Virtua Fighter (Arcade)

Virtua Fighter
Developer: Sega AM2 Publisher: Sega Platform: Arcade (Sega Model 1) Released in JP: December 1993 Released in US: October 1993 Released in EU: October 1993 This game has unused playable characters. This game has hidden development-related text. This game has unused graphics. This game has unused models. This game has unused sounds. This game has a hidden sound test. This game has a prerelease article

Virtua Fighter is the granddaddy of 3D fighting games, a landmark in animating realistic 3D characters, and one of a handful of games enshrined at the Smithsonian. It's also got a lot of unused content.

Sub-Page

Prerelease Info

Unused Characters

Four characters not accessible normally can be enabled through the use of MAME cheats.

Jeff is a military character who wears camo gear, a hat, and shades, of which the latter two can be knocked off in a fight. While playable, his moveset is clearly unfinished: he uses a handful of Jacky's techniques and lacks throws.

Majido is perhaps better known as Siba. He was seen in pre-release screenshots and even featured on the international arcade cabinet for the game (albeit mislabeled as "Akira"). He later appeared as a hidden character in Fighters Megamix. At the point in development where he was scrapped, his name had been changed to Majido. However, his move list is also quite sparse, cribbing from Sarah and Lau, and lacks basic throws.

This character appears before Akira in the character data table (and uses Akira's name in combat), indicating that he may have been an early design for Akira. Like the other unused characters above, he has only a very basic moveset with no throws.

This unnamed character is unique in that he's the only character to have three different outfits. All 3 of his models appear after Akira in the character data tables. Dural's name and moveset are attached to him, making it likely that he may have been intended as a boss character. Like Dural, he has no portrait.

Here are movies of all four characters in action:

To play as these characters, insert these codes into the MAME cheats vf.xml file.

Replace Akira with Majido:

<cheat desc="Replace Akira with Majido">
    <script state="on">
      <action>temp0 =maincpu.ow@FD2EE7</action>
      <action>temp1 =maincpu.ow@FD2EBB</action>
      <action>temp2 =maincpu.od@FD2A73</action>
      <action>temp3 =maincpu.ow@FD2A93</action>
      <action>temp4 =maincpu.ow@FD2AB3</action>
      <action>temp5 =maincpu.ow@FD2AD3</action>
    </script>
    <script state="run">
      <action>maincpu.ow@FD2EE7=33AF</action>  <!-->Model and data-->
      <action>maincpu.ow@FD2EBB=4843</action>  <!-->Model 2 and data-->
      <action>maincpu.od@FD2A73=001D1A8F</action> <!-->Portrait-->
      <action>maincpu.ow@FD2A93=0B37</action> <!--> Character Select Name P1 -->
      <action>maincpu.ow@FD2AB3=14F7</action> <!--> Character Select Name P2 -->
      <action>maincpu.ow@FD2AD3=D773</action> <!--> Bio -->
 
    </script>
    <script state="off">
      <action>maincpu.ow@FD2EE7=temp0 </action>
      <action>maincpu.ow@FD2EBB=temp1 </action>
      <action>maincpu.od@FD2A73=temp2 </action>
      <action>maincpu.ow@FD2A93=temp3 </action>
      <action>maincpu.ow@FD2A93=temp4 </action>      
      <action>maincpu.ow@FD2AD3=temp5 </action>
    </script>
    </cheat>

Replace Akira with Jeff:

