Clock Tower (SNES)

Clock Tower is the first entry of the successful series and at the time the only one to not be released outside Japan (along with its 1997 PlayStation port Clock Tower: The First Fear).

While an English fan translation was released in 2001, it wouldn't be until October 29, 2024 where the game was officially released and localized in English as Clock Tower: Rewind on modern platforms.

Sub-Pages#

Prototype Info Notes

Unused Text#

As the Bronze Dagger was removed (see below), all the related text goes unused. The first two lines are stored along with the shed dialogue, while the other two are for the trophy room where you would eventually obtain it in the PlayStation port.

Meant for checking a drawer in the living room. Used in the PlayStation version.

Found among the bedroom's text. An unused lamp sprite exists as well.

Meant for the pool in the courtyard. There is no way to click on it in the game.

Stored with text for climbing the rubble pile where you get the rock.

These are all for the library. Aside from housing the copper key, the hole in the wall was apparently also intended to be a trap. Also seems that a note written by Simon could be found in here, possibly in the removed coffer detailed further below.

Used in the PlayStation version when checking the box in the trophy room.

Meant for the record player in the child's bedroom, which cannot be inspected in the game.

Supposed to be used in the mural room but doesn't show up regardless of which route you're on.

Unused text for the bird's nest.

Could be meant for the unusable door in the west wing.

Used in the PS1 version when giving the ham to Simon.

Unused text for the elevator.

Text for the cave area filled with water. Apparently this was where you would originally find the lantern, as the message here is different than when you find it by the broken window. The elevator power is also mentioned here which could be related to the fuse box inside the background wall.

This won't be seen as you can only interact with the elevator call button and not until it's already working.

The last line is used in the PlayStation port when Ms. Mary's grabbing Jennifer's foot on a ladder. 411 is also spoken by Mary.

Likely meant for the S ending where you find one of your friends alive but injured.

Development / Debug Strings#

There are various text strings from development left in the ROM.

Some error messages for trying to load an invalid portrait or cinematic image.

Soon after the MULTI5 text comes the content displayed on the region error screen. More development-related strings:

Unused Graphics#

HUD Elements#

Jennifer has a couple of unused portrait images. The first one comes after the used low health images and thereby changes the background color depending on Jennifer's health. It can be brought back with Pro Action Replay (PAR) code 7FCA4709. The other ones are from a different set that makes up a unique talking animation. The PS1 version actually uses the first image when Jennifer drinks from the cupboard in the kitchen and the drink knocks her out.

Two unused cursor sprites are loaded into VRAM, along with the regular cursor and items. The size of the first one makes it similar to the item selection cursor for the inventory in the PC version. The other one looks like something an in-game editor would use during development. The player palette was used for these images, as the normal cursor palette wasn't suitable.

The Bronze Dagger ("青銅の短剣") can't be found anywhere in the mansion, and it was part of a removed puzzle (read below). Can be brought back with Pro Action Replay (PAR) code 7E132306, but does not interact with anything.

This unused key sprite is only found in the SNES version. Since the item tiles and item IDs are in the same order, one can assume that this is the "Ceremony Key", which comes after the "Copper Key" in the list. The four keys that normally don't show up in the inventory can all be placed there by hacking. Doing that won't show any valid sprites, though.

As the elevator only goes up, this tile is never seen.

The game has an unused feature for message sequences. If the value FFFE is placed after a message ID, an otherwise hidden icon will start flashing while waiting for the player to press B or Y before advancing to the next message.

Characters#

Jennifer Unused GraphicsMany animations were replaced or just never implemented. Bobby Unused GraphicsMostly animations that would let him follow you everywhere.

Each one of Jennifer's friends has an unused front-facing sprite.

Laura additionally has two unused palettes likely meant to go along with the flashing bathroom lights.

Mary has some additional animations in which her hands are raised. The ones where she's facing left are meant for one of the phone room cutscenes and are properly implemented in the PS1 version. If you look closely you'll notice the one where she retracts her arms is actually used in this version just before she turns around, but it comes out of nowhere since the greeting animation was skipped. There is also an idle animation of Mary in the black robe. She's already walking when you see her like this in-game.

