Saturday, August 21, 2010

Early Rockman X6 Prototype Released

Considering the fact it's not very often betas of Mega Man/Rockman games get leaked, I just had to post this up here. Reader Techokami sends word that Skaarg, a member of the Sonic Retro forums, has dumped and released an early prototype of Rockman X6 onto the net, which you can download here.

Being an early build of X6, there's quite a few differences from the final retail version despite being produced on September 28, 2001 (two months prior to the game's Japanese release). For example, some menu screens actually contain doodles and sketches standing in as placeholders until the final graphics were implemented:



Other differences of note include:
  • The Nightmare System, while present, is not indicated by red boss portraits on the stage select screen.
  • Stages lack armor capsules and heart tanks.
  • Controller options, save menu and loading screens are graphically broken.
  • As seen in pre-release screenshots, minor bosses have a skull emblem under their lifebars.
  • The boss approach "WARNING" alert is vocalized.
  • There are no sound effects during cutscenes (such as hums of machines or howling winds).
  • Falcon Armor's Giga Attack lacks sound effects.
  • Stage background graphics are incomplete and glitchy in some areas.
  • High Max's battle sprite is a brighter hue.
  • Nightmare Viruses in Commander Yammark's stage do not infect rescuable Reploids.
  • When fighting Nightmare Zero, his armor is traditional red whereas in the final, it's purple/pink.
  • Rainy Turtloid and opening stage BGMs are slightly different, lacking instruments.
  • As seen in early screens, the giant Reploid, Illumina, is restrained by energy cables.
  • There's a brief conversation between X and Infinity Mijinion upon entering his stage. In the final, this conversation takes place when confronting Mijinion at stage's end.
  • Portals to the secondary paths are green instead of blue.
  • Falcon Armor dashes at a slightly longer distance than final's.
There's probably a few more oddities/differences present so I'll be on the lookout for those when I play the proto for myself tonight (might even record it and put it up on YouTube, or something). I'll be updating this post accordingly and, should you find anything interesting, speak up in the comments.

Thanks for the tip, Techokami!

33 comments:

  1. Awesome. Despite being rushed, Mega Man X6 is one of my all-time favorite games in the series. I'd definitely give this a try if I'm to find a decent Playstation emulator around. Last time I tried emulating Playstation games, I just couldn't get them to work.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Was going to send ya an email, but looks like I got beat. =P
    VixyNyan has posted a video on RPM for those interested. Also the source I got this from has two protos of Command Mission (PS2 says previewable, and GC one is unknown how late or early it is) and Anniversary Collection (3 months prior to release). I might be buying these as well if I can get the money. =)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Just tried it out on my phone, pretty interesting.

    ReplyDelete
  4. You just had to rick roll us, Proto.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Rick Roll is dead.

    ReplyDelete
  6. @BassDS, Anon: What do you mean by Rick Roll? I see no rick roll here.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Corrections: The Nightmare system is present, it is just not pointed in the screen with red portraits. (They also don't change to gray when defeated)
    You can also save Reploids, and they do appear in the screen. You can also save (at least in a emulator Memory Card. Better not risk in a real one!) By the way, the MC icon is X's head instead of Alia's.

    There are many changes! Thanks for the proto dude!

    There are no armor upgrades in the stages!

    Strange to see Mijinion talking with X in the beginning of his stage. Is there any dialogue change? Looks like he had the chance to test Illumina (which has energy cables on her) in the beta.

    Also, some weaknesses are different:
    *Illumina is weak to Yammar Option (she isn't "shocked" by Meteor Rain).
    *Turtloid isn't frozen by Ice Burst.
    *There may be more...

    There is a bigger amount of Nightmare Viruses in Mijinion's and Scaravich's stages.

    Like the Zero Nightmare, the Totem Gate has its normal color instead of the transparent one when first seen. The bosses portrait doesn't change colors when defeated. (And the Nightmare System may not be pointed by a red portrait) Also, some teleporters are green.

    Metal Shark's stage has a small piece out of order in the normal conveyor area.

    Turtloid's stage has a recovery platform instead of several recovery items in the middle of the "river area".

