"Yeah, baby, 2G2 in full effek, DCTPeeps... You know what happened last year, so let's keep it strictly DCTP-like up in the spot. I'm "Streets Belmont". I was originally going to be in that Rondo joint, but you know what happened."

"Anyway, with me as always is, . . . what????"

I I 0 0 I I : O M O S H I R O I

Omoshiroi: this is a Japanese word which means "interesting," and rather than using the term "Weirdness" to sum up the essence of this quite omoshiroi section (as a few others had done on their sites ever since The CastleVania Dungeon came out with its own Weirdness section back in the day), I've decided to retire the Kurt Kalata-bestowed title, "Groovy-Type Stuff,"* and to this year come out with the exotic, easier to play around with Japanese term, omoshiroi.

Previously, especially during the last (very busy) year, the phrases Groovy-Typeness and Groovy-Type things/Groovy-Type stuffs were used to identify the quite frequent additions. However, that just wouldn't read off too well, so, omoshiroi, irashaimase (welcome)!!!

(*CVIII:DCTP THE TRIVIA!!!;Groovy-Type Stuff was the title of an e-mail Kurt had sent me in late September-early October 1997, about the strange things you learn when you reverse the names of the Super CastleVania IV masters Koranot and Puweyxil. The phrase had been used as the section's name ever since. Until today. --4-6-2002)

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You know, ever since reading it in the manual for the Japanese Symphony, Akumajou Dracula X: Gekka no Yasoukyoku, I've been wondering about Richter's original name.

According to the katakana, his name is supposed to be pronounced as "rihita". Now, if Richter was Konami's real intent for his name, wouldn't they have phonteticized it as "rikkuta" instead? Well, Protogem, the great guy who went on a rare manuals-scanning spree for me, shed some light when he forked over the many colorful pages of the manual for the Japanese Dracula X release for the Super Famicom, Dracula XX. As you can see, Konami presents the main character to us as..."Rihiter." RIHITER, huh? 0_o? Click his blond mug for the proof of the puddin'.

Now wait a second...we've got an answer to this one in mid-June, a while after I put this up, so here it goes! Ballsiml writes:

"So I was checkin' out your Omoshiroi section on your DCTP page and found your section on why the katakana for Richter's name is "rihita" as opposed to "rikkuta." I happen to know the reason why, and I thought I'd let you know, in case you still actually give a damn. :)
The reason it's pronounced "rihita" in Japanese is because Richter Belmont's from Transylvania, which is in the Hungary/Austria area of the world. Traditionally, their languages had rather heavy Germanic influences since they shared close cultural ties to older German culture.
In German, the sound represented by "ch" is more of a glottal, thick h sound. It's kind of like the sound you make when clearing your throat, but a little less grotesque, if you know what I mean. So, Richter's name ISN'T pronounced "rikter," it's properly pronounced more like "rihter," but with a really thick h sound. Sort of like the sound Spanish-speaking people use when pronouncing the x in Mexico or Texas. I don't know if that helps you understand how to actually make the sound, but at least now you know why the katakana reads "rihita" instead of "rikkuta." "

And that indeed did help me understand the pronunciation. Thanks, man! You've got alotta Ballsiml to come up with an answer! ^_^

Remember last year when we lined up exhibits 1 thru 3 and talked about the likelihood of Shaft's presence in the SNES Dracula X flop? Well, Protogem's Japanese manual, which also temporarily confused me with Rihiter (see previous), threatens that theory. This brown-handed, Shaft-like boss creature in the game is given the undiginified, simple, short and sour name of "Ghost". Click 'im.