Hidden among the tiles of Dan's big explosion are tiles for a shadow. The PS1 version has a fully assembled image of the shadow (pictured above), but it's still not used there either.

Room Graphics#

The mirror in the first bedroom has a shattering animation that goes unused in the SNES version of the game. It is fully implemented in later ports. In addition to this, there are some unused reflection animations as well.

There's also an unused lamp sprite meant for the bedroom.

An animation of the insecticide can suddenly tipping over.

Looks like Jennifer could miss Bobby when she's throwing the can against him. Would probably be seen if the panic button had actually been put to use in that scenario.

Among the east storage objects is an unused door. Here it is loaded in the room. The event trigger at the edge of the room doesn't expect a door so Jennifer will just walk through it.

This trophy has an unused howling animation. A matching sound will occasionally play in the trophy room but the animation itself is never executed. In the PlayStation port, this head is part of the background just like the others around it, meaning it's no longer supposed to move at all.

This jar, found in the same room, is meant to be animated but will instead remain static in this version of the game. The animation should play when you hear the bubbling sound effect.

The Bronze Dagger, as it would appear in the room. It doesn't actually loop like in the PlayStation version, instead transitioning into a blank animation to hide it. This matches the text saying "A dagger glints faintly.", rather than "It's a glimmering dagger.", used in the PlayStation version. The object itself is already in the room and you can view its animation by heading to the crate and setting RAM address 7E1A25 to 21 (preferably with the lights off).

A sprite version of the crate found in the trophy room. Somewhere along the way, it became part of the background instead.

This doll was apparently supposed to fly into the back of the room and then return. The left part shows an unused animation where the first four sprites are unique. The back-facing sprites to the right weren't added into any of the game's animations.

There's also an animation for when the doll is about to attack. It does get used in the PlayStation version.

The parrot has four sprites facing away from the camera that aren't used in any of its animations.

In addition to this, it has four unused animations, of which two are exact duplicates. It's clear that some of the bird's actions aren't fully implemented as it's never animated while inside the cage, even when it's helping Bobby find the player.

Used	Unused

There's also a dark palette for when the lights are turned off, but it's never loaded.

The first two animations seen here are early drafts of the crows' attack on Bobby in the slaughter room. The rest are unused variations of when they have landed on their target, using different sprite and mirroring options.

The rat and crow cages were supposed to be animated when being opened by the player, but these animations never get used.

The wardrobe in the phone room has some unused animations. In addition to showing the black robe (see further below), it would also act as a hiding place. All the needed animations were not completed (like the door closing again), so only the fully closed door sprite is ever used in-game.

These are mockups of what some of the animations look like together with those of Jennifer and Bobby.

This painting was found among the sprites that belong in the phone room.

Also in the phone room, this cup has an unused animation where it falls off the table.

There's a sprite palette table that should be used when Mary is in the phone room with the lights off. When the light switch is used it will always use the tables meant for Bobby, resulting in Mary looking really weird. To always use Mary's palettes as shown here, use the codes EFEADAC8 and EFEAF6CF.

SNES	PlayStation

If the black robe hasn't been picked up elsewhere, you can get it from the phone room. This sprite should have been visible when Jennifer opens the wardrobe but unfortunately all of those animations are unused and so the events are conveyed through text only instead. While still unused, the sprite also exists in the PlayStation version, confirming its intended palette.

Unused objects exist for both the robe and the painting, revealing their exact placement (the wardrobe doors have been removed for visibility). The robe is using palette 5 (same as the telephone), which might have been fine earlier but it seems it was being redrawn to use palette 2 instead (used for the cup but also contains black). The shades of black are identical in both the bright and dark palette 2, indicating that this process was never fully completed.

This animation is actually used when Jennifer climbs out of the box after hiding from Bobby, but this is not normally possible since you can't enter the shed while being chased. You can use this Pro Action Replay (PAR) code to bypass said limitation: 80994C82. When Bobby is looking around the room, he'll suddenly turn around and hurry outside. If the box is entered too late, however, Bobby will keep walking back and forth, forcing the player to restart the game. So sealing this place off was most likely a quick fix for this issue.

