Unused Graphics

This is a sub-page of Cave Story.

To do:

Take a closer look at the images. There seem to be a few duplicate NPC sprites, for instance.
Possibly upload the remastered versions?

Tilesets#

PrtMimi (Mimiga Village)#

Image	Notes	Revamped for rereleases?
	Various statues (or maybe gravestones) that could've been used in the Graveyard.	Yes
	A random blue rectangle found next to the water tiles. Has no tile attribute set.	No
	A random blue square with water around it, found... right in the middle of the water tiles. Has no tile attribute set.	No, removed completely from the 2x sprites in the Switch release.

PrtPens (Arthur's House)#

Image	Notes	Revamped for rereleases?
	Another random blue rectangle. Has tile attribute 01 - Background.	No

PrtEggs (Egg Corridor)#

Image	Notes	Revamped for rereleases?
	What appears to be lava in front of an X pattern. But make no mistake, it's marked as a regular water tile in the tileset attributes. Given that it shares the red color with that of the numbers on the eggs, its dangerous appearance may have just been the result of the palette changing during development.	Yes

PrtWeed (Grasstown/Bushlands)#

Image	Notes	Revamped for rereleases?
	Marked as a downwards air current.	Yes
	A solid tile placed behind and obscured by all the fans, which is odd, as the fans themselves are also solid. Maybe at one point they weren't?	No

PrtGard (Sand Zone Storehouse/Warehouse)#

Image	Notes	Revamped for rereleases?
	Very similar to both another block in the tileset as well as the blocks Rabid Toroko throws. Marked as a background tile, which is the default assignment (00). Perhaps Rabid Toroko's block projectiles were originally meant to draw from the tileset rather than her boss spritesheet?	Yes

PrtRiver (Waterway)#

Image	Notes	Revamped for rereleases?
	These arrows are used in the map, but are replaced by the flowing river currents in-game, so they are not seen.	Yes
	This tile blocks the player in the Ironhead boss fight, but they are offscreen.	No

PrtOside (Outer Wall)#

This holey block is marked as shootable in the tileset attributes, but shootable blocks are replaced with the star block tile in NpcSym in-game.

Notably, the tileset attributes (Oside.pxa) were last modified on December 16, 2001, six months before development reset. A very similar sprite was also used for breakable blocks in development footage with a different color palette, which likely means this tile is a remnant from a version before all breakable blocks used the same sprite.

Yes

A statue of a Mimiga. Appears in the Sand Zone of all places in pre-release footage, and were eventually used in the Nemesis Challenge placed at the starting point.

Yes

PrtCent (Plantation)#

Image	Notes	Revamped for rereleases?
	Totem poles, with a destroyed variant.	Yes

PrtHell (Sacred Grounds/Blood-Stained Sanctuary)#

Image	Notes	Revamped for rereleases?
	Similar to the marked block in the Labyrinth, where Professor Booster falls. Technically, these are used to mark the position of the Deleet enemies... but these tiles are drawn behind them, and are destroyed once they explode, so these blocks can never be seen in normal gameplay.	Yes
	A recoloured fence tile from the Mimiga Village tileset. The remastered graphics show the red bits as tentacles.	Yes

NPCs#

NpcCemet (First Cave & Cemetery/Graveyard)#

Image	Notes	Revamped for rereleases?
	Perched and lunging sprites for the bats found in First Cave. These go unused due to the bat type from that area simply not having either of those abilities in its behaviour.	Yes

NpcEggs1 (Egg Corridor)#

Image	Notes	Revamped for rereleases?
	Some kind of owl. The eyes are mistakenly transparent in-game, as they have the color #000000. It's worth noting that Grasstown/the Bushlands heavily feature blocks with an engraving of an owl that bears a striking resemblance to this one.	No
	A white puff. Bears resemblance to the Counter/Time Bomb in the destroyed Egg Corridor.	Yes
	Sprites for what seems to be an "enrage" mechanic for the beetles, like what exists for the Behemoth.	Yes

NpcEggs2 (Egg Corridor?)#

Image	Notes	Revamped for rereleases?
	Upside down critters, situated where their flying animation is stored in spritesheets for critter types with that ability.	Yes

NpcWeed (Grasstown/Bushlands)#

Image	Notes	Revamped for rereleases?
	A frog wielding a sword, similar to the Gravekeeper which appears in the final game. Appears in the art for OrgView, versions 9 and 12 (OrgV09/OrgV12.exe), two of the music players released by Pixel during Cave Story's development.	No
	White-colored bullets, as opposed to red, for the Mannans.	Yes
	Sprites for Malco walking, or possibly jumping. In the final game, he stays put while the player is around.	Yes

