GameCube

Gotcha Force [Beta / Concept – GameCube]

Gotcha Force is a brawl fighting game for the Nintendo GameCube, developed by Capcom. The game received poor reviews from critics, as well as a lack of advertising but it soon became a cult-hit among fans of fast-paced mech fights. Capcom themselves seem to consider the game as one of their favorites, as the official Japanese site is stocked with concept art, screenshots of the developers messing around, and videos. [Infos from Wikipedia]

The gameplay is a mix between Virtual On, Power Stone and somehow.. Pokemon (for the hundreds of robots that can be unlocked and collected).  The niche who have been able to devote the time necessary to appreciate Gotcha Force, were rewarded with a game really hectic and fun in single player. Unfortunately, the lack of more multiplayer modes and a better framerate, spoil the longevity of the title. The design of robots and their customization is still among the best ever seen in its generation.

Talking about the unseen beta elements, we have collected some beta screens and concept arts, in which we can see different arenas, menu, HUB and early design of the characters, with some changes from the final ones. It seems that in the official website there are some interviews with the team that worked on the game, where they explain the development of the project, but we still need to better translate those.

Images: 

Pikmin [GC – Beta / Prototype / Unused Stuff / Debug]

During the Game Developers Conference 2007, Shigeru Miyamoto mentioned that some of the elements of the Super Mario 128 tech demo were incorporated into Pikmin, as the multiple characters that are able to move on screen and complete different tasks. Probably this game had an interesting development cycle, even if we just saw it when it was almost complete. Infact, in the beta screens available there are just few differences in the HUD, but inside the Pikmin disc, much unused stages, contents and functions have been unused in the game, see the videos and images below.

Some more info on the development from a Miyamoto interview:

“In the case of Pikmin 1 our original idea was how it would be nice if we would be able to see a bunch of small creatures doing something,” said Miyamoto. “Something like, they are protecting their own village and at the same time they are trying to grow and expand that village.”

He added that Olimar was added later on in the design process. “Later on we added the feature so that the player character will be there. But at the beginning I thought that it wouldn’t be interesting enough because in that original development mode the Pikmin were used as if [they were] weapons. To be utilised, to be shot by the player themselves.”

Beta version:

ME0000079693_2.jpg

  • Icons are different
  • Day counter is different
  • Other stuff

Beta version 2:

pikmin37.jpg

  • Day Counter in a different place and stretched

Sprite still in the game:

Final version:

  • Fixed the Day Counter stretch and placed on the top

Images:

Prototype
In the beginning of the game, much stuff have been changed on the development. On a magazine called Nintendo World, on Brazil, shows how the game have been made.
Original Scanned Picture (Notice: Red parts shows were have been translated):
*You can click on the image below to enlarge it*

Translated:

Interview: The Origin of the Pikmin
Shigeru Miyamoto and his team spread the verb about their new creation for the Gamecube.
By: The NW Team

  • Talk a little about the origin of the game.

Shigeru Miyamoto: When we were testing the Gamecube console, I have asked one thing: to animate the maximum number possible of objects. However, my team wished to create a game where the player could control ten or twenty characters at the same time. There was an discrepancy about my ideas and the ideas of my team. In my mind, I had as the start point an image about 100 Marios (Editor’s note: demo displayed in the Space World 2000, which did show 128 Marios running at the screen, all animated individually.)

  • The demo 100 Marios was only an demonstration for the capabilities of the Gamecube or you planned to make a game based on it?

SM: Yes, I wanted. And I still want. I used some ideas about that concept in Pikmin, but I’m still reserving some of those ideas for future projects.

  • You had the idea of the character “like an plant” in the beginning?

SM: No. They were totally different in the beginning of the testing phase. We called they as Adam and Eve.
Shigefumi Hino: When the designers talked about the characters, we thought that would be better use a simple design to be able to show a lot of them at the same time. So we used the characters which had one ball in the place of the body, with eyes and noses.

