Gitaroo Man

Gitaroo Man is a rhythm-action music game that chronicles the story of the loser U-1 and his talking dog Puma as they battle the Gravillians with a legendary musical weapon, the Gitaroo. iNiS, the creators of the game, later went on to make the Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan series and Elite Beat Agents.

Sub-Pages#

Development TextDigging through garbage data. Console Output StringsWelcome to GitarooMan Album! Regional DifferencesYour mother is worried! Sniffle~

Unused Graphics#

Title Screen Graphics#

Cut-off Arrows#

Original assets	Seen in-game

The arrows are partly cut off on the title screen. Also, the bottom-most arrow isn't used at all; instead, the game uses the second arrow twice.

HUD and Interface Graphics#

COMBO Label#

An unused label with the word "COMBO." It may have been intended for a combo counter or something similar.

Red Health Bar#

Red health for the health bar, rather than the usual green. Red health bars appear in some pre-release screenshots.

Puma Expressions#

There exists a full range of Puma's facial expressions for the current phase indicator. In the final game, only the first expression in each row is used.

Large Attack Point#

Unused	Used

The Attack Point that starts each note has a larger unused version. It's also fully opaque, while the used one has a translucent center.

Blank Multiplayer Character Icon#

Since Resurrection only has two playable characters in multiplayer, the other four character icons are blacked out.

Model Texture Parts#

U-1 (Normal)#

Unused	Used

U-1 smiling while blushing, and another face with closed eyes and no blush.

U-1 (Gitaroo Man)#

Unused	Used

Gitaroo Man with tears coming out of his eyes while his mouth is open.

Panpeus#

Panpeus with an angry expression.

Blue Panpeus#

The blue Panpeus in multiplayer mode has a full set of facial expressions, but only the first one is used.

Flying-O/Little-O#

Additional facial expressions for Flying-O and/or Little-O.

Mojo King Bee#

Unused	Used

Mojo King Bee's hat with closed eyes.

Textures that could be Mojo King Bee's eyes. They are not mapped to any part of his model.

Face textures for unused smiling and frowning expressions.

Scattered around Mojo King Bee's texture are additional unused eyebrows and a mouth.

Bat#

Unused	Used

A bat with a more open mouth, probably for singing like the frogs.

Woofer-Mazing#

Various facial expressions for Woofer-Mazing.

Ben-K#

Ben-K with red eyes and a frown.

Kirah (Normal)#

Kirah with slightly different eye sparkles than the used versions.

Sanbone Trio#

Additional facial expressions for the Sanbone Trio, including some shocked-looking ones.

Gregorio III#

Gregorio III with his mouth slightly open.

Gregorio III with tears in his eyes.

Unused	Used

An unused copy of Gregorio III's face with blood trickling from the corner of his mouth. Both of his eyes are the same color, unlike the one used in-game.

Some mouths opened wider than the ones seen in-game.

Ghostly Singer#

Unused	Used

A ghostly choir singer with his mouth open as though singing.

Kirah (Gitaroo)#

Unused	Used

Kirah talking while smiling. The used version has more slanted eyebrows.

Unused	Used

Kirah grimacing with sweat drops on her face.

U-1 (Final Form)#

Unused facial expressions for U-1's final form.

Zowie (Final Form)#

Zowie with blank eyes.

Unused	Used

An angry Zowie with demonic-looking slit pupils and a wider mouth than the used version.

Zowie's smiling mouth.

Zowie (Normal)#

Unused facial expressions for normal Zowie in multiplayer mode. The last face's top half is cut off.

Stage Select Graphics#

Highlighted Blank Circle#

A large, highlighted circle that doesn't contain a boss picture.

Number 1#

This number 1 never appears. By the time stage select is available, the slot for Stage 1 already says "Next" instead, and clearing the stage replaces it with an picture of the boss.

Multiplayer Select Graphics#

Blank Player Marker#

A blank marker for showing which player has chosen which character. Instead of this, the final game uses markers containing the numbers 1-4.

±/-/+ Symbols#

Unused plus and minus symbols. They may have been related to the health bar somehow.

Collection Graphics#

Separate Flying-O and Little-O#

Unused	Final

Collection item graphics in which Flying-O and Little-O are separated. In the final version, they are found together, Little-O's mouth is shorter, and both have touched-up details like the antenna bobs.

Menu Button#

Unused	Final (Japan)	Final (North America)

An unused version of the Menu button. The final Japanese version made the more visible, lightened the shadow, and removed the messy outline around the letters. The North American version of the button was redesigned further.

Save/Load Menu Graphics#

Multitap Memory Cards 1-A to 1-D#

The game can access memory cards 2-A through 2-D in a Multitap plugged into Slot 2. The same is not true of Slot 1, which means graphics for memory cards 1-A through 1-D are unused. (The "1" from here is still used to label memory card 1.)

Japan	North America

More labels for memory cards 1-A through 1-D.

English 〇 Yes/✕ Cancel#

Unused	Used (Japan)	Used (North America)

These unused buttons for Yes and Cancel are written in English but oddly found only in the Japanese version. By contrast, the final Japanese one is written in Japanese, while the final North American version one is written in English but uses a different font and button.

Unhighlighted OK#

Japan	North America

This normal, unhighlighted version of "OK" is never used. "OK" is used when saving and loading, but it's always highlighted.

All-Star Certificate Graphics#

Still-Image Certificate#

Unused image	Final video

An unused still-image version of the Japanese-exclusive All-Star Certificate. Aside from being an image instead of a video, the only differences are:

• The unused image is clearer, better-quality, and takes up more of the available space.
• Slight color differences; the unused image has a grayish background and a paler ham.
• The final video's certificate is vertically squished a bit and surrounded by a border.

