Little Vampire:Cut Content

This page covers changes made to Little Vampire over its ports, as well as dummied or otherwise excluded content found in the games.

PC-88 and PC-98
Little Vampire was originally released for the PC-88 and PC-98 on May 5, 1988.

Despite the simultaneous release (assuming sources are correct), the two versions have a minor change: slightly different Chapter 3 forest mazes. The PC-98 version adds two instant-death monsters blocking the eastern approach to the Tower, forcing the player to approach from the northeast (To do: a walkthrough suggests the PC-98 version numbers its rooms from the bottom-left instead of the top-left, is this correct?). The mazes can be compared below (S-starting; O-safe; X-monster; M-Miki ghost; T-Tower):

PC-88 and English:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 1 X O O O O O O O 2 O M O X O X O O 3 O O X T O O O O 4 O O O X X O O O 5 O X O O O X O O 6 O O O O O O X O 7 O O O X O O O O 8 O O O O O O S O

PC-98:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 1 X O O O O O O O 2 O M O X O X O O 3 O O X T O X O O 4 O O O X X X O O 5 O X O O O X O O 6 O O O O O O X O 7 O O O X O O O O 8 O O O O O O S O

PC-88 Loading Images
If the player inserts the wrong disk during disk transitions on the PC-88, a number of ASCII art screens may appear at random. As a secret, one of these screens depicts the forest maze map described above. This map features a minor error: the monster at (2, 5) is mistakenly listed as being at (2, 6).

DOS Port
Little Vampire was later ported to DOS as a 16-bit application at an unknown date.

The DOS version includes an exclusive opening credits list followed by a sound test. These new opening credits curiously differ from the closing credits. Both use nicknames for staff members, but the two lists use alternate nicknames for some staffers, only some of which can be assigned to a real person. The opening credits add a fourth CG artist not present in the end credits.

The opening credits include a separate section for DOS staff, WAO and a doubled credit for TADA. It is possible that the fourth graphic artist, the one exclusive to the DOS opening credits, was also a member of the DOS port's staff. The end credits were not adjusted in the DOS version - even WAO's 2nd Unit credit was present in the original PC-88.

Japanese
開発 ＢＡＳＥ２

プログラム ＯＳ シナリオ  ＴＡＤＡ 音楽    にいちゃん グラフィック ＨＡＫＡＳＥ ＫＡＳＨＩＷＡ ＳＡＮ デバッカ  角田（某専門学校生） [...] 関係ない人 ＷＡＯ（第２開発部隊長）

English
Development Team BASE2 Programming    OS Scenario        TADA Music          Nii-Chan Graphics       HAKASE KASHIWA SAN Debugging      Tsunoda (a certain vocational school student) [...] Unrelated Guy  WAO (2nd Development Unit)

Japanese
当時、このゲームを開発したスタッフ. シナリオ ＴＡＤＡ プログラム ＯＳ ＣＧ   ＹＵＫＩＭＩちゃん、とり、ひでＳＡＮ、じゅらさん ＢＧＭ  －？太郎

ＭＳ－ＤＯＳリメイク. プログラム ＷＡＯ シナリオ ＴＡＤＡ

English
Original Staff: Scenario   TADA Program    OS CG          YUKIMI-chan, Tori, Hide-SAN, Jura-san BGM        -? Taro

MS-DOS Staff Program    WAO Scenario   TADA OS and Tsunoda's names also appear in the Chapter 3 graveyard.

Some nicknames can be attached to a real person, and so matched with their pair in the opposite list. にいちゃん (Nii-chan) and －？太郎 (-? Taro) are both nicknames for DragonAttack. YUKIMI-chan is another nickname for HAKASE. SAN is presumably an older nickname for Hide-SAN. The name KASHIWA is unknown, and presumably belongs to either Tori or Jura-san.

English Version
The DOS version of Little Vampire was ported to modern Windows systems in 2020. This version uses Takeda "TODO" Toshiya's open-source remake of the System executable to play the game on modern machines, modified to support English text and dubbed SysEng.

Cut Content
This section describes content cut from the Japanese DOS version. Most of this cut content was restored in the English Windows release, and various coding peculiarities discussed below have since been removed.


 * Some sections of the menu code are doubled. System automatically erases these duplicates during play, the latter overwriting the former, leaving the former dummied. Most of these mistakes were tied to short, one-line descriptions, and most of them identical to the used version. This was most common with the Give -> Chatty Medicine command, which seems to have been copy and pasted across multiple files with the error intact. Larger occurences are discussed below.
 * There are two versions of the gag response for trying to Take the Lightning at the Shining Fields. The overwritten version is far more mundane, simply says it would be impossible, rather than the more specific joke about electric shock.