This is a slightly different version of the plank attack animation normally seen inside the shed. Compared to the used one, it has one more frame and it uses different sprites starting at the 6th frame.

One of the bushes in the courtyard could have used this animation for some sort of spooky event.

The music room's curtain has two closing animations with unique sprites. The used animations just show the opening sprites in reverse order instead.

The library has two unused objects whose sprites are no longer in the game. Luckily, they can be found included on the disc of the PlayStation version.

It appears that some coffer was to be placed on top of the rightmost shelf and required a stool for it to be reached.

The palette for both objects remains in the SNES version and is loaded when entering the room.

The game has palettes for a lights off version of the west bathroom. The light switch cannot be used by the player, leaving the lights on at all times.

Unused	Used	PlayStation

The box in the west bathroom reuses the inner door's palette, but it also has its own one loaded when you enter the room and that one does get used in the PlayStation version.

While the box palette is only loaded in the west bathroom, it better matches the surroundings in the east bathroom. This is how it would look if it was placed there (and if the lights could remain on).

It's worth noting that the two bathrooms has a bunch of copies of each other's objects and palettes, but none of them are different than the used copies found in the opposite room.

Used	Unused

The shelf in the middle of the mural room looks the same as the one in the library, except it has its own palette. There is a slightly different version made for the mural room that doesn't get used. The upper part has been redrawn and it lacks a shadow and as such wouldn't match the animation where it tips over, which is probably why they went with the other sprite instead.

The vase and flower in the ceremony room once consisted of these two separate sprites. They have since been replaced by a single sprite (using the same tiles) instead.

These shelves were once placed in the first purple west wing hallway. The palette is still loaded there but it doesn't really match the final appearance of the hallway. The second one also references various tiles that are no longer valid.

Unused objects reveal where they were placed. Jennifer has a few animations for climbing over these and it would seem that they were reworked for the shelf in the east storage room instead.

The doors' opening animations don't include their closed state and since most door sprites won't appear in the room until the animation starts, these sprites are never seen.

An alternative splashing animation for when Jennifer is climbing out of the cave water. The only differences are some slight timing changes on the last few frames.

Caves	Unused	Unused	3rd floor

There are two palettes for the elevator doors that are never loaded. One of them matches the blue walls on the 2nd floor (the caves palette is reused there in-game). There's also a gray one possibly meant for the inaccessible 1st floor.

The transparent fog image is actually two screens wide. The second half is loaded in-game but is configured to be displayed below the first half rather than to the right. Fixing this would not solve the visible bumps on the left edge of the screen however, since the rightmost part of the image still doesn't line things up to match the leftmost one.

Cut Animation Frames#

This box in the storage room is never fully opened, so these sprites go unused. Some other sprites also have this sort of garbage on the last animation frame, but in this case, it would be covered by the shelf that's next to it. The garbage here happens to be copied from the early Laura sprite seen below.

This should be the frame where the contents of this can start leaking out, but it was left out of all animations.

This one would be in the middle of the wall's crumbling animation, but the animation probably looks better without it.

This sprite was excluded from the doll's floating animation.

These two sprites are skipped in the animation where you flip the switches, leaving out the halfway down state for both of them.

Sprites with Unknown Palettes#

The palettes of these sprites may no longer be included in their respective room sets, so they will be shown here using a simple grayscale palette instead.

Unused	Used	PlayStation

One of the sprites for the first bathroom looks like an early version of Laura hanging in the shower. The sprite is also in the PlayStation version, but not in good shape, so the palette may not be the originally intended one.

SNES	PlayStation

There's also a shower head sprite that's not used in the final game. A palette matching the PlayStation one has not been found.

A rat. It's not part of the trophy or slaughter room sets, so its intended location is hard to tell with certainty. Judging from the animation further down, however, it would seem to fit in the slaughter room if the cage animations had been used.

