rabidabid
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Couple questions.
Should demos be counted as prototypes? I mean like demos that were publicly released on demo discs or something (see Proto:Chrono Cross). Maybe they should have their own label, like say Demo:Chrono Cross? Or would that just complicate stuff and it's enough to just say the page is covering the demo version of the game? Either way, I think demos should definitely be covered on the site, just maybe not lumped together with the stuff we weren't meant to get a hold of.
Question 2: Is it worth creating a page just for regional differences if there's a decent amount? |
rabidabid
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Japanese stuff in the English version of the Game Boy Camera.
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rabidabid
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Hmm, interesting. I think I know where the first image would have gone. There's a function called "Compose" that lets you combine pictures. In there, there's the "Split" option which lets you copy the four corners of any picture and combine them into one picture. Then there's the "Fusion" option which lets you fuse two pictures together, so they're kind of overlapping each other. Anyway, that graphic fits perfectly into the preview box. Here's a quick mockup:
I guess at one point they didn't allow you to fuse the same picture (since it just creates a copy of the same picture) but then changed their minds? Or maybe it was a bug that got fixed?
As for the second pic, I have no idea. The middle two tiles appear later with the Hot Spot graphics but I dunno if they're related or just filler.
I also found this thing:  |
rabidabid
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Originally posted by Teflon
Originally posted by rabidabid
Question 2: Is it worth creating a page just for regional differences if there's a decent amount?
I've seen people use subpages to deal with regional differences.
I mean like a whole new page for a whole new game. :x
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rabidabid
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There are a couple weird/neat things about this game that should probably be looked into or something.
Error Screen
(crappy television picture taken circa 2005)
One day I started this game up and noticed the graphics were a little glitchy. I decided to wiggle the cartridge around while the game was still on and this screen came up. I think I was at the title screen. The values on the screen would change every second or so. I haven't been able to recreate it since.
Strange Passwords
There's a fairly well-known password out there, 397BFFA5, which causes the game to act weird. The field turns gray, the players turn invisible and run at hyper speed. The game essentially ends when you're asked to pick an offensive play. All the plays are blank and your players can't do anything. The other players can't tackle them and the clock won't stop the game because the ball is still in play.
This password was published in the official Nintendo Player's Guide: Top Secret Passwords (as "Invisible Team"). I thought this was the only password until I saw this YouTube video. This video uses a different password, 3C3F7FA5, with similar effects. It leads me to believe there could be many more passwords that can do the same stuff. The person who made the video seems to have an understanding of how the game's password system works, but hasn't been on YouTube in several months. See the video description and comment he left on the video for detailz.
The Game Boy version of the game must use the same password system because both of these passwords work there too... albeit with much more playable results - you're actually capable of finishing a game. |
rabidabid
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Nice! I tested it out and mostly got screens that say Bank 1 but I occasionally got a Bank 2 screen too.
Seeing how Cah4e3 found a screen in Tecmo Super Bowl too, it got me curious about the SNES and Genesis versions of Tecmo Super Bowl. I did a search for "error" in a hex editor and found a bunch of error messages.
SNES version (starting at 0x16C2):
ERR 00 DATA RANGE OVERFLOW yADDRESS)zERR DATA y ERR 01 DATA RANGE UNDERFLOW yADDRESS)zERR DATA y ERR 02 SPRITE MAX ERROR yADDRESS)zERR DATA y ERR 03 yADDRESS)zERR DATA
Genesis version (starting at 0x3FBDE):
GMSG REQUEST NUMBER ERROR !
Genesis version (starting at 0x4182):
MSG A 8X8 OVER FLOW MSG A 16X OVER FLOW MSG B 8X8 OVER FLOW MSG B 16X OVER FLOW MSG W 8X8 OVER FLOW MSG W 16X OVER FLOW CONTE NUMBER ISERROR ADDRESS IS
Also, for kicks I opened up the GB version of Tecmo Bowl and found this:
TECMO BOWL VER 1.0 6-19-91 (C) COPYRIGHT 1991 (P) TECMO LTD. 18005 S. ADRIA MARU LANE CARSON CALIF. 90746 U.S.A. (213) 329-5880
As for the password stuff, I imagine they went through some crunch time and had to cut some teams out, but the password system was already finished and designed for 16 teams, so they left it as-is thinking nobody would find out. |
rabidabid
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| Heck, it could just be a simple programming mistake on the password system designer's end, and they never intended to have more teams. |
rabidabid
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So, a very early build of Rockman 8 was recently released. You can download the ISO, along with PSF and MP3 rips of the soundtrack here (I hope this is okay to link to).
