Miscellaneous Classic Megaman Mysteries

Click on the game to see information. Even though you can't see it, there's alot of images used in this article. Be patient with the loading time.

Megaman (Gameboy)

Not an article by me, but I simply MUST link to this awesome article by Chris Covell! He found an actual factual Rockman World beta, dumped it into rom form, and compared it directly to the finished game side by side! Don't bother asking him for the rom though ..... he even denied me, the much loved ninja of deceit, the privilege of a copy!

An unused enemy found in the prototype. I have peiced together this sheet based off Covell's screen shots! As luck would have it, this guy was also seen in the R20 artbook along with another unused enemy concept.

But what IS found in the rom (at least the American version) are these tiles for the word "World" (found by NES Boy). The Japanese version of the gameboy Megaman series was called "Rockman World" and it seems like the name of the American series was meant to be "Megaman World", but was changed at some time before the release of the game.

Funtasic Facts:

• Everyone knows that the structure of the Gameboy series prevents the full use of the weapons you obtain. I've always wondered what those "impossible fights" would be like. And now, thanks to the magic of save state hacking, it's possible to find out! Thanks to Jade for playing through the game for me and gathering this data. And a special thanks to Nightmare Zero, who created Save State Master so we can get this data. Download the "Impossible Battles" Save States! (You'll need the REW gameboy emulator).


Cut, Fire, Elec, Fire:

• No damage from his own weapon; they pass right through them.
• All are frozen by Time Stopper.
• Quick Boomerangs pass through them.
• Bubble Lead does no damage. It makes contect, though.
• Atomic Fire does no damage.
• Mirror Buster does nothing.

Quick, Bubble, Heat:

• No damage from his own weapon; they pass right through them. Bubble's touches him, but makes no damage.
• Mirror Buster does nothing.

Flash:

• Time Stopper still freezes him.
• Interestingly, the Mirror Buster reflects his shots, but they deal no damage back to him.

Enker:

• As expected, the Mirror Buster doesn't reflect his (already reflected) shots back. Not that I think this has anything to do with something relevant to his power.

From this we can learn that the programmers were very lazy and programmed only what they needed to. They shots pass through because there isn't anything telling the shots what to do. The enemies don't even register it as a hit. This is also why Mirror Buster has no effect at all, except on Flashman's shots. They do not have any programmed behavior for what happens when they hit the Mirror Buster. Flashman probably shoots standard enemy shots, but he doesn't have any programmed behavior for when he's hit by those types of shots, so they pass through him. The Flash Stopper just stops all sprite animation, so naturally it can effect everyone, but it's not programmed to actually damage anyone. Of course this remains about as effective as it was in the NES version of MM2. It's also worth noting that the shots fly off ala buster shots off a Met's hat.

Megaman 2 (Gameboy)

Well, now we know why Quint was standing so still when you first meet him. He had these unused framed of animation that were supposed to go there! Maybe they took them out to make him look less .... dorky. Didn't work, Capcom. Didn't. Work.

And we also have sprites of Hardman, Topman, Magnetman, and Needleman found separate from their main sheets and all grouped together. Maybe it was for the credits screen? Maybe placeholders on the teleporters? Maybe I have no idea? I .... have no idea.

Various unused tiles found by Metalman of the Sprites INC forums.

Found in Airman's tile data, it appears to be a .... face ... or something. Prototypes for the mini Air Tikkis?

Funtasic Facts:

• Everyone knows that the structure of the Gameboy series prevents the full use of the weapons you obtain. I've always wondered what those "impossible fights" would be like. And now, thanks to the magic of save state hacking, it's possible to find out! Thanks to Jade for playing through the game for me and gathering this data. And a special thanks to Nightmare Zero, who created Save State Master so we can get this data. Download the "Impossible Battles" Save States! (You'll need the REW gameboy emulator).

  Metal, Air, Wood, Crash:

  • Two hits from the Metal Blade kills Metalman. Sakugrane is usless (it's "deflected") and bad to fight with even if it wasn't.
  • Air Shooter disperses on contact with Airman. Again, Sakugarne makes the deflected sound (like shooting a Met's hat) and does no damage.
  • Wood's leaves fall to the ground and do no damage. Sakugarne is crap, but might have actually been good to use in this battle.
  • Crash's bombs explode harmlessly on contact. Sakugarne is usless.
  • All MM3 weapons are ineffective against the MM2 guys. They fly (not fall) off on contact without damaging them. Ala shots off a Met's hat.
    

  Needle, Hard, Top, Magnet:

  • Needle's weapon falls harmlessly off him on contact. The Sakugarne is actually an effective weapon here, but you still need an E-tank. Or I needed one, at least.
  • Hardman has a glass jaw; four hits from the Knuckle. Sakugarne is an effective weapons, but I had to use two E tanks to win using it.
  • Top Spin does no damage to Topman, unlike in MM3 NES. Sakugarne can hurt him, but isn't very useful.
  • Magnet's own weapon is surprisingly effective. Four hits off. Sakugarne works against him, but is too bloody difficult to use here.
    

  Quint:

  • The Sakugarne doesn't hurt him at all. In fact it's a lousy weapon to try and fight him with as he tends to collide with you while you're on top of him.
    

  The programming here is more interesting. You can tell they tried to mimic the behavious of the MM2 weapons on the MM2 guys from the NES games, and they tried to make logical reprucussions when the MM3 guys are hit with their own weapon (as opposed to the actual programming in MM3). However, even though it's programmed better (there's actually collision detection unlike MM1 GB), the MM3 weapons were never meant to be used against the MM2 guys, so they fly off like standard shots on a Metool (as opposed to falling like leaves off Wood or Needles off Needle). From this it might be guessed that they had a teleporter stage planned after each set of battles. Furthermore, the Quint battle might have been planned to be after the first set of battles and not at the very end. This conclusion is reached because there's collision detection for the MM3 guys (which would be otherwise unnessasary). It also makes a bit of sence since you only use the Sakugarne of the one level and boss fight ... so much wasted effort for an entire item which MM rides. If this logic is true than they planned for MM2 to be a much longer game than it actually ended up being.