There's this 1987 Konami game that just SCREAMS inflence of CastleVania, and that is Getsufuu Maden (don't ask me what the title means...). Why is it that we never got this sword-swingin', monster rippin' game which comes to you from Konami's darkest side? Perhaps it was just that...violent? Sure, you can call it like that, with all the blood and bones around, but there's something very interesting about this game you which, without the benefits of the CastleVania WorldWide, you just wouldn't know about. You will need:

-The Getsufuu Maden ROM
-The Super CastleVania IV Promotional Video released in RM format by Lyndon Moore in 2000. (find it deep within The CastleVania Dungeon)

Now go partways through this spectacle of a video, showcasing a fat lot of things that never made it into the final Super CastleVania ROM file, and you will see, for but a brief few moments, the Belmont battling with a snakeman! "Snake Man, huh? I wonder where Konami stole that idea from..."

(point over the image for the "Real Life" HYPER INTERACTIVE OF MOTION!!!!)

Aht-aht-aaah, folks, no this is not Konami vs. Capcom, taking place in 1991! That slithering sinistar is actually a Konami familiy heirloom; the cobraman from Getsufuu Maden, which is a run-in enemy! Sweet, huh?

FIELD TRIP!!! FIELD TRIP!!! Let's take a little FIELD TRIP and look for the OMOSHIROI things that are bound to pop up throughout the Konami gameworld, shall we? Let's begin with one of their many greats; Tiny Toons!

Hey, check out that Spook Mansion board in the Super NES masterwork, Tiny Toon Adventures: Buster Busts Loose! It's just howling CastleVania, I'm sure, but check it out. In the second area of this particular ghost house, Konami's Buster has a chance to 'square' off with his show's version of Dracula.

At first, you'll see a little bloodsucker flapping about of course, difficult to knock down with your flying kicks, but when it fizzles into its sinister human form, it's time to dodge some CircleVania-style bats released from the cape! You can bash that first bat all you want; apparently it cannot be killed, nor can Dracula himself, and this is the only time he appears in the game... A wayward interruption, indeed.

Remember The Simpsons from the old arcade days? Lisa Simpson (TM) uses her jumprope just like a whip to clock those drones (and zombies in the Discount Cemetery level)! Should I remind you that this arcade-only release was another Konami joint?

But the CV-references in Konami World don't stop there! Listen up, Silent Hill fans! Those flying, bat-like creatures that assault you after the scary grand-opening of Silent Hill...are they, or are they not, like, quite Slogra-ish in appearance? Or heck, let's take it all the way back...similar to the Death Bat in appearance? Please believe!

As a side order, I wonder if ETERNAL is in any way related to the 1991-92 SNES title, Wanderers from Ys (and FURTHERMORE, but off track on DCTP, if that game's story relates in ANY way to a certain anime series, The Wanderers)?

Hey now! The Japanese H-game, Heart of Hearts, released sometime before April 2001, features foes which are quite CastleVanish in appearance! Check out that serpent, named appropriately enough, "Serpent," and his skeletal knight pal, "Skeleton." For the big picture, hit 'em one.

Hmm, so you just might think that the winged NU64 CastleVania's version of the Grim Reaper is so cool and original, huh? Cool-looking, yes, but original? You'd better think again. In the 90's live-action British(?) film, Grave Digger, the main character converses with a crisp-looking, superbly imposing, raven-winged, version of Death himself! (I think I finally should point out after all these years that the gravekeeper's pudgy little assistant, Nargy, is where I get the filename for this Cthulhu/Malachi sprite.)

CastleVania fans should also take a look at the Night on Bald Mountain sequence in Dizknee's Fantasia. This is NO children's movie, folks! Scope out The Devil Himself, Chernobog, as he exhumes chalky spirits from the tiny hamlet, sunken castle, and gritty graveyard beneath his shadow, all to partake of a grand, flame-decorated Hellish dance on Halloween night. THIS is the reason why you were warned to stay indoors back in the day. Our pals the Harpies make an appearance, and hey, is that Super CastleVania's ROWDAIN I see riding his skeletal horse towards the fray?

YEAH, BOYYYYYY!!!!!!
(okay, maybe not...)

Classical music fans! Pay close attention to Adrien-Francois Servais' Souvenir de Spa, Opus 2; parts of it sound JUST like the theme to Drac's abandoned castle in CastleVania II Simon's Quest!!!