Here are some of the more significant details:
- Only two stages initially available: the intro stage and Frost Man's stage. Frost Man's stage looks very different, graphically.
- Tengu Man's and Clown Man's stages can be played through Action Replay codes. These stages are very bare-bones. They're just the basic level layout with placeholder graphics and no enemies/features. Here's how to access them, as quoted from Joseph Collins in a comment he left in his video linked below:
Originally posted by JosephCollins
- Run the game with an Action Replay DISABLED, but one of the following codes punched in:
[Codes provided by Rockman from Protodude's Rockman Corner]
Clownman Stage: 80187BF4 0002
Tenguman Stage: 80187BF4 0003
- Select either of the two active stages.
- As soon as you hear Rockman talk, activate the Action Replay.
- The game should load the chosen stage instead of a normal one.
Note: the second halves of these stages are right under the first halves.
- Five music tracks, four of which aren't used in the final build.
- Aside from the Mega Ball, none of the weapons have been implemented yet. Some of the weapons have slightly different names.
- When opened in a hex editor, there's text for an "OBJECT TEST MODE" which seems like it would be similar to the ones found in other Mega Man games. There's also text for a sound test. (Bolded because nobody else on the internet seems to have noticed it).
Debugging features:
- Hold L2 to slow the game down.
- Hold R2 to freeze the game.
- Hold both jump buttons (X + O) for "free movement" allowing you to drag Mega Man anywhere on the map.
- On controller 2, press Up and Down to increase and decrease the energy in the health bar.
Videos:
Also, apparently there's another prototype that hasn't been released yet. This one is a much later build with more stages (mostly) finished. Protodude talks about it a bit here.
Originally posted by Protodude
On a related note: I've been hearing a lot of requests for the release of beta v2. I'm currently working on that, but I thought I'd give you all fair warning: it's not as significant as v1.
v2 is near final. The build consists of five and a half stages: introductory, Clown Man, Grenade Man, finalized Frost Man, and an incomplete Sword Man stage. Each stage is nearly identical to the final counterparts, but all lack certain graphical background details. All stages lack boss battles and all end with a dead end. The only way to return to the stage select is to reset the game.
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rabidabid
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Oh hay, it's the second proto. The download link contains both the first and second prototypes (no PSF files tho).
There's music stored in the game but it won't play for some reason.
Video-wise, it oddly contains two Capcom logo intro videos: the one found in the first proto and one that's close to the one used in the final. Though the latter video has no sound and the black background doesn't fade to white.
And that's all the videos. Sorry, no cutscenes 4 u. |
rabidabid
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Aha! A commenter named Puuks over at Protodude's pointed out some more debugging features that appear in the second prototype (but not the first).
Pressing L2+R2+Circle allows you to look all around the map, even outside of boundaries (I wonder if that mouse cursor is controllable somehow?).
Pressing it again allows you to see the hitboxes of the stage or something. For both of these, holding X allows you to scroll around faster.
Pressing L2+R2+Triangle brings up the sprite table.
Controls:
Left/Right: Change page
Up/Down: Scroll up/down the sprite page
X: Jump between the top row of pages and the bottom? (The red vertical bar signifies which page you're on)
Circle: Jump between the very top and bottom of the sprite page
Square: Turn grids on and off
Start: Switch transparent background between black and gray
L1 + Up/Down/Left/Right: Change palettes
Pressing Select in both these modes takes you back to the game, right where you brought them up. And you can bring them up anywhere in the game - even the title screen and stage select screen!
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rabidabid
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Maybe someone could ask the creator of the video, cheetahmen92, to post the stuff. After all, he did post some things on the Action 52 page, albeit a good while ago. 
Though I did find a couple unused enemies in Cheetahmen II. I should get around to posting those sometime. |
rabidabid
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R20 is an official artbook that came out in Japan celebrating the franchise's 20th anniversary. It contains official artwork from nearly every game in the Classic and X series that was out at the time and has some commentary from Inafune and the artists who drew the stuff. The book was split up into two parts and released in America as Mega Man: Official Complete Works and Mega Man X: Official Complete Works.