  Upon using it, I have to say ... the Sakugarne is a very useless tool. Most bosses move around too much so, by the time you get to where they were, they have moved. Moreover, there's no invulnerability so they tend to hit you when they do move from their spot. Moreover, even on the bosses it is effective against, you still wind up hurt because you have an annoying tendancy to pass through them. It's actually more usless than Top Spin because Top Spin is super effective against those enemies weak to it, while Quint's just isn't super effective against anyone.

Megaman 3 (Gameboy)

Funtasic Facts:

• Everyone knows that the structure of the Gameboy series prevents the full use of the weapons you obtain. I've always wondered what those "impossible fights" would be like. And now, thanks to the magic of save state hacking, it's possible to find out! Thanks to Jade for playing through the game for me and gathering this data. And a special thanks to Nightmare Zero, who created Save State Master so we can get this data. Download the "Impossible Battles" Save States! (You'll need the REW gameboy emulator).

  Spark, Gemini, Snake, Shadow:

  • Unlike MM3, MM3GB takes the more logical approach that Master Weapons don't harm the Robot Master who wields them.
  • Dive Missile actually works pretty well against Spark; takes off 2 damage.
  • Skull Barrier does 1 damage against Geminiman; it'll block his standard shots, but not the Laser. Dust Crusher takes off 2 hit points, sometimes splitting and hitting his twin, dealing additional damage.
  • Drill Bomb is Snake's semi-weakness, dealing 2 damage.
  • Skull Barrier does 2 damage to Shadowman (I'm seeing a pattern here...); but it doesn't do crap to block his Shadow Blades.
  • Unless otherwise notes, all weapons from MM4 only do 1 damage.
  • Screw Crusher deals 1 damage against all MM3 enemies.
    

  Dive, Skull, Drill, Dust:

  • They all take only 1 point of damage from their own weapon.
  • Screw Crusher takes only one hit off everyone.
    

  Punk:

  • Screw Crusher is proven to be a totally useless weapon taking only 1 point off Punk as well.
    

  The programming in MM3 continues the logic that RM weapons shouldn't hurt the RM they are from. Good going! Based off the damage data done from MM4 weapons on MM3 guys, I get the sense that they might have wanted to do a teleporter level here. As it stands, that's exactly what they did in MM4 GB. It also looks like 1 hit point might be the default for this game and not immunity.

Megaman 4 (Gameboy)

Funtasic Facts:

• Everyone knows that the structure of the Gameboy series prevents the full use of the weapons you obtain. I've always wondered what those "impossible fights" would be like. And now, thanks to the magic of save state hacking, it's possible to find out! Thanks to Jade for playing through the game for me and gathering this data. And a special thanks to Nightmare Zero, who created Save State Master so we can get this data. Download the "Impossible Battles" Save States! (You'll need the REW gameboy emulator).

  Radar Dish... thing...:

  • Crystal Eye does 1 damage.
  • Napalm Bomb does 1 damage.
  • Power Stone does 1 damage.
  • Charge Kick can't hit it; it's too high to slide into.
  • Ballade Cracker does 2 damage.
    

  Ballade (1st fight):

  • Crystal Eye does 1 damage.
  • Napalm Bomb does 1 damage.
  • Power Stone does 2 damage.
  • Charge Kick does 1 damage.
  • Ballade Cracker does 1 damage
    

  Ballade (2nd fight):

  • Ballade Cracker does 1 damage.
    

  Not many "impossible" fights here as this has a teleporting stage (a real one this time). Ballade seems to have the same weaknesses as he always did. Jade notes that he may have underestimated the Power Stone, it works rather nicely against Ballade; it's almost guaranteed to hit him what with him bouncing all over the place.

Megaman 5 (Gameboy)

Funtasic Facts:

• Everyone knows that the structure of the Gameboy series prevents the full use of the weapons you obtain. I've always wondered what those "impossible fights" would be like. And now, thanks to the magic of save state hacking, it's possible to find out! Thanks to Jade for playing through the game for me and gathering this data. And a special thanks to Nightmare Zero, who created Save State Master so we can get this data. Download the "Impossible Battles" Save States! (You'll need the REW gameboy emulator).

  There were only two impossible battles here. Jade didn't think he'd be able to do it at first, 'cause the rom kept glitching at the start whenever he'd select any stage except Mars. But luckilly he found passwords on MMHP that got him where he needed to go.

  Dark Moon:

  • Electric Shock does a whopping 3 damage (The Devil series' weakness to electricity rears its head once more).
  • Black Hole does nothing.
  • Break Dash is useless, since it can only be used on the ground.
  • Deep Digger is also useless since there are no blocks to throw at him.
  • Spark Chaser does 1 damage per hit

  Terra:

  • Spark Chaser passes right through him, deals no damage

  Based on this it looks like Dark Moon might have been planned as a stage boss at one point. Becuase, if the weapons weren't meant to be used on him Electric Shock wouldn't deal so much damage and they all, most likely, would have passed harmlessly through him like Terra's did (similar to what happens in MM1 GB in such impossible scenarios).

Rockboard

Rockboard has allot of unused things! There were sprites to animate Shadowman as he does his card trick while not facing you. Sprites for Megaman's card. And it looks like Quickman was supposed to be a playable character (like Shadowman) at some point! The card (which may not be in correct colours, by the way) was probably a placeholder at an early version of the game (probably with random robot masters coming up) until they put in cards for specific robot masters. FYI: it's the same robot on the robot masters tile!

Megaman: The Wily Wars

Video posted by neopokekun and discovered on Protodude's Rockman Corner. An early advertisment for the Wily Wars. Yes, this is an english version of the game.

