Mega Man Battle Network – The Cutting Room Floor

To do:
Everything. Document everything properly instead of copying info verbatim from The Mechanical Maniacs.

The first Mega Man RPG game for the Game Boy Advance, it was released in 2001 by Capcom and a sequel followed in 2002. It seems the gameplay direction wasn’t solidified until much later, as the game is well known for having drastically different prototype screenshots.

More early/unused stuff can be found here.

To do:
Provide prototype scans/screens. Also some of the debug chips.

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Unused Enemies

Viruses

Every enemy in the game is given three slots for their variations, each one getting progressively stronger. Not all enemies use them and, as a result, unused values exist.

• The Volgear virus comes in two flavors: fire and water. Its third variation, which cannot be encountered normally, is simply a clone of the first one.
• The Fishy virus only has 2 variations as well. The third one is the same as the first, except with 100 HP. It’s possible this was the intended second version since the first and the third one’s HPs are 80 and 150 respectively.
• The Puffy virus family also has fire and water variations. The third one is just a copy of the unused Fishy virus using a white dot as a sprite. The chip it drops is always Buster A.

Bosses

• On the enemy list, between ShadowMan and MagicMan are three blank entries. It can be assumed that bosses were to fill the gaps but were ultimately removed.
• Bass, being an optional boss in the game, only has a single variation. The remaining two are filled with white dots.
• SharkMan has its fins listed as separate enemies. Three additional fins are also present but not used.

MegaBuster Chip

Present within the data is a chip that would have presumably given the player the ability to fire the MegaBuster, before being scrapped in favor of the B button; using it only causes MegaMan to fire his MegaBuster once; interestingly, although the chip icon was removed in later games, the folder icon was not, and was also used for invalid Battle Chips. The text is as follows:

Get closer to hit faster

Strangely, attempting to hack it into the Chip Folder causes it to display as if nothing was in the slot.

Unused Sprites

Early Zenny Graphic

Present at the end of the chip graphics list is an unused picture of Zenny. This arguably uglier-looking graphic is likely from an early version of the game and wasn’t removed.

Enemy Flinching Sprites

The first two viruses in the game have flinching sprites, which suggest enemies were supposed to physically show taking damage. It was probably removed because the enemies were deemed too easy if all their attacks could be stopped with any other attack.

• 

  Mettaur flinching

• 

  Flinching animation

• 

  Fire Tower virus flinching

Unused Ghost Virus Sprite

Full sprite sheet ripped from the game

The Ghost virus has an unused laughing animation, presumably to be used as a taunt. The same virus appears in Mega Man Battle Network 2 and behaves in the same way, but these frames were removed.

Unused Car Sprites

In the game, cars only drive around in Dentown. Because the roads only go in diagonal directions, the one’s displayed on the left are not needed and its sprites go unused. On the right, the cars can be seen using the diagonal directions for reference.

Unused NPC Sprites

Mayl and Chaud also have scrapped running animations. These were likely to be used in the ending sequence, in which both characters hurry out of the WWW base facing one direction. Normally, a running NPC would use a speeded up animation of the walking sprite, or just move faster.

The Mr.Progs also have unused sprites, including a palette: the gray-green color scheme is never used in the game. It is also the only alternate color that these sprites have. An extra animation of them laying on the floor goes unused as well.

WoodMan also has some unused sprites, likely because he was planned to be the first boss. Several earlier screenshots and scans of a prototype version suggest that WoodMan was the first boss and he was to be fought in the school network. In the final game, this was changed so that FireMan became the first boss in the oven network.

WoodMan has one overworld sprite, which would have made an awkward encounter since bosses are hardly, if ever, fought in that location. Because he was a planned stage boss, he was supposed to have dialogue and still has a complete mugshot. None of these sprites are used because in the final WoodMan is an optional freefight by talking to Sal. It is likely that Sal hadn’t even existed before and was planned later in the development process. The mugshot turns up again in Mega Man Battle Chip Challenge exactly as it appears. The sprite was also updated but still not used in the DS port.
Other instances of WoodMan being first is how the School Area background is the first background in the game and how he is the third boss listed in the game.

