fighting

Mortal Kombat 4 [ARC DC N64 PSX – Beta]

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Mortal Kombat 4 is considered the 4th intallment of the Mortal Kombat series, 6th if you count MK3U and MKT. Released in 1997, it was the first MK game to use 3D graphics. It was first released in the arcade version and it would be the last arcade MK made. It was released on the N64, Playstation and PC in 1998, ported by Eurocom. An updated version was released on Dreamcast in 1999 called Mortal Kombat Gold, which was identical with the exception of better graphics, added players and a few more stages.

A new character named Belokk was intended to appear in Mortal Kombat Gold, but was cut from the released game. The developer of the game, Eurocom, sent information about the game with Belokk to Game Informer, and as a result, six screenshots of him were published. According to Ed Boon, Belokk was cut due to time constraints during development. Despite the mention of Belokk’s scrap, he was still rumored to appear as a secret character. [Infos from Wikipedia]

Actual secret characters can be accessed via rotating a specific box for a normal character, however when a player do this to Tanya’s box a question mark that was rumored to unlock Belokk appears, but it unlock nothing.

Since it was the first Midway 3D fighting game, the staff had many difficulties while in development, partly due to the fact the staff had doubled in size. Which means many changes were made and many interesting aspects were taken out.

Differences from the arcade version to the N64 version would include: Lower pixel rate and additions such as Goro being a playable character, extra costumes, and another arena called Ice Pit.

Pre-release trailers show Reptile and Fujin with God-O-Mite as their name in the lifebars. More then likely this was before they got to the name detail.

Kitana, Noob Saibot and Kano were orignally going to be in MK4. Kitana was then changed to Tanya. Noob saibot was taken in and out many times and replaced with Reiko. Jarek replaced Kano and for some reason was left with Kano’s moves, which caused many fans to complain because Jarek was hardly original. Noob Saibot can be accessed in the N64 version by a cheat, but was never in the Arcade. These characters were taken out mainly because Midway wanted more new characters in the game.

The hidden character Meat was originaly intended for testing.

Thanks to Pachuka and Sir_Brando for the contributions!

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Virtua Fighter [Arcade / Saturn – Beta]

From the long list of scans that MathUser has posted on the HPZ Forum, there’s an image from an early build of Virtua Fighter, with a beta select screen, different names for some fighters and a character (Shiba) that was cut and later reintroduced in Fighters Megamix.

From wikipedia we can read: Siba / Shiba is from a prototype of Virtua Fighter but was cut from the cast by the time of game’s actual release, though an icon featuring him (and mislabelled as “Akira”) appears on older Virtua Fighter arcade cabinents. Siba is an Arab in a white and purple outfit equipped with a sword that charges with green energy.

Beta:

Final:

Thanks to Celine we can even see some screenshots with Siba / Shiba in action! (Taken from CVG magazine issue 31 and a spanish magazine thanks to Sega Saturno). We can also notice that the original name was Virtua Fighters (plural) instead of Fighter.

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Also, Nick C was able to find an arcade cabinet with the Shiba picture! Click on the image for a bigger version:

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Dual Heroes [N64 – Beta]

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Dual Heroes is a fighting game for the Nintendo 64, released in 1998 (1997 in Japan) and often mocked and criticised for being one of the worst games ever made. The HUD in the game went through some changes in the development, and looking at the old screens, we can notice at least 3 different styles of energy bars. In particular,the borders were different and there were some portraits for the characters on the sides of the screen.

Beta 01:

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Beta 02:

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Final version:

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Mortal Kombat [MD/G – Beta]

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MathUser has made us notice that he has posted lots of scans with beta and cancelled games in the Hidden Palace Forum and between those, there are these screens from an early version of Mortal Kombat for the Genesis, with a strange color palette and a exhibition mode that was removed in the final version. Thanks to MathUser and sorry for the delay!

Also in a video documentary that you can see below, Ed Boon talks about the early development of the game, with some interesting unseen info!

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Final Fantasy: Dissidia [PSP – Beta]

Zero7 has made us notice that in the early screens of Final Fantasy: Dissidia for the PSP, the HUD was different from the one in the final version. The new HUD permits a better visual on the action, so we are happy for the change! Also, Robert Seddon linked us to the Dissia Wiki, there is an info about unused Aeris and Tonberry models hidden in the game data.

Aeris and Tonberry from Crises-Core can be seen in GMO files File000895 and File000896 respectively, even though they are not actually within the game. Presumably leftovers from testing.

Beta HUD:

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Final (?) HUD:

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