• Megaman's jumping sprite doesn't appear sometimes
• when he jumps.
• No "Gutsman blocks" in Elecman's boss room, nor in Cutman's stage (likely they were not finished yet).
• Eelcman's boss room looks vastly different than the final version.
• Elecman lacks the second boss door (probably not fully programmed at this stage).
• MM's hit points simply start right back at the top after he loses all of them, so he's effectively invulnerable.
• There are no Gabyoalls in the beginning of Elecman's stage.
• For MM2's stage select, the background colors are not uniform. In the final they are all blue, but in this beta Bubbleman has orange, Airman has white, Woodman has green, and Flashman also has white for their background colors. Also, the words "Megaman 2" cannot be seen in the background (although it might be because of video quality).
• The Bladers don't speed up or move down (much).
• The Wily Wars title screen lacks a background and legal information. Also, the title itself is cruder than the final version in every way (but still along the same lines).

NES Boy found this .... apparently they had Protoman's "shadowy" sprites (as seen at the end of MM3) ready to use, but instead elected to use his normal sprites (with a different pallette) instead. Wierd.

NES Boy again. Buster Rod.G has two missing actions: crouching, and walking while spinning his pole! It is unfinished because midway through the second frame of the walk, the tiles for his first two sprites (the second of which happens to be his first unused one) repeat

NES Boy. M.Water's weapons can shoot in many angles, but rarely these three.
Once thought impossible to see they are actually still programmed in! Or at least the bottom one is. If you die directly below Mega Water while he's shooting harpoons at you he'll bein to shoot downwards. This is not as easy as it sounds. The way the pit's constructed makes it so that you usually die just shy of dead center, triggering an angled sprite. This is very annoying and I had to actually try several times after accidentally doing it the first time before dying exactly right. The same goes for the shot angled more directly downwards (I had to poition myself on the Magnet bean just right in order to activate it). The one going forward cannot be accessed because Megawater absolutely refuses to shoot harpoons at you above the water.

To me this suggests that Mega Water might have been constructed to actually fight in the water at one point. Or at least that coming out of the water didn't interfere with that harpoon attack of his. And, seeing as there's a huge pit blocking easy use of those two other angled sprites, it was probably added later on. While it's difficult to even try and guess at what the programmers thought when they programmed Mega Water one thing seems clear: he started out with a differet routine and room than he ended up with.

I've posted screens of these annoyingly hard to access attacks in use. To get them, you can't go out of the water at all ... that interrupts MW's attack pattern. Ignore the lifebar and point abnormalities ... that's Game Genie (and hacking) shinnanigans that had no bearing on Mega Water.

Found by NES Boy. In MM3 the cat twitches his tail, in WW he doesn't. However, the sprite remains.

MM3 - Stage Clear - Found by NES Boy. This is actually in the game, but for some reason, you can't listen to this in the sound test (hence, not many MP3 sites don't carry this with the rest of the music). The only way you have to listen to it is to go through all six Dr. Wily Stages in Mega Man 3 and beat Wily. Could this mean the MM1 All Stage Clear theme is in the game as well? Well, you can't hear it either in the sound test or by beating Wily in MM1, so I guess hacking is the answer.

By the way, this is recorded with its correct tempo. The trick is to set the emulator on NTSC or USA while the Wily Wars is running (but not right before the Sega logo, that causes a lock out). That or simply run the Mega World ROM. The music should be in its correct tempo. That explains why the music sounded slower. But back to business...

Funtasic Facts

• It's likely that you were meant to bring over any Master Weapon from any Megaman game into the other after beating all three. Likely it used a system similar to the Wily Tower part of the game. For the full story Read The Rockman Megaworld Level Selector Codes and Damage Guide for more information.

Megaman Game Gear

 

Funtastic Facts:

• 
  In this game Starman has the odd distinction of being colored green! What's odder still is that a comic in R20 also shows a green Starman! The connection might be coincidental or, maybe, there's early artwork of Starman being green and that early art is what was sent to the Freestyle Software guys when they were making their game.

• Did Quickman's stage seem empty there at the end? Did you notice that Stoneman never used his "Stoneman Weapon"? These things happen only in the "difficult" setting of the game, although only one Joe is there). (noted by Ryan Ferneau). For those curious, there are no sprites for Quickman in the game. Oddly, the tiles for Stoneman's enemies are mized in with the tiles for Quick's enemies followed by Quick's stage. MM's sprites come after. It's almost like they made Quick's stage first. While the tiles for Bright and Toad, and Stoneman's enemies come first, it's Quickman's stage's graphics that actually do come first before any other stage.

• This game follows after the "two castle" tradition of MM games, first by fighting in Cossack's castle and then through Wily's. However, I don't think they did this for some story-based reason, rather, I think it was just to incorporate MM4 (the previous title) into their current game (in other words, it was chosen just because it was the first castle in MM4; not because Dr. Cossack was involved in this game's story).

• Was the Game Gear Megaman an unfinished game? There's several reasons to think so.

  • Despite beating Wily, it's Dr. Cossack's castle that blows up. Presumably, this is because they had finished that animation sequence and wanted some castle to blow up at the end, leading to the mistake. It was not caught because there was no time left.

  • Eddy is not in the game, merely power ups he drops.

  • Waveman uses Gravityman's music.

  • Waveman has no weaknesses.

  • Weapons are not named properly. Instead they are called "<insert name> Weapon". Or "Rain Weapon". Moreover the english is off ex: "Get Rain Weapon".

  • The classic "Ready" test that appears before MM 'ports in says "Get Ready".

  • The Robot Master weaknesses are unfinished; if a robot is weak to a weapon it deals 4 units of damage and the other weapons deal only 1 unit of damage (except for Brightman). In most games it isn't so uniform.

