X-Men: Children of the Atom (Arcade)

X-Men: Children of the Atom
Developer: Capcom Publisher: Capcom Platform: Arcade (CP System II) Released in JP: December 1994 Released in US: January 1995 Released in EU: January 1995 Released in BR: 1995 Released in AS: December 1994 This game has unused graphics. This game has unused text. This game has debugging material. This game has regional differences. This game has revisional differences. This game has a notes page

X-Men: Children of the Atom is a fighting game starring everyone's favorite mutants and their enemies, plus a hidden, playable Ryu/Ken head swap master warrior that opened the floodgates for a crossover series.

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Notes

Debug Menu

A debug menu is accessible by setting FFEAEB to E5 and entering the test menu.

Option	Function
HIT EDITOR	A character editor. Make sure to disable character cheats, or the game will lock up with Wolverine's name on the screen. Controls: 1P Start - Selects between Character Move and Hit Editor modes. 2P Start - Selects the background color. Some background color causes another character to appear. LP - Select character or effect (use joystick. To select Akuma, set the character in the debug menu as the last effect, then set FF4051 to 18; his name will appear as nine question marks). MP - Animates. HP - Animates, but faster (effective mostly on Psylocke and Akuma). LK - Select flip. MK - Adjusts position (use joystick). HK - Resets to the first frame.
PARTS EDITOR	Edits hitboxes. Use EDIT to select a character (you cannot select Akuma), Save to save changes, and Exit to leave. The Save and Exit confirmations are in Japanese only.
TSUKAMI EDITOR	Shows throw movements. (You will hear Wolverine's grunt when you enter this menu) Controls: 2P Start - Change background color. Joypad Left/Right - Change animation. 1P LP - Change character (you cannot select Akuma. Choosing Wolverine or Sentinel will play one of their grunts). 1P MP - Animate. 1P HP - Animate (faster). 1P LK - Flip. 1P MK - Move. 1P HK - Play grunt. 2P LP - Same as 1P LP. 2P MP - Change priority. 2P HP - Animate the victim (always Wolverine). 2P LK - Flip the victim.
GAMEMAP TEST	Allows you to view backgrounds used in the endings. Use 1P LP to change the background (space with either Avalon, villains' escape pod, a flying Sentinel, or the Blackbird in it, or an unused screen of a painting with the X-Men team minus Colossus, or a forest as used in Wolverine's and Psylocke's ending) and the 1P arrow keys to move the background.
ENDING OBJECT TEST	Views objects used in the ending. Change objects with the joypad and animate with MP (one frame) or HP (all frame), and reset to the first frame with HK. You can also move the object by holding MP.
MESSAGE TEST	Allows you to see messages (win quotes, endings, etc.). Select region/language (Japan, United States/English, Spanish, Italy) and message type (win, ending, or continue). Akuma's lines exist only in English and Japanese. In Italian and Spanish, win messages 60 and after that are omitted, with the quote 5F consisting only of ellipses. His ending line ("I am the master warrior!") was left untranslated. Furthermore, viewing the continue messages in Italian or Spanish will cause the game to crash to attract mode since they were not translated to these languages.
SCR PRI TEST	A scroll test (stage viewer). The weak attack buttons correspond to the S1 scroll, the middle ones to the S2 scroll, and the fierce ones to the S3 scroll. By default, Colossus' stage is displayed. Press 1P Start to change modes. In SCROLLMOVE-TEST mode, hold the kick button(s) while moving the joypad to move the objects. In CHANGE-PRIORITY mode, use the joypad to select the scroll/object (S1, S2, S3, or OB), and use the 1P LP to select it, then press 1P LP again to select the new priority. In SCROLL-ON/OFF mode, use the punch buttons to show or hide the scrolls.
SCR BLK TEST	A scroll block test used to view objects for a stage. You will be asked to select a scroll before starting. By default, Colossus' scroll blocks are displayed. Use the 1P joypad to move the currently selected object. Press 1P LP or 1P MP to select an object. Press 1P HP to select toggle the scroll marker. Press 1P LK to speed up the movement of the cursor. Press 2P Start to return the object to its original position.
SENSEI	Tests various attack information for every character. Select a character, then press 1P LP. This will take a few seconds. It's possible that "Test Data" in this mode corresponds to Akuma.
EXIT	Exactly what it says on the tin.

(Discovery: Abystus)

Unused Graphics

To do: There's more.

Two unused frames for Anne-Marie Cortez, the female Acolyte that's seen only in the endings on the 1.00 version of the game. It seems like she would've leaned against Magneto after helping him get up.