NpcSand (Sand Zone)#

Image	Notes	Revamped for rereleases?
	It's a puppy... with wings...	Yes
	A Polish with spikes instead of blades, which looks similar to the engravings found on the Sun Stones. Technically, this is used, but it's impossible to see it without hacks, as the first thing this enemy does when spawning in is switch to its second animation frame, rendering this one unused.	Yes
	Unused for the same reason as above.	Yes
	A Skullhead or Skullstep with blue, half-open eyes, with no sprites for an open mouth.	Yes (poorly)
	What appears to be the birds flying horizontally. In the final game, they use their usual 'idle' flying sprites no matter how they are moving.	Yes
	This enemy draws its sprites from the top right corner of Sand Zone's spritesheet, however, these sprites can be found in the lower right corner.	Yes

NpcCurly (Curly Brace Boss Fight)#

Image	Notes	Revamped for rereleases?
	Isolated sprites for what appears to be an earlier version of the Machine Gun. In the final game, the Machine Gun is baked into the Curly boss object's sprites.	Yes (replaced with final sprites)

NpcOmg (Omega)#

Image	Notes	Revamped for rereleases?
	Gigantic, red circles. May have been used as guidelines for designing Omega's head.	Yes

NpcMaze (Labyrinth)#

Image	Notes	Revamped for rereleases?
	Gaudi, the main enemy of the Labyrinth, flying horizontally. These sprites were revamped and used in the Wind Fortress challenge in Cave Story+, and may have been used in the original game had the Wind Fortress not been cut.	Yes
	What appears to be a Gaudi firing a projectile whilst standing on the ground. Normally, only the flying Gaudi can shoot.	Yes
	Crouching Gaudi with their wings outspread.	Yes

NpcCent (Plantation)#

Someone resembling a Droll. It only has sprites for jumping and standing. This may have been the original design for the Droll guarding the teleporter, since it uses the same amount of frames that are present here.

Note that while the original sprite was unedited in the original revamped spritesheet, it technically was upscaled and repurposed for the Droll graphics in Cave Story+'s Halloween event.

No

Sprites for a perched bat. Goes unused for the same reason as the unused bat sprites in NpcCemet/Red.

Yes

NpcRed (Last Cave)#

Image	Notes	Revamped for rereleases?
	Perched and lunging sprites for the bat enemies. Once again, these go unused due to the bat type in the Last Cave not using them in its AI.	Yes

NpcMiza (Misery and Sue bosses)#

Image	Notes	Revamped for rereleases?
	Curiously among these sprites is a greenish, early Quote.	Yes
	Even more curious are these early human Sue sprites. Maybe she was to turn back to normal after defeating her?	No
	A projectile, probably to be used in the boss fight.	Yes
	Misery standing up before flying. Only a left facing version of this exists in the file.	Yes
	Misery in misery. Right facing version does not exist.	Yes
	Misery and Sue possibly charging up energy attacks. Note that Sue's eyes are orange, instead of red.	Yes

NpcHell#

Image	Notes	Revamped for rereleases?
	A duplicate of the bone sprites used in Ballos' slam attack, albeit with a slightly different palette.	Yes

NpcRegu (NPCs)#

It's Curly Brace, except she's red.

Yes

A cat NPC that was used to tell Pixel's debuggers/beta testers that they had reached the end of the content that had been developed so far and to thank them.

He still has a fully-functional entity, and can be found buried inside the blocks near the door from Outer Wall to Storehouse, but cannot be reached or interacted with in normal gameplay.

Yes

NpcGuest (Minor NPCs)#

Image	Notes	Revamped for rereleases?
	Either a Mimiga medic or soldier.	Yes
	The plantation workers looking up... but they never do this in the game.	Yes
	A strange alligator sprite from within the game. Some early screenshots show the game with reptile-like enemies.	Yes
	A Mimiga sitting down, eating, while watching a TV or computer. This sprite was later used on Cave Story 3D's boot screen.	Yes
	Itoh, wearing what looks like a blue sweater vest.	Yes
	A campfire.	Yes
	The man listed as BA2 in the credits. The sprite that isn't giving you a thumbs-up/is pointing to you is used. In the revamped version, it's more clear that he's just holding his cigarette instead.	Yes
They're... guest stars.	Stars that resemble the Whimsical Star projectiles.	Yes