  • Moreover, Wily is not weak to Rain Flush (Toadman's weapon), making it useless.

  • Toadman is only vulnerable to his weakness, while Wave is vulnerable to nothing.

  • Quickman's stage lacks the Joes at the end, as well as a boss.

  • Quickman's stage is also the only stage not from MM4 or 5.

  • MM's weapon only shoots two shots per screen and not 3.

  • The buster deals out 4 hit points and not 3.

  • The game's ending is really odd. Instead of seeing Wily fall from his saucer, we see the castle immediately blow up followed by Wily being in Waveman's level jumping before MM.
    
    Based on these facts, I think they started with Quickman's stage and intended to cover MMs 1-5, only to be told later on to cover only MMs 4 and 5 (possibly because of the Wily Wars being released on the Genesis just a year before). I think Quickman's stage might have been a hurried addition back into the game when it was clear there was not enough time to finish. I don't think they ever got to actually programming Quickman himself in the game, although it seems likely that he was the intended boss. While the stage is unfinished (since Quick isn't in there) it's likely that Quickman's boss room was finished, however.
    
    The final Wily level is actually the teleport level from MM5 ... with one difference. The Wily logo was removed. It seems to me that they might have planned a boss re-fight, possibly for Cossack's Castle. If we remember that Wave is weak to nothing and that Rain Flush is useless, it could be that Wave is weak to Rain Flush ... which would be odd, but it would explain why Rain Flush is useless and why Wave has no weakness. It's probable that they meant you to use Rain Flush against Waveman in the teleporter stage.
    
    In MM5 there is a final teleporter (after beating the 8 RMs) that brings you to Wily in the teleport stage. In this version, the teleporter which brings you to the actual stage actually brings you to Wily. This is probably because the teleporters either weren't ready or were cut out, so that just took the programming for the final teleporter and put it into the first one. It's possible that there is more to that stage than we actually get to see. The Wily room is actually an origional creation for this game using tiles from the teleport stage ... which makes me think it was rushed in at the very last possible moment.
    
    Lastly, the ending is anomalous, especially given the care they took to port over MM4's opening. I think their time ended right at Wily; that they never programmed him to fall out of his saucer and used those sprites at the end in a hurried attempt to just make an ending. Moreover, the fireworks just come from an enemy in Brightman's level, which contribute to the "rushed" impression.

Megaman Soccer

From R20, this cover sketch shows that Gutsman was once planned for the game. He was replaced with protoman when they found out he wasn't going to make the cut.

Although half of it appears on-screen this is the full mugshot for Dr. Wily for the player select. It's possible that he was meant to be playable at some point. Perhaps he was meant to be unlockable. Wily is unplayable in the final version of the game.

RUMOR: According to some guy I can't remember on an old post in the Megaman sub-forum at the Capcom bords Hardman can be seen in an old preview in a Japanese Magazine. However, no magazine scan was provided, so this remains a rumour.

RUMOR: According to Wikipedia, there are tiles for credits, however no images were provided. Crediats are not seen in this game. In fact, there is no proper ending to the game at all.

Because this game lacks a proper ending, and since Wily was obviously meant to be playable, it's highly likely that Rockman Soccer was never finished.

Rockman and Forte

Taken from Sprites INC, found by Model HS. A single, solitary, unused sprite of Forte. When you jump after dashing you get a burst of speed and length, so ... was that supposed to be where this went? I honestly haven't a clue.

These screens, taken by Marshmallw Man (using the XVI32 hex editor) and Vixy. They show the game has "Rock 8.5" in the header data and varify the rumors that Rockman and Forte is best considered "Rockman 8.5" and not "Rockman 9" (like many rom sites claim). Now that Rockman 9 is actually out, claiming R&F is RM9 is even more absurd.

Megaman: The Power Battles

This is about as early as it can get in game production! Stage mockups. They were from the Power Fighters' secret files book and I'll thank Auto for his insight into what they say. They appear to show various concepts in stage design for the Power Battles (oddly enough). I moved the one marked "1"last because it seemed to belong there more.

All of these mockups use cutout of the characters from older MM art; it's likely that these were made just to get a feel for how the stage was supposed to look like.

• The first picture looks like it's in a swamp.
  • It might be woodman or plantman-based. Good money says it was replaced with the Slashman-themed "Robosaur Park".
  • Note the display of MM and Bass' mugshots and lifebars. They look more traditional ... more like what you'd normally find in a game.
  • Auto explains that this bible template explains how players would have Rush/Gospel or beat from the start as an ally, and it would be a shooting game with enemies comming at them at a pattern path before the the final battle with a boss character (which reminds me of the MM Tiger games, in a way).
• The second stage is the Rock Monster's stage.
  • Immediately I must ask myself if they had planned to use Dark Moon or if that's just a picture of convenience. To note: that is taken from a sketch done by Ariga ... but why not? These were for internal use only.
  • This stage is actually quite similar to the final one, but the background has changed dramatically. I think the overall idea was kept intact, though.
  • Notice that Treble is here and has replaced Bass. Perhaps that was how it was conceived as working at this point? It would have been interesting to control the support units.
  • There seem to be notes everywhere, especially around the elevator-like boarders. Since there are sprites of MM and the Yellow Devil climbing ladders, I can't help but wonder if they weren't meant to climb those somehow and wind up on the ceiling. Since YD is the only boss with such sprites it's reasonable to think that climbing would happen in his stage.
  • Auto says (that the page says that) this describes a boss battle in the game. There would be no minions of any sorts and that it would be moddeled and have the feel of boss battles you would expect in a regular game in the series. One wonders where the climbing sprites come in, or if they were even concieved of, at this point, tho.
• The third stage seems to be ... Dark Moon in Gyroman's stage!?
  • The stage itself seems to have went through no discernable changes in it's transition to the final version.
  • The Devil was lightened ... perhaps to indicate a change from Dark Moon to the Yellow devil?
  • The stepping motion of the Devil and the knowledge that this stage moves in the final makes me think that, maybe, the stage was meant to move as YD walked; simulating him chasing you.
    • Of course it might just be a placeholder stage. There's many possibilities of why the Devil would be in Gyro's stage. Wish I could understand Japanese.
  • The life and weapon bars have changed. They are like in the final, but the bars themselves seem to disappear completely when they are depleted; in the final they turn black.
  • Note that MM is riding Rush Jet. In the Power Fighters Rush (and treble) would attack when you charged.
  • Auto translates that they refer to this (which is the final in their sequence) as "the power battle"  Which is what the game was completed, where there is some implimentation of minions and the battles have more complex buildups and item implimentation.
    • One wonders why they chose this screenshot for this point, though. So much is obviously different from the final version of the game that it's an odd choice.
• The last stage is the highway stage.
  • It's not too different from what we've seen in the final, except the building on the left was put into perspective ... possibly to make things more dynamic. The car would be less broken and placed, moving, in the street MMX style.
  • Despite being mostly intact, this concept is a lot busier than the stage would end up being.
  • Is that a power up on the ledge? Those wouldn't be seen until the Power Fighters and only after you beat a boss. Moreover, they wouldn't be MM7-inspired. However, unused sprites still exist in the game!
  • Enemies wouldn't be seen until the Power Fighters.
  • The lifebars also go to black here, closer to the final. Auto explains that this represented an action sequence, complete with scrolling stage and boss stages, and that routes to the bosses would have branches that connect in different ways.