More omoshiroi coming to you from the H side of things!

Released by ZyX on January 28, 2002, Fortuna, an RPG taking place during those medieval CastleVania times, features a baddie named Rouge (pronounced 'roawg', not 'rooj' as in Moulin Rouge). And get this...he looks uncommonly similar to Grant DaNasty! Rouge's wardrobe might be a little different, but perhaps it was because he ransacked Grant's closet just before Dracula's Curse...? If that's the case, he's really in for it...wait'll Grant hears about this... Ah, well, you know the drill. Click the pic to watch it GROW!!!

Save those vixens, Rich! In the SNES tragedy, Dracula X, you, Richter Belmont, are supposed to find your girlfriend, Annette Renard, and her bratty relation, Maria. Okay, fine. But who is it you save in the original Japanese PC Engine and Super Famicom versions, Blood's Rondo and Dracula XX? Along with some potentially hottie nuns, you rescue Annette Larned (read as "RAANEDDO" the Japanese katakana) and her bratty (yet potent in the PCE version) relation, Maria. So why the name change? Perhaps Konami of America thought The Americans would be puzzled at the meaning of Larned, so they instead legally changed those surnames to Renard. Maybe I'm really making an issue of nothing, and "raaneddo" is the way you convert the word from its origin... As you might (or now) know, Renard is the French word for fox. Now go save those vixens, Rich!

Well, well, well, Classical music fans, listen close once again. In CastleVania II: Belmont's Revenge, when you fight Soleiyu Belmont, a wicked tune, named C.(hromatische) Phantasie in the Japanese version, plays in the background. Did you know that this is actually based off the Johann Sebastian Bach composition that goes by the same name? No question about it. Thanks to a few of The CastleVania Dungeon Forum's attendees for cracking the case on this one!

Omoshiroi!!! Play as Sailor Venus in the Sailor Moon one-on-one fighter and you can use her Venus Love Me Chain as a whip! Hmm...now if Konami and Naoko Takeuchi (mother of the Sailor Moon saga) did a little negotiating, I'm sure this Venus could be worked into some sort of Konami fighter, don't you think? Let's go, Konami vs. Capcom!!!

Here's a little something neat I managed to figure out. Most current Windows operating systems include a 3D Maze screensaver. In its configuration, you get to choose any type of pattern for the floors, walls, and ceilings, so long as they're in .BMP format. I got a couple of my DCTP backgrounds together, and I got these results.

Maze pics 1 and 2.

Neat, huh? Now you'll NEVER find a way out of those underground tunnels! Watch out for those Rats, Smiley Heads, and Geometric Primitives! Wish there was a way to change some of the random wall art, though. . . try it!

This was brought to my attention by the Master Librarian. There is something dangerously familiar about a Sega Megadrive game called Elemental Master. In this overhead monster battler, you will hear an extremely familiar tune when you perish...take a look at these comparitive videos he caught for us (789k). Simon's Quest Game Over and Password tunes, anyone? Konamimen, start your law suits!

Yeah, buddy! CastleVania: Harmony of Dissonance, looks to ROCK your Advance for the 2002 era, and seems to correct everything that seemed horribly wrong with CircleVania, such as the bad lighting and inexcusable 3-frame walk cycle for the main character. Expect excellent combat action against some HUGE masters, just as the main draw was back in those SNES days! And guess what? While our current (May, 2002) intelligence on the Harmony tells us that Dracula might not be home for this 1748 chapter, The Skull Knight definitely is!

Check him out in that beta screensnap! Is he AWESOME or what?! That's not all, for this returning Warakiyan Warrior will overwhealm you with his teleport dash, his slicin', dicin', slashin', sword, and what more? Can you say laser beam?! Several days after the screen was released, I carved out a atisfactory 'sprite' of The Man as you can see, but as you know, the ROM dropped recently, making it essentially obsolete.
There was a mystery that was answered when I finally encountered him in Concierto; did he even have a lower jaw, or was it just the cranium? Jorge Fuentes has determined that this master is merely a posessed armor wearing a Skull Helm, rather than being our Skully pal from the past.