Auto's probably someone who gave them the heads-up about the info, but it's also the name of the green robot you buy stuff from (and was introduced) in MM7.
Or were those rhetorical questions?  |
rabidabid
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Here's some quotes from (an archived version of) the FAQ section of Free Radical's site.
Why do none of your games have cheats?
Would you believe, they actually do - it's just that no one's found them yet...
Could also apply to Second Sight or Haze?
In The TimeSplitters Series, are there any controller-activated cheats?
Yes. But we've never released them. We like to keep things as impossible as possible.
Now, it doesn't specify exactly which TimeSplitters games. The first game was only on PS2 while 2 and Future Perfect were also on GameCube and Xbox.
I have no idea how these can be found (other than the hard way), let alone across 3 platforms. I thought I'd bring attention to it anyway. |
rabidabid
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| Another minor inconsistency I noticed is with article names for games that weren't released in the US. I brought it up on Talk:Tsumi to Batsu: Hoshi no Keishousha. I dunno how to go about quoting it so uh... you can read that there. |
rabidabid
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This is pretty ridiculous. To have fans get so involved and to have the development process so out in the open, then to just pull the rug out from under everything, especially something people have been clamoring for for over a decade... well, it's no wonder people are upset.
I was pretty interested in this game. It was one of the few 3DS titles (along with Kid Icarus) that made me want to have a 3DS. Now that it's gone, well, my interest in the system kind of went with it.
I feel for the developers. They put nearly a year's worth of work into this project just to have it disappear, never to be seen again.
I really don't get what's going on with Capcom these days. They were champs from the NES era through (most of) last generation. Then they dissolved Clover and it really started going downhill from there. They've either kicked out or driven away all of their "big name" talent. And they're quickly landing themselves on gamers' "publisher shitlists" next to Activision. They've put out some nice stuff this gen (mostly on portables) but they've also dropped the ball so many times.
I actually spent a few days or so saving every blog post posted on the English dev blog. I've been considering creating an archive site for it all if/when the original disappears off the face of the internet. I now have all the posts... I think, I still need to double check. This includes full resolution pictures, YouTube videos, and special pages (heroine design pages, 3D model viewers, Reaverbot Revival pages, etc.). |
rabidabid
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| Nice. I actually don't have the means to check this out either. The only TimeSplitters game I have is the GameCube version of Future Perfect. But the codes probably (hopefully) aren't too different between the versions. If we figure out one version's codes, we might be able to figure out the other ones fairly easily. |
rabidabid
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Herp.
They're just trying to get fans to fight amongst themselves instead of focusing all their rage towards Capcom. |
rabidabid
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There's some graphics in this game I'm unsure about so I'll ask about them here.
Question 1: How do these handshake graphics fit together?
To the left is what YY-CHR shows. To the right is my attempt at assembling them based on how they looked on The Nekketsu Typhoon (archived since it's not around anymore). As you can see, Kunio's head in the bottom graphic doesn't quite line up properly (unless the NES is capable of moving the tiles one pixel to the left?).
These handshake graphics can fit together many ways. Riki and Kunio's heads (or any of those boss heads at the top really) can fit on either body. Any of those legs graphics in the top-left corner can fit. And one of the bodies even needs to be flipped in order to face the other. I dunno what to do with this.
Question 2: Does anyone recall seeing Riki/Kunio/Alex/Ryan do this in a shop? ...Or at all?
Question 3: This sign. What does it say?
I noticed it was in the English versions and hasn't been translated.
Question 4: What is this thing?
It was removed from the Japanese version of the game. It is found with the graphics for Sherman Park and the area just outside Sherman Park. |
rabidabid
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Originally posted by Torentsu
Can you get me a better shot of the Japanese sign? It looks like katakana and I could probably translate it if it were a bit more readable. If Glitterberri is around she might could get it.
Sorry, it's a very tiny sprite so that's about as good as it gets.
As for the handshake graphics, I might just note on the page that they may not be assembled as intended. |
rabidabid
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Reiho/Reihō is the name of a school in the Nekketsu universe. I think it's the school you go to at the end of this game actually. So that's probably it, thanks!
Edit: Yeah, a bigger and more legible sign appears outside the school gates in the Japanese version.
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