Before I even begin I must thank Ace Spark of Sprites INC for not only letting me use these unusual sprites in my article, but also finding them in the first place! Unless noted otherwise all the stuff in the Power Battles and Power Fighters sections are thanks to that guy!

Unused items found in the game (palettes have been guessed from pre-existing ones in the game). Obviously having weapon and Energy tanks would shorten the supply of quarters a kid would plop into the game, so it's obvious why that was taken out. Although I don't know why they went with the life pellets they did when they had the original MM7 pellets in there .... the MM7 versions look MUCH better.

Icons for the pets in the Power Battles. There isn't any correct palette for the letter G, it's current colours are based off the way Gospel's mugshot is coloured. Obviously they couldn't decide which to use. Also, all the pet sprites are in the game! Why weren't they implemented in the game? Maybe Capcom ran out of time. Gospel's "g" uses a palette extrapolated from the Gospel mugshot .... obviously it wouldn't look like that if it was finished.

Sprites of Beat! Ones which are very different from the Power Fighter's Beat. I like these better myself. For some reason Beat has his "winded" sprites from MM7 ... maybe he has suppsed to be able to get hurt at some point.

The main difference between this rush, and the Power Fighters rush , is:
a) This rush doesn't have walking/running frames.
b) This rush doesn't have a teleport animation.
c) This rush has more standing frames than the Power Fighters rush.
d) The flame effect that comes out of the rocket is no-where to be seen in the tiles.
e) This rush has more facial expressions than the Power Fighers rush.

Still... he is missing a fair bit for him to be useable.. especially compared to the other "pets" in Power Battles.

These sprites of Gospel was NEVER used. Even in the Power Fighters. He'd be too easily hurt in the game anyway, since there's bullets flying all over the place. And what are those jumping frames about? Still, it would have been nice if they implemented the pets when they released the arcade games later on in the Annaversary Collection and in Japan's own releases. Treble retains all his other sprites from Power Fighters which are totally unchanged (ergo, not worth ripping).

The unused Roll sprites as found in-game (guessed on the red palette). Was later used in Power Fighters where it caused a bit of continuity conflict. Roll was redesigned in MM8, Power Fighters happened after MM8, but her design is from MM7. Power Fighters uses completely wrong character designs though.

A unused enemy. Later used in Power Fighters, with a different pallete. The Power Fighters version was also trimmed for frames. (The blink was removed)

unused enemy. Wasn't used in Power Fighters later too boot.

Metool. Isn't used in PB, but used in PF.

While there IS a Bubble Bat in the game, it doesn't use most of these animations.... In fact, even in Power Fighters, it doesn't use most of these animations.

Another enemy - one that was never used in Power Fighters. This is located with the Mini Devil sprite, so these might of been part of his stage. It looks to be some sort of platform, so maybe MM was supposed to use this to reach Devil's eye. Another odditity is that this sprite has several duplicates in the data. Weird.

These enemies were used in the Power Fighters and their sprites were unedited.

These hurt frames aren't part of the final Gutsman sequences

.
First row: Some unused death frames. Cutman also has frames with his cutter which he usually doesn't use (as he usually does those motions sans cutter).

Woodman doesn't use that getting hurt frame and the other two are trims from his Wood attack. (Capcom seemed to trim allot of frames for the bosses, which explains why some of their animations are so "jumpy".)

Heat has ALOT of unused frames! I like the smoking one the best. And then you have some frames for when he gets hit with Ice Slasher. I would have liked to see these frames restored for the domestic released of Power Battles, but .... it was not to be.

A missing sprite of Napalm. Him turining around maybe?

Different death (or hurt) frames for Crashman as well as a new attack. You'll see a WIDE variety of hurt frames for these guys .... maybe they had different death frames for different methods of death.

 

Slashman's missing attack! This attack found a home in the Power Fighters (albeit with some changes). Like Heatman, Slashman has some frozen frames which aren't seen in the final. Would have been a nice touch.

This includes trimming, a missing jump frame, a missing introduction frame, and a missing death frame. In the actual Power Battles - his first frame of "Getting hit" from MM7 is used for his death, rather than the offical MM7 death sprite (if you follow). The frame that would go afterwards was trimmed, and there was even a sprite there that isn't even in MM7! (Not findable in the sprite viewer - at least not when I looked.) (the last two - was Turboman's weakness supposed to shatter him completely? No idea.)