<cheat desc="Replace Akira with Jeff">
    <script state="on">
      <action>temp0 =maincpu.ow@FD2EE7</action>
      <action>temp1 =maincpu.ow@FD2EBB</action>
      <action>temp2 =maincpu.od@FD2A73</action>
      <action>temp3 =maincpu.ow@FD2A93</action>
      <action>temp4 =maincpu.ow@FD2AB3</action>
      <action>temp5 =maincpu.ow@FD2AD3</action>
    </script>
    <script state="run">
      <action>maincpu.ow@FD2EE7=3C7B</action>  <!-->Model and data-->
      <action>maincpu.ow@FD2EBB=4CA5</action>  <!-->Model 2 and data-->
      <action>maincpu.od@FD2A73=001D1A8F</action> <!-->Portrait-->
      <action>maincpu.ow@FD2A93=09FF</action> <!--> Character Select Name P1 -->
      <action>maincpu.ow@FD2AB3=11EB</action> <!--> Character Select Name P2 -->
      <action>maincpu.ow@FD2AD3=C95B</action> <!--> Bio -->
 
    </script>
    <script state="off">
      <action>maincpu.ow@FD2EE7=temp0 </action>
      <action>maincpu.ow@FD2EBB=temp1 </action>
      <action>maincpu.od@FD2A73=temp2 </action>
      <action>maincpu.ow@FD2A93=temp3 </action>
      <action>maincpu.ow@FD2A93=temp4 </action>      
      <action>maincpu.ow@FD2AD3=temp5 </action>
    </script>
    </cheat>

Replace Akira with Early Akira:

 
  <cheat desc="Replace Akira with Early Akira">
    <script state="on">
      <action>temp0 =maincpu.ow@FD2EE7</action>
      <action>temp1 =maincpu.ow@FD2EBB</action>
      <action>temp2 =maincpu.ow@FD2AD3</action>
    </script>
    <script state="run">
      <action>maincpu.ow@FD2EE7=3DF9</action> <!--> Model and data-->
      <action>maincpu.ow@FD2EBB=4E23</action> <!--> Model 2 and data-->
      <action>maincpu.ow@FD2AD3=B437</action> <!--> Bio -->
 
    </script>
    <script state="off">
      <action>maincpu.ow@FD2EE7=temp0 </action>
      <action>maincpu.ow@FD2EBB=temp1 </action>
      <action>maincpu.ow@FD2AD3=temp2 </action>
    </script>
    </cheat>

Replace Akira with unnamed character models 1 and 2:

 
  <cheat desc="Replace Akira with Boss 1 and 2">
    <script state="on">
      <action>temp0 =maincpu.ow@FD2EE7</action>
      <action>temp1 =maincpu.ow@FD2EBB</action>
    </script>
    <script state="run">
      <action>maincpu.ow@FD2EE7=510F</action> <!--> Model and data-->
      <action>maincpu.ow@FD2EBB=5285</action> <!--> Model 2 and data-->
 
    </script>
    <script state="off">
      <action>maincpu.ow@FD2EE7=temp0 </action>
      <action>maincpu.ow@FD2EBB=temp1 </action>
    </script>
    </cheat>

Replace Akira with unnamed character and Dural:

 
  <cheat desc="Replace Akira with Boss 3 and Dural">
    <script state="on">
      <action>temp0 =maincpu.ow@FD2EE7</action>
      <action>temp1 =maincpu.ow@FD2EBB</action>
    </script>
    <script state="run">
      <action>maincpu.ow@FD2EE7=53FB</action> <!--> Model and data-->
      <action>maincpu.ow@FD2EBB=369B</action> <!--> Model 2 and data-->
 
    </script>
    <script state="off">
      <action>maincpu.ow@FD2EE7=temp0 </action>
      <action>maincpu.ow@FD2EBB=temp1 </action>
    </script>
    </cheat>

(Source: mountainmanjed)

Unused Name Graphics

The names Takeru, Tao, Willie, and Jeff can be seen amongst the character names. Willie is an early name for Jeffry and Tao is an early name for Lau (as seen in pre-release screens). Takeru is completely unused through normal means, but appears in the ranking screen upon finishing the game with the early Akira design, indicating that the name was attached to this character. Strangely enough, the name of "Willie" also appears in the ranking screen if the player completes the game using Jeffery Buckman. Lau and Jeffry's final, altered names are not pre-made sprite maps, but instead rendered using the in-game font.