 * There was supposed to be a message if you threw away Masumi's box of sweets right in front of her, but the coding was screwed up. This message has been restored in the English patch, if you're a jerk.


 * In two instances, it was impossible to discuss "Little Princess," and the internal nature of the problem reveals other potential changes. This error happens because the variable that records whether or not you've heard about "Little Princess" has three states (0, 1, and 2) even though only two are accessible (0 and 2). The two incorrect sections of code were checking for state 1, suggesting something was changed during development.


 * There is a block of unused dialogue preventing you from climbing Mount Saren before you've eaten, with Miki and Linda talking about how dangerous it would be to climb on an empty stomach. This dialogue is unused, as it's not possible to get to the foot of Mount Saren without having eaten far earlier in the game.


 * The Zashiki-Warashi has reactions to the player trying to "Use" or "Show" the Shrinking Violet, even though she's gone long before you can collect the flower. While Showing just produces the same generic response as any other item, Using the flower would produce a unique reply, prompting her to say that she can't be defeated by the violet (無駄よ、そんな物を使っても私は倒せないわ). Why she would say this is unclear. It's possible that the message was meant to be attached to the ghost-banishing Buddha Flower, as the real-world legend of the Zashiki-Warashi could be considered a type of ghost, but this flower is from even later in the game!


 * The "Think" command in Chapter 2 is thoroughly broken in the original, despite being relatively simple. Instead of giving you appropriate advice based on your situation, it starts talking about the goddess from the start of the chapter. It later reveals the start-of-chapter advice out of place, specifically after you speak to Masumi about the Purification Fruit! The English patch put each piece of advice in its proper order.


 * There are two versions of the code block that allow Kentarou to collect the Black Gemstone in the Chapter 2 Graveyard: one that appears when you discover the stone, and one that appears when you already have the stone. Only the confounding second version mentions Kentarou actually collecting the gemstone! The English version eliminated the latter version and moved the text about Kentarou collecting the gem to the former.


 * A variable associated with the eyeball puzzle, VAR0126, is four-state, even though only three states (0, 2, and 3) are used in the final game, implying the puzzle originally had an additional step. State 1 only appears once in the code, as Betty the pharmacist is programmed to talk about the eyeball in the unused state 1 as well as state 2. It may be that VAR0126 was at one point tied to the step where you use the failed prototype Eyedrops, before that detail was moved to D04.


 * Variable B16, tied to the Eyedrops, appears frequently in Chapter 1's Give and Show blocks, even though the item is exclusive to Chapter 2. It would even be possible to surrender the eyedrops to various Chapter 1 characters using the Give command, if only the eyedrops were present. This may suggest that the Eyedrops were available in the first chapter at one stage of development.
 * There are also two object labels associated with the eyedrops: one that reads "Miserable Eyedrops," and the other simply "Eyedrops" (the Inventory menu uses the verb "Miserable Eyedrops," which is entirely distinct). The "Miserable Eyedrops" object appears with the Chapter 1 labels (it is object 59, and most other Chapter 1 items are in the range 52-66), despite only appearing in a single part of Chapter 2 in the finished game. "Eyedrops," meanwhile, appears with the Chapter 2 items, item 152 out of numbers 151-155.


 * The chapter break at the start of Chapter 3 removes the Shrinking Violet from your inventory, even though you must have given it to Flora back in Chapter 1.


 * Despite being removed from your inventory at the end of chapter 2, the lamp has a description in the Chapter 3 inventory. The text reads, "どこにでもあるランプです", Google Translate: "It is a lamp everywhere." While this text is dummied, English patch localizes this to: "What use is this old lamp?"


 * A single line was accidentally cut in the forest maze: using Think three times is supposed to produce the text: "I can't rescue Miki just by standing around!" This happened because the game accidentally attempted to advance the flow of text using the wrong variable.