Both the Hit Editor and Ending Object Test reveal the sprite of Colossus painting a picture (including an appropriate hat for this task) of the playable X-Men with Professor Xavier in place of Colossus (found in Gamemap Test). These may have been related to the scrapped multiple ending choices referenced by unused text.

Juggernaut and Magneto have unused alternate palettes for mirror matches, which can only be selected by choosing both the first and second players' characters as either Juggernaut or Magneto. The difference is quite mild, only in the brightness of the colors.

Unused Text

To do: Does the Japanese version actually have references to Colossus joining Magneto? Proper pictures of the dialogues.

Any language, Ending Message, Message ID 0: NOW MAKING X-MEN COMING SOON! CAPCOM - a typical location test leftover that would be found in later games. This message is said by Wolverine, uses the full-width font used for English text in the Japanese version, and has a broken frame.

Any language except Japanese, Ending Message, Message IDs 8E-90, 98-9A: (all of the following are said by Colossus)

ID	English	Spanish	Italian
8E	Join Magneto. Refuse Magneto.	(empty)	(empty)
8F	I have lost too many of my loved ones to Xavier's failed	He perdido a muchos amigos pr el sueňo de Xavier.	Ho perso molti amici per il sogno di Xavier.
90	dream. I will try yours.	Probaré contigo.	Combatterõ adesso per il tuo.
98	I chose to follow Magneto because I cannot forgive the	Seguiré a Magneto porque no perdonaré a los asesinos de	Volevo seguire Mag-neto, perchẽ gil umani hanno
99	humans for killing mother and father. But...	mis padres. Pero...	ammazzato I miei genitori.
9A	Did I truly make the right choice?	¿He tomado la decisión correcta?	Perõ, ho preso la giusta decisione?

These are all references to Colossus' stint as a member of Magneto's Acolytes in the comics' Fatal Attractions storyline (that one where Wolverine gets his adamantium ripped by Magneto), where the game is loosely based upon. An empty box also exists in the Japanese language, ending message ID 98, while Colossus' options to join or reject Magneto can be found in ID C.

ID	Japanese	Other Language ID
C	マグニートーに従う マグニートーをこばむ	8E

Regional Differences

The Japanese version adds a Capcom logo and a silhouette of Ryu in front of a purple globe between the Q-Sound logo and the attract mode sequence. This logo would later appear for all regions in the next Marvel/Capcom fighting games that ran on the CPS-2 board.

Revisional Differences

Japan-exclusive version 1.00 (revision 941208) has a variety of differences compared to more recent builds:

Attract Mode

• The Capcom screen that appears exclusively on later Japanese versions before the intro sequence (seen above) is not present.
• The demos in the intro are different, featuring less-skilled gameplay that most of the time doesn't match with the headlines that appear on-screen.

• The X-Men logo with a yellow background that briefly appears near the end of the game's intro doesn't appear, though its graphics are in the ROM.

1.00	2.00 and later

• At the end of the intro, where the mutants face against each other, Storm, Cyclops, Wolverine, Magneto, and Silver Samurai are positioned differently. Also, the background is a simple purple color instead of the purple and pink-mixed background with an X-Men logo, the graphics for this background are present in 1.00's ROM though.

Gameplay

• There doesn't seem to be any way to either fight or play as Akuma without using cheats.
• It's not possible to speed up the "You Win/You Lose" sequence as it is in other Capcom fighting games and further versions of this one.
• It is possible to stun the opponent and gain super meter energy during the "beating the dead character" sequence (hit start when a round ends).

Magneto

1.00	2.00 and later

• When he walks forward and backward, his fists are always covered in animated blue energy. This detail was scrapped in subsequent revisions.
• He does not have his infamous AI difficulty yet. Noticeably, he spams his moves way less, and all of them (including the Magnetic Shockwave) don't do as much damage as in future revisions.
  • His EM Pulse only shoots one stream of energy as opposed to later revisions' three.
  • His AI doesn't use his flight yet, but if the player uses cheats to play as him and performs the move, it reveals that, unlike newer versions, flying is restricted to the ground-level part of the screen and the only way to fly higher than that is for the other player to perform a jump, but when that player approaches the ground, the flying Magneto player will be sucked into the bottom of the screen again, this was fixed in later releases.
• He doesn't do the second win pose that he has subsequent versions where it recycles his laughing taunt animation.

Sound 1F0: 1.00	Sound 1F1: 2.00 and later

• In 1.00, track 1F0 is used when Magneto is defeated, which is a more laid-back grunt than the 1F1 one that is instead used in later versions.