  • And the names were Adam and Eve. They were only two in the beginning, but the number was increasing, right?

SM: Something like that.

  • You see a lot of characters in one screen at the same time and all of them in movement. What the players should do?

SM: In the beginning, the idea was only watch their lifes. I thought that, in the point of the view of the producer, this was an interesting idea. “Watch their life” was the theme. To give them love or make they fight. Pretend to be God. Depending of the decisions of the player, they could build a nest and have children. When we were developing this idea, we reach an impasse: what were the objective? This process made me more involved in the project. There was a wish to be able to control a huge group of characters using the new Control Stick C. After some time, this became the idea to grab and throw the characters. So we used the method of try-and-mistake to find what we should ask to the programmers to put in the game. Make something with the Artificial Intelligence of the characters was an important objective since the beginning.

  • It was an surprise to see new characters and a brand new gameplay on the release of a new hardware?

Masamichi Abe: New characters and new movements in the Controller was actually an exigence.
SM: I knew everyone was thinking about the new concept, but I thought they were bound to the idea of making a game for “people who wants to play a game after the another”. I keep talking that we should create a game not only for game fanatics, but creating it for whom never played a videogame before. I believe that Pikmin became that type of game.

  • The concept about inserting the Pikmins in a small place: this was created about the principle?

SM: This was not decided until we finish the entire design. We did not had any idea for the world of the game. When we were working with the idea of Adam and Eve, we had an image about a primitive world – lots of villages, a fight against a mammoth. How much would survive? That was everything in big scale, the beetles looked like a Leviathan. With all this, we thought it was better to make the game in a more familiar world. We started to create the current world of the Pikmins about one year ago.

  • That means that the size of the Pikmin wasn’t decided after the design finished?

SM: Yes. Because of the Pikmin are plant-creatures, I thought they should have about 30 and 50 centimeters of height.
Coling Reed: We thought create they about the size of a cat.

  • What was the reaction of the team when the design of the Pikmin was show?

CR: In the first design, they were only black. I didn’t liked it. No facial features, like eyes and nose. They were really like ants. I started to like them after they became colored.

  • The Pikmins had flowers on their heads in first decision?

SM: Yes. Their bodies were shaped after onions or bulbs, with many different body types – fat, tall, small, etc. Those differences don’t exist anymore, but we added the difference in the colors.

  • Would not be hard for the GC animate 100 Pikmins at the same time with different shapes?

SM: It could be done. Also, it was possible to put a life meter for each Pikmin and create a new system for the players manage more complicated stuff – move the tired Pikmins for the left, separate their favorites for combat etc. However, the gameplay would be far too complex. We decided to discard those ideas.
MA: The Pikmins which exist today were created with high level of detail. Which one look around and act differently, depending of the situation.
SM: It’s kinda like of the hundred Marios moving simultaneously.

  • When we command a lot of Pikmins, there always those who don’t work. Why?

MA: I would like the players feel that Pikmin had free will. There was a piece of the programming code which allows that. The game looks more real, because there are Pikmin that obey you and others which don’t obey.
SM: We could leave the Pikmins to act more freely, but if we exaggerate too much, the players would start to become frustrated. The Mario Club (the official Nintendo’s testing team) said that the E3 version was better, because the Pikmin followed the orders correctly. I said that they were confusing “better” with “easier” (laughs).

  • What was the hardest part of the development of the game?

MA: Following the order of the Mr. Miyamoto, that all the concepts of the game should be totally new and ensure that controlling that much Pikmin at the same time would not be frustrating for any player.
SH: The hardest part was to create a new game which nobody had experienced before. We didn’t had much opportunities to develop totally new ideas for original games, which aren’t just sequels. Miyamoto did saw us working hardly without saying anything, and finally, after seeing our team struggling, showed us his ideas in two pieces of paper. It was a very strange concept. To be honest, that make me think he had alien friends.

  • You guys already think of a sequel?