This sprite belongs to the music room, but is obviously just a placeholder.

Covered Graphics#

While not really unused, Dan Barrows fully covers this huge pillow/nest/bed thing which — contrary to most of the game's graphics interacting with sprites — is actually fully present.

The dead-end hallways have another window behind the pile of rocks and not much else.

Background	With sprite

The background graphics of the hole in the west storage seem to be an earlier version compared to the object that covers it at all times.

Tileset Details#

At the end of the background tiles for the East Bedroom, there's what looks like a scratchpad area where the left bed was worked on. It's different from the right bed (the one near the lights here, that is flipped in-game), mostly around the legs. In the end, a sprite was used for the left bed instead, gaining a row of some brighter pixels.

Used tiles	Unused tiles

There are some unused tiles in the machine room tileset that seem to depict a pillar like the one shown above.

Unused Animations with Placeholder Sprites#

A whole bunch of interesting animations have been stripped of their original sprites, most likey due to space constraints. Almost all of them have been restored in later versions of the game, though often still unused. A counter has been added here to distinguish frames where needed.

SNES	PlayStation

The living room was apparently meant to have an extra hiding place behind the curtains. These animations exist in all versions of the game but are never used.

SNES	PlayStation

The cabinet in the same room was supposed to be openable, but here's no way to even click on it in the final game.

SNES	PlayStation

The clown doll would have been an alternative enemy in the child's bedroom, but it had to wait for the PlayStation port before getting up on its feet, having only an idle sprite used this time around.

SNES	PlayStation

Some of the static objects were actually meant to be used as weapons, with success depending on the use of the panic button.

SNES	PlayStation

There would have been stalactites falling outside the elevator when it starts up and everything is shaking. If the sprites weren't removed, that is. The reason they seem to disappear early when falling in the SNES animation is because the 8-bit Y position wraps around to a negative value. This is avoided in the PlayStation version where the animation positions are 16-bit instead.

Unused	Used

There's only one sequence in the game where Bobby and his scissors are unlinked (no longer snapping to the same position). The right animation is from the scissors set, while the left one has its own set near some other animations meant for the last part of the game. It's similar to the PC and PlayStation versions where a special image of the scissors is used when they are thrown, rather than a normal animation. In this case however, the animation from the scissors set works just fine.

The two animations of the rat. They only exist in the SNES version.

The dreamcatcher in the child's bedroom seems to have some scrapped animations.

This one is quite a mystery. No telling where it would belong.

Oddities#

This object is placed inside the shed but you can't do anything with it and it's gone in the newer versions of the game. Jennifer has some unused animations of her picking it up and the text for picking up the dagger is actually among the text meant for the shed, so it's possible this is where you were originally supposed to obtain it.

Living room painting#

When the painting is about to cry blood it randomly selects either the bleeding animation or a different one that uses only a single frame of the regular sprite.

The Cut Room#

One of the rooms whose placement is randomized at the start of the game is never accessible. The door to this room is not even selectable, but the PlayStation version does add a new bedroom to fill this slot. As stated by the developers, much of the mansion was cut due to the limited number of people working on the game.³ In fact, the room list has zeroed out pointers for a total of 12 lost rooms.

East bedroom (SNES)	West bedroom (PlayStation)

Missing Zombie Sequence#

Sometimes, Jennifer might find a corpse inside a locker in the Trophy Room. There are two more pictures that go unused, showing the corpse coming back to life. In the PlayStation and WonderSwan versions, this zombie was put back in as a new enemy that chases you around until you put her to rest with the also-originally-unused Bronze Dagger, and thus obtaining the cage key off the body instead of finding it laying around.

On a side note, the "A dagger glints faintly." text shows that the dagger's location was fully conceived as it will later appear in the ports, as you can only find it once you turn off the light in a room and see it shining. However, while there are traces of things like the possessed clown doll still lingering in this version, the animations of the zombie moving around are nowhere to be found. Also, while the tiles for the bright eyes are present, there aren't actually any tilemaps that use them.