On the note of MM7 - one of Turboman's frames from that is NOT inside Power Battles.

Again, as with the Cutman missing frames - these getting hit and death frames are never used. (He just takes damage). Hell, when Cloudman dies in the game, he just stays still and explodes. No special animation - just his standing one. Yet these were in the tiles. Why did Capcom ignore them?

Some missing Shademan frames! For some reason they took out his blood suck attack and did some really stupid trims to his animation.
His in-game shooting animation goes from this:

To this:

Why??
All these frames made it, with edits, to the Power Fighters.

Yellow Devil shows us some interesting frames. It seems that, at one point, his level was to have a ladder in it! I would have liked to see that in the final, but it didn't make it. We also get to see some frames of the small Devil dying here. Or at least getting hurt.

Unused framed for Megaman. We have some going up the ladder and another "victory" pose. And more unused Slash Claw sprite. Maybe they just didn't have time to program it in?

Some ladder poses for Proto along with a "super" attack shot pose. It seems like he was meant to actually USE his shield at some point. THAT would have been a nice feature to see through to Fighters.

Bass has some interesting shots. Has some ladder sprites. He looks to be throwing something ... another sequence for the Slash Claw probably (in the Power Battles Bass uses his normal Arm Cannon sprites for this; apparently that was unnessasary. These sprites were later used, albeit with some modifications, in Power Fighters). Some "super attack" shots. Some "beaten" (looks to be a "ran out of time" shot. And some shots which I won't even bother speculating on. It seems that they were planning on doing allot more with Bass that was seen through at the end.

There's an unused skull-shaped buster blast. This was later used for Bass in Power Fighters. In Power Battles, Bass' shots are pretty ordinary.

Dunno what they could have used the Wily standing sprites for ... Wily also doesn't use the backing away frames from MM7 ever.

Obviously the top lot of Wily Machine sprites were originally to be used when the machine turns around. There was absolutly no animation tiles for any of them, so my guess is probably what Capcom originally intended. Wish they had used them. At the bottom, you see vents opening. He probably shot bombs out of there, or something. In the final bombs just spawn at the bottom, which frankly, looks daft.

At least the standing sprite of Wily found a home eventually!

Funtastic Facts:

• 
  Capcom seems to have had the Power Fighters planned because you can see several robots in this scene that were put to use in the Power Fighters. The only one not used that's shown is Blizzardman. Maybe he was planned for Fighters at one point, but was later scrapped.

• When fighting Magnetman (and Cutman), Shadowman's music can be heard. Shadowman would later appear in the Power Fighters. This is in Shademan's level.

• When fighting Dustman, Elecman's music plays. Elec would also be fightable in the Power Fighters.

• When fighting Plant, Crashman's music can be heard.

• Fighting Heat bring's up Gyro's music (within the level Gyro seems to be made for).

• Iceman's battle brings up Freezeman's music (within the ice level).

• Fighting Crash brings up Napalm's music.

• Fighting Wood brings up Crashman's music.

• Fighting Freeze brings up Gemini's music. (Within Freezeman's own level!)

• Out of all the sets, MM7's is done the most correctly.

Megaman: The Power Fighters

This is about as early as it can get in game production! These stage concepts were from the Power Fighters' secret files. They appear to show various stages in their preliminary, erm ... stage. Auto translates.

• The UFO stage features the arcade's polygon graphic capabilities.
• The water stage was created out of nessesity. They commented that the robot fish looked beautiful.
• An early concept for Wily's castle. Reminds me of the castle in Rockman World 4 (the gameboy MM4).
• They say this was made for both Pharaoh and Stoneman specifically, affirming that it was was made with both bosses in mind.

 

A hidden frame of Pharoahman ... This is how he looks like under that shield of his!

Clearly there's some unused attacks in the second Power Fighters game. Duo's downwards punching is used in the game (albeit with an effect sprite over it), however I'm keeping it in there to show the others might have been thought to have had the same attack set at one point.

Also Megaman's doing the Kamehameha ... sweet.

Ace couldn't find the bits that go on some of the frames. An alternate (but unfinished, there aren't enough frames in the tiles for the entire animation) attack for Protoman? All that and we have a super shot which looks a LOT like that found in Proto's unused MM3 sprites and the standard down-shot.

Elecman's these song - NES style?? Not found in the regular game.

Mystery Song - Ace suspects this to be an unfinished version of MM1's boss battle commonly identified with the Yellow Devil. Wiryami notes that this may be a back beat to Cutman's theme that went unused. Cites an MIDI he made to demonstrate.

Power Battles and Fighters

The Trial Cart

First noticed on Protodude's Rockman Corner this was bought off Yahoo Japan by Shadowman16. (who knew a fellow Shadowman fan would also be into betas?)He generously supplied us all with a dumped rom.

These screens were taken by Vixy of Rockman Perfect Memories. The B&C trial lets you fight only two bosses before the Game Over screen shows up. Only the first scenario on each game shows up and, after it's over, the game over screen appears. Which is par the course for trial carts, really. A brief overview of the sprite tiles (or at least what I can make out of them) reveal that at least the Yellow Devil and Wily have their sprites done, so while it's unkown exactly how far intro production this game is, it's likely pretty far. I think further investigation will yeild too many surprises since this is a port and not a new game.

The Final Game

Again, Ace Spark has been invaluble in obtaining sprites from this game! Go Ace and your mad tile skillz!
Apparently the programmers just converted the sprites with little regard to game usage .... however they did trim out some unused sprites.

The frames for Crash's other attack is missing and only these unused sprites reamin.

Woodman has all 3 of his unused sprites. The 2nd one is SLIGHTLY different to one thats used in game. (Confused Ace slightly while putting it together.)

Turboman not only has all of his unused sprites intact, but also has one additional! How'd that happen??