SM: We have no idea for which type of sequel we could create. I would like to take Pikmin for the same popularity level of Mario. I have a lot of ideas which I couldn’t use this time.

  • For example?

SM: It’s an secret. We think that we are going to see many games similar to this one in the Christmas of 2002. I’m still thinking about an another idea which will be completely different…

  • Thanks to the NW team for the Article.
  • Thanks to gabrielwoj for the translating.
  • Thanks to Eduardo Luann (Gabrielwoj’s Brother) for helping the translation

===Article in the Issue 42 of the Brazilian Magazine called Nintendo World (Published Date: Febuary 2002)===

In Pikmin 2, the game data folder holds up some interesting files. At the Pikmin files, the Purple Pikmin is named as “Piki-Black, these count in configurations, models and textures, meaning that in the first states of the game, the black pikmin would appear in the sequel.

Screenshot of BMDViewer:

!!!Unused Stuff!!!

One of the most interesting things found in the Game Disc, are the Super Mario 128 leftovers. The Nintendo Company rest many files which seems to be from Super Mario 128, all located in one single folder, the “rocket” folder, which strangely, is only the Dolphin ship from Olimar.
There are also models there where never been revealed, such as a Goomba, a Key (which probably from Super Mario Bros. 2) and a Pellet.
There are 4 Videos in total, all of them were replaced to show in the model viewer, except for the Mario, cause of his detail of the model, the size was huge, and the only way to show, was replacing a very big file in the game:
Let’s see them Below:

Goomba:

Key:

After some time, another Key have been found, but a waaay bigger key. Together with an door. Probably you would need to open an door for some quest of the game.

Mario:

This is the only thing which might not be from Super Mario 128, but located in the same exactly folder (also, there are duplicates for this model):

After some time, it was possible to see these beta pellets into the gameplay. They have hitboxes and appropriate graphics for the gameplay, however, it was only used for testing:

Red Pikmins and Blue Pikmins could use “bomb-rocks” like Yellow Pikmins too. To prove it, look at those unused sprites in the game:
Blue Pikmin:

Red Pikmin:

Other things that I found, is the GC Banner and Game Icon, which wasn’t in opening.bnr (file which contains the game icons and banners from GC and Wii games), and it was on another folder, called: “banner&icons”…
The beta icons:
Banner

Icon (maybe both animates)

Other icons which were found are very interesting:

According to Susumu, it’s written “Decide”. Strangely, that the “A” Button was blue. It’s probably the prototype of the Gamecube Controller.

These are some unfinished control stick animations, the complete one have many more animations than this one

This is Moon Sprite which probably would be used at the end of the day. It might be scrapped due to some levels are too dark.

Copy
Erase
Voyage Log Select
Voyage Log
Select
Pikmin Total

These are some un-translated sprites found in the Latin America Game. Thanks to Susumu for the translation!

Unused Musics
Some musics and sound effects are pretty unused in the game disc.

This is probably an development music for testing musical instruments, due to repetitive instruments and a short time

An older and shorter version of the “First Dolphin Part get”

The Beta Demonstration Movie
Strangely, only found in the japanese game, an Demonstration movie (which shows when the player lets the Gamecube idle) have an alternate version. Inside the Sound folder, there is one Movie File mixed there. Replacing it, here is the results (Comparing Beta with Final)

The Beta Volume Bar
Using some tools, it was possible to find hidden in the game screen an volume used by numbers. The final one is used with bars. The screen shot shows how would be the volume bar:
http://i.imgur.com/F3JwB.jpg

There also is an “tall” option hidden close of the beta volume bar.
http://i.imgur.com/XwrNo.jpg

Hidden Name
The Screen Designer is called Tokihiko Toyoda, and what’s wrote on the place? Toyoda… It seems like an easter egg just for the developers.
http://i.imgur.com/9GtgM.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/0o3d0.jpg

Unused… Stage logos?
Only located in the Japanese game, there are some hidden stage names in the offscreen. The names are used, however, the sprites aren’t, they are colored, and in the final version, all of them are colored in green:

The Unused Maps
Part 1:

Part 2:

*Note: I fixed MAP_06, the map which appears at the old commercial*
Map_06 Fixed:

And the Pikmin Old Commercial:

Many things on the old commercial can be noted:

-Beta Hud;
-Grab all pikmins in the ground using the Whistle (B);
-Some beta maps, which still are in the Disc (check the video above);
-The Olimar texture seems low-res;
-Some graphic differences…

Debug Info, info that shows the objects values, his hitboxes and area of view, and many other things.

