Late 1995 V-Jump Footage of the cancelled TwinBee Miracle [PS1]

I've never played a TwinBee game before nor do I even know how any of the games play. In fact, I've only actually just watched the footage below after rendering this clip, as it was a recent request and I had only just decided upon rendering and uploading it yesterday. And with that out of the way, here it is:

Unseen64 has an brief article this particular entry of the series that was planned for PlayStation but was unfortunately canceled in early 1996. Not a whole lot is known about it, let alone why it was canceled, but judging from the V-Jump 1995 footage, TwinBee Miracle was to be an quirky 2D RPG by Konami based on its top-scrolling shooter roots with colorful characters to meet and some cartoony worlds to explore. It does look like an RPG I would have played.

Its always too bad to see games that seem to have great potential get canceled. Not to be too off-topic but the greatest gaming tragedy I can think of off the top of my head is Star Fox 2, the sequel to the SNES Super FX megahit of the same name. Thankfully, there are prototypes of that game out in the wild internet for everyone to play and see for themselves the marvel that game is. I'm glad to have made some videos out of it too. Hopefully, we'll see a build of Miracle in the future.

Buried Game Treasure: Next Generation Magazine CDs

(Originally published on 1UP.com and Tumblr. Now I'm posting this again, refined, on my own blog because I don't give a damn anymore.)

The front disc envelope of
Next Generation (Sept. 1997)
featuring Cupid probably praying
for a giant meteorite to drop on
to Mother Earth anytime now.

Remember those times when you bought a shrink-wrapped magazine from a supermarket or a bookstore, and you got a free disc of cool stuff inside them? Back then, the internet was this underdeveloped, yet still awesome tool to find the latest news on anything in general at the time, especially gaming news. Yet, anything through a crappy dial-up connection (remember that too?) would take forever for things — like videos — to finish downloading onto our PCs, so for a lot of us we resorted to these discs that came with image and video previews of upcoming games.

A few years years ago, I discovered an ISO on my hard drive called the Next Generation - September 1997, an example of disc containing such cool content. These were discs that were distributed in copies of Next Generation Magazine when you bought the magazine at the time. Included in this particular disc were lots of low-quality 320x240 MOV videos of PlayStation, Sega Saturn, & Nintendo 64 games that were featured at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) at Atlantic, Georgia in mid-June of 1997.

I've found many clips of many different games in their prototype forms, including Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back, Mega Man Neo (Mega Man Legends), and Sonic R, all in their pre-release glory. The following videos have been edited to correct the contrast issues the videos had when it was first produced. They looked terrible (view this comparison: twitpic.com/9d1v6q).

This old early prototype footage of Crash Bandicoot 2 features several differences that indicate how early into production this game was when it was first announced at this convention. The video above features brief annotations that go over said differences, including the original HUD font used from Crash 1, different object placements, etc. There's more footage where that came from too (give it a watch too).

This footage of Sonic R features what appears to be a slightly (don't quote me on that, watch and decide for yourself) stage layout at the end of the stage. Different HUD (this was a common beta trait from those days, wasn't it?), and character icons, camera angles, etc. There might be a better quality version on YouTube somewhere, but I didn't find it until after this video was uploaded then.

Next up, sp,e old prototype footage of one of my closest-to-heart games ever, Mega Man Legends, which was known at the time as Mega Man Neo. Just like the first two, this video includes annotations that accentuates the various rudimentary differences that indicate just how early into production this 3D Mega Man title was when it was first quietly announced at the time. It's amazing seeing how much content and concepts were experimented on this game, it doesn't even strongly resemble the final game know today.

Last but not least, another valuable video I found was an video interview of former CEO of Nintendo of America, Howard Lincoln. Topics discussed in this interview include the Nintendo 64's early performance in the west of that year and their strong relationship with Rareware, the developers of Donkey Kong Country, Killer Instinct, Banjo-Kazooie, and GoldenEye 007. You know, really great games.

Backside.