 * The largest bit of cut content in the entire game is an entirely dummied version of the encounter with the ghostly Miki in the forest. This unused version on code page 58 (To Do: Is the Page 58 version present in any other version of the game?). The version that actually occurs in game appears far out of sequence on Page 82. Both pages use the same graphics. The dummied version is larger and more complex, but has a few confusing moments:
 * You're able to Chase -> Miki or Move -> Chase Miki, but these produce different results. The former causes Kentarou to chase uselessly after a ghost, while the latter causes the sequence to restart from the beginning. The developer seems to have accounted for the restart by having the page's opening text mention Kentarou chasing a voice, but no attempt was made to establish the voice during one's first visit, which suggests the voice may have been established on some other file, now lost.
 * If you use Chase -> Miki, the Purification Fruit is removed from your inventory with no mention in the text, leaving the loss to be discovered by the player after the fact (this was possibly done for effect, and was perhaps a way to avoid programming a branch in the code, which LV does often). In the final version, Kentarou explicitly hands the Fruit to the ghost.
 * Despite Kentarou explicitly claiming he doesn't know where he is in the forest after entering this scenes, the player has the option to Move -> Original Road during the encounter, returning to their original position with no additional fuss. This command allows the player to avoid the loss of the Purification Fruit, which is not possible in the used version of the encounter from Page 82.
 * This is the only section of the code where the game uses the "Chase" verb (verb 24, a surprisingly low number for Chapter 3, which has most of its unique verbs in the high 70s and low 80s), and also the only section to use the "Chase Miki" and "Original Road" objects (which are numbered appropriately for their place in the game).
 * Moving north of the tower incorrectly sends you south. The English version fixes this, but it makes no difference, as both squares are occupied with monsters that will instantly kill you.
 * The talking door has an unused set of text for being shown the Sake (it insinuates that you're an alcoholic), even though it's impossible to navigate to the Tower without trading the Sake for the Flute. While the game will allow you to move through the forest in an irregular manner without using the flute, it's impossible to move north.


 * The English patch deliberately removes the Move -> Down command on the ground floor of the tower, since no downwards staircase exists. This dummies a brief line of text: "There's no way down on this floor."


 * TO DO: The game's image files have yet to be investigated for cut content, because its ancient VSP2L image format can't currently be converted to modern formats by ALDExplorer2. While it would be nicer to give ALDExplorer proper VSP2L support using TTSys' image processing code as a guide, someone could cycle through the images one by one by modifying the code to see each image one by one.

Coding Peculiarities and Notables
For general details about System 1 and its scripting language, see here.


 * Every file in the game ends with a pair of "]" statements, which send focus to the menu. Not only is the first of this pair generally inaccessible (most of the exceptions being in Chapter 3), but the first ] always prevents access to the second. They were likely inserted (perhaps automatically, see below) as a redundant safety precaution, since reaching the end of the file under other circumstances would lock up the game. This coding practice continued into the System 3.0 era.


 * The game's internal file order has a vague relationship with game progression, but it's far from exact. The bakery, which is required to enter nearly every store in town, is one of the last town buildings put into Chapter 1's town code (it is page 12, with the town ending on page 13). The equally early pawn shop shows up in the middle (page 8). The broken-down hut near the castle, required for the game's second quest line, only shows up after rooms from the third quest line. The Chapter 2 and 3 files imitate the Chapter 1 file structure (for example, the town is the first section coded in Chapter 2), even though this means you begin those chapters outside of town, several "pages" in!


 * In several sections of the game where different menu commands lead to identical responses (for example, "Show" commands that all produce a response like, "I don't care about that"), the game uses notably inefficient coding. Instead of jumping straight to the response, the code redirects each action through a clutter-filled block of label jumps instead of going straight to their destination as in cleaner, better-optimized parts of the game. This seems to have happened out of an effort (manual or automated) to make the results of each menu item appear sequentially in the code, even if they ultimately lead to identical blocks of code. The English version cleans up these blocks in an effort to track down any potential errors; this cleanup does not impact the user experience.


 * The game uses two distinct variables for keeping track of your current room: D01 and D03. In chapter 1, these variables are identical (and match the current page's file number). In subsequent chapters, D03 is exactly 3 higher than D01. Both variables are primarily used by the subscreens and there is no obvious reason for them to be 3 apart or even separate variables to begin with.


 * Only a few conversations in the entire game are coded to loop back to the start when you reach the end. These include Talk -> Miki at Hermit's Hill in Chapter 2, Talk -> Miki near Dracula's Castle in Chapter 2, Talk -> Miki in the Ruined Hut in Chapter 2, Talk -> Sheep in Linda's hut in Chapter 3, and Think in the forest maze (albeit only after the dummied text is restored, as in the English patch).


 * Some objects have redundant copies in the game's object label file. Sugar appears twice in the game's object label list, the commonly used label 104 and a copy at label 159. The latter is only used for the Look -> Sugar command in Chapter 2. Likewise there are two Black Gemstones: the commonly used 155 and the one-time 175 used for the Look -> Black Gemstone command in the Chapter 3 graveyard. As discussed in the Cut Content section, the Eyedrops exist as both "Miserable Eyedrops" and "Eyedrops" depending on context.
 * There is also a redundant verb, "Black Book." Verb 69 is used on the Chapter 3 Inventory screen and in the English version's Chapter 3 Throw Away screen (the original version does not allow you to Throw Away the Black Book), while Verb 79 is used for the Chapter 3 Use screen.


