Arcade

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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beatmaniaIIDX16 – Empress [Public beta/location test]

As Bemani (music games by Konami) fan I felt like had to post this [: A new version of beatmaniaIIDX awaits us again and the public beta (better known as location test) is starting today! Millions of fans in japan and all over the world are gathering in Tokyo to be there at the exclusive 5 day beta testing in public.

If you are interested in reading further, the rest of the story is after the jump! : D 

Killer Instinct [Beta – SNES Arcade]

Killer Instinct is a fighting game developed by RareWare and published by Midway and Nintendo. Initially released in arcades in 1994 it was later ported to the Super Nintendo. In the gallery below you can notice some early character designs for B.Orchid and Glacius. As they wrote at the Killer Instinct Arena, the earliest version of Black Orchid was a blonde amazon, but a later version of her featured a black outfit. In the final game Orchid wears a green and yellow dress.

Also, thanks to Lucazz we found out that a beta Killer Instinct ROM was somehow leaked online, and it contains many differences from the final version:

  • the orchid stage and the cinder stage have the same beta floor
  • glacius and jago have an unused song
  • the gangsta theme is in glacius’ stage
  • the fulgore theme is in cinder’s stage
  • the menu screen is in a different position
  • the orchid stage doesn’t have the rare and nintendo logos in the screens and the stage side is moved to the right
  • the raptor sprites are corrupted
  • the eyedol bridge stage is in the cinder’s stage, similar of the arcade
  • in the continue screen the song is the same as the menu screen

Thanks to Robert Seddon and Lucazz for the contributions!

In a promotional video of Killer Instinct, embedded below, we can see an early version of the coin-op with some differences:

  • Beta character selection screen
  • Cinder’s name was Meltdown and Sabrewolf’s Werewolf.
  • Some of the combo types were removed or changed, like Mondo combo and Elite combo
  • The voice that announces the stage name is different
  • Some stages were slightly different, like the Tower arena and the Sabrewulf livel

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House Of The Dead 3 [Cell Shading Proto]

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House of the Dead III in cell Shading?!? It seems impossible, but let’s take a step back in time … It was 2003 and House of the Dead III, the famous Sega shooter, raged in the arcades, like previous episodes of the series.

Sega decided to port it to a home console, and since it was based on the Sega Chihiro hardware, they decided on the Xbox. So, SEGA announced the development of a port for Xbox was under way and showed some screens to the public. The early screens had a special feature, using the technique of Cell Shading which made ​​the game look like a color cartoon, with characters drawn with a black marker.

However, the idea was soon abandoned. The causes of abandonment are still unknown, but it is thought that the idea of a graphic “cartoon” in a game as violent as HOTD III would not satisfy the fans, who would definitely prefer “normal” graphics.

Thanks to UK Boogie for the english translation!

[spoiler /Clicca qui per la versione in Italiano/ /Nascondi la versione in Italiano/]House of the Dead III in cell Shading?!? Sembra impossibile, ma facciamo un salto indietro nel tempo… Era il 2003 e il gioco House of The Dead III, il famoso titolo sparatutto SEGA, imperversava nelle sale giochi; come per i precedenti episodi della serie, si era deciso di realizzare un porting per una console casalinga, e dato che il Sega Chihiro, la scheda su cui girava HOTD III, era basata sull’ Xbox, si decise per quest’ultima. Così, SEGA annunciò al pubblico che lo sviluppo di un porting per Xbox di HOTD III era stato iniziato e mostrò al pubblico alcuni screen. Quest’ultimi, avevano una particolarità, utilizzavano la tecnica del Cell Shading, un particolare sistema che faceva assomigliare il gioco a un cartone animato, grazie a colori un po’ più carichi e al contorno dei personaggi, che era tracciato con un pennarello nero, proprio come un disegno di un cartone.

Tuttavia, l’idea fu presto abbandonata. Le cause dell’abbandono sono ancora sconosciute, ma si pensa che l’idea di una grafica “cartoonesca” in un gioco violento come HOTD III non abbia soddisfatto i fan, che preferivano senz’altro una grafica “normale”.[/spoiler]

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