Take a quick look at the lights in this screensnap from Megaman X3; don't they look similar to the little strikes you see when you abuse an enemy in CastleVania III?
Now take a long look, disbelieve, and move along. :]

Huh? According to this Japanese site (which provides spectacular, recolored scenes for the first GBCV), the first Primary Evil of Japan's CastleVania Adventure was originally named Zeldo?!

Airborne anneleids reign! Hey, check out those flying wormoids in one of those Tremors sequels (there are quite a few, aren't they...?). Their beaks make their heads resemble eyeless Slograe.

Hey, did you notice THIS suspicious CastleVania tidbit? The Lypuston, or wolfdude, in the Dracula X and the Symphony games has moves identical to those of the Wolf Man form in in the Sega smash, Altered Beast! Lypuston will toss a shot of energy at you, he'll do a combo of punches, he'll slide-kick, and will even do a rushing charge kick, the same way you can in Altered Beast! NEVER GIVE UP!!!

Isn't it suspicious how the style of the Ravenloft Books logo is similar to that of CastleVania logos? Vic Rattlehead passed this one along a while back.

It's a bit difficult to, unless you see it on an emulator, but did you ever notice that the two lone blocks in Slogra's chamber in Super CastleVania IV are inscribed with the symbol of a bat? Remember if you will, that symbol is used to indicate the location of the big bad guy in the NES CastleVanias; seeing as how this is the final master roundup before Dracula, it's only proper!

Luke Jones comes in with a really cool one! We have obtained the groovy-type thing. There is a recent anime/manga called Hellsing, which will be released on DVD in the US at the end of July, starring a vampire named (drumroll) Alucard. I enclosed a serious screenshot to give you an idea of what he looks like. Crazy, huh?

Hmm...from my limited look at it through a short net search... Trigun meets Vampire Hunter D, if you ask me... (below pic found here)

Take them out in SotN, SMB style!!! If you've mastered Richter's Whip Uppercut (use the same button motions from Alucard's Super Jump), you'll find that you can actually take out an enemy on a ledge above you, Mario style! In order for this to work, make certain that the enemy is walking on a thin, solid ledge above you. The first large room with the Bone Scimitars--and later, Bloody Zombies--is a good place to experiment with this. Sorry, but don't expect any Bonus Coins to appear through the grates when Rich enters the underground sewers...wrong game!

This may sound rather trivial, but if you gotta know all that can be known about CastleVania III, here you go. In Dracula's Curse, the bits of rock which flail out when you smash out a wall, as well as the water bits that splash about when Al the Bat brushes the water, can actually deal damage to Enemies!
When it comes to wall bits, how much damage dealt exactly, if compared to the Allies' Warakiya War Items, is just about impossible to measure (as the direction of backfiring debris is completely random), but when timed right, it can be a potentially good save.
My rough guess is that the debris is a notch more lethal than Alucard's Balls of Destruction, but that's just my opinion. >:]
To test it out, try the 2 Leg of Werewolf hoards in the Morbid Marsh of Morons or any other breakable spot occupied by stalking foes.
For watery defense practice, try the Sunken Temples of Sarnath or the Abandonded Mine. Wash those Skeleton Knights and Fish Men dead! (In the Abandoned Mine, I was fudgin' around with Al the Bat and was able to kill a Skeletal Gargoyle with the mysteriously rapid splash action at the first Tetris Block-piling area, before the Big Bad Phantom Bat)

These unlisted Warakiya War Items (named in true 1991 KONAMI fashion by yours truly); The Radical Rock Fragment of Rocktion and the Weally Wet Water Wave Attack

"All freaking RIGHT!!! Skull Knight EVILUTION! Watch it, you simps! THE SKULL KNIGHT is BACK up in the freakin' HOUSE, B'YATCH!!! WHO'S THE MAN?!?!"