ConkerGuru have discovered a Debug Menu on Pikmin and did make the Code. (Action Replay).
The Debug menu shows lot of testing stuff, such as open Voyage Logs from the game, open a control test, open some effects and much more.
This video will show everything what Debug Menu on Pikmin does:
Voyage log 10 and voyage log 29 are unused

  • Video recorded by Gabrielwoj


Thanks to Susumu for translating the Debug Menu!

  • Enable Annotations for view the translation, pause the video when the debug menu appears

There is also an Bug (an game program error) which takes the Player to Day 0 or Day 1 with time counter, the player cannot advance the game, due to the pikmin onion didn’t show.


.

ConkerGuru also helped with model viewer inside the game, which doesn’t have all the models, but it has some (Nintendo probably deleted the rest of entries).
The animtest map showed above, it’s used on the animation test.
Video by Gabrielwoj:

  • Showing Blue Pikmin animations

Video by Spyke4995:

  • Showing the rest of the models (and animations)

However, Rayfan decided to make a little search too into the Pikmin levels, and he did. He could export the configurations into the levels and load them, with they configurations and they models, see videos below!

PikminTwoPlayerTest

PikminSpringTest

PikminShipTest

PikminShapeTest

PikminMiscTest

PikminLevelTest

PikminEnemyTestSnagret

PikminEnemyTestMamuta

PikminEnemyTestGoolix

PikminEnemyTestBulblax

PikminWollywogTest

PikminE3Test

PikminEnemyTest

PikminEnemyTestBeady

Thanks to gabrielwoj, Rayfan, ConkerGuru, Susumu and Spyke4995 for the contributors.

Want see more? Click on this banner to go to the Pikmin Vs. Pikmin ~ ピクミンPage!

 

Luigi’s Mansion [GC – Beta / Tech Demo / Unused Stuff]

In its beta E3 2001 version, Luigi’s Mansion featured different ghosts than the final version. The 3 main ghosts (Orange, Pink, and Blue) were very different looking than their present day forms. The Orange ghost used to be a pink colored ghost featuring smaller eyes and mouth. The tall and thin pink ghost was once an orange lanky ghost with a huge nose. The blue ghost was originally a purplish colored ghost with smaller eyes and mouth. There was also another ghost that was scrapped from the final. It was colored dark purple, had a similar look to the pink beta ghost, and was only found in the hallways of the Mansion. Of what the ghost did was come up behind Luigi and scream; causing Luigi to yell in fear and fall to the ground. This would cause 50 HP to be drained from Luigi’s health and temporarily shrink his total HP to 50 as well. If the ghost still exists, it would have the same behavior as a ReDead.

In very early screenshots (all being the E3 version), there were shots of a timer in the Game Boy Horror, possibly hinting that the game was either going to have a challenge mode or a time limit, but was scrapped in the final version. It is said that if Luigi did not save Mario within the 24 hours he had, the mansion, along with mario, would vanish. In other builds, the Gameboy Horror also feature a Gameboy Camera-like effect, so it showed everything it could “see”. It is suspected that the Gameboy Horror had at first the time keeping function, and then the Gameboy Camera-like mode, and the onto a different version of the final’s GBH. The near final build had more of a cartoony icon set, while the final build has the more realistic icon set.

