Chrono Compendium

Kajar Laboratories - Fan Works and Submissions => Chrono Cross Modification => Topic started by: nullpointer on March 18, 2012, 09:56:22 pm

Title: Chrono Cross 70-80% NTSC Beta (Disc 1 Only)
Post by: nullpointer on March 18, 2012, 09:56:22 pm
I have searched around the internet to see what community might be interested in this and I've found it. A site dedicated to the Chrono series that still gets updated in 2012 while Square has deprived the world of any sequels for over a decade would probably thing just a tiny bit interesting.

I've had this beta for a few years now and I'd like to share some info about it for those curious. It has been many, many years since I've played Chrono Cross and I badly lack the ability to distinguish beta from retail, yet alone even remember most of the game's details.

What I can tell you is that I only have the first disc of this and that debug is enabled by default. The 7 debug rooms all exist in this beta and are all translated into English (with the exception of one of the rooms that seems to be completely corrupted). The entire disc is in English so this is definitely a beta of the NTSC release. As such I'm not sure how much interesting "beta" material is in this build. Also, at the time I received this disc there was a small piece of the data layer missing that has only gotten worse with time, so there may be areas of the game disc that will not load as a result.

From my preliminary mucking around, this seems to have everything in the first disc proper up to the concert with Nikki (roughly 500 maps worth of game play), but then again I don't really remember where the first disc ended.

So yeah, enough babbling. I'll post some screenshots once I get ePSXe to cooperate and take questions/requests from anyone interested in this small piece of Chrono Cross history.
Title: Re: Chrono Cross 70-80% NTSC Beta (Disc 1 Only)
Post by: Mr Bekkler on March 18, 2012, 10:08:41 pm
Wow this is awesome. I had no idea such a beta existed.
Title: Re: Chrono Cross 70-80% NTSC Beta (Disc 1 Only)
Post by: ZeaLitY on March 19, 2012, 01:15:38 am
Have you checked out http://chronocompendium.com/Term/Chrono_Cross_Demo#Graphical_Differences ?

It might be the lowest-hanging fruit to just run it through TIMViewer or something and pick out all the dialogue character icons and menu character art. We found some cool gems in the demo.

Damn, this is pretty exciting.
Title: Re: Chrono Cross 70-80% NTSC Beta (Disc 1 Only)
Post by: nullpointer on March 19, 2012, 01:43:03 am
Sorry for the delay... everything seemed to be conspiring against me to grab these.

Main Debug Menu (All Maps)
(http://i1267.photobucket.com/albums/jj547/undefinedsymbol/cc_7080/main_debug.jpg)

Map 0
(http://i1267.photobucket.com/albums/jj547/undefinedsymbol/cc_7080/map0.jpg)

Map 1 (Kato)
(http://i1267.photobucket.com/albums/jj547/undefinedsymbol/cc_7080/map1.jpg)

Map 2 (Yoshii) - This one seems to be completely broken and only brings up the normal debug menu
(http://i1267.photobucket.com/albums/jj547/undefinedsymbol/cc_7080/map2.jpg)

Map 3 (Kigoshi)
(http://i1267.photobucket.com/albums/jj547/undefinedsymbol/cc_7080/map3.jpg)

Map 4 (Uchimichi)
(http://i1267.photobucket.com/albums/jj547/undefinedsymbol/cc_7080/map4.jpg)

Map 5 (Saito)
(http://i1267.photobucket.com/albums/jj547/undefinedsymbol/cc_7080/map5.jpg)

Map 6 (Miyakawa)
(http://i1267.photobucket.com/albums/jj547/undefinedsymbol/cc_7080/map6.jpg)

Map 7 (Chiba)
(http://i1267.photobucket.com/albums/jj547/undefinedsymbol/cc_7080/map7.jpg)


If these are too huge I can make them smaller, just didn't have them time to re-size them all before bed. I hope someone finds these interesting!
Title: Re: Chrono Cross 70-80% NTSC Beta (Disc 1 Only)
Post by: Vehek on March 19, 2012, 05:06:27 am
So that's what the other debug rooms look like. What kind of things do rooms 1-7 allow you to do? Well, probably more like, what things do they test?
Title: Re: Chrono Cross 70-80% NTSC Beta (Disc 1 Only)
Post by: alfadorredux on March 19, 2012, 09:35:18 am
I'll be damned. This is obviously the real thing—the files for those demo rooms are completely gone from the game as released, they're not just hidden.

