[Mac]

Image #2 - Image #3

Man, lemme tell ya. I really love Mega Man rarities. Rockman oddities. You name anything like that, I crave it. I find it so interesting and appealing to see obscure relics unearthed for all to see. Whether it be old promotional footage, rare commercials, concept art and designs used in the production process, scarce memorabilia, prototype toy models and of course, prototype and demo game builds.

As you can see, one for Rockman X7 has been released courtesy of Protodude. He obtained the CD from a private auction with the aid of his good friend, Henger83. The demo was given to select retailers in Japan to demonstrate what the product had to offer. I am an advocate for everything X7 has to offer and I am glad it found its way to the market despite its apparent flaws, which I am able to overlook.

Now, being as this is a demo version it does have its differences and it does have more bugs, of course. Below are some things Protodude spotted.

• Axl's intro stage music lacks one to two instruments.
  
• No voiced dialogue.
  
• Unused player select portraits.
  
• Placeholder voice samples (grunts and exclamations) from X5 and X6.
  
• You can't pause the game!

Man, Axl's "Conflict" theme sure sounds different without the prominent guitar. Either a earlier mix of the tune, or one without some instruments. I also think the character models looks slightly different. Minor alterations were likely administered before release. Uh, and...what's with that cam at times (apparently it's an emulator bug). If you think can find more differences, sound off in the forums! Below is a gameplay video of the game played by SuperMega233.



Or perhaps you'd like to take it for a spin yourself!
- Download it Now! -

Many thanks to Protodude, Henger83, and SuperMega233. They've found so many neat things they're pretty much known for it. I eagerly await what else they may discover!

As for this X7 demo...it's yet to be dissected. With that in mind, I welcome any treasures that may be waiting to be found in the depths of its data. Grab your pickaxes!

[Flame]

The X and Zero portraits are both from Xtreme 2. That's weird. Of all the games to take Character art from...

Axl's is just X7 Axl art.

[volt-kid]

What? You can play as X in the demo? Jealousy!

[AxlRocks]

This is totally awesome! I wonder if I can get PCSX2 to work to try this out. Never messed much with PS2 stuff (PCSX2 was so buggy when I tried it a while back it totally put me off. I hate plugin based emu's anyway. Great in idea, rarely in execution.) Anyway, I'll be digging through it one way or another. Thanks for posting this here also Mac, probably would've missed it for a while otherwise.

In other news, Mediafire is always slowest at the worst times, isn't it? haha Hope it finishes soon, and here's to hoping even more Megaman betas get dumped in the future!

EDIT: By the way, if I can manage to rip any music with differences from the ISO, would anyone want them? I'll upload if so. (I for one have added beta music to my X 1~6 collection albums.)
EDIT2: Got them working, checking for differences now.

[ZEROrevive]

AxlRocks, on 09 July 2012 - 10:07 AM, said:

By the way, if I can manage to rip any music with differences from the ISO, would anyone want them? I'll upload if so. (I for one have added beta music to my X 1~6 collection albums.)

That would be great, Axl's Intro stage in this trial version really interests me. I might actually like it better than the final release version.

[Girla PurpleHeart]

I didn't even know there's the Trail version of X7. I wonder if it's any good?

[RaviorStygian]

The loading screen looks cooler.

[AxlRocks]

ZeroRei, on 09 July 2012 - 07:19 PM, said:

That would be great, Axl's Intro stage in this trial version really interests me. I might actually like it better than the final release version.

No problem, got it ripped but the good news is, upon closely looking at the other music in this Trial, there are minor differences in at least one other song. The Trial also includes music for "unplayable" levels, such as Vanishing Gungaroo's. Sadly, there are two files I can't seem to open. If you want to hear Vanishing's music, FusionArmorX has uploaded it on Youtube, but I'll be uploading MP3's or FLAC soon too. (It'll be 320kbps MP3, unless someone requests FLAC too.) I'm also asking him about said two files, so hopefully he knows how to work with them and I'll upload those too. This is my first time ripping from a PS2 game, so probably something I'm doing wrong lol

https://www.youtube....h?v=0YDzo9zg0dk

Very minor differences, but beta none the less. You'll also notice it isn't cleanly looped, because sadly, the file is cut off before a proper loop point

EDIT: Alright, I went ahead and uploaded Axl's and Vanishing Gungaroo's themes. Two versions of Vanishing's, one that is "patched" using the final track so it loops correctly, and one that has silence there instead.

Axl's Theme - Mediafire
Vanishing Gungaroo's Theme (Patched) - Mediafire
Vanishing Gungaroo's Theme (Unpatched) - Mediafire

I ripped all the rest, but they're the same other than equalization. If I get the other two ripped with Fusion's help, and they're different, I'll upload. (They might be, they're the two oldest audio tracks on the disc. For example, Sekiyu.ads is last modified December 11th, 2002.)

[ZEROrevive]

AxlRocks, on 10 July 2012 - 04:59 AM, said:

EDIT: Alright, I went ahead and uploaded Axl's and Vanishing Gungaroo's themes. Two versions of Vanishing's, one that is "patched" using the final track so it loops correctly, and one that has silence there instead.

Axl's Theme - Mediafire
Vanishing Gungaroo's Theme (Patched) - Mediafire
Vanishing Gungaroo's Theme (Unpatched) - Mediafire

I ripped all the rest, but they're the same other than equalization. If I get the other two ripped with Fusion's help, and they're different, I'll upload. (They might be, they're the two oldest audio tracks on the disc. For example, Sekiyu.ads is last modified December 11th, 2002.)

Thank you very much...! And i listened to Vanishing Gungaroo too....halfway into the tune sounds really odd. I'm glad they fixed that in the final release.

[Sigma Zero X]

It seems like a pretty good trial for X7. Not bad at all.

[Hellfangwolf]

Volt-Kid, on 08 July 2012 - 07:42 PM, said:

What? You can play as X in the demo? Jealousy!

But you could play as X in X7's full game as well. You just have to unlock him.

[SantuXD]

Maverick Hunter MAH BOI