This unused image isn't even referenced by the executable, and it was removed altogether from non-Japanese versions of the game.

Alternate Scroll Icon#

Unused	Final

An unused version of the scroll icon for replaying the All-Star Certificate movie. Compared to the final version, it has a darker button and a lighter, more saturated blue color on the scroll.

Unused Audio#

Puma's Tutorial Grading#

It appears Puma would have originally said something depending on how well you did in the tutorial stage:

Character Damage and Other Reactions#

Unused sound effects for characters taking damage or otherwise reacting to player performance. atms, gdms, and gdok may respectively stand for Attack Miss, Guard Miss, and Guard OK.

Gitaroo Man Lives! later used the atms and gdms sounds for player-controlled characters in single-player and multiplayer.

Twisted Reality Background Music on Gitaroo Track#

On the players' Gitaroo tracks, there is usually just silence between the notes. However, sometimes you can also hear faint background music that was picked up by the recording equipment. This in-between audio is normally silenced by the game or drowned out by in-game audio.

In particular, U-1's Gitaroo track in Twisted Reality contains a nearly complete set of background music and the opponent's Gitaroo audio:

For some reason, the spoken vocals are missing from the background music. It's unknown whether this recording happened before spoken vocals were added or if the vocals were just temporarily muted to aid with recording.

All-Star Certificate Standalone Music#

This unused audio is the music from the All-Star Certificate movie, though for some reason the stereo channels are swapped. It's stored among the Collection screen audio in all versions of the game.

Unused Stage Section#

Watch on YouTubeIn Stage 10 (Resurrection), there is an unused stage section. It consists of parts normally seen and heard in-game but put together in an unused combination:

• The scene of U-1 and Zowie battling as they fly across the ocean's surface. This normally plays at the beginning of the stage.
• A song chart that, unlike the scene, doesn't normally at the beginning. Rather, it usually plays later in the stage if you fail to deal enough damage at the beginning.
• Unused audio B1BT. It consists of sound effects matching the scene and music matching the song chart.

Unused Modules#

Modules are separate parts of the game, such as single-player mode or the options menu.

Sound Preview#

A very simple audio player, referred to as gmSoundPreview and MODULE_TYPE_SOUNDPREVIEW. It loads and plays a single sound determined by the arguments passed to it.

Once a sound is loaded, the player displays a solid red screen. Pressing the Start button will start or stop audio playback, and the screen turns green while audio is playing. There is no known way to exit aside from resetting the game.

Like most other modules, Sound Preview includes help text for the command line arguments required to run it:

Argument syntax:
    -c [imcFile] -s [name]
    -0 n -1 v p -2 v p -3 v p -4 v p -5 v p -6 v p -7 v p -p

    -c              imcFile switch
    [imcFile]       ex. host0:/bgm.imc
    -0              Channel 0 vol/pan switch
    [v p]           ex. 32767 16383
    -1              Channel 1 vol/pan switch
    [v p]           ex. 32767 16383
    -2              Channel 2 vol/pan switch
    [v p]           ex. 32767 16383
    -3              Channel 3 vol/pan switch
    [v p]           ex. 32767 16383
    -4              Channel 4 vol/pan switch
    [v p]           ex. 32767 16383
    -5              Channel 5 vol/pan switch
    [v p]           ex. 32767 16383
    -6              Channel 6 vol/pan switch
    [v p]           ex. 32767 16383
    -7              Channel 7 vol/pan switch
    [v p]           ex. 32767 16383
    -p              Play immediately switch

All of these arguments work as described, loading an IMC audio file and playing it with the volume and pan specified for each channel. However, the module is designed to load sounds from the host filesystem rather than the game disc.

Test#

A very simple test module, referred to as gmTest and MODULE_TYPE_TEST.

In the Japanese version, the module displays the multiplayer loading screen. The game doesn't actually try to load anything; rather, it enters an intentional infinite loop while the loading screen continues forever. There's no way to exit aside from resetting the game.

In all other regions, the module tries to load the image host0:/PROJECTS/STDATA/IMX/test06/k_ms02.imx. The image should be repeated against a white background, but since it's missing, only the white background appears. Button presses appear to have no effect, and once again there's no way to exit aside from resetting the game.

Gitaroo Man Wan Leftovers#

There is content left over from Gitaroo Man Wan, a maxi single-style demo that was sold only in Japan.

Main Menu Graphics#

The North American and South Korean versions contain leftover main menu graphics.

"U-1" Name Graphic#

Unused in Gitaroo Man	Used in Gitaroo Man Wan

This unused "U-1" name graphic is a blue silhouette of the one used in Gitaroo Man Wan.

Win/Lose Graphics#

The Japanese version's tutorial stage assets contain these leftover Win/Lose graphics from Gitaroo Man Wan.

Save Menu#

Used in Gitaroo Man Wan	Gitaroo Man (Japan)	Gitaroo Man (North America)
		(Game freezes before reaching this point.)

Gitaroo Man (South Korea)	Gitaroo Man (Europe)

There is also an unused save menu that creates Gitaroo Man Wan save data. It has been modified from its initial appearance in Gitaroo Man Wan, but the text and functionality are mostly the same as before. The South Korean and European versions create valid save data, but the Japanese version creates save data that can't be loaded, and the North American version freezes while saving.

Single Loader Module#

There is an unused module called MODULE_TYPE_SINGLELOADER that was also unused in Gitaroo Man Wan.

In the Japanese version of Gitaroo Man, this module will start a loading screen, load the model pack for Stage 2 (Flyin' To Your Heart) into memory, then exit back to the game. The models remain loaded in memory, and while the game seems unchanged at first, loading any stage will crash the game due to a lack of memory.

In the non-Japanese versions, the code for this functionality has been removed, so instead the module will immediately exit back to the game.