After the game was released on SNES I saw a video at a Toys R Us kiosk that showed a clearly superior version with much more fluid sprite animation. It was not the arcade version. The color depth was much lower, the character size was smaller, and the backgrounds were side-scrolling instead of FMV or 3D. The kiosk only featured Nintendo games and had a large panel under a display with buttons and art for released and future game titles. The recent video kiosks at GameStop remind me of them. I identified KI v1.1 LONG before the ROM community released it back when I discovered that the version bundled with the SNES Killer Set was not compatible with the XBAND video game modem (exchanged several times). Anyway, there is a so-called "8MB" BETA ROM released, but it doesn't seem to work on any emulators. Could this be it? I'd love to know! I'm really kicking myself for not buying the gray-cart version of Killer Instinct I saw at a San Diego flea market ~November 2007. I thought it was a pirate cart and then I remembered how rare those were for SNES. Speaking of pirate SNES carts, I do have a pirate Rockman 7 Super Famicom cart I got from Goodwill in Newnan, GA in 2008. I have no idea why it was there! It absolutely was pirated but it even had gamebit screws (the first pirated GBA games I saw had Tri-wing screws and even birated boxes/inserts). They obviously didn't try too hard because it had raised text on the back instead of a gray label and the label art was poorly printed with black flecks all over. I took it apart and confirmed that it was pirated, but I do recall a friend getting a copy of Paperboy 2 with raised lettering on the back of a US cart (no label).
Back in the hey day of the Super Famicom / SNES I had pretty much every title including betas. Not proud of piracy but I guess I was too young to give a toss back then. Anyway, the 8MB Killer Instinct is real and it is different than the final game and it will work on a Super Wildcard or Profighter (they're the two systems I mostly used). There were other betas that only became "released" in recent years such as Star Fox 2 which had many different builds although none could be played due to no back up system having the hardware to make it happen. Back in my UK home I have hundreds of floppy discs with some very cool beta software for the SNES. Some if which still don't seem to be on ROM sites. Will these discs still function? Maybe since I did check a few out last year when I went home. I really want to get my beta of Run Saber since that has the Geisha Girl in it. That was replaced in the final release with a skeleton.
Consider my interest piqued! Also been interested in that copy of Run Saber ever since I saw the thread talking about just that. Definitely try to look through them the next chance you get.
Hey, so how big is the "8MB" beta rom that you have found? A few I checked out unzip to about 1MB, giving me doubts that the animation would be better in a smaller rom. BTW, does anyone remember the Nintendo Power video sent out about Donkey Kong Country a LOOOOOOOOOOOONG time ago? Remember in the end, it showed all those guys playing Killer Instinct. I wonder if it is the same version that was on display at Toys R Us? Anyway, I can only assume the rom is mislabeled "8MB" instead of "mb". I'll test the rom out on my SD2SNES and see what happens. EDIT****** No dice on the SD2SNES. I will give it a sot on my Super Everdrive later.
When I said 8MB for the Killer Instinct cart I did of course mean 8mega bit so about 3/4 of a HD floppy disc. They held 12megabit if I remember rightly. I have no idea if the animation was better or not. The backgrounds were indeed worse looking for the most part but the character profile pics were the ones from the arcade but not animated.
Yeah. I never confuse MB and Mb but it seems that the ROM is mis-named. It really is 1MB, 8Mb, which is much smaller than the final game. "You still want MORE?!" That was the arcade version. It was hard to make out but, IIRC, I think it was Thunder vs. Sabrewulf or Riptor. Out of context, I thought Thunder looked more like a rocker with a mohawk rather than a Native American with a feathered headdress.
Possibly. It unzips to a little over 1MB. I'm gonna give it a go on the everdrive and bsnes to see if it works on either of those.
Sounds like it will be the same one. It's been well over 15 years since I saw it but I do remember that the still shots for the characters were taken from the arcade game. They were changed in the final game. I'm pretty sure all characters were not playable plus that ice guy, Glacier? (Sorry, I can't remember the names) had many glitched frames of animation as did T-Hawk when doing his upper headbut move. I do clearly remember the rooftop stage looking quite different with different floor texture and lights in the corners of the stage.
Indeed that is the one! I'm sure I remember it being 1 player compatible though. But yes, all of those CRC errors were in the one I had way back in the early 90's. The different title music, missing voice announcements, arcade CG portraits for some characters and so on. His ROM link is down due to it being Megaupload but that game should be the 8Megabit version.
Definitely not the one I was looking for. The one shown in the kiosk was probably based on what was shown at E3 in 1995: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cks48VONQDU&t=2m41s The link above is formatted to link to the specific time but if you are watching in a mobile app or something that doesn't support it just skip to 2:41. Note all the extra frames of animation and the slower arcade-like speed of many of the combos. In particular, look at the idle animations on the character select screen. Also, look at Orchid's final pose, which is a million times better than the two-frame flutter the final game had. I don't think there's any way this could have fit in a 32Mbit SNES cart so I wonder if it was originally intended to be 48, 64Mbit? The N64 game was 96Mbit and even it didn't have the room for such fluid animation. It certainly looks to have been in a playable state and I'd LOVE to play it. The final version seems like a totally different game, so I wouldn't doubt it if they started the port all over after scaling it back some. Compared to, say, Mortal Kombat 3 on PSX: MAN wound that have blown people away in 1995!
Nope. SNES event at E3 1995. The kiosk I was watching was also promoting the SNES game (why would TRU promote something they don't sell?). The arcade was already released. The character color depth is lower. The backgrounds are not 3D or FMV. The character select shows idle animations and not spinning characters. The SNES is certainly capable. The only thing needed for fluid animation is a larger cartridge. DKC had fluid animation with 32Mbits because it didn't have to have so many characters. To fit everything in the SNES KI, stuff had to go. Character size was also dynamic in the arcade and bigger when they were that close together. You can even see some patterned floors that are only known to exist elsewhere in the 1MB/8Mbit SNES BETA.
The characters are way too big for the SNES to handle at that speed, the colour depth is too deep and the overall quality in resolution even from that poor video is too high. Game companies often use CGI demos in place of the real deal at events all the time. Nintendo did it with the N64 showing workstation powered games saying that they were N64 games. Sega have done it too when promoting Daytona and Virtua Fighter in Japan for the Saturn. They used arcade footage because there was no Saturn footage at the time.
The video from E3 is slightly different from the arcade version of the game. It has a different combo score transition and the fighters don't rotate on the select screen. Maybe a alternative version of the arcade game? KI 1.5? I like the foreground objects and the swinging lamps on that stage, is that stage even in the arcade or snes version as I don't remember seeing it before? Jump to 2:40 for the game footage
It was a secret stage. Both player held Up and pressed Medium Punch, IIRC. There were other secret stages. IIRC, Down + MK was a floating air arena tht a character could fall off of with the very first knock into the air. As for the character size: I haven't watched again but I remember thinking that screen was cropped. It is a projector, after all. I recall pointing out to my brother that the characters were no bigger than the final SNES version on the TRU kiosk. Also, the SNES could handle large character sprites with a coprocessor, like the "FX2" in SMY: Y's I. Perhaps they intended to use special hardware before they scaled it back?