Other#

NpcSym (Misc Objects)#

Image	Notes	Revamped for rereleases?
	...Powerups, perhaps? Or ammo refills for the Snake and Fireball, for when they still had limited ammo.	Yes
	Unused sprites for an animated sign. The black on the sign shows as transparent in-game. Notably, the code that animates the sign is still active. The only reason that signs don't look like they're animated is because their 2 frames are identical to each other.	Yes
	Identical to the regular fire, except in color.	Yes
	Looks like Santa's key, but bigger. The warehouse key...?	Yes

Casts (Credit Roll)#

Image	Notes	Revamped for rereleases?
	One of the friendly robots you meet.	Yes
	Kazuma's Sk- er, Flying Dragon.	Yes
	Possessed Misery. While the Undead Core appears in the credits roll, Misery and Sue's possessed forms don't - maybe they were going to, at some point?	Yes
	See above.	Yes
	Sprites for the flying and sword-wielding Bute enemies. The archer type is what's used in the credits roll, so it's possible all three types were added either as part of a scrapped idea to list all of them, or Pixel just couldn't decide which type to use at first.	Yes
	One of the red-tinted Butes from Ballos' final phase.	Yes
	A skull, used in the slam attack from Ballos' first phase.	Yes
	A pot with a cheerful looking smiley face. Given its position, it was probably intended for the 'special thanks' section.	Yes
	A slightly less cheerful refill terminal. Like the pot, it was probably intended for the 'special thanks' section.	Yes
	Presumably Pixel bowing - the one used in-game has a blue suit, while this variant goes unused.	Yes

Bullet#

Image	Notes	Revamped for rereleases?
	A slightly green version of one of King's walking sprites.	Yes
	Blade sprites. Maybe it was going to be visible when held?	Yes
	Green hashy things.	Yes
	Small lightning bolts. Similar to the ones used for the Lvl 3 Bubbler, only they face at a slight angle.	Yes

Caret (Misc Effects)#

Image	Notes	Revamped for rereleases?
	Blood drops. Used in the development versions for organic enemies' deaths.	Yes
	Used in the development versions as an on-hit effect.	Yes
	A recoloured duplicate of the effects used for the Booster. Found just underneath the actual Booster graphics.	Yes
	Some kind of red bubble effect?	Yes
	A recolour of the water splash sprites, probably meant for the red stuff in the Last Cave.	Yes
	A large dissipation effect.	Yes
	A bubble effect. Possibly for Quote's splash animation or an effect whilst underwater?	Yes
	You're never told at any point during the game to jump. Quick time event or tutorial?	No

Title#

Image	Notes	Revamped for rereleases?
	An alternate romanization of the game's Japanese title, Doukutsu Montogari. Appears under the actual title logo in the spritesheet.	No
	The first is 'Doukutsu' in hiragana, followed by kanji of 'Monogatari', and the second is kanji of 'Doukutsu' followed by hiragana of 'Monogatari'.	No

Face (Dialogue Portraits)#

Present among the dialogue portraits is a picture of Sue as a human. This is never used, as the only time Sue is seen as a human is during the credits, in a small animation.

It appears to be the base for Quote's portrait in the WiiWare port's Curly Story mode. It was further edited in the European version and later updated in the North American version.

TextBox#

Found next to the "Lv" graphic. Could have belonged somewhere on the HUD?

Located next to the hand used in Yes/No prompts (left) is a shadowy hand (right) that ended up getting the axe. This was used in earlier versions when swapping items in the inventory.

Fade#

It's hard to see, but that's actually blue.

Much better.
A circle fade effect. Used in the development versions, before it was changed to a diamond shape. It's an inverted version of Ikachan's fade.

MyChar#

Quote with what's possibly the Booster, found between his back turned/inspect and laying down sprites. The bottom two are grouped with his Mimiga mask sprites and are, oddly enough, edited to have the mask on in the Nicalis versions in both sets of graphics.

Misc#

Cave_Story_Ikachan.cur.png
A cursor that looks like Ikachan, which can be found by editing the main executable with a resource hacker. There is no code left in the executable that would use this.

These represent the shootable block star tiles in-game. In order, they are: PrtCave, PrtWeed, PrtSand, two duplicates in PrtStore (Gaudi shop and Plantation jail), PrtMaze, PrtCent, PrtWhite, and PrtHell. These were not revamped.

According to leftover debug symbols in the Linux port, 'SN' is short for 'Snack'. Snack also the file name for breakable blocks in Ikachan.