They Were Just Built Different
Before patches, mods, or uncensored DLC became the norm, Japanese developers were already sneaking spicy secrets into their games — some hidden so deep they weren’t meant to be found. Whether it was a suggestive splash screen, a debug room full of saucy art, or a “test menu” with more than just screen calibration, these digital Easter eggs show just how playful (and occasionally pervy) some devs really were.
This retrospective rounds up some of the weirdest places Japanese games stashed their adult content — all SFW, of course (barely). Let’s dive in.
Debug Mode Disgrace — Princess Maker 2 (PC-98)
A wholesome game about raising your adorable daughter… or so you thought.
In Princess Maker 2’s original PC-98 release, enabling debug mode gave players access to internal character sprites — including several the game didn’t use publicly. Some of those sprites were topless, clearly left over from early builds where the tone may have been a little less fatherly.
Accessing them involved either modifying the .exe directly or using third-party memory viewers — basically, the 90s version of data mining. While later ports (like the English DOS release) scrubbed this clean, the original files still live in the wild, preserved by curious fans and questionable archiving practices.
Service Menu Shenanigans — Mahjong Gal Panic (Arcade)
Ah, Japanese arcade mahjong — where the reward for winning a hand was sometimes a striptease.
But some titles went further: one infamous variant of Mahjong Gal Panic included an adult “test mode” accessible by entering a service code on the arcade board. Instead of showing diagnostics or coin counts, it displayed several… “reference” images used by the artists.
Operators were supposed to lock this out. Not all of them did.
More than a few confused teens (and maybe a few delighted ones) discovered these secrets while trying to adjust the screen.
Hidden Assets on Disc — Simple 2000 Series Vol. 61: The Onechanbara
The Simple 2000 series was known for shovelware-level weirdness, but The Onechanbara (a budget action game featuring a sword-wielding big sister in a bikini) had a surprise buried inside the disc image: a hidden set of uncropped promotional renders, not used in-game.
Players ripping ISOs for emulation have been found.TGA files with filenames like oneg_promo01_nude.tga — clearly never intended to be seen. While the in-game models were tame, these renders suggested the devs created much spicier variants that got left behind during compression or QA.
Some speculate these were marketing mockups for D3 Publisher’s internal pitches. Others say they were just for fun. Either way, they were never meant for your eyeballs. Too bad.
Fake Eroge, Real Lewds — Tokimeki Parody Doujins
While Konami’s Tokimeki Memorial was one of the most influential dating sims of all time, it also spawned a sea of doujin parodies — and some of them took things to absurd levels.
One such parody game, Tokimeki Horror, initially presented itself as a tame romhack of the original. But once the player reached a certain affection level with a specific character, the tone shifted completely: horror visuals, erotic sprites, and a locked CG gallery only accessible via a debug password.
These games were distributed on CD-Rs at Comiket in the late ‘90s. The art quality varied (wildly), but the surprise factor was real. Many kids picked these up thinking they were SFW “fan patches.”
They were not.
Censored But Not Forgotten
There’s something weirdly charming about these hidden moments — relics of a time when developers were slipping naughty nods into their games just to see who would find them. They weren’t always elegant. Sometimes they were barely legal. But they’re a reminder that even in an age before mods, the spirit of pervy curiosity was alive and well.
If you’re into weird Japanese gaming history, retro culture, or the occasionally unhinged creative decisions of 90s devs, bookmark JPGlitch. We’re just getting started — and we promise not to hide anything… too scandalous in our debug menu.