An alternate version of a girl NPC, also found in Battle Network 2.

Unused MegaMan.EXE Sprites

MegaMan also has a fair amount of unused sprites. The first 5 rows are dashing sprites in all directions. These would have likely been used in a boss area where dashing would be required. It could have also been used in one of the current levels, but the concept was scrapped. MegaMan also has a sprite where he is held in place with his arms out. A similar one exists in the game, with the exception that it has animations. This could have been used in an alternate ending scene and the same can be said about the crouching sprites.

Demo Completion Screen

The game still has a completion screen from a demonstration ROM. It can be accessed using the following Code Breaker codes:

D0000020 0004
32006CB8 0010

Pressing Select makes the demo screen appear. For some reason, it can only be viewed once after it goes back to the Capcom screen. The strange, quirky artwork is the same used in an old promotional poster of the game, in which WoodMan can still be seen as one of the main antagonists. MegaMan’s artwork is also really old; notice the blue angle near his cheek and emblem. Although this feature is no longer present in the finalized design, it can be seen in page 11 of the instruction manual.

Unused Text

Present in the ROM is the game’s build date and name.

Region
String
Offset

JP
ROCKMAN EXE 20010120

0x1FA28

US
ROCKMAN EXE 20010727

0x1FBB4

EU
ROCKMAN EXE 20010807

0x1FD00

Sample/Review Cut-off

At 0x7244C8, the following message is written in the game’s text table:

This is a bonus
dungeon not accessible with
demo ROMs.

This message was clearly intended to block testers or reviewers from accessing whatever it would have guarded. It also provides a hint on the naming scheme the developers used, as “dungeon” refers to rooms within a boss level.

Test Message

At offset 0x6CBC84, and several other addresses, the following is written in the game’s text encoding:

Test message

This message is not in the game’s dialog box format, and does not seem to be referenced anywhere. There are several other instances of this message around the text table.

Items

The game contains several unused items. In the Japanese version most have generic names and descriptions, except for the items アイスメーカー (“Ice Maker”, located between WWW Pass and Dentures) that is related to the item IceBlock, and はつでんきっぷ (“Electric Power Generation Ticket”, the last item), which has a generic description and doesn’t work in the Metroline. All their texts were removed outside Japan.

Miscellaneous

Sprite List Order

The first Battle Network is the only game in the series that doesn’t have a categorized sprite list. Instead, all of the main sprites were added in the order they were made. The first 3 entries in the list are: MegaMan, Mettaur, and WoodMan. These sprites provided the basis for the first level of the game. Lan, Yai, Dex, and Ms. Mari were added next. Lan’s friends should have followed his entry and Mayl isn’t on the list at this point, meaning she was added later in the game, despite being the first friend you meet in the final game. Furthermore, the friend’s order was reorganized in later games into Mayl, Dex, Yai, and Chaud.

Filler Text

If the player gets to an area before the story requires it, a dummy message shows up in the Japanese version: うそメッセージです (Fake message). This was blanked out in the US release.

CannBall A

CannBall is supposed to come in A code and be obtainable from Undernet 11 Mystery Data, but due to a bug in the RNG it will never drop. This is not fixed in the remake, despite the bug being known enough to be fixed in the sixth game, and in-fact is actually applied to a second drop.

Regional Differences

Ubisoft Logo

The European version of the game was published by Ubisoft. As such, only in the European version an extra logo is displayed after the Capcom logo, before the title screen.

Title Screen

Japan
North America

The logo/title screen got a complete graphical overhaul for the international version. This would be repeated for all future entries in the series.
Additionally, the copyright for Capcom USA was removed in the European version, as that version was published by Ubisoft.

International versions also have a short delay before the start button can be pressed.

Icon and Codes

Japan
North America

The icon for chips with no element was changed, and the letter codes are slightly different.

Save

International versions included a save confirmation to prevent overwritting by accident.

Waterworks Mystery Data

In the final area of the Waterworks network, there is a mystery data containing 1000 zenny. In the Japanese version, it isn’t there on your first trip through the area, only appearing if you go back after beating the boss. In the US version, it’s there on the first trip as well.