Author Topic: Chrono Cross 70-80% NTSC Beta (Disc 1 Only)  (Read 19340 times)

nullpointer

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Chrono Cross 70-80% NTSC Beta (Disc 1 Only)
« 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.

Mr Bekkler

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Re: Chrono Cross 70-80% NTSC Beta (Disc 1 Only)
« Reply #1 on: March 18, 2012, 10:08:41 pm »
Wow this is awesome. I had no idea such a beta existed.

ZeaLitY

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Re: Chrono Cross 70-80% NTSC Beta (Disc 1 Only)
« Reply #2 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.

nullpointer

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Re: Chrono Cross 70-80% NTSC Beta (Disc 1 Only)
« Reply #3 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)


Map 0


Map 1 (Kato)


Map 2 (Yoshii) - This one seems to be completely broken and only brings up the normal debug menu


Map 3 (Kigoshi)


Map 4 (Uchimichi)


Map 5 (Saito)


Map 6 (Miyakawa)


Map 7 (Chiba)



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!

Vehek

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Re: Chrono Cross 70-80% NTSC Beta (Disc 1 Only)
« Reply #4 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?

alfadorredux

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Re: Chrono Cross 70-80% NTSC Beta (Disc 1 Only)
« Reply #5 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.

TheMage

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Re: Chrono Cross 70-80% NTSC Beta (Disc 1 Only)
« Reply #6 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

nullpointer

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Re: Chrono Cross 70-80% NTSC Beta (Disc 1 Only)
« Reply #7 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.

Beach Bum

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Re: Chrono Cross 70-80% NTSC Beta (Disc 1 Only)
« Reply #8 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.

Satoh

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Re: Chrono Cross 70-80% NTSC Beta (Disc 1 Only)
« Reply #9 on: July 07, 2012, 07:47:30 pm »
O_O I... must... have that Kid model...

Vehek

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Re: Chrono Cross 70-80% NTSC Beta (Disc 1 Only)
« Reply #10 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.

Satoh

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Re: Chrono Cross 70-80% NTSC Beta (Disc 1 Only)
« Reply #11 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.
« Last Edit: July 07, 2012, 10:17:23 pm by Satoh »

utunnels

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Re: Chrono Cross 70-80% NTSC Beta (Disc 1 Only)
« Reply #12 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.

Satoh

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Re: Chrono Cross 70-80% NTSC Beta (Disc 1 Only)
« Reply #13 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.



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...
« Last Edit: July 10, 2012, 12:36:33 am by Satoh »

Vehek

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Re: Chrono Cross 70-80% NTSC Beta (Disc 1 Only)
« Reply #14 on: July 10, 2012, 01:03:28 am »
Maybe the texture was modified to give the model a slightly different appearance.



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.
« Last Edit: July 10, 2012, 01:24:48 am by Vehek »