Picked up a very cool Steel Battalion dev brochure.

Picked up a great Steel Battalion development promotional brochure and a promotional pamphlet from a seller by the name of GameDigga on Ebay. I took some high res photos rather than risk harming the document in a scanner. Some of the pages will not go flat so a scanner was out of the question. The Steel Battalion dev team group shot is the best part of this document (sbdev5.jpg). You see either early builds or incomplete builds of the controller on the bottom right in that group shot (sbdev7.jpg). The controller centerfold (sbdev11.jpg) has a foot pedal photo in the top right corner (sbdev15.jpg) that looks nothing like the final release.

 

Continuing with more pages.

 

...and the final pages.

 

Here is a Japanese Steel Battalion promotional pamphlet. This was probably used at trade shows/game expos.

 

This is the Steel Battalion Line Of Contact Pilot Test beta disc. I have read Capcom mailed these out to a lucky few to beta test "Line of Contact" before its final release. Both the NTSC and PAL versions are on the same disc and it is region free from what I understand.

 

Last, but not least here is a save game file that has been floating around on the Interwebs for awhile (dead links abound of course) to unlock all the VTs (vertical tanks/mechs) in "Line of Contact" so you can have some actual fun in a LAN game. I have not actually tried this yet so don't ask me for tech support. Instructions from the original author is included.

 

that tekki online pilot test disc looks just like mine. so it's for US/EU and not for Japan?

 

So looking at the Japanese final release "Line of Contact" front cover it looks very similar to the Pilot Test beta disc, but with red text and a NTSC-J in the top right corner. This is why I was not sure if Capcom released a separate beta disc for Japan since the European/North American beta disc has only NTSC/PAL in the top right corner. I am not sure that it really matters, but it would be nice to confirm if anyone might know.

 

Can LoC retail or this Beta be played without the LIVE service? Does it have LAN play?

 

Yep. Up to 10 players at a time via system link. I know some game expos, like PAX, still have matches. This being one example of a nice setup:



and

http://g-x.jp/4daaca66-3bac-4db9-8513-7e68caac1ca2 (use the Chrome browser to quickly translate of course)

 

It's actually the Seattle retro game expo that has the steel battalion games setup, I think its 10 in LAN mode and also 2 others for people to practice in single player. Sadly I've been busy every year so far but at least I have a setup at my place.
Also does the Xbox-ism Spring 2004 demo disc have a playable demo of LoC or is it just a video?

 

I went to the 2016 SRGE event, but I never ran across a Steel Battalion setup and that was a pretty small expo. I am a big fan of the mammoth Portland Retro Gaming Expo. I believe that one is the largest retro gaming expo in the country. No Steel Battalion setups there either even though they have a huge open play console area. I know some of the PAX events have big Steel Battalion matches and many of them are posted on Youtube. Pretty boring videos to watch though.

 

I have seen that setup at either Portland or Seattle. Can't recall which, but I also remember they had an X-Wing vs TIE Fighter setup one year, very cool. Thanks for posting all this looptranzit, very awesome stuff.

 

I am sure it has, but I attended the 2015 and 2016 PRGE and the 2016 SRGE and did not see a setup at those so it must have been a while back otherwise I would have been first in line. It's not often you get to have a good LAN match with SB: LoC. The PAX events seem to be the most consistent with their tournaments. You know these matches will become less and less common as these controllers start to break and you can only cannibalize for parts for so long.

As far as sharing my finds, no problem! Enjoy the hobby and sharing info with other enthusiasts.

 

So all these Steel Battalion items have been documented and donated to The Strong and if you ever get a chance definitely try and visit their museum in Rochester, NY.

 

That was just a video. The Pilot Test beta disc is the only playable pre-release copy of LoC that I know of.

 

Ah, you have probably also seen the pictures of the LoC build that borman had I assume.
There is a link here if you haven't. http://imgur.com/a/9dJjC

 

No, but pretty cool. I really wish it would get a backwards compatibility treatment on the current Xbox (then I might buy one), but I realize that is probably unrealistic.

 

Picked up a European Steel Battalion promotional pamphlet in mint condition from @wombat. Awesome piece and a great seller.

 

I was able to get a copy of the Pilot Test, seems the disc requires Xbox Live, system link is greyed out.