Bowsersenemy and xMrNx have found some unused Zero sprites and a strange W Meter bar in Mega Man X 3!
Fado, the lost Kokiri, is back in the Zelda 64 Beta Restoration!
Do you remember “Fado”, the beta Kokiri girl that was seen in a couple of early screenshots from Ocarina of Time? That girl was changed in the final game with a different 3D model, but now thanks to ZethN64, formally known as ZethAlkar, we can see her again in the beta kokiri restoration hack! This is a standalone hack not associated with any projects.
Here’s “Fado” in a beta screen:
And here’s Fado in the Beta Restoration!
Some other beta kokiri are restored too, you can check them all in the video below:
StarFox Adventures [GC – Beta / Unused Stuff]
We already knew that StarFox Adventures once was the Nintendo 64 title Dinosaur Planet. However, the title did not only change during that transition, but also during its time as a StarFox game.
Although the main enemy in the game is General Scales, you will never fight him. Such a battle against General Scales was planned however, evidence was found in unused audio files on the StarFox Adventures game disc. In addition, it appears as if Fox McCloud would have had only to collect the Krazoa Spirits to save Dinosaur Planet; the Spellstones were only needed for saving Krystal. Fox did not want to leave the planet before Krystal was not safe.
Prior to fighting against General Scales, it seems as if Fox McCloud would have released Krystal. Both would have teamed up for the final section in the Krazoa Palace. [Sadly only Krystal’s audio files for this part were recorded.]
For games developed by Rare, it is also common that a special animation of the company logos was made [Example of Perfect Dark Zero]. For Starfox Adventures something similar was planned, but it did not end up in the final product:
Lead designer Lee Schunemann tried to give an explanation for all these changes: “We ran out of dev time due to the looming Microsoft buyout so we had to wrap up the game and just focus on one final boss.”
In the Krystal Archive we can listen to various unused voice clips that reveale many details on lost parts of the story. There are upwards of 50 clips for other characters that never made it into the game. The Starfox Online archive contains pages for ALL Star Fox Adventures voice clips. There were 730 non-duplicate voice clips in the game. All clips under the Unknown heading were not in the game. You’ll also find a few error clips, many alternate versions of clips, differing voice actors for characters, references to places and events that never made it to the game, and other interesting plotpoints.
Special thanks to Mr Krystal from the Krystal Archive!
As we can read from Giant Bomb’s Starfox Adventure page:
Members of the Star Fox Online forums discovered that a decent portion of the original Dinosaur Planet script is still contained within Star Fox Adventures. A file on the Star Fox Adventures disc called GAMETEXT.bin contains text used in the entire game, both for the Nintendo 64 version of Dinosaur Planet and the GameCube version of Star Fox Adventures. Though not entirely complete, many scenes from Dinosaur Planet’s storyline remain intact.
[…]
It would eventually be revealed that by joining all Krazoa Spirits together at the Krazoa Shrine (originally called “Warlock Mountain” in Dinosaur Planet) they would form the ultimate weapon in the galaxy. Not enough of the Dinosaur Planet script remains to describe what happens after that.
You can find the GAMETEXT.bin to download at the Krystal Archive! Sadly there are numerous examples of text not listed in the file. While the amount listed is considerable, Mr Krystal noticed that only one version of each existed: a given phrase would only be from one game or the other, not both, but which game it referred to would switch from line to line. Large sections, and whole plotpoints appeared to be missing.
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Driver [PSX – Beta]
Driver is a 1999 action / driving game developed by Reflections Interactive (now known as Ubisoft Reflections). In the screens and video below, you can notice an early version of the game, with various differences: in the beta the Miami city main car was yellow with a black stripe (a kind of vehicle that is only used in Driver 2), an early pause / debug menu and the car resists to more damages than in the final version.
The HUD wasn´t complete and the map color is green instead of red. Some cars seen in the beta Newcastle city were not used in the Playstation version, but they can still be “unlocked” with gameshark / AR codes. The PC version of Driver could be considered as a director´s cut since the city and the unused cars can be normally unlocked in the game.
Super Slav has made us to notice that in the beta demo you coud drive your car into the water as there are no barriers to stop you in some parts of Miami area. Also some of the boats do not have textures. Hacking the demo to have unlimited time and damage, it’s possible to roam the beta map and to found some interesting stuff! (Check the third video below) Only half of the Miami map is avalable, peds can walk on water, and the boats are not solid. The water has no effect on the civilian cars (they can drive on it like the they drive on roads), the water only affects your car. Also, the map was a bit different in the beta demo.
Also, the original beta featured screenshots and videos of a yellow Buick GSX, but this car did not feature in the final game. It was, however, included as a bonus car in Driver 2.
Thanks to Vicente, Martin, Gamersin and Super Slav for the contributions!
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Chameleon Twist [N64 – Tech Demo]
Chameleon Twist is a platformer developed by Japan System Supply and published for the Nintendo 64 in 1997 by Sunsoft. In these screenshots below we can see an early Tech Demo / Target Render, from the early days of the project. The graphic was much more definited than the final version, while the scenario was empty and created just to show the “feel” of the game.
Thanks to Celine and Gilgalegrouik for the contribution!
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