So, even on the second try Capcom neglected to make use of Cloudman's dying frames......

Neat sprites of the small Devil getting hurt. None of the ladder climbing ones .... guess they were so obviously not used that they didn't even bother to reformat them.

Wily doesn't have most of his unused frames, but he does have a rather ugly sprite of himself standing! Along with a sprite of him with his hand in the air! When were they planning on using this sprite? Why did they make it? Were they working on an earlier version of the Power Battles (or Fighters) which HAD that sprite?? Also, they have an unused transition frame of Wily turning around.

Megaman Mania

The game that almost but never was. As part of Megaman's 15th anniversary Atomic Planet was commissioned by Capcom to release MM 1-8, Power Battles, and Power Fighters as a single game called "Megaman Anniversary Collection". Soon after it was announced that Capcom would also merge all five Gameboy games as well as "one extra one" into a Gameboy Advance release also called "Megaman Anniversary Collection". Later on it was renamed to "Mega man Mania".

Now, one must remember that these games were considered mediocre back in the day even by Megaman fans. So, why they thought this was a good idea I'll never guess.

Nevertheless they got really, REALLY far in the development process, as far as I can tell. And I've chronicled the various screen shots to give a look at how the game might have developed.

First we have a mock up of the art from when the game was still "Megaman Mania". Then We have art from when it was renamed "Mega Man Anniversary Collection". Which uses the exact same art as the PS2 / GC release.

Version 1 of the game was seen mostly in a video released by the MM:AC people. To me it looks like it uses Super Gameboy technology to give the sprites "color", which means that it's still Black and White, really. I've separated this into A, B, C, and D versions according to the boarder they use. The boarder shows that these people ar using a thing called "GB player" (thanks Quint, of the Sprites INC forums) to tape their game in action. GB PLayer lets you play GBA games on the gamecube, and therefore, on your TV.

While they all use Super Gameboy tech (making them all version 1), they all have different boarders. This means they all are likely still different version, with minor differences. Version A has the simplest boarder and appears to be the first made. Version B has the same boarder only modified to make it more complex looking, meaning it comes after the first version. Version C still has the Super Gameboy coloring, but it has the funky boarders. And Version C simply has different funky boarder for the games it shows.

The Atomic Planet people said that Capcom lost the original source code for the games. Without that they can't add anything like save points or color to the sprites. Of course this is the same company that brought us Megaman X6 and X7and Battle Network 4 at the time of this game's development, so it comes as no surprise that they would lost the source code for the games of one of their major franchises. With that in mind the use of this emulator technology seems reasonable.

Version 2 looks to be a .... fully colored version of the game. Again, note the use of "GB Player" technology. There's no title screen for "Mega Man Mania" or "Mega Man Anniversary Collection" ever shown so we can assume it was never made, but that screen of Megaman with a bunch of teleporters can ONLY be the game's game selection process. It looks similar in concept the the PS2's game selection screen. I can't image that meaning anything other that the game is almost done. The teleporters for MM1-5 are obvious. "M" might be "museum" (the ads boast of a museum section) and "O" for "options". The blank teleporter is a true mystery. MM could teleport from it, but it might also be an unlockable special feature. It also shows art from .... Rockman EXE2 for the boarder. Pick a game outside of the correct continuity for the boarder. Nicely done, guys. Nicely done.

Version 3 seems to be .... a fully colored game. And they ... all seem to be there. At this point it looks like they were ready to go. Since there's full color here they either recovered the source code or fixed whatever problems they had. And, remember, adding full color to the game was really the point of the re-release.

V3 also has a more complicated boarder around the actual game's screen than V2. Dunno what's going on in that MM1 select screen ... it looks like all the robot masters are moving. They don't do that in the Gameboy game. So maybe there's still some technical issues to work out. It looks like they replaced the EXE 2 art with traced art from the PS1 re-releases of the NES Megaman Games. MM 4 and 5 seem to have different side art than the other MM games tho, so it's likely still in development. Still no "MM: AC" title screen so I assume it hasn't been finished. Still, the game seem to be fully colored with only minor visual issues to deal with.

The magazine scans (from the Great Gonzo aka Radix) tells of a preview build that didn't have suto saves, or more advanced weapon changing (using buttong and not just through the menu screen ala MM7) and shows us more screens from the game. It also tells of six games and not five (although this could just be a mistake on their part). What could the other game be? There's really no way to say. Evidently, though, this game was pretty much ready for release by the time it was scrapped ... because the magazine writer was actually able to play it and take his own screen shots!

The above is the trailer where the screen shots came from. It shows the colored version of the game in action.

At this point the game has suffered years of delays and has been pushed further and further back until Capcom finally refunded people their money around the beginning of 06. There were rumors that the game was being refitted to take advantage of Nintendo DS's touch screen (as it was delayed to the point where the GBA was made obsolete), but nothing's come of it.

In the end I think it's for the best that this game was never released. I mean ... even back in the day the gameboy games were seen as mediocre until MM4. MM5 finally hit all the right spots, but that's the very last game. Fast forward fifteen years. Our portable technology is 32 bit. With touch screens. These games aren't even 8-bit. At BEST they could be upgraded to 8-bit. Maybe the idea woulda worked for Gameboy Color, but for Gameboy Advance or Nintendo DS? You gotta be kidding me! This is one game I do not miss

Megaman PC

Okay, MMPC doesn't have any numbers (ala DRN001). But it does load the bosses into the game in a particular order and that order is: Sonic, Volt, and Dyna. It's also the order of their mugshots (from left to right).

Someone stole the graphics of Megaman PC to halp make their own game. And I'll repeat that because of how hillarious it is: someone stole the graphics from Megaman PC to make their own game. Duke Nukem. So ... what? berrels and crates are too difficult for you guys to draw or what? Couldn't you find a game that had better graphics to steal from? Like ... any other game in existence? Of course they also stole graphics from Turrican. Source: DOS Classics.

