[Hidden-Palace]Biohazard Betas Released

[MeganGrass]

...nothing special, but something I found hidden within the Aug. 1995 alpha.

Disassembly reveals that only the Up/Down and Start buttons are accepted, here, and it's pretty obvious what they do... therefore, this function is completely useless.

Not that it will really make a difference, but does anyone care to translate the two available options? I can only assume they have something to do with the controller and/or general settings.

[B.Zork]

wow blast from past!

i think you look for movement method and button configuration for these two texts

[Guest]

Excellent find! 1995-08-04 build? This is just a guess, but perhaps single and co-op? Co-op came from an earlier period so perhaps a remnant of a function that enabled that feature? Translation will reveal all I guess.

[News Bot]

そうさほうほう
HOW TO PLAY

ボタンせってい
BUTTON SETTINGS

[Guest]

Makes sense. I have to admit it would be interesting to see them in action. I'm surprised for an early alpha such as this to have a button config, is there any indication of whether it's an old feature or perhaps the start of what would later become the button config screen? Perhaps the documents that came with the build to Capcom USA were a reiteration of what's outlined in this menu. Either way nice find.

[Scream]

...nothing special, but something I found hidden within the Aug. 1995 alpha.

Disassembly reveals that only the Up/Down and Start buttons are accepted, here, and it's pretty obvious what they do... therefore, this function is completely useless.

Not that it will really make a difference, but does anyone care to translate the two available options? I can only assume they have something to do with the controller and/or general settings.

It says "Maku Gurasu, we waiting you"

I found similar undiscovered screens hacking some betas the other day purely for fun (non-RE), event/action modifiers and background modifiers turn up tons of stuff in all games, as they tend to trigger other events/menus. I thought someone had done this already for those RE alphas which is why I stayed away from them. It also dawned on me no-one had seen this stuff for over a decade.

What is that MUTE thing in the corner?

[Guest]

It says "Maku Gurasu, we waiting you"

I found similar undiscovered screens hacking some betas the other day purely for fun (non-RE), event/action modifiers and background modifiers turn up tons of stuff in all games, as they tend to trigger other events/menus. I thought someone had done this already for those RE alphas which is why I stayed away from them. It also dawned on me no-one had seen this stuff for over a decade.

What is that MUTE thing in the corner?

That's the endearing part!

These particular builds were for Capcom USA weren't they? At least that's where the discs came from? I wonder whether these are functions from an older build, or perhaps something that was disabled since Capcom USA weren't Japanese speaking. I'd imagine the "how to play" and "button settings" were for players who were demoing the game, whether they were in house staff, press or members of the public, who knows? But since this build was shown at the V Jump Festival in 1995 I'm not sure exactly what opportunities there would have been for people to test the game and make use of these functions, nor why they'd be disabled.

[MeganGrass]

wow blast from past!

Indeed. I was bored.

I'll likely check out the second alpha, too.

Excellent find! 1995-08-04 build?

Thanks, and yes, the 1995-08-04 build.

そうさほうほう
HOW TO PLAY

ボタンせってい
BUTTON SETTINGS

Thank You, News Bot. I very much appreciate you expertise.

Makes sense. I have to admit it would be interesting to see them in action. I'm surprised for an early alpha such as this to have a button config, is there any indication of whether it's an old feature or perhaps the start of what would later become the button config screen? Perhaps the documents that came with the build to Capcom USA were a reiteration of what's outlined in this menu. Either way nice find.

It would be a nice novelty to see them in action, for sure.

The function seems to have been stripped of any further process (hence, no other buttons are used for anything), and I had to implement a quick and dirty asm patch to get it to load. Another asm patch was implemented for proper exit back to gameplay - pressing the Start button without it would cause the game to hang.

One thing to note, however, is that activating the Config Menu causes camera sprites/masks and all characters+enemies to disappear. Gameplay is also frozen when active, meaning that everything resumes to normal, after exit - just like retail.

...so, it's likely an 'old' feature. After all, the final configuration menu looks absolutely nothing like that... but, they could have built onto this function to produce what was seen in retail. There's really no way to know for certain.

It says "Maku Gurasu, we waiting you"

I found similar undiscovered screens hacking some betas the other day purely for fun (non-RE), event/action modifiers and background modifiers turn up tons of stuff in all games, as they tend to trigger other events/menus. I thought someone had done this already for those RE alphas which is why I stayed away from them. It also dawned on me no-one had seen this stuff for over a decade.

What is that MUTE thing in the corner?

;P

It is definitely fun to find stuff like this. I was hoping to unlock the debug menu(s) that this build contains, but seems that a special overlay is needed to get it to properly function. Needless to say, it's missing from the disc, along with any other code needed for it.

I'm sure that people have extracted and examined all the assets, but I haven't seen anyone comb through the code. Speaking of which, this build has well over 100 unused functions - most of which is SDK crap (PSY-Q is bloated).

...and the "MUTE" in the bottom right corner is an emu-specific function, haha. It get's kinda annoying to hear the audio when constantly rebooting the system to test new code.

That's the endearing part!

These particular builds were for Capcom USA weren't they? At least that's where the discs came from? I wonder whether these are functions from an older build, or perhaps something that was disabled since Capcom USA weren't Japanese speaking. I'd imagine the "how to play" and "button settings" were for players who were demoing the game, whether they were in house staff, press or members of the public, who knows? But since this build was shown at the V Jump Festival in 1995 I'm not sure exactly what opportunities there would have been for people to test the game and make use of these functions, nor why they'd be disabled.

I'm pretty certain these alphas were sent to CAPCOM USA, yeah.

This came with the second alpha (Oct 1995):

[BiohazardFE]

Great find Mark, and thanks for the translation News Bot I wonder what the other build contains. Being a few months apart it may still be there, removed or something completely different. I await your experiments!

[towerofpowerx]

Pretty cool stuff! However, for those of us who weren't around at that time, the original downloads from hidden-palace do not work. Can someone please re-upload these alpha's?

[Dark Biohazard]

Pretty cool stuff! However, for those of us who weren't around at that time, the original downloads from hidden-palace do not work. Can someone please re-upload these alpha's?

Here the links to the 2 BH1 alphas:

http://www.the-zombie-x.net/bio-betas/BioHazard-Sample-19950804.rar

http://www.the-zombie-x.net/bio-betas/BioHazard-Sample-19951004.rar

Thanks to Zombie_X for keep the links alive in his server!

[MeganGrass]

Well, the Config Mode exists within the second alpha (Oct. 1995), but is exactly the same. Absolutely nothing is different.

Furthermore, the second alpha doesn't contain any debug menus, etc., but has twice the amount of unused functionality.

I've attached both patched executables, in case anyone wanted to see what the fuss is all about. Use CDmage to replace the original executables, and remember to make a backup.

To activate the Config Mode, simply press the Select button. In the second alpha, you'll have to wait until control of the player is gained (in the Dining Room).


EDIT:
I forgot to mention, I found a function in the first alpha that disables all event scripts, thus, allowing for free roam. Again, nothing special, but was fun for a minute or two.

[Dark Biohazard]

Interesting, thanks Mark!

[Greko]

Nice work! Shame there wasn't anything much more still on the disc hidden away, looks like to begin with Capcom didn't just leave the entire game structure on the disc.

[Flak Master]

Does anyone have the 1996 build? All of the 128bit links are dead.

Thanks in advance!