Arkanoid: Revenge of DOH (Arcade)

Everyone's favorite evil moai head is back for another round of block breaking in Arkanoid: Revenge of DOH. Known as Arkanoid II in some home ports.

Unused Blocks#

Hidden within the graphics data of the ROM, there are a set of unused colored blocks and numerous skins of Gold and Silver blocks, including a set that replicates the original Arkanoid's Gold and Silver blocks.

Unused Enemies#

These two enemies do not appear anywhere in the game despite having their graphics fully intact within the ROM. The first one is a Rubik's cube-styled enemy that rotates its own segments before spinning around, while the second is a series of red orbs connected together with a green wire.

Unused Powerups#

In Arkanoid: Revenge of DOH, there are 12 valid power ups. However, in the game's graphic data there are several additional powerups that go unused.

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• The Red G is an entirely lost power up that shares its palette with the red "Laser" powerup. In Arkanoid Returns, it is re-added and colored brown, becoming the new "Giga Ball" power up.
• The Blue R contains both the shape and letter of the black "Restrict" power down, but is drawn with different colors that stand out from the shadow of the R, for compatibility with the first of two power up palettes. A similar scenario occurs with the green "Illusion" powerup, where a blue version using the first palette can be found in the graphics.
• The Emerald B shows a possible color palette that could be considered valid for a possible power up. It is a duplicate and re-color of the "Break" power up with a different palette, intended to work with the second powerup palette.

Missing Powerup Animation Frame#

In the game, the power ups that spawn from certain bricks have an animation intended to last eight frames, however the eighth frame is never shown in the game, leading to only seven frames being shown.

Unused Music#

Inside the game, there is an unused theme. This suggests that Taito may have originally planned to include music during gameplay, but ultimately decided against it to remain faithful to the prequel.

The track was later repurposed and used as the main theme in Flipull: An Exciting Cube Game.

Regional Differences#

Copyright#

The Japanese version displays a standard export copyright notice on boot. The US and World versions don't have an equivalent notice, and instead goes straight to the title screen.

Title Screen#

Japan	US	World

Just like the games released by Taito under the same name in all regions, the only difference in the title screen is the different copyright. That's all.

Level 1#

There exist two different designs for the first stage.

The redesign present in the US version is very likely for difficulty purposes. Despite having a more complex structure than the Japanese and World versions, powerups are incredibly common inside the stack of colored blocks placed underneath the regenerating blocks. The Japanese/World version is the version used in home ports of Arkanoid: Revenge of DOH, the only exception being the Apple IIgs port, which has the US layout.

Altered Boss Rounds#

The brain-like boss that normally appears in Round 17 in the Japanese and World versions appears twice in the US version: on Round L3, and Round R20.

Difficulty#

The US version is significantly easier than the Japanese and World versions. In the Japanese and World versions, continuing after a game over restarts the level from the beginning and resets your score to zero, just like in all versions of the prequel. In contrast, the US version allows you to resume the level from where you left off, and your score is retained.

References#