Inside the arcade version of Virtua Fighter 1 there are some leftovers of some incomplete characters and these codes were recovered. There is a preliminary version of Akira (which curiously gives him the look of Ryo Hazuki) and another that seems to be a Jeffry quite early that call him Jeff and that will remind you mightily someone in the saga Tekken.
in fighting vipers there are unused models of tails and sonic which would be later used for sonic xtreme promotions
The one that came out after and completely ripped off VF, that Tekken saga? Namco did a good job though, Tekken was the shit back in the day.
Thats fucking awesome! I just KNEW there were unused things left in the game! Akira looks like kenshiro from Hokuto no ken. Also, lau looks like Jack from Tekken and that Arab dude was on early cabs and magazine screenshots for sure! (And fighters megamix)
This is awesome. I love the look of alternate Akira, kinda reminds me of Kazuya or Jin from Tekken. A typical karate gi is a little bland for my taste, the alternate outfit gives some much needed personality. The other characters look neat too, sega should have kept them in to up the roster. I suppose it would be wishful thinking as to whether the saturn or 32x versions of VF1 include traces of these character models. Geez, the prototype Jeff is even in the desert with canyons in the distance, just like Prototype Jack from Tekken 2.
Very interesting, I wonder if Namco was hacking around VF and decided to make Kazuya/Jin and Jack based on the unused characters.
I'm so pleased we finally got to see the original in-game models for Siba, as his alternate costume in Fighters Megamix had to be created from scratch years after he was initially scrapped (allegedly due to nobody at AM2 being able to find the classic assets - his wireframe mesh was remade especially to fit within the Saturn's polygonal limitations). Also, it's now blatantly clear that some of the characters in the first two Tekken games were recycled by Seiichi Ishii, who coordinated the production of VF1 in addition to providing some design. Presumably he was able to secure the rights to use those leftovers for himself once he moved from Sega to join Namco, ironically around the same time that Kenji Sasaki transferred the other way, working on Ridge Racer then directing Sega Rally, which featured an evolution of the same basic drifting mechanic.
Those models were put into Fighting Vipers by one of AM2's programmers with no intention of these making it into the final product, but when Sonic Team saw the results, they requested a full-blown game based on this idea, leading to the creation of Sonic The Fighters. I've read that a certain executive within Sega of America (whose background might have included running a toy company) had concerns about their child-friendly mascot being promoted in such a way, which is partly why the arcade version was retitled for its US release.
I wonder is Siba had his own move set (if it is buried somewhere in the game) or if he was just going to use something similar to Akira. Would be amazing if someone could hack the roms of the real game and get these mods working on a real board instead of the sadly still flawed mame emulation. I know there are roms for the real fighting vipers board that enables those easter eggs (will need to make a video of that eventually, perhaps soon)
