Proto:Mega Man X4 (PlayStation)

The sample version of Rockman X4 appeared on a Special Trial Disc which also contained demos of Rockman 8 (identical to the final) and Rockman: Battle & Chase.

Weapon Get/Title Screen


The title screen has the word "SAMPLE" written on it, but otherwise appears to be similar to the final game. Also, the preceding animation is bare-bones, containing only the logo animation present in the final version, similar to the US version.

In this build, the Weapon Get screens do not exist, as the game is programmed to go back to the Stage Select after completing a stage or defeating one of the available two Irregulars. Also, these graphics are not used in the title sequence, due to obvious reasons. Both use 16-color palettes here, and both are rough sketches.

Stage Select
X himself has all of the story poses he uses in the final, though the shading was tweaked to be a little more consistent. An error with one pose was also corrected.

Zero is more or less in the same state as X, with the exception of his action pose here, which wasn't quite up to snuff with the rest of his sprites. Otherwise, shading tweaks for the rest of his sprites.

In the stage select graphics, Double is the only side-character present in X and Zero's particular graphics files. Iris does not appear to exist at this point. At any rate, most of Double's changes were touch-ups between now and the final, although in particular he was no longer part of Zero's story by the time the Final rolled around.

Although the Repliforce stages do not exist in this build, Colonel has a placeholder portrait. His design may not have been decided upon by this point in development, although Repliforce as a concept was decided upon.

In-Game
For both X and Zero, graphics for their pause screens do exist, have their palettes, and match the finals, but are otherwise wholly disabled for this Sample build.

X's fourth armor is in an unfinished state: some sprites have been completed, others have only had some bare-bones details applied, and others haven't even been implemented yet. Also, X's armor functions only extend to the ability to charge sub-weapons and the ability to air dash. No other functions appear to be working.

Zero's sprites are in the middle of some all-over improvements in this build. Some sprites are identical to the final, while others are a bit rough around the edges. Although palettes for Zero's other techniques are present, the only ones that function in-game are the Raijingeki, Kuuenbu, and Hienkyaku.

Music and Sounds
Aside from the listed differences, the main tracks for all eight stages are present in this demo. However, only four of them can be heard in-game, and all but one of the unheard tracks doesn't resemble their final.

The title jingle, character select, dialogue musics, and character-specific victory themes do not exist in this version. Similarly, the title screen, character select screen, and the WARNING event before bosses are all missing sounds.

Split Mushroom


Although this stage is inaccessible in this build, by way of a stage modifier this track can be heard in-game. It is unfinished, lacking a lot of the instruments that come into the final, though this may have been intended to be similar to Frost Walrus' stage, where two different tracks of music are used for the two parts.

Weapon Get/Stage Select


An earlier form of the final's Weapon Get tune, although here it is used as the Stage Select music. The final's stage select music isn't present.

'Capcom' voice


Found in both X's (PL00.ARC) and Zero's (PL01.ARC) file data. Just a voice saying "Capcom".

Power Fighters sounds


Likewise, the above two sounds from the Mega Man arcade games found in player files.

In an early preview video, X and Zero borrowed placeholder voices from Rockman and Forte. These could be leftovers from a sound archive to the arcade titles.

FONT8X8.ARC


This file, removed from the final, contains an 8&times;8 ASCII character set and three palettes for the text. It reappears in the file data of Mega Man X5 and X6, along with its colors, although it doesn't appear to be used there either.

Collision Tiles?


Similar to the ones in the Rockman 8 prototypes, these tilesets have four colors, and represent individual collision tiletypes. Like the contents of FONT8X8, though, there is no known way to get them to appear in-game. It is loaded into its own space in VRAM, but is removed in the final.

It returns in Mega Man X5, and is loaded into a different section of VRAM in X6.