The first disc of the commercial release covers nearly three-quarters of the game, ending when the party enters the Sea of Eden, and Nikki only gives one concert in the game (as part of the Save Marbule sidequest), so if you're there, the disc is probably complete or close to. The commercial game contains ~550 locations, most of which are present on both discs.

Some tools for more in-depth analysis that might be able to tell us exactly what's different between this beta and the release are available, but it's difficult to talk about them here because of the hacking ban.
Title: Re: Chrono Cross 70-80% NTSC Beta (Disc 1 Only)
Post by: TheMage on March 19, 2012, 07:56:01 pm
Oh my god this is so exciting! Maybe we'll finally find out if that kid changes outfits rumor is actually true or not XD
Title: Re: Chrono Cross 70-80% NTSC Beta (Disc 1 Only)
Post by: nullpointer on March 19, 2012, 09:03:26 pm
So that's what the other debug rooms look like. What kind of things do rooms 1-7 allow you to do? Well, probably more like, what things do they test?

Nothing terribly exciting to be honest. There are many, many menus dedicated to setting up your party, giving you weapons and items, setting event flags, and testing sfx/music/movies/animation.

I don't think the potential for true beta content here is terribly high as the English translation was wrapped up long after the Japanese release and this build is quite late (it is "Reviewable" dated August 2000).

I have found some rather strange things though. It seems that the developers got quite bored with some of these menus and you can do some really odd things like walk around as a cat or choose from event lists named goofy things like "Go for it Happy Mojo" (a mystery event on Disc 2 sadly).

I'm not sure if this is some effect of the disc corruption or the debug flag but I cant seem to get into any battles as the game just skips over it after the initial battle animation and returns me to the map with the enemy defeated.
Title: Re: Chrono Cross 70-80% NTSC Beta (Disc 1 Only)
Post by: Beach Bum on April 11, 2012, 04:25:33 am
So any chance of you uploading this anywhere. It's great to see these screenshots but I'm sure I'm not alone when I say I'd love to fool around with that once in a while.
Title: Re: Chrono Cross 70-80% NTSC Beta (Disc 1 Only)
Post by: Satoh on July 07, 2012, 07:47:30 pm
O_O I... must... have that Kid model...
Title: Re: Chrono Cross 70-80% NTSC Beta (Disc 1 Only)
Post by: Vehek on July 07, 2012, 08:52:55 pm
Satoh, do you mean the giant Kid model in room 4? I think that's Kid in the hospital gown. Easily available in the final version if you know how to get it.
Title: Re: Chrono Cross 70-80% NTSC Beta (Disc 1 Only)
Post by: Satoh on July 07, 2012, 10:09:12 pm
I'm not so sure it is. It looks different from the one I recall.

EDIT
It is in fact. Rather, the texture is different. The red stripes at the bottom are not in the final...she also seems taller in that picture.

I did find the model however, it was just not where I expected.
Title: Re: Chrono Cross 70-80% NTSC Beta (Disc 1 Only)
Post by: utunnels on July 09, 2012, 12:27:05 pm
Wrong memory.
The red stripes are in the final version as well. They are just a bit too tiny to notice because the model is so small.
Title: Re: Chrono Cross 70-80% NTSC Beta (Disc 1 Only)
Post by: Satoh on July 10, 2012, 12:23:55 am
Strange that that would be the case, as I'm looking at a model once salvaged by someone we both know, it appears to be that very model, and there are no stripes.

It would appear that there are multiple models of Kid in that outfit... that or there are some issues with the UV's on the one I'm looking at.

(http://i86.photobucket.com/albums/k99/eremes/kiddo.png)

So... If that's not this model...  where did this one come from?

EDIT: Sorry if I sound a bit brusque. I'm just... confused by the conflicting realities I'm seeing...
Title: Re: Chrono Cross 70-80% NTSC Beta (Disc 1 Only)
Post by: Vehek on July 10, 2012, 01:03:28 am
Maybe the texture was modified to give the model a slightly different appearance.

(http://i239.photobucket.com/albums/ff83/TtravelrKev/Chrono%20Cross%20Stuff/kidgown.png)

I'll have to check if any alternate textures exist.

