Acting for Two: In The House of the Dead: Remake, Chris Okawa voices Thomas Rogan and Magician, Natalie Roers voices Sophie Richards and the A.I. computer voice, Brian Conner voices Dr. Curien and Hangedman, and Eleanor Katz voices a female scientist and Chariot.
Ascended Fanon: It was common among fans to give Goldman the first name "Caleb". Said name was finally canonized in Scarlet Dawn.
Bad Export for You: The English version of Scarlet Dawn lacks the Japanese release's exclusive "Master Mode" difficulty, extra weapons, and compatibility with the Aime amusement card to unlock different features. In addition, most of the English subtitles are missing because they were left blank in the game files. On the other hand, most of the regular weapons are unlocked right away.
Creator's Favorite: Series director Takashi Oda has claimed that Strength from the second game is his favorite boss, due to his unpredictable attack patterns striking fear in the player.
The original House of the Dead has a few unused enemies lingering in the game code. Several of them, including some odd BSDM-inspired ones, were scrapped likely because they would've caused controversy.
Zeal from House of the Dead 2 has an unused alternate "Suffer like G did" voice-line where he sounds much more menacing and doesn't present this line as a question at all.
This video shows that House of the Dead III had a LOT of unused dialogue, such as different variations of the Title Scream, two other takes on Wheel of Fate's dialogue (notably, one of which without any filters and delivered naturally) alongside the same lines used in game but also without the filter, unused dialogue for the player characters, and even Yukio! Notably, the 8 minute mark of the video has Daniel talk about how the creatures in the building think, and they were made to have Daniel be the only exception to their attacks. Oh, and G might still be single by the game's events, with one line wishing there was a horde of women instead of creatures.
Keep Circulating the Tapes: The original versions of 1 and 2 as the original source code being lost for the prior means the only methods people have to acquire the game legally is through either the typically considered inferior Sega Saturn and PC ports, or getting lucky and finding an actual working arcade machine. The latter's most modern port is the 2 & 3 Return compilation for the Wii back in 2008 with the PC, and Dreamcast ports as well as Xbox port of IIInote 2 was included as a bonus being the only other ways to get a copy of the home version.
Milestone Celebration: Scarlet Dawn was released in Japanese arcades on September 13, 2018, the same date as the first arcade game in 1996, marking the 22nd anniversary of the series.
No Dub for You: The entire mainline series has exclusively English voices.
The only time this was averted was for a Japan only release of The Typing of The Dead in 2004, let alone for a kids mode version of the main game of all things. It can be seen here.
No Export for You: Typing of the Dead 2 was never released outside of Japan.
The PlayStation 2 port of Typing of the Dead: "Zombie Panic" was never released outside Japan.
English of the Dead also stayed in Japan.
Averted with The House of the Dead 4: Special, which appeared in a few North American arcades. However, all locations except one have since removed the game, with Dezerland Park in Orlando, Florida being the last known location with operating units. Outside of playing Special on 4's Playstation 3 port, the arcade version is otherwise now only found in Japan, Hong Kong, Macau, Mexico, Brazil, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United Arab Emirates.
Screwed by the Lawyers: The developers behind The House of the Dead: Remake stated that the new soundtrack came about due to licensing issues regarding the original soundtrack.
Sequel Gap: In terms of arcade releases, Scarlet Dawn came out twelve years after 2006's The House of the Dead 4 Special.
Uncredited Role: A lot of voice actors for the characters in the main series (outside of Overkill and Remake) have never been credited. The only leads seem to be on the game's own fan wiki, BTVA and IMDb, the last of which may not be accurate.
The former does have confirmed sources on some of III's cast through discoveries of previously posted resumes: G is voiced by Casey Robertson, Lisa Rogan is voiced by Brandy Collazo, and Daniel Curien is voiced by Kevin Miller.
The game's antagonist was originally an Invisible Man-like character named "Mr. Happy". His design was replaced by Dr. Curien's, who was originally named "Dr. A".
Another scrapped character for the first game was a blue-skinned man called "Playboy".
Sophie was originally named "Carole" and was meant to be a playable character.
Sophie was to return as a boss in The House of the Dead 2, but the idea was quickly axed.
Early screenshots for The House of the Dead III featured cel-shaded graphics. It was scrapped for a more realistic-looking art direction consistent with the previous games.
Unused dialogue for Daniel Curien in III seems to suggest he might have been intended to be playable for longer than he was in the final game, as there's dialogue alluding to how fast he and (presumably) Lisa seem to be moving through, along with exposition that went unused, like knowing how the creatures were made to think.
According to series director Takashi Oda, Se7en was a major influence on the first game, which he had gone to see during the game's development. This explains Thomas Rogan's resemblance to the character David Mills, who was played by Brad Pitt.
After years of fan speculation over whether or not Sophie survived the first game, Oda confirmed that she canonically survived, married Rogan, and is Lisa's biological mother.
Oda has also repeatedly stated that when describing the enemies in the main series, he doesn't like using the "Z" word. Because of their scientific origins, he prefers the term "creature" instead.
Creator Backlash: Uwe Boll considers the film to be an absolute pile of crap, and his worst film to date, which really says something, considering that he always got defensive and even pissed off whenever critics ripped on his other movies.
Creator Killer: This was Boll's first mainstream American movie, and his attitude about it and directing immediately put him in the infamous director category. Writer Mark Altman, whose screenplay Boll more or less disowned, was confirmed to not make it any further than C-list status, and this movie is one of the last bombs that eventually led to maker Artisan Entertainment to be taken over by Lionsgate within a year, and this is coming after a terrible 2000/2001 slate that started their descent.
Descended Creator: Ellie Cornell, who plays Casper, is also co-founder of the film's production company Mindfire Entertainment.
Fake American: The film's set in Washington state, but nearly every cast member is Canadian. The only actually American actors are Ellie Cornell and Clint Howard. The most blatant example is Liberty, being played by a Canadian actress of asian descent while being decked out in an american flag jumpsuit.
Mark Altman's original screenplay included more enemies from the game, including Hanged Men and Hermit, as well as a more fleshed-out backstory for Castillo.
Before Mindfire made the film, Dreamworks had bought the rights from Sega, with Jesse Dylan and Mark Verheiden attached as writer and director respectively
Written-In Infirmity: Jonathan Cherry burned 30% of his hand on the second day of shooting. The scene on the bridge, where he hurts his hand, was shot later, to explain the bandage he had to wear.
Misc. trivia for the film
The "turn-table" camera system used to achieve the 360-degree Bullet Time shots (which involved a single camera on a circular track spinning around an actor at high speeds) was so dangerous it nearly killed several of the actors, and was permanently retired after the film.
. On the other hand, most of the regular weapons are unlocked right away.
