Proto:Mega Man 8/June 27, 1996 Prototype

This is a sub-page of Proto:Mega Man 8.

This page sucks. If you could make it suck less, that would be awesome. Specifically: 12 years and nothing much documented? Come on.

To do: Finish looking into this.

Released on March 2, 2011, this prototype is mega early in development. So early, that only two stages can be played. Being compiled less than six months before initial release, it clearly looks as if preliminary work has just begun. This seems to be the same build that was shown off in Next Generation Magazine.

General Differences

• Lives counter resets when beating a stage.
• There no bolts lying around in this build.
• No cutscenes.
• No game over screen.
• There is no indication as to how much energy a weapon has in the weapons menu.

Title Screen

June 27, 1996	Final (Japan)

The title screen is pretty bare-bones in the prototype, lacking the flashy animated background, the subtitle (Metal Heroes), and even music; the Rockman text has a different palette, as does the ® symbol, both of which are lower than the final.

June 27, 1996	Final (Japan)

Although the Continue and Option selections are available, pressing start over them does nothing.

Stage Select

June 27, 1996	Final (Japan)

Only the intro and Frost Man stages have proper icons (although the latter mistakenly uses Tengu Man's head) and can be selected, with other head/stage icons showing a Met or sliding Mega Man. In addition, Duo is used regardless of which stage is hovered over.

Weapons

The only weapons available without hacking are the Rock Ball (Mega Ball) and the Rock Buster (Mega Buster). These can be made avail:

• "Flash Bomb is known as "Shining Bomb".
• "Flame Sword" is known as "Flame Saber".
• "Astro Crush" is known as "Astro Crash". Whether "Crash" is a misspelling is uncertain.
• None of the inaccessible weapons have their proper icons nor do any of the weapons have proper functionality.

Aesthetic Differences

• The Capcom logo is the one from the CD version of Mega Man X3.
• No loading screens.
• The exit icon on the weapons menu does not exist.
• Mega Man has vastly different running and swimming animations than he does in the final; the former of which would later become Cut Man's in the Sega Saturn version.

Audio Differences

Almost the entire soundtrack is completely different in every stage, with the sole exception being a rough version of the mid-boss theme in the Intro Stage.

Name	Proto	Final	Notes
Stage Select
Intro Stage
Frost Man			The slight delay in the piano section of the melody at the first few seconds suggests that this version was still being drafted by the time this build was provided for the press.
Clown Man			Was likely used as filler music before a final theme would be composed. Also used in the later "Prototype 2" build.
Tengu Man			Same circumstance as above. Also in "Prototype 2".
Mid-Boss			Being the only track baring any immediate resemblance to any final work, the composition sounds very rougher. Likely to become of the earliest tracks finalized later in development.

• Mega Man's has one voice clip, exclaiming "いこうせ!" ("Let's go!") when selecting a stage. He sounds nothing like his final voice.
• The game uses the CD version of Mega Man X3's sound effects.
• The 1-Up sound effect is the same as what would become the bolt's in the final game.

Stage Differences

Intro Stage

Surface

• This contains the only boss in the whole prototype. It is largely the same as the final.

Underground

While the level map here strongly resembles the final, the art design for this underground section is almost completely different on all fronts.

There is a section you could only reach by skillfully using the Mega Ball to go over the ceiling in the final, from there you could even walk along it but you would reach a wall at the end. In this build, there is even a small area you can drop into that appears to be just garbled tiles.

Frost Man

• The stage has a completely different background, although it closely resembles the second half in the final. The foreground elements are also less detailed than the final, often recycling tiles.
• The giant whale enemies have no collision data.
• There is a sound effect that plays for the "Jump, Jump!" and "Slide, Slide!" signs, as opposed to voice clips.
• The first half of the stage is slightly longer in the prototype, having another elevator sequence the final lacks.

Inaccessible Stages

These are on the disc, but cannot be accessed through the menu, lack objects, and use placeholder graphics. Enter the following Action Replay code:

80187BF4 000x

Setting x to 2 accesses Clown Man's stage, while setting it to 3 accesses Tengu Man's stage.

When booting up the game, it's recommended to have the code off. Go to the stage select and highlight either playable stage. Press Start and quickly pause emulation, it's unknown whether or not R2 works (Esc, if using ePSXe works). Turn on the code, resume the game, and the specified stage will load.

(Source: xnamkcor)

Clown Man

Part 1.

Part 2.

Tengu Man

Part 1.

Part 2.