SegagagaDomain Christmas Release - X-Men Children of the Atom 3.00 Beta

[Yakumo]

Saturn fans are in for treat this year with all these beta and unreleased games coming out. I was going to release this last year but with all the PC problems I had back then I never got around to it.

The X-Men Children of the Atom 3.00 Beta is in fact a Capcom Sample disc sent out to Japanese stores but is quite different from the final game including some arcade code!

Here's some information about it from my site.

I just love Saturn Capcom Sample discs. Most companies either make a special short version of the game based on the final code while others just time limit their game. Not Capcom though. Their sample discs always seem to be based on early code quite different from the final game. This copy of X-Men Children of the Atom just goes to prove that.

　

First major difference you'll notice is that all the copyright screens are direct from the Arcade version. This includes the "For sale and use in Japan only" screen, Q-Sound screen talking about Q-Sound hardware chips and the boot code that states this game is XMEN 950105 JAPAN just like the arcade version. Even the Capcom logo is the one used in the arcade version of the game. You know the one, it has a silhouette of Ryu standing in front of a wire frame looking planet.

　

Once you get past the copyright screens you come directly to the title screen (No introduction in this version) Here you can see that this version of X-Men is Ver.3.00 along with a basic menu containing 4 modes. Modes include Arcade, Versus, Survival Battle and Options. Only the Arcade and Versus modes work mind you. The actual character select screen is missing 3 character portraits being Sentinel, Spiral and Storm. The strange thing is that if you select these empty character portrait boxes the characters below will animate along with another. So in Storm's case when you highlight the box where her portrait should be she will animate but so will Iceman. The character that becomes playable if you try to select Storm however is Iceman. Once the round ends you get the game over screen so back to the character select you go to start another round.

　

There are many game differences in this version of X-Men compared to the final game. The loading screens use the generic Saturn font with some terrible colour glitching while the final game uses a custom font. When the game changes screens there's also some graphical glitches. Animation is also lacking on some characters as well as speech samples. I've also noticed that there are also graphical differences such as Iceman's and Cyclops's beam blast. You can see what I mean in the comparison images at the bottom of this page. Another difference is that there's no speed selection in this version meaning that it's always slow.

　

Over all this is a very nice sample disc based on what seems to be early ported arcade code rather than Saturn optimized code. So early is the code that the game goes nuts if you plug in the Saturn's analogue controller in either digital or analogue mode.

I'll be releasing the game on Christmas day and because it's basically a sample disc and never for sale it's classed as releasing a proto rather than a retail game IMO :thumbsup:

For now here's a few pictures for you.



Yakumo

[wheelaa]

Very nice. Looking like a busy christmas indeed!

[Energy]

we're being spoilt with releases this christmas ^_^

[rod_wod]

Cool great to see but dose the level setting do anything on the beta cos it dose fuck all on the final level 1 is just as hard as level 8 i think.

[Juste]

That's neet, Yakumo! Thank you!

[alphagamer]

Thank you!

[7Force]

Sweet, I love this game!

[Segafreak_NL]

Nice screenshot comparison, style looks familiar :P

[Druid II]

Nice of you to release this, even if it's not a real beta, just the Hibaihin demo disc. Hope you can rip it right, though.

By the way, it's not version "3.00" at all, that version number is from the arcade games title screen:


And as I recall, you can see the qsound logo in the final game if you leave it around to demo, or after a gameover/hiscore screen, probably both.
For animation differences, the game has pretty bad animation compared to the arcade final either way ;)

[samael64]

Awesome! Thank you!

[Yakumo]

Nice of you to release this, even if it's not a real beta, just the Hibaihin demo disc. Hope you can rip it right, though.

Yes, I know it's a Hibaihin as mentioned in the top post :nod: Still vastly different from the final release mind you. As for ripping it right, well all I'll do it make a disc image of the original with Nero or something.

By the way, it's not version "3.00" at all, that version number is from the arcade games title screen:

Ah, I see. So even the title screen is from the arcade version, sort of.

And as I recall, you can see the qsound logo in the final game if you leave it around to demo?

The QSound screen talks about hardawre chips which the Saturn doesn't have. If the QSound screen is in the final game then it must be altered.

Yakumo

[Ryo Suzuki]

Hey, thank you so much Yakumo.

I think SEGASaturno should release something for Christmas too...

[saturn_worship]

Thanks Yakumo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Keep the spirit!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A SEGASaturno release this Christmas.....hehehehehee ;)

[Vosse]

Awesome Thanks a bunch! You manage to keep your site up to date and make it very interesting in the process (also Cool) lol xp

[retro]

Ooh, sounds good! Thanks for this!

[Yakumo]

Would you guys like me to patch it so that the image will be region free or leave it in it's original Japanese region code format?

[feder]

You could release the ISO in its original format with a ppf patch, so anyone who wants to have it region free can do it without a problem.

[Yakumo]

You could release the ISO in its original format with a ppf patch, so anyone who wants to have it region free can do it without a problem.

Could do I guess if I can find out how to do it or just rar up the patch software with the image since it's free ware. Or I could release 2 versions. One original japanese for the people who like things kept the way they were and a region free patched version for anyone without a Japanese console or mod chip.

[Druid II]

Yes, I know it's a Hibaihin as mentioned in the top post :nod: Still vastly different from the final release mind you.

I just think that titling this as an unreleased beta is a little bit misleading, since this is really a released demo disc.

The QSound screen talks about hardawre chips which the Saturn doesn't have. If the QSound screen is in the final game then it must be altered.

OK, I've checked, the final game only has a (c) Qsound or so on the ending screen. The actual Qsound screen was removed.

As for ripping it right, well all I'll do it make a disc image of the original with Nero or something.

I'd recommend CDRWin bin/cue over Nero (maybe even IMGBurn bin/cue), it's way easier to handle, even on different platforms. Make sure it's ripped in RAW mode, too.

Would you guys like me to patch it so that the image will be region free or leave it in it's original Japanese region code format?

Leave it as is, anybody who needs to change regions can do it with 2 clicks using SRP.

[Yakumo]

I just think that titling this as an unreleased beta is a little bit misleading, since this is really a released demo disc.

I didn't mean it to sound like a beta as clearly posted at the very top of the post "The X-Men Children of the Atom 3.00 Beta is in fact a Capcom Sample disc sent out to Japanese stores. 3.00 Beta is the name I gave it thinking that 3.00 was the build number. I never knew that was featured on the arcade game as well. Sorry for any confusion that may have caused anyone.

OK, I've checked, the final game only has a (c) Qsound or so on the ending screen. The actual Qsound screen was removed.

Yes, I thought so.

I'd recommend CDRWin bin/cue over Nero (maybe even IMGBurn bin/cue), it's way easier to handle, even on different platforms. Make sure it's ripped in RAW mode, too.

OK, CDRWin it is. I've used that before.

Leave it as is, anybody who needs to change regions can do it with 2 clicks using SRP.

Yes, I think I will. It's not hard to do after all.