The Poltergust 3000 once featured a “heat meter”, showing of how hot it would get from sucking objects and ghosts up. Its gauge went from a level of 1 to 10. Once it got to 10, the Poltergust 3000 would burst into flames, and cause Luigi to collapse onto the floor, also having Luigi lose some of his HP. On the side note, the Poltergust 3000 was more squarish compared to the final’s version.

Other differences include slight changes in room designs, a beta coin meter, and many other objects. – [info from Wikipedia]

The ending screen would probably unlock to your file a “congratulations” image, or probably just an image for the ending, such as a picture in the wall. Three unused different looking sprites were found by Gabrielwoj, as can see below:

luigi_b.bti_colorluigi_b.bti_alpha
“luigi_b.bti_color/alpha”, probably with Bad ending, with low money. (B = Bad)
luigi_g.bti_colorluigi_g.bti_alpha
“luigi_g.bti_color/alpha”, probably with medium ending, with a good quantity of money. (G = Great)
luigi_V.bti_colorluigi_V.bti_alpha
“luigi_V.bti_color/alpha”, probably with perfect ending, with all the money caught. (V = Victory)

Thanks to SteamingBulletMatthew Burke and Gabrielwoj for the contribution!

Miyamoto recently spoked about the Nintendo 3DS system, and said that the Nintendo Gamecube was capable of playin stereoscopic 3D video. He said too that they made a compatible version from Luigi’s mansion that with an accessory is able to display in special LCD TVs the game in 3D.

According to a issue in nintendo power,there was going to be a hidden boss ghost that was a generic austrailian hunter guy,and had dialogue that was on the lines of saying he wanted to Kill you and mount your head on the wall. He shot his rifle at you as you ran around the Safari Room.

Images:

Videos:

 

Super Smash Bros Melee [GC – Beta / Unused Stuff]

Through an Action Replay, a large, gray stage with the background appearing to be some kind of pub, is accessible. The music is the same as used on Fox and Falco’s stage Corneria. This is assumed to be a test stage because of its name, which on the debug menu is TEST. There are also four stages, named AKANEIA (a possible predecessor to Castle Siege from Super Smash Bros. Brawl, a homeworld for Fire Emblem), 10-2, IceTop (a possible precursor to the Summit stage from the sequel, which belongs to the Ice Climbers), and Dummy, a test stage that freezes the game when opened. In addition to this, the entire Debug Menu, which was used in pre-release testing, can be used when the game is hacked, allowing for complete editing of anything in the game. Giga Bowser, both male and female Fighting Wire Frames, Master Hand, Crazy Hand, and even Sandbag are all playable (to a limited extent) via the Debug Menu. [Info from Mariowiki]

Some level analyzes was been made, such as:

  • DUMMY stage can be used, for the Victory Screen, an platform at the middle of nowhere for the players, at the victory screen, can be placed correctly;
  • TEST stage, of course, an stage for testing stuff, using Develop utility, at Debug Menu main. Can be placed any enemies (well, much of them), test graphics (like any stage on Develop mode) and more. Rumors say that looks Corneria Level, that’s because have the Music;
  • AKANEIA stage, an Fire Emblem stage what was to be made, only the code rested at the disc, that’s because no one could find any hack for playing it;
  • ICETOP stage, an end of Ice Mountain, the TOP of Ice Mountain? They say it, it’s possible to be entered by hacks;
  • TSEAK target smash stage, “T” for targed, “SEAK” is Sheik, Nintendo may was planing to do an target test for Sheik (may change it on the menu or something, just like Brawl), it could be so glitched when changing to Zelda, what they rejected, just one platform with 3 targets;
  • 10-2 adventure stage, just after 10-1 ICEMT, so, it’s the Icetop stage for Adventure.

In some of the old screens, we can see some differences: in the Super Mario Field there is a warp pipe (the one next to donkey kong) which isn’t in the final game. Peach is on a platform that isn’t in the game either (at the Special Video, Nintendo did it with that platform, maybe they made at the VERY END of the game, they removed the platform when releasing and was keep at the Video, EVEN at the manual [At the Camera-Fixed Mode Page]), the fire emblem in the background where mario, kirby, and pikachu are fighting, are different than the final.