Edit: All the instances of Kid-in-gown that I can find use the same texture.
Title: Re: Chrono Cross 70-80% NTSC Beta (Disc 1 Only)
Post by: utunnels on July 10, 2012, 02:37:51 am
 I recall I once removed the lines when I was making the forum icons, hehe.
Not sure about the one you mentioned though.

Title: Re: Chrono Cross 70-80% NTSC Beta (Disc 1 Only)
Post by: Satoh on July 10, 2012, 11:05:51 pm
This is a mighty conundrum...

It looks like the only difference between the models is the red stripe... but where did the model I have come from...
Title: Re: Chrono Cross 70-80% NTSC Beta (Disc 1 Only)
Post by: prizvel on March 03, 2016, 06:58:38 am
Hello. I've never seen Chrono Cross NTSC Beta, it's very interesting. I extracted debug room of the disc Square's Preview 5, and returned it to the normal game. Knowing the possibilities of the other rooms, I can try to make them again.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-4Oq7p9XPU (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-4Oq7p9XPU)
Title: Re: Chrono Cross 70-80% NTSC Beta (Disc 1 Only)
Post by: ZeaLitY on March 07, 2016, 11:17:59 pm
Wow! Do you have a patch by chance? We would love to host this.
Title: Re: Chrono Cross 70-80% NTSC Beta (Disc 1 Only)
Post by: prizvel on March 11, 2016, 07:29:16 pm
I do a mod that adds debug room and a few new features, such as a new Grand Slam Arena with new monsters, new optional bosses, maybe a few new scenes.
Debug room of the demo version has many bugs. My version will be remade. New features:
The change in the variable of the plot
receiving key items.
Conversion of Serge to Lynx and back (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9XBOeHhq_yE (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9XBOeHhq_yE))
Browse endings, movies, songs
Replace any character
Map Jump
Title: Re: Chrono Cross 70-80% NTSC Beta (Disc 1 Only)
Post by: ZeaLitY on March 13, 2016, 12:19:52 am
Ah, gotcha. Definitely keep us updated; this is really cool!
Title: Re: Chrono Cross 70-80% NTSC Beta (Disc 1 Only)
Post by: prizvel on March 13, 2016, 04:21:03 am
Good, then I create a new topic, which will post the progress of development mod
Title: Re: Chrono Cross 70-80% NTSC Beta (Disc 1 Only)
Post by: CrAzY on November 06, 2016, 01:20:33 pm
Part of me is heart broken by this thread, since I saw this exact beta on a for sale thread that I narrowly missed (well, I assume, as it had the same exact percentage on a white rectangular squaresoft sticker on a blank disc). That must've been 8 years ago?

My plan was to dump it & upload it for others to tear apart. I am glad he took the time to take pictures of actual cut content for us. I would love to look through all those files...

This CC modification that injects debug features is the reason I found my way back here, to inform the compendium! Seems Zeality already knew!

I pray for more beta content... Only new things in games from the past excite me now.
Title: Re: Chrono Cross 70-80% NTSC Beta (Disc 1 Only)
Post by: Beach Bum on January 25, 2017, 03:18:39 am
Mr. topic starter can you please come back and upload the actual disc. You can't come in here and say you have a beta disc and then not upload it.
Title: Re: Chrono Cross 70-80% NTSC Beta (Disc 1 Only)
Post by: nullpointer on July 27, 2017, 08:07:49 am
Mr. topic starter can you please come back and upload the actual disc. You can't come in here and say you have a beta disc and then not upload it.

I agree, its time to upload this thing!

I just came across this beta on my old hard drive as I was archiving files. I've since lost the physical disc and I just want this to find a digital home with the community. Hopefully this link works and people find something interesting in this beta.

https://nofile.io/f/UcU61084Y7D/CC.70-80.NTSC.D1.Beta.rar (https://nofile.io/f/UcU61084Y7D/CC.70-80.NTSC.D1.Beta.rar)

Happy hunting!
Title: Re: Chrono Cross 70-80% NTSC Beta (Disc 1 Only)
Post by: Beach Bum on December 31, 2017, 01:49:01 pm
Thank you!
Title: Re: Chrono Cross 70-80% NTSC Beta (Disc 1 Only)
Post by: Redline57 on January 20, 2018, 12:39:31 am
I apologize for being so new, lots of these threads are people doing heavy editing of coding, I don't understand a lot of this. Is this a pre-release Chrono Cross CD you have? Like a pre-production game sort of like that early CT demo from the video press conference?
Title: Re: Chrono Cross 70-80% NTSC Beta (Disc 1 Only)
Post by: ZeaLitY on April 24, 2018, 04:52:31 am
Holy fuck, he came back.

CrAzY, I'm in the same boat—I started having a regular income after some Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon protos were sold, and I've never seen them dumped.

We have to venerate nullpointer forever. I mean, this is huge! How does this not have more replies? I'm trying to think of what we can do, even if it's a super late build:

Moving this thread into Chrono Cross Modification. nullpointer, we massively owe you.

Edit: I threw the link over to the TCRF's Discord. Maybe they'll investigate as well.
Title: Re: Chrono Cross 70-80% NTSC Beta (Disc 1 Only)
Post by: Fortranm on April 26, 2018, 05:03:37 pm
Good stuff!
How do I enter the debug rooms though? I turned on the debug option in pause menu but nothing changed.
Title: Re: Chrono Cross 70-80% NTSC Beta (Disc 1 Only)
Post by: prizvel on May 02, 2018, 01:05:06 pm
This is definitely an earlier build than the normal version. Differences were found only in the executable file, in the files of the rooms differences have not yet found.
(https://i.imgur.com/qjFjq6s.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/PwH2Wy9.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/Ezo152j.png)



Title: Re: Chrono Cross 70-80% NTSC Beta (Disc 1 Only)
Post by: Razig on May 02, 2018, 08:25:57 pm
Kid's ponytail is hilarious in that last picture.  :lol:
Title: Re: Chrono Cross 70-80% NTSC Beta (Disc 1 Only)
Post by: PrincessNadia78 on May 02, 2018, 08:30:55 pm
Kid's ponytail is hilarious in that last picture.  :lol:

Ok, I'm glad someone else said it. LOL
Title: Re: Chrono Cross 70-80% NTSC Beta (Disc 1 Only)
Post by: Boo the Gentleman Caller on May 02, 2018, 11:45:13 pm
Quote
Kid's ponytail is hilarious in that last picture.

I didn't even notice, hahaha! I was too busy noting the out-of-body-experience Serge having an existential crisis (and thus staring out the window with morbose longing).
Title: Re: Chrono Cross 70-80% NTSC Beta (Disc 1 Only)
Post by: Mauron on May 02, 2018, 11:51:57 pm
That's not a ponytail, that's her tracking system. It's pointing to a very important item.
Title: Re: Chrono Cross 70-80% NTSC Beta (Disc 1 Only)
Post by: Razig on May 02, 2018, 11:54:56 pm
I didn't even notice, hahaha! I was too busy noting the out-of-body-experience Serge having an existential crisis (and thus staring out the window with morbose longing).
General Viper seems to be handling it a lot better, but then again he only has one doppelganger to worry about.
Title: Re: Chrono Cross 70-80% NTSC Beta (Disc 1 Only)
Post by: kolt54321 on May 23, 2018, 10:07:43 pm
Holy fuck, he came back.

CrAzY, I'm in the same boat—I started having a regular income after some Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon protos were sold, and I've never seen them dumped.

We have to venerate nullpointer forever. I mean, this is huge! How does this not have more replies? I'm trying to think of what we can do, even if it's a super late build:

  • Create a patch to reinstate the debug room for a normal ROM
  • Dump the script—maybe this build was before Honeywood's late changes from Kato were in the game
  • Dump textures—some were changed for the US release so maybe there are some intermediate versions
  • And someone could literally just start a playthrough or something[/i]
Moving this thread into Chrono Cross Modification. nullpointer, we massively owe you.

Edit: I threw the link over to the TCRF's Discord. Maybe they'll investigate as well.

It gives me chills that so many years after the game, unreleased footage is still being released. I'd pay premium money for such a beta, and here NullPointer just releases it.

I saw the link on the Chrono Cross modifications page, and though "hey, how come I missed that a few months ago". Turned out it's a new development!
Title: Re: Chrono Cross 70-80% NTSC Beta (Disc 1 Only)
Post by: RandomNobody on June 14, 2018, 02:58:15 am
Are any files of this dump known to be corrupted? I notice nullpointer mentioned that his disc had some holes in the data layer, so I was wondering if there might be some errors in the disc image. Asking because I have a Chrono Cross disc also marked as 70-80% complete, and as far as I can see the disc is fully intact. It too is just the first disc, but I suspect that maybe the 70-80% build was only ever distributed as a single disc.

