Saturn Virtua Cop: Alpha vs Retail

[Segafreak_NL]

Left: Alpha, Right: Final


Title screens


Stage select


Check out the pixelated ''flash'' effect in the alpha version and
added sparks in the final version


Check out the sky box, color of the pants of the hostager
near the truck, truck window and truck exhaust pipes


The water is rather ugly in the alpha version!


The alpha version only has the 'black' version bad guys,
retail has red coloured ones.


One of the best comparison shots, check out what's in his
right hand! :mrgreen: , also slightly different colours on the crane


Grenade models are quite different!


Black vs Red again. Also check out the car windows.


Explosions look far better in retail with more added effects.


This section is a lot darker in retail. (also; red vs black again)


Good detail shot of the truck. Big difference on the exhausts!


He's missing a weapon :lol:


Status bar and weapon changes.


After defeating the boss the alpha version simply displays
'Game Over'. The retail version has the chopper that flies by.

I enjoy doing these comparisons so expect more of them in the future!

[the_steadster]

Nicely done!

[Yakumo]

Very nice. Looks like they added quite a bit of detail in to the game.

I'm planing a House of the Dead one so please don't post that :lol: Got the shots ready so I just need to get the page up on my site. Here's a quick look.

Alpha on the right, final on the left.

Pink boss in the alpha while he's green in the final. He also has red blood on his weapon in the alpha rather than the green in the final.

Yakumo

[Johnny]

Great info. I played a lot of Virtua Cop on arcades.

[vbt]

nice comparison SF :) Did you check a bit the differences with the arcade version (using model2 emu) just to see.

[karsten]

nice post, really.

[saturn_worship]

whoa, the house of dead alpha is almost the final game!

damned deadlines...

[Yakumo]

I'm pretty sure Segafreak_NL also has a house of the dead alpha. The one I have has missing textures, bad glitches, odd colours on many things, different textures and other differences. It would be interesting to know if Segafreak_NL has the same one. But for now we can all look at his nice VC beta. Cool stuff!

Yakumo

[Segafreak_NL]

It's another Alpha because the boss isn't pink. That actually was one of the things I expected (because the preview in SSM had a pink boss) but wasn't in my version. It seems like the timed JPN demo?

My version is displayed on the Odds & Ends page.

[ave]

Does he throw the Starbucks transporter in the alpha?

[Baseley09]

Isnt the pink vs green boss in HOTD a blood thing, you can unlock it with a code on Saturn pal version so that all green blood & green flesh enemies become the true red flesh/blood.

[Segafreak_NL]

Does he throw the Starbucks transporter in the alpha?

That's the VC2 boss ;)


Baseley; Good call, could well be true!

[ave]

Oh.. you got me^^
Is it true that there's no unlockable red blood in the jpn version of HotD?

[Yakumo]

There's no red blood cheat in the Japanese house of the dead. Not too sure if the code even works on the PAL version.

Yakumo

[Baseley09]

It definately does on the pal version and turns all greeness in the game to red....well, pink.

[Yakumo]

very interesting. looks like it was kept in the Japanese version as a standard feature then but removed at the last minute. The odd thing is that all normal zombies still have green bloody.

Yakumo

[Anthaemia.]

I recognise that Virtua Cop alpha from the version previewed at the Tokyo Toy Show and more commonly seen here in the UK when it was featured on a video included with the first issue of SSM, but since that didn't show later parts of the first stage I'm guessing someone has the actual game code and hasn't just sourced images of that tape? Either way, I can't wait for the comparison of HOTD as the screens printed in SSM often left out the areas where objects were described as being either still in wireframe or codenumbers waiting for the final models to be implemented. If only a prototype could be leaked - presuming there are some - in order for us fans to see how much (or not, as the case with this particular game seems to be!) the development progressed...

[Segafreak_NL]

I captured these images from an official Saturn CD-R. 30% version. Interestingly it says 'competition version'.

I've read about those placeholder numbers in SSM as well, but they're not in any early version I have seen. There must be quite some different versions around..

[Segafreak_NL]

Anyone can translate the Japanese text on the Stage Select screen?
(Probably something like 'unavailable')

[Yakumo]

basically it says Under Construction/being programmed? although that is actually a different kanji set apart from the last one. Another member with better kanji skills would be better to confirm this though.

yakumo