Megaman 3 PC

Discovered on Protodude's Rockman Corner and submitted by their reader Jimb0, these betas of Megaamn 3 PC and MMX were found at a flea market for only $4. The MM3 disk lacks Wave's, Blase's, and Oil's stages (oddly, they are not RM's 4, 5, and 6) and Wr. Wily is named "Dr. Willy" (as in his data file, if you look in the contents of the disk).

Yeah, it's not exactly news that Hi-tech Expressions managed to copy some graphics from the NES Megaman games. Still, it's worth noting the following:

• The mugshots compare as shown. Interestingly, Wily's symbol was not copied from Megaman 2.
• All the MM3PC sprites were based off MM1 PC's Voltman. I suppose they saw that as their easiest base.
• The look of the PC RMs are based off previous RMs from Megamans 2 and 3. Namely: Torchman was based off Magnetman, Blademan was based off Metalman, Oilman was based off Flashman, Waveman was based off Airman, Sharkman was based off Snakeman's head and Geminiman's body, and Bitman was based off Hardman's head and Crashman's body.
• Megaman 1 PC has a picture of Sparkman on the back while MM3 PC has the art from MM3 NES (showing Sparkman). Perhaps they meant that to be Bitman despite looking nothing like him.
• The logo was also copied and stretched.

Megaman 3 PC doesn't have creation numbers either, strictly speaking. However, their levels and bosses are also loaded in a particular order (as in MM1 PC). Since their files are called "boss 1, boss 2, etc" it's hard to tell who is who. However, the "got weapon" message is clearly listed and is likely in the same order as the bosses. This order is: Bit, Shark, Wave, Oil, Blade, and Torch. This is the same order as the mugshots going clockwise starting from Bitman.

Update: Thanks to sprite viewing programs, I can now confirm that "boss1", etc. are also in this order. This order doesn't change; every bit of data from the mugshots in the mugshots file, to the special weapons in the special weapons file, to the stage select, to the order the RMs appear in Wily's Castle are consist ant with this.

Thanks to Frenkel of S&F Productions Megaman 3 PC's files can be decompressed and examined. This lets us see many things we did not previously know about the game. I highly recommend the programs he made to everyone.

(Going from left to right, starting at the top).

• The top row consists of, what appears to be an expanded "Got Weapon" routine. First is a sprite of Megaman without any special weapons. This was contained within the MEGAWEPN.VFR file. Then we have Megaman with a completely separate arm attachment. This comes from each BOSS.VFR file. I can only guess that the final picture - Megaman with the weapon - was meant to go after this sequence. Obviously it was shortened in the final game with just Light's narration and Megaman having the weapon.
  
  I guess Mega, literally, steals the arm right off the bosses he beats in PC3 ... even though Waveman's weapons comes from the holes on his chest and not his arm. And Torchman needs that fuel tank on his back (you can see a hose on his sprites). Perhaps this is why this sequence was cut from Megaman 3 PC.

• 

  Something you may not have noticed while playing the game is that Crorq, one of the final bosses, has someone riding inside him. In MM1 PC it's Wily, but in MM3 PC Crorq just explodes after you beat him and Wily is in another room. Well, wonder no more as Crorq's driver is revealed! Contained within the DOCBOT.VFR file are sprites of ... Who ... is that? Wily's assistant or something? Or Dr. Cossack (Megaman 3 PC was actually released at about the same time as MM5)? And what's he saying? And why are his arms like that?

  Just ... based on what he's doing, I have to think this guy was meant to pop out of Crorq and land on the ground after you beat him. Maybe he was holding some energy pellets as his arms seem to be cradling something. He's obviously saying something ... but I can't imagine where the text would go. Perhaps he was meant to show up on the monitor to deliver a message, as Wily does when you die at his level? Even though we now know who was meant to drive crorq, this mystery has only deepened.
  Source: S&F Productions

• An .... unused enemy? From MM3 PC!? Yes indeed. Apparently, this guy was supposed to show up in the last level of the game ... but doesn't. I really can't imagine how he was supposed to work ... maybe as a way to get you to a ladder that was too high up? Maybe he drops his forklift lift-thing on you as you come up from a ladder? The sprite has rolling tires, so obviously it was meant to move. Whatever it is, it sure is a bizarre addition to Megaman's list of minor foes. This was found in FRKLFT.VFR.
  Source: S&F Productions

• More unused sprites! These come from DOCWILLY.VFR. What are they? Well, the first appears to be a protective shield from Wily when you destroy his first protective shield. Why did they take that out? Too many sprites on the screen?
  
  The second is Wily's shattered bubble. No, this is not just a separate layer ... the sprites of Wily in his shield are one sprite. So why is this alone? Now, we do have sprites of Wily jumping and groveling, so ... I suppose Wily was meant to jump out of the "Wily Machine" and grovel when you beat him. I suppose they couldn't get that to work right (he does have an acid bath directly underneath him) or maybe they wanted to keep the Wily groveling sprite from the ending because Wily just explodes when you beat him. The sprites of Wily jumping and groveling were placed in the computer screen when you die at his level.

• The final unused sprite set comes from ROCK.VFR. The Rock is NEVER shown this long in the game; it's always truncated. This version sure looks a lot more ... phallic. And maybe that's why it's always shortened!

Rockman Scramble Battle

The 20th annaversary gift that could have happened. To quote Nintendo Power (I think it was Nintendo power):

What are some ideas you had for Mega Man but ended up totally rejecting?

Takeshi Horinouchi: : In honor of Mega Man's 20th annaversary, I had planned to do a game where all the iterations of Mega Man could battle each other, but then I gave up on it. There just wasn't enough manpower on the Capcom development team to bring the game to fruition. At some point though, I'd still like to give it a shot.

This is all the information we know about this scrapped game.