As the internet grew to become the multimedia world it is today, the necessity of CDs packed with videos shrank as sites like YouTube and Google Video took over to allow users, fan communities, and media and game companies to upload videos without worrying about their own bandwidth and file sizes. I remember Nintendo Power coming packed with DVDs of trailers and such, but that was like in 2006 just as YT got around. YouTube and the internet has really made our lives easier.

Before I forget, I can't remember where I found the ISO in the internet originally, but in case the download source is no longer available, here's an ISO of the disc that's now readily available at the Internet Archive. I hope you guys get something neat out of this.

Reminisce Capcom's awesomeness with this old collection of E3 2000 trailers. Complete & 60fps.

Capcom E3 Sales Presentation (Long Version)
No, I don't have the short version.

So I got a seasonal job last month. It ate up most of my time but it was worth it for the moolah. Now I'm back, and I'm starting the new year off with a nice and hella late Christmas gift to my tiny readership.

Last July, I purchased three VHS cassettes from eBay containing promotional videos of various Capcom games from the late 1990s. One of them simply says Fighter's Edge, but the other two held greater interest to me. For this post, I'm only going to post only one of the tapes as it may be of value to a broader range of Capcom fans, especially to those who loved their games in the early-2000s. The other I'll be unveiling on the 29th of this month. The fan-base might just like it. ;) Actually no, that didn't came until Halloween of this year. Yikes, long delay.

The E3 Sales Presentation (Long Version) tape includes several trailers for games that were announced in 2000 including Mega Man Legends 2, Mega Man X5, Onimusha, Marvel Vs. Capcom 2, Power Stone 2, etc. Not only does it contain a trailer for RE: Gun Survivor, but a trailer for Resident Evil Zero on the Nintendo 64. Quite the heavy hitters there.

Let's all go mahval for an old E3 2000 trailer of Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 (Dreamcast)

Oh boy, this is probably my favorite fighting game of all time.

Having always played the Dreamcast version since I was in middle school, I was actually quite good with my team ─ which always consists of Tron Bonne, Mega Man and Cable, and usually at that order. I've never played on any tournaments, and I wouldn't last long in one if I ever tried. If you've followed me on YouTube, you'll know I did a PEMNAS run of the game about six years ago. At one point, it was the most searched final boss video of the game for a while. *grins*

I actually played an arcade cabinet of Marvel vs. Capcom 2 at a local arcade this past weekend on a trip with family. I actually kind of hate playing fighting games on a fighting stick because not only do I suck with them, I always get cramps on my fingers and knuckles if I play for a while, and that's what I felt after beating the game after one Game Over and two sittings (standings?).

Alright, so where am I going with this? Oh yes, I have a trailer of the game from that Capcom E3 Sales Presentation VHS tape that I've been posting other trailers* from in the past month or so. It's a kick ass trailer. It really gets you excited for the game's chaotic gameplay and because of that I decided to post it on YouTube. And just like the other ripped VHS tape clips I've posting, it rendered at 1080p60 so you can see the action as it's intended to be seen. So here you go.

I will be posting the video in its entirety sometime tomorrow or the following day. Consider it a late Christmas gift or a New Year's Day gift. Get crazy.

GOD DAMN RENDERING CANCELLED PREMATURELY!

Old prototype footage of Sonic Adventure (Dreamcast) running at 60FPS looks totally unbelievable

As the Sega Saturn console was in its twilight years, players were bummed-out that they didn't get a major Sonic game for the ill-fated console until the next-generation. Then in August of 1998, Sega dropped the bombshell and announced Sonic Adventure, the long-awaited 3D installment of the then-dignified Sonic franchise, as a launch-window killer app title for their upcoming Dreamcast console to be released at the end of 1998 in Japan. Enticing gamers worldwide, the game offered impressive graphics with high-resolution graphics and a fluid sense of speed that was almost uncontested for the time. And at 60fps, too.

