Thursday, March 3, 2011

Rockman 8 Beta Publicly Released

Rather than hogging this little gem all to oneself, Henger83 and Junker have chosen to share the Rockman 8 beta build with the Mega Man community. Available to download in the link below, you're now free to play the game to your heart's content or rip it open for the sake of research. Check it out:




(also included in the file, separate mp3s of each unused track!)


The beta spans across two stages: the introductory stage and a vastly different Frost Man stage. Each contains their own set of unused music, different graphics, and other oddities not present in the final retail build.

A set of debug features are readily available for your consumption, too, apparently. By holding down certain buttons, players can move Rockman aimlessly around the screen, slow down animations, and, with a second controller plugged in, control Rockman's stamina. You can learn how to pull that off and more right here!

As for any behind-the-scenes stuff such as unused sprites and the like... nothing's turned up yet.

I've taken a quick peak, but the only hidden elements I could find were some scratch pad notes left by the developers -- handwritten numbers and kanji indicating what goes where. Nothing earth shattering, but still kind of cool.

If you've got the capabilities to dig through the game yourself, please let us know if you unearth anything significant!

Enjoy~

19 comments:

  1. "Megaman 8" lol! , thanks for the dump and a good laugh :).

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  2. Oooo fantastic! Finally my time to have a go at it. Can't wait to look through this bad boy.

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  3. Thanks for making this post. Now I have somewhere less embarrassing to post these screenshots.

    http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v90/xnamkcor/H4X/RM8/RM8b1STG03b.png
    http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v90/xnamkcor/H4X/RM8/RM8b1STG03a.png
    http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v90/xnamkcor/H4X/RM8/RM8b1STG03c.png
    http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v90/xnamkcor/H4X/RM8/nomorestagesmyass.png

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  4. Wow, that was certainly quick, wasn't it? I thought it would at least be another month or so until they got the "okay" to release this beta. I'd be more than happy to play this, but... I've never had much luck in getting Playstation emulators to work. Or is this for the Sega Saturn? If so, then Saturn emulators are even harder to configure.

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  5. Whoa, didn't know about the 2nd controller input, should try it out. Reminiscent of Mega Man 3 I suppose.

    Thanks for providing the beta!

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  6. Can't wait to check it out. Thanks, Henger and Junker!

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  7. FINALLY PSF FILES! THANK YOU!!!

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  8. @Krazy Monkey: Just get an emulator like ePSXe or PSX, and make sure it has the proper BIOS files installed.

    After that, you can simply load the game's .BIN or .CUE file and it will work just fine.

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  9. Hi!

    Thanks for publicly released! By the way, why ost separtely ?

    Does that mean v2 will be next?

    The bin/cue doesnt have the music or is ost folder for your music entertainment ? CONFUSION.

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  10. Anon above:

    Send Henger83 a message via YouTube. He's got all the technical stuff covered.

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  11. Is there a non Megaupload version somewhere?

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  12. thanks a lot for this beta game.

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  13. I I get permission from ProtoDude I can rehost it on MediaFire.

    Also, from the youtube comments in case anybody comes here, but doesn't go there.

    80187BF4 000x

    x = 2 or 3

    You want to have the code off.
    Highlight either playable stage.
    Press Start and quickly pause emulation, I don't know if R2 works(Esc, if using ePSXe works).
    Turn on the code.
    Resume game.
    The specified stage will load.

    PS: 801CC151 0000
    Has nothing to do with the Beta and probably works in final. Shoot the RockBall and try to kick it. Sometimes you succeed.
    Save a Sate before you use it. It's for fun and doesn't work completely correctly.

    PPS:
    Have Rock Buster
    801CCD51 0001
    Inf Rock Buster
    801CCD54 0020

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  14. Rockman, you've got my permission. I can also repost the alt. link in the post, too.

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  15. http://www.mediafire.com/?sb6s5frae3dlqd8

    I'll encode some audio files later if you really need them.

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  16. Thanks!
    Megaupload has for a while stop working altogether for me.

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  17. http://www.mediafire.com/?yctzb5yvf0lu2nk

    Audio Files.

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  18. For those interested, I've recorded a bit of footage from this build. Specifically, of the skeleton stages for Clownman and Tenguman. You can view it at the following URL:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TqvCzp5Qi24

    I plan to add annotations later, but I'm not entirely sure what kind of annotations to add. This isn't like my Rockman 7 Sample video where I had definite proof of changes and whatnot. The skeleton levels are radically changed from the final versions, in some cases. Plus, since they're just skeletons, it's slightly more difficult to really tell the differences unless you really know what you're looking for.

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  19. In case anyone needs it, here's the link to the original release post that was sent out to people who requested the beta:
    http://stridercitadel.b1.jcink.com/index.php?showtopic=191

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