In a beta video, we can see that originally it was possible to go inside the laboratory in the Great Bay level.

As we can read from an article on N-Philes, through Melee’s Debug menu, it is possible to have a match with six characters instead of four, somethings about melee, if someone don’t know, it contains an Multiman-Melee, what they have 6 characters at the screen, maybe the config is for this mode, but been used at Melee Mode. Also Ditto was in the game as a Pokeball Pokemon but was pulled for whatever reason. There is some information about Ditto was removed: “At some sites (such as SmashWiki), tells the Ditto was causing much trouble for making it, he special power was to “steal” the move of the other players, but what about on a round of 4 players? Nintendo retired the idea, and stayed at disc, it’s possible to go into Debug Menu, but it only will hit a 12% at the character”

Some other enemies was “unused”, we can say, but they have a difference at the name: They are may beta design of the enemies stayed at the game, but only the code, cause it’s unable to be accessed, take a look at the list:

  • Old-Kuri, Kuri is the Kuriboh (Goomba);
  • Old-Lead, Lead is the Leaded (Re-dead);
  • Old-Octa, Octa is the Octarock (Octarock);
  • Old-Otto, Otto is the Ottosei (Enemy from IceClimbers).

Those maybe was testing who what “fits” better at the game, like the old texture or the used.

One thing found at the “Test things” on Debug Menu, was an pre-loader loading screen for all-star, showing the next battle, maybe not used cause 3 character or more, could not be appeared at the loading screen

Update: Gabrielwoj found some unused all-star intros into the Debug Menu.
They probably got unused cause All-Star uses a system for multiples teams for all-star…
Probably the all-star was only Player Vs. Player (without any teams)…
See the video below!
Update 2: Gabrielwoj recently found that in the Debug Menu is possible to unlock 2 special trophies…
Those trophies only appear on the Japanese Version of the game, but it still on the USA/PAL version of the game, and still translated, see video below!
Update 3: Just after unlocking those, and reboot the game, there is some special messages (translated too)!
See video below!

Thanks to Camdawg, Dark Rayman, Shade3c, Adriel, Abu5ername, Pierre Antonie and gabrielwoj for the contributions!

Images:

Videos:


 

Mario Kart [GC – Tech Demo / Concept]

The new Mario Kart for the GameCube was first showed at the E3 2001 with a seven seconds long trailer. The clip featured Mario and Luigi driving their karts on a bump mapped 3D surface with no background. At the time MK  was still early in development, and the working title of the game was simply Mario Kart. This video was created  by Nintendo only to let the players know that there would have been a new racing game with Mario on the GameCube, but the final concept was still not decided.

In April 2003, Nintendo released the first pictures and details of the real game, as well as revealing the title, which was Mario Kart: Double Dash!!. New features, such as having two characters drive one kart and different styles of karts, had been implemented. While the tech demo was more similar to the old Mario Karts, the final game was different from what we can see in these screens and video. Those Mario and Luigi models seems to be the same from Super Smash Bros Melee.

Thanks to DRMARIOX for the contribution!

italian_flag.jpg [spoiler /Clicca qui per la versione in Italiano/ /Nascondi la versione in Italiano/]Il gioco presentato in questo video si rivela drasticamente differente da quello che sarà poi l’effettivo episodio della serie “Mario kart” uscito su Gamecube. Quest’ ultimo, infatti, innova con kart personalizzati ed ospitanti due personaggi contemporaneamente, uno adibito alla guida, l’altro al lancio di oggetti. Come è possibile constatare nelle foto invece, la versione preliminare si presentava come una normalissima conversione della normale formula di gioco su game cube, con kart standard e monoposto. Impossibile tuttavia dire altro a riguardo, dato che gli unici personaggi mostrati furono Mario e Luigi e data l’assenza di un vero percorso di gioco.

Intro by Anonimo [/spoiler]

Images:

Videos: