Proto:VA-11 Hall-A: Cyberpunk Bartender Action
This page details one or more prototype versions of VA-11 Hall-A: Cyberpunk Bartender Action.
In 2015, following the game being shown off at PAX East, a (Windows-only) "Special Demo Version" of VA-11 Hall-A was released, taking place in between the Prologue and the final game.
On the surface, this demo version is closer to the full game than the PAX East demo was, there is still a notable amount of unfinished content hidden inside.
Unlike the full game, the demo packs itself and all of its resources into a single executable. To be able to view them, all you have to do is open the .exe in any normal archive tool, such as 7-Zip or WinRAR, and extract the resources along with the game's "real" executable.
 | To do: Check for other unused graphics in the sprite dump (see talk page) |
Contents
Unfinished Rooms
Although the demo normally ends once the bar closes for the day, some of the other locations/features from the full game are present, but are generally not finished. Most of this stuff can be seen in various posts from the game's development blog, but would ultimately undergo some noticeable changes.
To replace the normal end-of-game screen with one of these, open the file "data.win" in a hex editor (after extracting it; see above) and change the byte at offset 0x17F03C to one of the following values:
- 09: Break time
- 0A: Jill's bedroom
- 0B: "GPD Mayhem 3" minigame
- 0C: Unused logo/splash screen
The value 0D corresponds to a room titled "debug_room", but this is actually totally empty and trying to access it just leads to an inescapable black screen. What a tease.
| To do: Comparison screenshots for these |
Break Time
This room uses the old break graphic which is still present in the final game, but does not show the "save" and "title" buttons nor the monologuing from Jill that was visible in the prerelease blog post. Trying to continue past this screen results in a fatal script error.
This screen can be seen in a blog post from November 2014.
Jill's Room
This is Jill's room as shown off in a March 2015 blog post, and features an overall earlier design, including for Jill's tablet. The tablet in this version of the room still has the "training mode" app on it, but this doesn't do anything. Similarly, the other clickable things in the room either do nothing (including the menu at the bottom) or do very little (such as the Augmented Eye icon, which just displays a blank news page.
GPD Mayhem 3
This is what the shmup minigame was before Model Warrior Julianne had been created. The title isn't actually displayed anywhere in the demo, but is visible in a development blog post where a GIF of the minigame in action can be seen.
In the demo version, the enemies stop coming rather abruptly, leaving you to fly around endlessly.
Splash Screen
An unused third splash screen which would have presumably been shown at the beginning of the game. The sprite displayed here is named "wologo".
Unused Intro Text
An alternate version of the text from the middle part of the intro (where Jill is in the convenience store) can be found in the code for the object called "finalintro". The version that's actually used is handled by the object "jillintro" instead. (Both of these objects still exist in the final game, but finalintro's code no longer has the alternate text.)
| finalintro (Unused) | jillintro (Used) |
|---|---|
| There's always news about gruesome deaths, powerful people bending the laws to their every whim and brutality on both ends of the law while the life quality for the non-powerful decreases at a constant pace.
It's not unheard for people to seek ways to cope with all of this. Some dedicate themselves to their jobs or studies, some seek a better life away from this place, some just give up one way or the other. But for many, the answer lies at the bottom of a glass. |
Here, brutality in all its forms is an everyday reality. The quality of life for the non-powerful decreases at an alarming rate.
For many, this can be overwhelming. Some devote themselves to their jobs, their families, or even their studies. Some look for ways to escape this place, and others... just give up. But for many of them, the answer lies at the bottom of a glass. |
Unfinished Scripts
Contained within the "scripts" directory, alongside the demo version's script, are early versions of the dialogue from the first four days of the final game. Aside from needing a bit of proofreading compared to the final game, there are also several conversations with some interesting differences in writing.
The scripts for days 1 through 3 are actually referenced by the game and have most of the appropriate programming intact, though the scripts don't work 100% correctly for reasons which include the no-longer-working break time screen. Also, the demo version of the game has no way to transition from the bar to Jill's room, so presumably even if you could reach the end of one of the scripts, the game would just loop back to the beginning of the script like the final game still does when playing the test script.
The script for day 4 is totally unused, and also much more noticeably unfinished. Most lines are completely lacking in control/event codes, and about halfway into the script, numerous human-readable comments can be seen which indicate the possible flow of events.