In this version of the game, you can't view the close-up image of the corpse until you've re-entered the room after seeing the jar fall down. This is because the game decompresses the close-up graphics for either the jar or the corpse when the room is entered. The jar close-up only needs to be shown once, so all later visits will load the corpse graphics.

Inaccessible exits#

If you use the Pro Action Replay (PAR) code 7FCF3D2E and go into any room (preferably a small one), you can get into the clock tower's machine room and walk around freely.

You can climb between the two areas (although Jennifer will be climbing beside the ladder when she enters the top area on the way up). The elevator acts like a wall, but you can get past it by running into it.

Since the ending plays mostly automatically, there is nothing to click on and you can't exit through the opening to the left.

There's also an exit from the balcony leading back into the mansion. It's fully functional but since Mary is in the way you can't reach it. The hallway you return to actually has a script to take you further back into the mansion as well, but lacks a trigger for it. Instead, heading right will get you killed by Mary waiting off-screen.

The code EFADF180 will let you get past Mary on the balcony.

Room Interactions#

Unused Hotspot Functionality#

The hotspots you click on will set a walking goal for the player and a script to start. One setting will have the hotspot specify those right away, while the other will usually provide a goal and script for both the sides it can be approached from. There is also a third setting that is never used anywhere. It specifies a goal and an index for a table of script addresses at ROM address 80831D. The only entry in the table is 808320. The script at that address does nothing more than end immediately with the opcode 00.

This may have been used earlier in development, before being replaced by the more efficient setting that links directly to the intended script.

In addition to this, the hotspot type that checks which side you're on actually supports up to four zones, but only two are ever specified. This means that for both sides, Jennifer could use one animation for walking straight towards an object/door etc if she's right in front of it and another where she walks diagonally if she's a bit further away. This would have been a lot of extra work for little gain to set up throughout the entire game though.

Unused Wall Type#

It turns out that walls have an identical unused mode that uses the same table at 80831D instead of linking directly to a script.

Inaccessible Hotspots#

While there seems to be nothing to do in the rubble-filled hallway in the mansion's west wing, there are actually two hotspots in that area. They are placed on the second floor, but the player must be on the lower floor to interact with them, which in turn makes that impossible. The scripts they start seem to be earlier copies of the ones used in the east wing (by the hole in the wall). The messages used for the window and the pile of junk are the same as in that area. However, Jennifer won't be climbing up to get the rock and the walking goal is further to the left.

The pile of rubble on the lower floor (shown to the right) is actually smaller but Jennifer would still be walking into it a bit.

To try these hotspots, use the Pro Action Replay (PAR) codes 7FCB8F34 and 7FCB9001 after entering this area on the second floor.

Unused Sounds#

While not technically unused, the sound that the parrot makes is slightly sped-up and played with a higher pitch in-game. The original sound effect is a crystal-clear "I'll kill you."

Error Messages#

Region Error#

Running the game on a PAL system makes this screen appear on boot.

Bad Controller#

If a peripheral such as the Super NES Mouse or Super Multitap is connected to controller port 1 on bootup then this screen is displayed. The Japanese text tells you the controller is not connected properly as the sound effects of Bobby and the french doll laughing play simultaneously.

Debug Menu#

This is text for a debug menu found in the ROM, copied onto the region error screen. There is no code that references the text of the first image, but much of the code for the second one is still intact. See the notes page for instructions on how to access the debug features.

The menu works by printing text and waiting for a value to be entered. Unfortunately, the printing routine does nothing and the one that should get a value is now hardcoded to respond with a 10 right away. Other than that, the menu works as expected.

When in debug mode, the list of options is triggered by pressing L+Y. Here's what you can choose:

Jennifer's health would be displayed after "STRENGTH = " and the last row says that pressing X would cancel the number entering process.

Pressing SELECT in debug mode attempts to print the following:

C X=%WD($%WH) Y=%WD($%WH)
J X=%WD($%WH) Y=%WD($%WH)
F X=%WD($%WH) Y=%WD($%WH)

%WD and %WH would be replaced with the following values in decimal and hexadecimal form: cursor room position, player room position and camera room position.

References#