Jeffry and Lau's names were likely changed due to copyright concerns: Jeffry is quite obviously modeled after real-life martial artist Willie "Bear Killer" Williams, while a similar-looking character to Lau named Tao appears in Dragon Ball.

Majido is used for an unused character seen above, as is Jeff.

In addition, there is a select screen graphic for the name Yagyu, an early name for Kage.

The name Shiiba also has a select screen graphic. This is a romanized version of how "Siba" would be written in Japanese (シーバ).

(Source: mountainmanjed)

Unused Character Bios

Every character in the game has a bio that appears on the select screen. A handful of these go totally unused, while two are altered via graphics patching. Strangely, the blood type data is not stored with the rest of the bio.

This bio corresponds with the character Jeff, whose full name is Jeffery Buckman -- a likely tribute to actual VF1 design staff member Jeffrey Buchanan. The name Jeffery (minus an e) would eventually be shifted to another character.

This bio corresponds to Majido.

This bio corresponds to the character Takeru, which is the early Akira design shown above.

Akira's bio. This is mostly identical to the final, but Akira's last name is Ryuzaki instead of Yuki.

This bio is mostly identical to Lau's final bio. The "Tao" part of the name is patched over in the final version.

This bio is almost identical to Jeffry's besides the name, which is patched over with new graphics in the final version.

(Source: mountainmanjed)

Early/Unused Character Select Screen

An unused character select screen is present in the game's code, however, many of the graphics it once utilized have been moved or overwritten. The basic layout can still be seen, and scraps of unused character select graphics can be seen here (and in some cases, reconstructed, as with the bizarre-looking Dural above). Dural and the unnamed brown-haired character have portraits here, whereas they lack them in the final.

This is likely an early character select, however, the placement of the objects hints that it may have been involved in an unused cabinet-link tournament and/or league mode. It is two-player versus only and doesn't allow mirror matches.

To access this screen, use the following MAME cheat:

<cheat desc="Beta Character Select">
    <script state="run">
      <action>maincpu.pb@40ff34=04</action>
    </script>
  </cheat>

(Source: mountainmanjed)

Unused Names on the Best Times Screen

The following string can be viewed in the Main CPU while the Best Times ranking screen is displaying.

TOM.LAU.JACKY.KAGE.MAJIDO.WOLF.DURAL.SARAH.PAI.JEFFRY.WILLIE.AKIRA.TAKERU.

Unused Game Mode Remnants

The following string can be viewed in a MAME debugger while in Test Mode:

NORMAL.TOURNAMENT.LEAGUE.TOURNAMENT BARCODE................NO LINK.MASTER.SLAVE.LIVE.......................
REAL1.REAL2.TOY1.TOY2.SELECT1.SELECT2.

(Source: mountainmanjed)

Unused Voice Samples

Announcer

Unused dialogue by the announcer are found in the game's code. They describe the moves and actions executed by the players and their chosen fighters, perhaps for play-by-play commentary.

Name	Sound
Tomoe Nage
Power Bomb
German Suplex Hold
Seoi Nage
Ippon Seoi
Ura Nage
Back Drop
Rock Drop
High Kick
Low Kick
Kick
Turnaround Kick
Turning Kick
Jump Kick
Flying Kick
Rear Kick
Uppercut
Straight
Hook
Punch
Jab
Knuckle Bomber
Flying Bomber
Flying Knuckle
Elbow Attack
Knee Attack
Pachi Pachi Punch
PPPK
PPK
Body Slam
Body Lift
Splash Mountain
Northern Light Bomb
Elbow Drop
Brain Buster
Shower Kick
Giant Swing
Guillotine Drop
Neckbreaker Drop
Surface Kick
Kangaroo Kick
Flip Kick
Front Suplex
Flying Foot Hold
Octopus Hold
Cobra Twist
Drop Kick
Rolling Sole Butt
Sole Butt
DDT
Power Slam
Face Crusher
Stretch Plum
Sleeper Hold
Tai Otoshi