Additionally, in the root directory, several more script files can be found, some containing even earlier versions of conversations. These differences are also included on the respective subpages.
- "intro.txt" contains an early version of part of Kira Miki's conversation from day 2. The entire conversation can be seen in the same developer blog post which showed off an early design for her; this script file may have been written specifically for that post.
- "sample_texts.txt" contains various other conversations from days 1 through 3, including yet another version of the aforementioned conversation with Miki.
Almost every line of these early script revisions have differences in formatting, control codes, punctuation, fixed typos, et cetera. For the sake of sticking to the good stuff, these differences will be skipped over unless they make up part of a larger, more interesting revision.
 | Day 1 |
| To do: the rest of the script differences |
Unused Scripts
The files "question_example.txt", "sampletext2.txt", and "text_engine_test_final.txt" in the game's root directory contain various scripts for demonstrating the text engine. None of these are referenced by the game anymore.
sampletext2.txt
[E:1]
This is text
[XS:showchara,doro]She wants a sweet drink
[XS:charalips,1]Hello[XS:charalips,0][E:2]
The textbox reapeared.
[XS:charalips,1]Branching happened!!![XS:charalips,0]
[XS:charalips,1]Bye bye![XS:charalips,0][XS:cs,none][E:2]
text_engine_test_final.txt
This is the demo script for the version of nacho_chicken's "Dynamic Textbox Engine" for GameMaker Studio.
ERROR SETTING POINTER[E:0]
[N:nacho_chicken]Welcome to the sixth version of my textbox engine.
Thanks to many small demos that highlight individual features,[P:15]#there's no need for a huge rundown of features like there was#in previous versions of this engine.
Try out the demos provided,[P:10] and enjoy!
PS: Trying to advance text while it's still typing#shows all text at once.[E:0]
Text speed can be normal.[P:45]#[S:S]Text speed can be slow.[S:N][P:45]#Text speed can be [S:R]very slow[S:N].[E:0]
You want to see pausing?[P:45]#Too bad.[P:20] Not going to happen.
Wait a second[P:5].[P:10].[P:10].[P:30] I already did it![E:0]
[C:1]Red[C:C] [C:2]Green [C:3]Blue [C:4]Gray [C:C]Normal#If textbox_maxcolors is default,#[C:1]this will not be red[C:C].[E:0]
[N:Namebox]Hey, I have a namebox!
[N:0]I don't...[P:35]#Wait,[P:15] [N:Namebox 2]now I do![E:0]
I've got a gun![V:0]
[F:0,0]BANG![P:30] [F:0,0]BANG![E:0]
[IN:0,0,Y,96][IA:0,1,Y,Y][IA:0,2,Y,Y][IN:1,1,N,224][IA:1,2,Y,Y][S:S][V:M]How are you today?[IS:0,1]
[IA:1,1,Y,Y][V:L]Beat it, kid.[IS:1,1]
[IO:0,1,Y][IA:0,1,Y,Y][IA:0,2,Y,Y][V:M]Fine, then![IS:0,1][P:30][IC:0][IW:1,0] [E:0]
[V:H]This is the high voice[P:20]#[V:M]This is the medium voice[P:20]#[V:L]This is the low voice[P:20]#[V:T]This is the thought voice
[V:0]And text with no voice[E:0]
Your level is currently [X:test_level].#Setting level variable to 7...
[XS:test_level,7]Whoops![P:15]#Now it's [X:test_level].[E:0]
question_example.txt
This is also a demo of the aforementioned textbox engine.
ERROR SETTING POINTER[E:0]
Would you like to see the text speed demonstration?[QP:0,1][QP:1,2][Q:Y][E:0]
Then what about the pausing demonstration?[QT:0,I guess][QT:1,I said no][QP:0,3][QP:1,4][Q:Y][E:0]
Fine then,[P:15] be that way![E:0]
Which of these would you like to see demonstrated?[QT:0,Colored text][QT:1,Namebox][QT:2,Sound effects][QT:3,Cut-ins][QT:4,Voices][QT:5,Nothing][QP:0,5][QP:1,6][QP:2,7][QP:3,8][QP:4,9][QP:5,10][Q:6][E:0]
Be on your way.[E:0]