"Hold up, 60fps?," you might be asking. Yes, Sonic Adventure was originally rendered at a higher frame-rate than it ended up being. The earliest footage of the game, shown at the Tokyo International Forum public unveiling in August of 1998, had shown the game to run at that frame-rate. As we can see from the footage of the unveiling seen in the one-off VHS magazine Fuse, we can clearly see how unbelievably fluid the game's motion is at this game's prototypical stage. Or was, I should say. If you guys would see it in action, I think you’ll get a kick out of it.

This early prototype footage exhibits the game originally ran at 60FPS, the level highlighting the game, we see, is Speed Highway. It looks particularly impressive given the time this game was unveiled. Its really a shame they had to had the drop the frame-rate down to 30 for the final Dreamcast version. 

What's interesting to note is that the AutoDemo isn't necessarily running at a much higher frame-rate than the final or the Forum build. So by that point, the frame-rate had already been dropped by the time the demo was made. Another interesting tidbit, if you noticed even Sonic's jump momentum seems different when he bounces on those enemies on Speed Highway.

Honestly, I wondered if this was a whole other game altogether. The game's original frame-rate at this stage of development makes it look more polished compared the final version. While the rest of the footage around the Speed Highway stage is less than 60FPS, I believe that that footage was actually edited deliberately to reduce the fluidity of the motion. Why that's the case, who knows.

But yeah, Sonic Adventure. What a time to be nine years old and seeing a 3D Sonic game in action on then-powerful hardware. Good times. 

So I was a guest in GetMeOffTheMoon's Mega Man Legends 2 Debug Live Stream

Sorry for not updating this past couple of weeks folks, I've had a terrible sinus infection after traveling upstate the last two weekends. I do have something cool and quick to post about though.

The kind folks at GetMeOffTheMoon, the famous Facebook page campaigning for the return of the tragically-cancelled Mega Man Legends 3 (long story), as well as being the number one active place for all cool things Legends and some other Mega Man media, occasionally, had invited me and another friend of mine (PixelButts) to participate in a live stream discussion about a English debug build of Mega Man Legends 2 that was leaked earlier this year at Protodude's Rockman Corner.

I'll elaborate the exact details at a later blog post but earlier this year Protodude had informed me of the prototype he had in his possession and he commissioned me to test it out and document any and all differentiations between the debug build and the final English release. The result was this thirteen-minute video showing off just how much fun I had producing the video, and the start of the English Debug Prototype page at The Cutting Room Floor. Lots a different things detailed in the entry that I'm sure will be of some interest to fans of the game.

Despite my inexperience in recording verbal live streams (and how painful it was watching the footage afterwards) its was quite a lot of fun, and I hope I'm invited to another stream with the gang in the future.

Here's the link, for some reason Blogger won't play nice with Hitbox.tv embed so you'll have to click that for the steam. Have fun.

Why don't you sit down and watch some early prototype footage of Super Mario RPG at 60FPS?

This may have been online already, but my new VHS rip is better. Its in 60FPS. =D



So, Super Mario RPG. I rented this game from a local BlockBuster Video store (remember that retailer?) when I was eight years old. I didn't have a concept of RPGs and that style of gameplay at the time so I just mashed the A button all the damn time. But man that soundtrack, I could never forget the boss battle and town themes.

After that, I never touched this game again until seven years later. I later got the game as a Christmas gift from my dad and I've yet to part with it since. At that time, it was an especially rare SNES game and copies of the game were scarce and expensive even at local mom 'n pop game stores. Its a miracle he found the game at all, I was ecstatic unwrapping that game.. 

Anyways, as with previous remastered videos, what existed before as a low-ASSolution of pixels is now remastered -- from the famous V-Jump Festival '95 Video, a tape that contains footage of other Japanese games of the time including Resident Evil, with I'll be posting more game clips from and eventually the entire tape online in the future -- as an 1080p60 HD quality trailer.

I want to give special thanks to GlitterBerri, for granting me permission to use her 2010 translation, and PixelButtz, for QA-ing the video (I thought something was seriously wrong with the rendering of this video. @_@;). OK, next up its Sonic Adventure on Dreamcast at 60FPS.