Final fantasy tactics betas

WOW! i can't believe it finally happened

 

here's pics of the discs (both the beta and the first master copy), as well as a few digital grabs from the beta via my digital camcorder (direct feed).

http://www.phosphors.com/fft%20debug/fft%20beta.jpg
http://www.phosphors.com/fft%20debug/fft%20master.jpg

[normal mode]


debug is activated with a controller in the 2nd port using the L1 button
(repeated presses of L1 cycle through the host of debug menus)












the infamous "top down" screen (toggled using the select button on the 2nd controller). the start button on the 2nd controller allows you to toggle pausing the game for fantastic mid [summon] screen grabs

 

WOW! what is Think, mode and entry for?

by the way i've sent you a PM...

and, you have _2_ copies of it?

 

think: normal (can be toggled to [manual] as well)
normal - all enemy and npc characters are controlled by the program
manual - you move and control everything on the board (think of it as a potentially 2-player FFT

I'm trying locate all of my emails and other corespondence from 1997 when I worked on the guide. however, that may take a while...

one copy is the beta (w/ debug), the other the final master (same as the original retail version). I'd have to dig through my stuff, but I still have everything that I've ever received while authoring for prima (betas, art assets, etc..) somewhere in the vault (aka the basement) ^_^

 

if you could share some it would be great... i've been waiting for so long for a FFT beta to surface! even this topic is ancient

 

Woah, that's just lovely~

Does the debugger also allow for map selection and/or scenario/story jumps of some sort ?
(and evt. unit swap/stat changing)

A 2player fixed FFT would be awesome





Also, I dunno if anyone's ever bothered checking around about it, but the Japanese version has some sort of Airship mini-game that never made it to the localized version, anyone know if it's somehow accessible in the English version (or maybe through debugger ?)

 

wow.

what other hidden treasures did prima give to you while you were a writer?

 

i'm willingly to pay for a community release, or the right to dl or even for the original disc, so please jmratkos contact me by PM...


by the way, what else have you found in your vault?

 

I'm still going through things (I've got waaaay too much stuff) but I found all of the fft correspondence from squaresoft as well as a few other betas from guides that I've worked on (star ocean 2, valkyrie profile and spryro the dragon).

funny part is the 1st rev of spyro that I received required a memory card with a protected file (which I had to send back so that one won't run any more

as far as supplying them to the community, unfortunately that will not happen by me. I signed a contract when I authored the books which I consider to still be binding which prohibits me from disclosing any confidential information (or giving away the publisher's materials). however, I'd be glad to answer any questions that I can concerning the betas and/or guides that I worked on.

 

:noooo:

/me *dies*

not even if i'l comply to the contract in your stead? i'm more than willingly to buy it

anyway i can understand you, tought i consider it such a piiiiiiiiiiiity

if money can't help, a least show me something else to drool on... any debug option in the world map and such? anything else crazy you can do?

 

like I said, let me know what you'd like to see and I'll try and oblige. now that I've uncovered the correspondence, let me peruse it and put together another email with everything that "debug" would allow you to do.

if after my next post, you still have questions about stuff, just give a shout.

 

ok, thank you anyway. it's like being 10 inch to your dream and missing it

but at least i'll be able to see it... just wondering, in your debug copy there's different files that on the pressed copy? or just the files contin different data in it for allowing debug menu' entrance and such?

by the way, looking forward to you next post

 

I'd go reread the contract, most NDAs have expiration dates that tend to hit the day the game is released, at least from what I've been told. Since you were a guide writer it probably would have been done mostly to keep you from spilling the beans to a magazine and have them get the rush on a full guide prior to theirs being published. By now I'd wager the NDA is long over and they probably don't care aside from any company that still wants their copyright uninfringed.

As for Spyro, that's probably crackable.

 

jmratkos, if your contracts is expired, would you consider my offer?

and by the way i'm still curious to see what will come out of your Vault....

 

no news? no news at all?

 

sorry for the lack of responses, but my job is very demanding. look for something from me this weekend.

 

I'm looking, i'm looking

 

I got sucked into working this weekend so I didn't have any time to look at the beta again until now, and I find my camcorder's battery has gone dead.
rest assured, I've been reading through the debug email to come to grips with how it functions [again], so I'll try to play some tomorrow and post all of the rest of its features (along with plenty of images).

one more thing that I found (which I is also accessible via a gameshark code as well), is when you turn on debug mode (2nd controller port L1 button (4x), then x button) and then access the menu option from the game (triangle button), you get a new debug option which allowed you to modify the characters' stats (from within battles).

once I get home this evening, I'll mess around with it and post some screens.
I can't remember if you had the ability to jump to any given map level, but I'll look into that as well.


also to answer carnivol's comment about an airship mini game, actually what was removed from the japanese version of the game were 3 sound novel type bonuses acquired by completing specific trader tasks (one of them being an airship soundnovel).

I believe that there was just way too much text for squaresoft to spend on the translation and localization, so they were dropped in the english language versions.

 

karsten,
sorry, I must have completely overlooked this response from you. I'll check the files of the beta vs. a retail copy tonight and post the results as well as the rest of the debug options that I find (although dates and file sizes on the discs probably won't tell us too much).

 

rather than clog up the thread with loads of big images, I've decided to just post a url link for the folder containing all of the images referred to in the text below.
so, with that said, the images for this post can be found in http://www.phosphors.com/fft%20debug/07.24.2006/

as stated before the L1 button on the controller plugging into port 2, allows the player to access the debug options.
[entry] specifies which grouping you want to affect
can be cycled through many options including [for characters], [for monsters], [for map], etc...
[debug] activates the debug options
toggles between on/off
[think] allows control of npc's and enemy units, in addition to those controlled by the player
toggles between normal and manual

image 00001
with [debug] turned on, an additional option, "debug" appears off of the main menu which is brought up by pressing the triangle button
image 00002
the "Loading..." text on the transitions between cutscenes and battles displays as "transparent stop"

images 00003 through 00012
shows how you can alter the stats of a character. I believe that you can alter the stats of "enemy" units as well by changing the [entry] value to [for monsters], but I'd have to verify to confirm that.

images 00013 through 00015
as stated previously, the start button on port 2's controller operates as a pause/resume button allows to capture very nice images of during battle exchanges and summonings.

images 00017 through 00021
using the triangle button to bring up the menu off of the map screen, new options "flag" and "debug" are visible. debug allows to you wisk your current party to different battles, however in this instance, garbage character text appeared at the top of the formation placement window (evident in image 00019)

that's all for now.