HN Hall of Fame Weekly email

The Cutting Room Floor: Unearthing Unused Content from Video Games

Resurfaced independently across 6 calendar years, with breakout response in 2 of them.

submissions
8
submitters
7
observed span
2012–2026
peak thread · 21 comments
183 pts
latest 20+ return · 2023-09-24
109 pts

Submission timeline

2007–2026

One slot for every year since HN launched. Height is that year's peak points; orange marks a 100+ point or 50+ comment breakout. Select a bar to open its strongest thread.

First comments on top threads

HN comment order

This is pretty cool! Randomly came across this tidbit, regarding one of my favorite Apple II games: "While Karateka only takes up Side A, Side B contains a copy of the game modified to play upside-down. According to Jordan Mechner, this was a practical joke by Brøderbund so tech support could have the delight of telling someone that their game was upside-down because...they put the disc in upside-down. Duh."

This wiki is a delightful mine of information! It's also full of humor; as an example, the description for Animal Crossing: New Horizons is: > Animal Crossing: New Horizons is a game in which you rapidly deprive an island of its natural resources in order to craft tools that never stop breaking. https://tcrf.net/Animal_Crossing:_New_Horizons

Some random favorites: https://tcrf.net/X-Men_(NES) Great little way to hide a secret. https://tcrf.net/The_New_Tetris Developer rant. Niel Voss really did make great music! https://tcrf.net/Super_Mario_Bros._3/Unused_Levels Unused levels in Mario 3. https://tcrf.net/Prerelease:The_Legend_of_Zelda:_Ocarina_of_... A huge wealth of early screenshots and development info for OOT. https://tcrf.net/Proto:The_Legend_of_Zelda:_Ocarina_of_Time/... ...and a leaked build from around the time many of those screenshots were…

coldpie·89-point thread·

The first top-level comment from each of the four biggest threads, in HN’s own order. Excerpts are shortened; open a comment for full context.

Breakout years
2

100+ points or 50+ comments

Total points
389

reference only — not used in Hall rules or ranking

Total comments
54

reference only — not used in Hall rules or ranking

Every submission

DateTitle as submittedByPointsComments
2012-11-13The Cutting Room Floor - unearthing unused and cut content from video gamesagent8610
2013-05-29The Cutting Room Floor - unused and cut game contentmorphics10
2018-05-08The Cutting Room Floor: Unearthing Unused Content from Video GamesFirst breakout · Best threadindescions_201818320
2021-04-06The Cutting Room Floorbpierre10
2021-10-10The Cutting Room Floorswatson7418913
2023-07-17The Cutting Room Floorswatson74110
2023-09-24The Cutting Room Floor–unearthing unused and cut content from video gamesLatest 20+ point returnherbertl10921
2026-03-29The Cutting Room Floorpetercooper40