Did you know that Super Mario Bros. 3 has a debug mode? Or that Journey to Silius was originally going to be based on the movie "The Terminator?" Many classic NES games contain elements, like graphics and levels, that may have been used at one point during development, but were cut from the final release for various reasons. Some games, like Lolo 3, have codes or passwords that do exist in the final, but were never revealed to the public, and can only be discovered by searching through the game's program data. This section showcases some of these buried treasures, along with detailed descriptions and (if applicable) theories as to how they may have originally been used.

Featured games are split into three lists. Buried Treasures contains hidden codes and data that can only be accessed with a Game Genie, debugger, or hex editor (usually things that only the developers were meant to see). Top-Secret Codes contains codes that can be accessed with the controllers alone - no extra tools or accessories needed (the kind of stuff you'd find in, say, Nintendo Power). The codes in this section were, to the best of my knowledge, never revealed to the public - you won't find them anywhere else! And finally, Help Wanted contains games whose hidden features haven't been unlocked yet (it isn't always as simple as changing a pointer or poking RAM). If you can help me figure these out, it would be much appreciated.

Submissions are always welcome! If you find something interesting in an NES game, and you're certain it wasn't used in the final release, please e-mail me with the information, and you'll get full credit for the discovery.