ID	Audio
1FB

• Magneto has two win quotes, 1FA ("You are beaten.") and 1FB ("Magneto is supreme."), both can be heard in 1.00 but the latter one goes unused in later versions. It's presumed it was done because the "supreme" sounds like "scream".

Stages

Savage Land

1.00	2.00 and later

• There are fewer running dinosaurs in the background of Wolverine's stage: In 1.00 there are 5 dinosaurs that go across the screen one at a time, in newer versions, there's a herd of 12 dinosaurs running at the same time that's followed by another herd of 4.

Avalon

• Whenever Magneto uses his Stage Shift move, Avalon's background moves anti-clockwise, this is also the case in 2.00, in other versions, it moves clockwise.

Victory Screen

1.00	2.00 and later

• In the victory screens, both hero and villain variants, the fonts below the winning characters have different palettes.

Text

1.00	2.00 and later

• All instances where hyphens and em dashes are used with the Japanese font, they're positioned slightly lower than it is starting in version 2.00.

Continue Screen

• The following characters don't make any sound when choosing to continue: Cyclops, Wolverine, Sentinel, Colossus, Psylocke, Silver Samurai, Spiral, and Akuma.
  • Storm doesn't do her throwing grunt but her lightning's sound effect is heard instead.

1.00	2.00 and later

• Akuma doesn't have his all-black silhouette effect. He also has text boxes with gameplay tips, something that was removed in later versions.

Test Menu

• The bookkeeping feature (Game Data in test menu) does not work properly—the coin, service credit, and free play counters all report 967295 and the average operating time is always one second. This also happens in version 2.00.

(Source: scoobydude51 (MAME Testers))

Endings

• The sequence where Avalon starts exploding after defeating Magneto is way shorter in 1.00
• Many of the dialogue boxes have different timing, resulting in them staying either seconds longer or less than they do in 2.00 and later.

1.00	2.00 and later

• A fifth, female Acolyte, Anne-Marie Cortez, appears in everyone's endings; she restrains Magneto by grabbing his crotch. For whatever reason, her sprites were left unused in newer versions.
• The music during the Avalon scenes is different: when the Acolytes fall down, it plays track 17, followed by track 18 when the character leaves Magneto. All other versions use the more appropriate track 02 during both Avalon scenes, and when Avalon explodes, it goes silent. Track 02 can't be heard anywhere in 1.00, not even in the sound test, as its slot is empty.

1.00	2.00 and later

• Just after Avalon explodes and the characters are returning to Earth, the text boxes for this scene are placed at the top of the screen. In all other versions, they're placed at the bottom instead.
• At the end of all the endings, 1.00 lacks the later-added fadeout effect, as a result, the endings finish more abruptly.
• The special ending that shows if the player completes the game without using any continues isn't shown in this build, but the song that plays in it (track 19) is present in the sound test.

Storm

• The Sentinel that approaches Storm doesn't say its "Destroy!" quote before it appears on-screen, and when it gets destroyed by Storm, a different sound effect plays.

1.00	2.00 and later

• Forge positions himself besides Storm slightly higher than he does in other versions, causing his head to get completely covered when the text boxes appear.

Wolverine

• Starting from the scene where Cyclops and Wolverine arrive at the Danger Room, there's no music for the remainder of the ending.

1.00	2.00 and later

• The effects that appear when the screen goes black and Wolverine attacks Silver Samurai are yellow instead of light green.

Sentinel

• This specific quote from Sentinel, which is the last piece of text on the "Avalon escape" part, is not present in 1.00...

• ...on the other hand, present only in 1.00 is this message from Sentinel identifying Storm while approaching her. Despite this quote being removed from future Japanese versions, it was localized and is used in the international versions of the game.

Psylocke

• Like in Wolverine's ending, the hit effects that appear during the black screen of Psylocke hitting Cyclops are yellow instead of light green.

Silver Samurai

• Again, just like in Wolverine's and Psylocke's endings, the effects on the black background during Silver Samurai's attacks on Wolverine are yellow.

Spiral

• Track 1D, which plays in subsequent builds during the first part of the conversation between Mojo and Spiral is unused in this build, although it can be heard in the sound test. Here the whole Mojo World sequence plays track 15, which plays in other builds during the middle of the scene.

1.00	2.00 and later

• Spiral's very last text box is messed up, being empty and half of it going off-screen upward.

Akuma

• This single text box that comes from Akuma in versions 2.00 and beyond doesn't appear, instead, the characters stare at each other before the screen goes white.

• When the Game Over screen appears, the letters spelling it are missing. Seeing as this is not the case in versions starting 2.00, it was probably unintended.