Meteos Wars

Meteos Wars
Developer: Q Entertainment Publisher: Q Entertainment Platform: Xbox 360 Released internationally: December 10, 2008 This game has unused playable characters. This game has unused code. This game has hidden development-related text. This game has unused sounds. This game has unused text. This game has regional differences. This game has a prototype article This game has a notes page

Meteos Wars was a huge departure from the DS original, adding and replacing several features, such as removing Fusion in favor of conditional unlocks, and replacing items with Planet Impacts. There's also downloadable content.

Sub-Pages

Prototype Info

Notes

Physics for the Planet Unknown

While Unknown's planet and alien models can be seen (when the opponent in Online VS plays a planet that the player does not have), its physics mimick those of the planet the opponent selected. What is interesting is that Unknown has its own physics parameters, present in meteos\meteoparam01.mtp2, implying that Unknown was planned to be a fully playable character in a point of development. They are similar to those of planet Lumious, although with Geolyte's fall rates.

(Source: Quantum)

Unused Code

The parameters at 0x200, 0x204, 0x208, 0x20C and 0x210 in each of the game's .mtp2 files are never actually used, and are normally blanked out. However, based on data found on the TeraRelease 3.0 prototype, these parameters might be related to Rare Metal frequencies, in the following order:

• 0x200 - Soul Meteo rate
• 0x204 - Time Meteo rate
• 0x208 - Chi Meteo rate
• 0x20C - Interval between rare metal appearance
• 0x210 - Rare metal frequency coefficient

Also, the presence of these parameters as a whole hints that the parameter file format used in this game was previously used in the now-defunct Meteos Online game.

(Source: tikal.)

Hidden Timestamps

The game's .mtp2 parameter files also have timestamps, each located at offset 0xC of a decompressed file.

• Base Game
  • Unknown, Geolyte, Anasaze, Oleana, Firim, Hevendor
    October 21, 2008 - 14:19:26
  • All other planets
    October 21, 2008 - 14:19:27
• Advance Pack 1
  • All other planets
    December 18, 2008 - 08:43:23
  • Vubble, Darthvega, Hanihula
    December 18, 2008 - 08:43:24
• Advance Pack 2
  • All other planets
    December 18, 2008 - 08:43:23
  • Suburbion, Gelyer, Ranbarumba
    December 18, 2008 - 08:43:24

(Source: tikal.)

Unused Text

The following strings can be found within the files at message\text.

Meteo Type List

Found just before the How To Play sequence's text data is a series of strings which list each of the Meteo types present in this game. They are present in all languages, as follows:

Japanese	EN/CN/KR	French	German
Offset: 0x59AC	Offsets 0x7E08 (EN) 0x5200 (CN) 0x5E60 (KR)	Offset: 0x8844	Offset: 0x8944
メテオ 風 火 水 大地 鉄 電気 植物 生物 氷 毒 光 闇 魂 時 無属性 ダークマター 灰	METEO AIR FIRE H2O SOIL IRON ZAP HERB ZOO ICE POIS. GLOW DARK SOUL TIME NULL DARK MATTER ASH	METEOS AIR FEU EAU SOL FER ÉLEC. HERBE ZOO GLACE POIS. CLAIR NOIR ESPR. TEMPS VIDE MATIÈRE NOIRE CENDRES	METEO LUFT FEUER WASS. ERDE EISEN BLITZ GRAS TIER EIS GIFT LICHT PECH GEIST ZEIT NULL DUNKLE MATERIE ASCHE

Italian	Portuguese	Spanish
Offset: 0x8900	Offset: 0x8DB8	Offset: 0x8A20
METEOS ARIA PIRO H2O GEO MET. ELE. ERBA ZOO GHI. VEL. LUCE BUIO ANI. TEM. NULL MATERIA OSCURA CEN.	METEO AR FOGO H2O TERRA FERRO ZAP ERVA ZOO GELO VENE. CLARO NEGRO ALMA TEMPO NADA MATÉRIA NEGRA CINZA	METEO AIRE FUE. AGUA TIE. MET. RAYO VEG. ANI. HIELO VENE. LUZ OSC. ALMA TMP. NULO MATERIA OSCURA CENIZA

What is interesting to note is the presence of strings for Soul and Time Meteos, which are completely absent from this game.

(Source: tikal.)

Sound Test Menu

Two references to a potentially scrapped Sound Test menu can be found between the text data for the Meteos Book. As the text is different between languages, it is likely the function was scrapped very late in development. The entry text is the same for all planets, except for Unknown, where it is ???. For the entry offsets, Geolyte's is used as an example.

Language	Template Offset	Text	Entry Offset	Text
Chinese	0x27FC	音樂：	0x6F08	音樂
English	0x28C8	Music:	0xC8C8	Music
French	0xD3C0	Musique:	0xD3C0	Musique
German	0x29E4	Musik:	0xD748	Musik
Italian	0x2A70	Musica:	0xD1D8	Musica
Japanese	0x27EC	曲名：	0x7BD0	BGM
Korean	0x2818	음악:	0x8758	Music
Portuguese	0x2C18	Música:	0xDBA4	Música
Spanish	0x2AAC	Música:	0xD800	Música

(Source: tikal.)

Filename Oddity

The files present in the model graphics resource for the planets Darthvega, Gelyer, and Ranbarumba, refer to the planets as Darkant, Negoro, and Vazaarle, respectively. It is entirely possible that these were early names from early in development.

Regional Differences

Several of the planet names are different between languages. Changes are highlighted in bold. Curiously, two of the Japanese names do not resemble the ones from the original game, instead matching the names used in the localizations. Those are marked in italic.

Japanese	JP (English)/CN/KR	English	FR/GE/IT/PT/SP
ジオライト	Geolyte	Geolyte	Geolitia
オレアナ	Oreana	Oleana	Oleana
ファイアム	Firem	Firim	Ignius
ヘブンズドア	Heavensdoor	Hevendor	Hevendor
メテオス	Meteos	Meteo	Meteo
グランネスト	Grannest	Grannest	Smogor
ケイビオス	Cavious	Cavious	Cavernis
ラスタル	Rustal	Lastar	Candelor
レイヤーゼロ	Layerzero	Layazero	Holozero
ゲルゲル	Gelgel	Jeljel	Magmor
ジャゴンボ	Jagombo	Boggob	Perilia
グラビトール	Gravitor	Gravitas	Gravitas
ビュウブーム	Byuboom	Bavoom	Bavoom
ダウナス	Dawnous	Dawndus	Insomnis
フリーザム	Freezam	Freaze	Polaria
アーニマ	Arnima	Globin	Globin
ワイヤロン	Wirelon	Wiral	Neuralis
ホーテッド	Hotted	Hotted	Pyros
スターリア	Stalia	Starrii	Stellis
サードノヴァ	Thirdnova	Thirnova	Trinova
ブビット	Bubitt	Brabbit	Aetheria
ギガンティス	Gigantis	Yooj	Gigantis
ウドー	Udo	Wuud	Arborea
メガドーム	Megadome	Megadom	Megadom
ギガントガッシュ	Gigantgash	Gigagush	Vortinia
コロニオン	Colonion	Suburbion	Suburbion
サボン	Sabon	Vubble	Sferia