I’ve just been having a look at an early PD1 demo disc that I picked up last month - as I mentioned in another thread, I’d like to do some sort of page for the site comparing early PD demos to the finished games - and I’ve come across something that seems quite odd.
In this PD1 demo, there’s an extra line of text on the title screen that reads “CREDIT 1”, and this also stays on-screen while the demos play. Now I actually assumed this was a debug option that Team Andromeda hadn’t completely removed from this demo (bearing in mind that it appears to be a rough and ready non-public demo anyway), but it looks like my assumption was wrong. All of the text intended for the title screen can be found in the “1ST_READ.PRG” file on the disc, and the various options and messages are listed as follows:
So the obvious question is: why would a game that was designed specifically for a home console need arcade-style “CREDITS” and “INSERT COIN(S)” messages for its title screen?
In the file there are actually two spaces either side of the “INSERT COIN(S)” text, so if it was displayed on the title screen in the same way as the “PRESS START BUTTON” text, it’d be perfectly centered; with the added spaces, both messages are eighteen characters long. And of course, this text isn’t present on the final released disc at all.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but was the Saturn hardware not unlike the Model2 arcade hardware? Perhaps the game was programmed using model2 as a prototype, ready for when the home console was finalised later on?
Although such an evaluation seems sensible - after all, it has to be conceded that Panzer Dragoon possessed the scantiest minimum of storyline during the game itself, something that would endear it to the arcade - a brief jaunt into my battered back-issues of the Sega Magazine disprove it.
Ever since the Dragon was just that (flared nostrils, green scales and all - assuming you could actually distinguish it from the vague agglomeration of ploygons that represented it) and Panzer Dragoon was called 3D Shooting Game - in a vastly more primitive state than than any public-release demo - the game was stated as a Saturn product.
Why would “Insert Coin” be utilised then? Perhaps it was simply a joke amongst the developers.
I might be misunderstanding you Robert, but are you saying that the PD1 dragon was originally designed as a traditional green one? Surely there are no screenshots of this…?
That’s the kind of thing I’m currently suspecting, though as I said above it seems like they did want that message to pop up on the screen, as it was made to sync up exactly with the “press start button” text. So yeah, perhaps a team member did put it there as a joke during development, maybe because they thought the game was becoming ironically “arcadey”? I say this because I just noticed some more “random” text amongst the code on the disc that I’d overlooked before:
Hi! Come come everybody.
Guu… I’m sleepinggguuu…
STAT
ERR
FILM
Cpk system is not initialized.
Judging by where it is I don’t think this would have popped up during gameplay, but yeah, the team didn’t seem to be taking things too seriously.
Anyway, last night I was editing the disc image to access some of the other stuff on it, so I thought I may as well “implement” the insert coins text while I was at it; it looks surprisingly appropriate if you do swap it around with the “press start button” text from the final, bearing in mind that it flashes on and off enticingly in true arcade style:
[quote=“Robert Frazer”]Although such an evaluation seems sensible - after all, it has to be conceded that Panzer Dragoon possessed the scantiest minimum of storyline during the game itself, something that would endear it to the arcade - a brief jaunt into my battered back-issues of the Sega Magazine disprove it.
Ever since the Dragon was just that (flared nostrils, green scales and all - assuming you could actually distinguish it from the vague agglomeration of ploygons that represented it) and Panzer Dragoon was called 3D Shooting Game - in a vastly more primitive state than than any public-release demo - the game was stated as a Saturn product.
Why would “Insert Coin” be utilised then? Perhaps it was simply a joke amongst the developers.[/quote]
Yep it always going to be a Saturn game. Quess it was a joke as some of the Team Andromeda teams came from SEGA JP Arcade Teams.