 * Two items, the Ring and the Coin(s), are frequently associated with incorrect variables, suggesting some sort of behind-the-scenes change during development. These "fake" variables cause trouble in the original code: for example, the developers might try to remove the item from your inventory by zeroing the fake variable instead of the real, causing nothing to happen on the player's side. These problems were especially prominent in the Give commands, likely because testers were not attempting to give away their items in the first place and so never noticed that the commands weren't actually giving anything away.
 * The Ring is tied to both actual variable D18 and "fake" variables B11 and VAR0089 (VAR0089 also appears in another context). As mentioned in the English version's Readme, this glitch could originally be used to give Flora infinite affection points in Chapter 2!
 * Your Coin supply was associated with actual variable U17 and "fake" variable B14.
 * Since many inventory items are associated with variables in the B-bracket, B11 and B14 may have been the original variables for the Ring and Coins, before being moved to D18 and U17 at a later stage of development. In the final game, the Ring is the only inventory item associated with the D-bracket.


 * At the foot of Mt. Saren in Chapter 1, Linda and her sheep are drawn on top of the background as a separate sprite, but neither the background nor the sprite are ever seen without the other. This is the only sprite/bg pair with this distinction. Considering the very long draw times on the original computers, this suggests the two art assets were either meant to appear separately, or that Linda or her sheep were meant to change expressions. Perhaps the player was meant to visit the foot of the mountain when Linda was not present, like during Chapter 3, where the foot of the mountain is conveniently absent from the trip to and from Linda's hut. Alternately, Linda and her sheep might have been intended to appear in another location, like the top of Mt. Saren after she guides you there, or she was meant to change expression, perhaps after you banish the Zashiki-Warashi.


 * The Sleep Pea Flower is barely present as an object in the game's code. It is only ever referenced in the Florist's and when it is automatically used. It lacks an inventory presence, appearing on none of the Inventory, Use or Throw Away screens (nor does not appear in the verbs file like all other inventory items, as would be required for these screens), and you cannot Show or Give it to anyone. It is unknown if it has an unused inventory image, but given its sparse presence in the code, this seems unlikely.


 * Each time you go to the "Near Dracula's Castle" location in Chapter 3, the game will keep track of your visits to see if the Zashiki-Warashi should rob you. If you get up to 10 visits, the game will cycle back to 5, even though nothing happens between 5 and 10 (only at 2 and 4). This may imply altered content, or may simply be an unusual and inefficient method of preventing an overflow.


 * The object label "Jeeho" appears far later in the object file than you'd expect: despite Jeeho's conversation topics appearing at object numbers 173 and 174, "Jeeho" itself is the very last object in the original object file, number 226. It is only used for the "Talk->Jeeho" command.
 * The object "Staircase" is also a late bloomer, appearing second-to-last. It is used in all the tower's stairwell rooms, internally Pages 61 (which represents floors 1-3) and 65.


 * Page 58 (the forest maze) is the only page in the entire codebank to use the F command to reset the page, and even then it only does so half the time. All other instances use the & command followed by the current page number, which is functionally the same but could cause problems if the page were moved/renumbered. Even Page 61 (the tower stairwell), which is structurally similar behind the scenes, does not use the F command.


 * The Chapter 2 "Think" command, as well as the Chapter 1 and 2 end screens, seem to have been late additions. The former appears in the code right between the endgame and the ending screen, Page 79, while the chapter end screens appear even later, at Pages 83-84, the very last pages in the game code. While there is no obvious explanation for the Chapter 2 Think page, the Chapter end screens can be easily explained: since the Chapters each correspond with a disk on the original 8-bit computers, the end screens were probably written only after the developers knew the exact amount of content that would fit on each disk.

Created by Automated Tool?
There are several signs in the game's code that it was produced via an automated tool of some sort, rather than the pure code approach used in most later Alicesoft games. This probably also applies to other games of the era, further investigation is required.


 * Every closing quote mark that appears in the message box is proceeded by a shift back to white-coloured text, even those that were already white to begin with and could have rightly been written in just one line of code instead of three. This even applies to quote marks that have nothing to do with dialogue (and so nothing to do with colored text in this game's style), like the ones indicating the titles of books.
 * A few lines of code in the original game clearly intend to say "0" (typically: because the party does not have a certain item), but say "(1-1)" instead, which makes no sense in general and even less sense in a boolean case like this. This probably represents a hiccup on the part of an automated system.
 * Conversations with multiple steps have index numbers that tell the game which step you're on. But if one of the middle steps has its own variable-based branch (e.g. asking Tina about Alternate Dimensions in Chapter 1), the index number will skip ahead based on the number of branches. It's unlikely that a human would do that.

Arguments Against:

 * The Give and Show blocks for menu code may have been copy and pasted (one pattern for Chapter 1 and one for Chapter 2), including the duplicate Give->Chatty Medicine commands that appeared in several Chapter 1 files. Of course, this may have been done manually on the generated code files since it was simply faster than the automated alternative.