![Castlevania](https://cdn.statically.io/img/images.timeextension.com/45b2d6d35b28f/castlevania.900x.jpg)
Video games are full of little secrets, and a lot of the time, their existence is either hidden for decades or mused over endlessly.
Take this example from Super Castlevania IV. At the start of the game's second level, there's an object on a rocky outcrop which seems to have been placed there for a reason – and it has always puzzled us.
It seems we're not alone, as Twitter user @VirtualCaveman has been pondering the exact same thing:
As pointed out, in static screenshots, you might assume it's a castle off in the distance – but it's not part of the background layer. You can view it in the video below, around the 10:35 mark.
Is this a mystery that has vexed you for decades, too? Perhaps you know what this object is? Maybe you've never noticed this before, or simply don't care? Let us know with a comment.
[source twitter.com]
Comments 27
I’ve definitely noticed it but as said in the article I always assumed it was the castle in the distance but surely it would appear in later levels as you get closer perhaps someone at Konami can shed some light on it
its definitely meant to be the castle in the distant background, and the game was made well far in advance of the "we gamers know wtf a 'background layer' is" era in which we currently exist, so they thought we wouldn't notice.
my guess. ✌️
I always just saw it as a random unrelated castle for ambience sake, either that or the optical illusion catacomb castle from stage 4
I dunno , looks kinda like a Sandtrooper backpack to me.
Well its not a Vania... So it must be... No can't think of anything.
It's the castle.
They just messed up the perspective, due to not being placed further back, in the background layers.
Never knew this was such a mystery 😂
So what is it, is it dracul
@-wc- I think we had the capacity to understand parallax effects intuitively back then, even if we didn't have the words to describe them! (Not that I'd personally know, as I'd only ever played 8-bit games back then.)
Still, you're probably right about it being the castle: either someone slipped up and put it in the wrong layer, or there's some technical limitation nonsense that forced their hand. (I don't know too much about the SNES's VRAM allocation... maybe they couldn't easily reuse foreground tiles in the background... or even visually speaking, the castle and cliff may not have blended with the repetitive patterns back there.)
PS: Come to think of it, I used to read a lot of gaming-related books in the late '90s, and I distinctly remember one SNES-era strategy guide book having a section that went into considerable detail about modes 0-7, palettes, layers, bits, and all that fun stuff. So that info wasn't entirely unknown to gamers!
@smoreon
"or there's some technical limitation nonsense that forced their hand"
this is what i think 👍
yeah, i knew about mode 7 and parallax when i was 5, but im under no illusions that everyone did, especially compared to now. 😅
(we mightve been nerds, you and i 🤫)
@Diogmites
i chuckled 😊 thanks
@Steel76
'Never knew this was such a mystery 😂'
only on this site is it treated like headline news. 😆
I never noticed it before. It looks like a rotted tree stump to me.
@-wc- 👍
I've always taken it as a depiction of Dracula's castle but poorly implemented in the background layering.
I agree with those that say it's supposed to be a castle in the distance, but it just looks weird because they put it on the foreground layer because it wouldn't be seen for more than a few moments. But for the sake of being silly, perhaps it's a birdhouse shaped like Dracula's castle, but mini so the birds can enjoy it. And in another silly twist, it's for the birds from Ninja Gaiden.
@-wc- Not everything covered on this site is news; we do light-hearted pieces, too, of which this is obviously one.
I thought it was pretty obvious by now that we're not a typical news site
@Damo
lol damo! it says "NEWS" right before this "headline," thus, "treated as headline news." 😅
im just poking a little fun, i love this site! i must, im here like 50 times a day 😂 👍
@-wc- It said news because our content is either news, features or reviews - those are the established categories when we built the site. I've tagged this 'random' to make it clearer though.
@Damo
i feel as though ive gotten under your skin, i apologize!✌️
i do think "random" is a better tag but hey who cares! it can be "news," here! its our little world ☺️
Y’all… it’s rocks. It’s part of the rocks, like a jagged rock sticking up. I could be wrong but that’s really how it looks to me. I’m surprised no one else has said that. If you look at the still image it even looks like it’s composed of the same tiles as the rocks to the left. I realize I’m about late to this article so probably no one will see this comment but anyway… my 2 cents on this “controversy”, lol.
@MSaturn
lol oh, i follow up. im that lame 😅
for my money, it's not even the same color as the rocks, and it's very castle shaped for a straight up non castley object, no? 😂
i love this conversation lol.
@-wc- Hey - you are NOT lame! You’re <i>conscientious </i>.
But as for this… thing. I think if it was meant to be a castle, probably it would look much more clearly castle-like? I think the very fact that there’s this uncertainty suggests it is not meant to be something specific, which they could certainly have drawn more legibly (and did in other games). I stand by my rock interpretation. The apparent details are just surface textures suggesting roughness.
@MSaturn
I see what you are saying, and must agree... its a bit of a fugly little castle 😂
but, it also seems to be utterly unique in the frame, its definitely not a rock tile like the others.. I'm not sure what to think! its like an intern started drawing a castle on a sunday and on Monday they just moved on 😆
I'm so glad we live in an age which I can talk this stuff out with strangers all over the world 😊
@-wc- The possibility of being nerds had briefly crossed my mind, but was promptly denied and dismissed. Moving on...
Somewhat more seriously, what I meant earlier was that the parallax effect, if done correctly, gives an element of realism (a fairly convincing illusion of depth) that anyone should be able to appreciate, even if they don't understand the technical aspect of it.
Or, if done incorrectly, it results in people writing about it, analyzing it, and arguing over it endlessly after 30+ years!
@smoreon
haha! 😂
yeah I became familiar with the "look" of parallax probably a while before i had a term for it. it looked so cool back then (still does!) i totally get what you are saying 👍
as an aside, doesnt passing by the "tiny castle in the foreground layer" evoke a bit of the "Spinal Tap Stonehenge" feeling? 😂 is it just me?
PS - for some insanely impossi-cool 8 bit parallax effect, have you played Metal Storm on NES? Check it out if not! 😎
@-wc- I don't know... there's something oddly eerie about this one, even if it is the size of just two Stonehenges.
However, I think we've solved the mystery: when Dracula was having his castle built, one of the boneheaded skeletons messed up the measurements and ended up with this. Drac dropped the model castle on the edge of a remote cliff, and set about building another evil lair.
PS: Yeah, I used to play Metal Storm as a kid. Very cool stuff going on there, with both graphics and gameplay!
Looking at the level and the background layers there, I see no obvious technical reason it couldn't have been drawn on the far background layer in roughly the middle of the screen if it was meant to be the castle in the distant background, just like the distant mountains are. And it could have even been drawn on probably the BG3 layer and moving slightly faster than the mountains for some added parallax too, given the SNES could have three overlapping layers in the centre of the screen and they're only actually using two of them in that section in the middle of the screen, with really only the HUD there using a small section of BG3. They definitely knew how to use the three layers at once for fully overlapping scenery [plus the HUD at the same time too], as they have done so in some of the other levels and sections of even that level, so they could have done it there if they really wanted too. And I do not believe for one second the artist would make a patent mistake like drawing the castle that's supposed to be in the far distance into the foreground layer (although maybe the programmer somehow misinterpreted what the artist wanted there and somehow placed the tiles on the wrong layer, which even that I find hard to believe). So I have no idea what's going on there to be honest and what that is supposed to be. Interesting little thing to suddenly learn about.
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