If needed, I can upload a .bin/.cue of my disc.
Title: Re: Chrono Cross 70-80% NTSC Beta (Disc 1 Only)
Post by: yaz0r on June 13, 2019, 04:04:27 pm
Hey, just discovered this thread.
Looks like the file is gone, would it be possible for someone to reupload it somewhere?
Title: Re: Chrono Cross 70-80% NTSC Beta (Disc 1 Only)
Post by: Vehek on June 13, 2019, 10:53:49 pm
Seems the Compendium keeps a copy. Check the encyclopedia page. (The Compendium has gotten bolder I guess; the single-disc project is hosted too, but not in patch format.)
Title: Re: Chrono Cross 70-80% NTSC Beta (Disc 1 Only)
Post by: yaz0r on June 14, 2019, 01:57:05 am
Except that link is down, that's why I asked about it here :-)
Title: Re: Chrono Cross 70-80% NTSC Beta (Disc 1 Only)
Post by: yaz0r on June 14, 2019, 03:03:15 am
Managed to get the iso through some other means. Some interesting things in there. Debug flag is located at 8006B322

Regarding the notes from the original post:
"I'm not sure if this is some effect of the disc corruption or the debug flag but I cant seem to get into any battles as the game just skips over it after the initial battle animation and returns me to the map with the enemy defeated."

If it's like the final version of the game, entering a battle while in debug mode will auto-win the battle.
Title: Re: Chrono Cross 70-80% NTSC Beta (Disc 1 Only)
Post by: prizvel on June 14, 2019, 03:19:41 am
Somewhere I have a disks, where I changed the executable to the ones in beta and also added 0-7 rooms.
Title: Re: Chrono Cross 70-80% NTSC Beta (Disc 1 Only)
Post by: CrAzY on April 16, 2020, 12:32:25 pm
I am back after another 4 year gap of visiting the site, and what in the hell? I heard no news at all about this, and I still look at newly found prelease materials for a bunch of different games to this day.

Quote
Holy fuck, he came back.

CrAzY, I'm in the same boat—I started having a regular income after some Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon protos were sold, and I've never seen them dumped.

We have to venerate nullpointer forever. I mean, this is huge! How does this not have more replies?

This is quite amazing, indeed. Really glad to see that this happened. Damn, sucks to lose out on Goemon content. Mystical Ninja is one of the best games on SNES, they messed up not bringing more of them to the NA region.

Thank you, nullpointer. Really awesome of you to not let this fade away due to hardware failure of any kind, and to let fans of the game to get some joy out of it. Can't wait to try it out and see what it has to offer!

Glad to see the Compendium still up and running strong, Zeality. Even if I am a rare poster, I do really respect what has been built here. Great wealth of Chrono Trigger and Cross knowledge, some of the greatest games ever made.

I still think of that Chrono Trigger 3D remake from long ago. . . Give us more Chrono, Square!

& RandomNobody, if you ever return, please do upload whatever build you have! Could have interesting differences!
Title: Re: Chrono Cross 70-80% NTSC Beta (Disc 1 Only)
Post by: Meower220 on March 20, 2021, 03:43:08 pm
Ignore my last post, re-uploaded it here:
https://archive.org/details/cc.-70-80.-ntsc.-d-1.-beta

Incase it goes down
Title: Re: Chrono Cross 70-80% NTSC Beta (Disc 1 Only)
Post by: ZeaLitY on March 20, 2021, 04:52:42 pm
http://chronofan.com/Black/Other/CC.70-80.NTSC.D1.Beta.rar

Can someone confirm if this link works or not? It's always worked for me, but want to make sure something strange isn't happening...
Title: Re: Chrono Cross 70-80% NTSC Beta (Disc 1 Only)
Post by: Grobycftw on March 20, 2021, 08:17:44 pm
You're right Zeality, I tried to download your link

http://chronofan.com/Black/Other/CC.70-80.NTSC.D1.Beta.rar

it didn't work at first on google chrome for some reason I can't figure but works perfectly on another browser (Firefox/Microsoft Edge) hmm strange (maybe it is just my google chrome)