid black pixels floating near him during gameplay. These pixels should have been cleaned up before release, but were either ignored or forgotten about given how small they are.

Another known instance of pixels coming up where they shouldn't is with the Russian Infantryman piloting the Sky Thunder Mk-II. When confronted by Hiryu a garbled piece of the next stage's title sprite briefly appears next to him, giving the illusion he's speaking something. This is not visible in-game, however, as the sprite is hidden behind the airship's front sprite.

Unused sounds

There are a number of unused sounds that can be heard in the game's internal sound test, accessed by turning on Service Mode and entering "IO TEST", then "OUTPUT".

Sound effect	Internal name	Details
	#39 - ATTACK A	Two sharp sound, use unknown but possibly alternative variants for the Cypher's "shwing" sound (labeled "ATTACK C" in the sound test)
	#3A - ATTACK B
	#48 - NODAMAGE	A strident sound, which based on name may be intended for hitting unbreakable objects. In the final game, the only non-destructible non-enemy objects which react to the Cypher Attack are the propellers in the Sky Thunder Mk-II and the drill tips.
	#49 - LASER	A short laser sound. In the Sharp X68000 port, this sound is heard when the 2nd and 3rd barriers in the first stage are activated.
	#4B - TOROKKO	A strange, explosion-like sound. Use unknown, although its name translates to "rail truck" and can refer to mining cars used to haul ore, perhaps in relation to the containers in Siberia.
	#4C - TAKO	A short, quiet sound effect. Use unknown, although its name translates to "Octopus", a description used in official material for the Mosqueman.
	#50 - 50	A short sharp-like strike sound. Use unknown.
	#65 - EDA UP	"EDA" means literally "branch", which seems to indicate these two sounds were planned for the flexible vines featured in the Amazon and final stage.
	#66 - EDA DOWN
	#69 - KAMATUTI	Roughly translates to "Sickle Earth" and "Sickle Wood" respectively, two (of three) unused sounds intended for when striking certain surfaces with the Climb Sickle. In the final game, the sickle uses two metallic soundbytes (one for walls and the other for ceilings/platforms) regardless of surface struck.
	#6A - KAMAWOOD
	#71 - FLOG EAT	A sound similar to the Frog enemy's bite attack (64 - EAT1), but apparently unused. Possibly an early version.
	#81 - PLAYER	Hiryu's "Haa" soundbyte, used in the original Japanese version but removed in the English localization, but not deleted from the ROM.
	#82 - PLAYER	Four different takes on Hiryu's "Haa" soundbyte.
	#83 - PLAYER
	#84 - PLAYER
	#85 - PLAYER

Repurposed sound effects

A few sound effects were apparently used in places that weren't originally intended, as their names in the sound test indicate:

• #58 - FMM SHOT - Used when picking up items. Its name, however, follows the convention of sounds used by the Flying Mosqueman (FMM), indicating it was originally meant for its projectile attack.

• #6B - KAMAKABE - Used as the sound effect heard when striking a Frog or Mr. Elephant. As its name translates literally to "Sickle Wall", and there are unused versions for a wood and ground sickle hits, it was originally intended to be used while climbing certain surfaces.

• #70 - KONGPUNC - Used for the shooting Wall Turrets in the first stage. As the name clearly indicates, it was originally planned for Mecha Pon's punching attack.
• #5F - BARK - The used sound effect for Mecha Pon's punch. The name may indicate it was originally intended as a barking sound for the Siberian Wolf, either for its idle stance or while lunging at Hiryu.

• #73 - WOLF - Used for Lago's fire breath attack. As the name indicates, it was a sound intended for the Siberian Wolf, whose only unique sound (9C, its howl) is also called "WOLF".

Unused music

There are two unused music themes featured in the game's internal code, and can also be heard in the sound test.

Sound effect	Internal name	Details
	#17 - 3ST ST3	An alternative redition of the Amazon stage's first introduction theme, "War Drums".

#03 - 1ST BGM4 - Not entirely unused, but can't be properly heard in-game. This theme was meant to be played during the battle against Novo (as seen in the Capcom Game Syndrome video). Probably due to an oversight, however, the theme never plays during said event and instead can only be heard through a glitch: after reaching the top of the Grand Mosque, the player must backtrack all the way back until the scrolling ends, at which point the song will start playing until the final boss is reached.

Despite not playing properly (the player needing to go out of their way to force it to play), this theme was included in all soundtrack releases, under the name "Bullet Corridor". It was, however, removed entirely from all subsequent console ports.

Missing music

Early Arcade revisions are known for lacking a number of music themes, mostly affecting the 3rd stage (Balrog) and final stage (The Third Moon), as well as ending screens. When reaching the areas they should play and when selected in the internal sound test, the first theme from the first stage, "Raid!", plays in their place.

The following themes were restored in a later revision of the Arcade, and are featured in all subsequent ports and versions:

• #18 - 4ST BGM1 - "Short Spin", 1st theme of the Balrog.
• #19 - 4ST BGM2 - "Gravity Unusual", 2nd theme of the Balrog.
• #1A - 4ST BIG - "Capture!", 3rd and final theme of the Balrog.
• #1B - 5ST BGM1 - "Hiryu", 1st theme of the Third Moon.
• #1C - 5ST BGM1 - "Theme for Counterattack", 2nd theme of the Third Moon.
• #1D - 5ST BIG - "Grandmaster", final boss theme.
• #1F - 5ST DEMO - Music for the Third Moon intro cutscene.
• #20 - CLEAR - "Final Clear", jingle after beating the final boss.
• #22 - RANKING - "Ranking", high score and name entry screen.

The following themes weren't restored in any of the known Arcade revisions. The latter two tracks are actually in the game but they are never called up by the code, an error that was not fixed in the Revision 2 ROM like the other tracks. A fan-made patch is available to restore these two themes in the English Revision 1 ROM set. All three themes were later restored/recreated for the Sharp X68000 port.

• #1E - 4ST DEMO - Music for the Stage 3/Balrog intro cutscene.
• #21 - ENDING - "Sarani...", ending theme.
• #23 - TIMEOVER - Used when the timer's about to end.

Internal name listing

As seen in the section above, the internal names for music themes related to the 3rd stage in the final release (the Balrog) are labeled "4ST", while all music themes related to the 4th stage (the Amazon) are labeled "3ST". This is a leftover from an early playable build of the Arcade version featured in loketests, which has both stages' order switched. It is presumed complains from players about the difficulty were the reason for the change in order.

As a result of this all soundtrack releases label the two stage's music medleys using the wrong number and order. This was finally fixed in the Strider Hiryu Sound Chronicle, which used a latter-issued "resale" version of the ROM with a fixed sound board.

Interestingly, the early stage order can be seen in the European home computer ports, which combined with their use of Hiryu's "Haa!" scream (itself removed from all other English localizations), may indicate Tiertex was provided an early prototype and not the released Arcade build to work with.

Unused Text

There exists text found inside the game's code giving the full names for three programmers: Tae Komatsu, Toshihiro Yamauchi and Toshihiko Michi.

There's also text for what appears to be a "Scroll Test" section meant for the test menu in Service Mode.