    Wolfloids don't appear with the falling ice cubes in Wolfang's stage.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Forget about the talk with Mijinion, it's actually an error. The dialogue seems to be the same from the boss fight. Also, X talks with Alia in the fight against Hi-Max.

    ReplyDelete
  9. wut! When X uses Ray Arrow he actually uses Wing Spiral from X5 with wrong graphics!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Thank you very much for share it! Appreciate that. :)

    ReplyDelete
  11. I thought the days of rick rolling were over... like in 2007.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Rick rolling...I do not follow. Why do ya'll think proto rick rolled us.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Maybe I'm a bit slow today, but you guys will have to fill me in on how this relates to rick rolling.

    ReplyDelete
  14. you can't link direct to mechanical maniacs like that.

    ReplyDelete
  15. You can't link to mechanical maniacs directly like that.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Ah, now I see. Man, is my face red.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Yeah, sorry about that. Kinda wish the "no hotlinking" thing didn't relate to just linking to images.

    ReplyDelete
  18. I'm currently rendering and publishing a video of this Rockman X6 Prototype.

    The video concerns one of the incomplete music tracks in the prototype, specifically the Opening Stage. It should be up soon.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Completely unrelated:

    Protodude, when are you going to get a domain name? A .com is like... $10 a year if you do it right.

    Protodude.com

    Rockmancorner.com

    Protodudesrockmancorner.com

    Your current address isn't too hard to remember, but that way would be so classy.

    ReplyDelete
  20. @anon: soon, soon. That among other changes will be coming along in due time.

    ReplyDelete
  21. I finally uploaded a video about the prototype.

    Rockman X6 - Sept. 28, 2001 Prototype Music - Opening Stage (Prototype Version) with MP3.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7fLe57pOUA

    Enjoy.

    ReplyDelete
  22. While X can defeat Hi Max normally, Zero CAN'T defeat Air... Hi Max. He is immune to all of Zero's weapons, including Shouenzan!

    ReplyDelete
  23. Too bad. I was hoping the prototype would at least give some sort of hint as to whether or not there was ever a good, playable game made during the development of X6, and if so, where it went.

    ZING!

    ReplyDelete
  24. If only I could get this to run... *sigh*

    ReplyDelete
  25. If I could only get this to run... *sigh*

    ReplyDelete
  26. That was my problem too. Can anyone explain or link to how to properly burn bin/cue files onto a CDR? I've wasted 2 CDs already.

    ReplyDelete
  27. Anons:

    1) Use Clone CD or Alcohol 120 to burn the image file
    2) Make sure you are using quality discs, ex. Memorex, Sony, TDK, etc. etc.
    3) Make sure you are burning at the lowest possible speed.

    ReplyDelete
  28. Huh. I just ran the ISO directly in pSX emulator. That seemed to work just fine. I'm sure you could burn it to a disc and run it that way as well, but eh...

    Alright, so I haven't quite played this to the extent I played the Rockman 7 prototype from a while back, but I plan to do so at some point in the near future. I can't gaurentee I'll do a comprehensive series of comparison videos like I did with Rockman 7 (since I don't know this game quite as well, despite playing through it with armorless X on X-Treme difficulty a few months ago. God, that was awful... -_o; At least until I figured out how not to get my ass kicked so hard. XD), but I'll probably write down some some of the changes, such as the shot sound for Commander Yammark's use of the Yammark Option being different, and such.

    ReplyDelete
  29. Curious if anyone`s gotten this to work yet on their psp?

    ReplyDelete
  30. does zero still have the leap of death?

    ReplyDelete
  31. Yes. I can confirm it wokrs on the PSP with correct conversion. It's actually the only way I've been playing it. Now if anyone can tell me how to get past the 2nd conveyer belt in Metal Shark Player's stage, that would be wonderful. And with no heart containers, it's almost impossible to beat some stages. Ground Scaravich took me forever to beat. And has anyone done enough in-depth research to see if there's codes to unlock the ultimate armor and what-not in this game? Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  32. can somebody post a new link?

    ReplyDelete
  33. I HIGHLY second that last comment's notion.

    ReplyDelete

Keep it friendly. Disparaging, belittling and derogatory comments are not permitted.