[Krigo]

This is noticable on 0701 and 0718, the sprite flashes.

This post has been edited by Krigo: 24 February 2008 - 10:32 AM

[Crysta]

Again.. in the original, removed from the US release.

I'd suggest everyone play the original Japanese Ristar for a while before posting anything, because there are a lot of (J) to (U) differences like these.

Damn I wish the Ristar Cluster was still up..

This post has been edited by Crysta: 24 February 2008 - 12:10 PM

[Dark Sonic]

This all makes me wonder why they bothered with all these stupid localization things anyways. None of the changes seem very significant.

[Crysta]

They were probably under the misguided notion that if they made the game slightly less cute and more straightforward with its narration that it would attract more sales.

[muteKi]

Yeah, that's one of the things that they did with Dynamite Headdy as well... speaking of which, I do still need to check them out!

[Adrock4]

0710 has an Easy mode option, and the option to choose how many lives you start with.

[Blackbird]

When you get hurt in 701, the stars disappear instead of falling off, except the one when you die.

Strangely 701's header is —VOLT-- THE VOLTAGE. No clue what that has to do with Ristar.

[Overlord]

Other than the RISTAR IS NOT.... VOLT! text in later builds, no idea.

[Waluigi Prower]

701:

If you press Start, B, and then hold A and press Start it takes you to the next level. Do the same thing except hold B and press Start, it resets the level.

[Neo]

0701: Debug mode.

Press B while paused to enter debug mode. While in debug, A snaps to grid and the D-pad moves you around in the level. Holding a button while moving makes you move faster. Press A+Start to skip a level, B+Start to restart the current level and C+Start to enter a Stage Select. In it, use A and C to pick a level.

An additional note: if you hit Start to return from Debug mode, the sound will remain muted. This is because you paused, but didn't unpause, which is what makes the music unmute. Just pause and unpause once more.

This post has been edited by Neo: 24 February 2008 - 05:22 PM

[SGR]

Nabaztag, on Feb 24 2008, 04:57 PM, said:

Strangely 701's header is —VOLT-- THE VOLTAGE. No clue what that has to do with Ristar.

Judging by the rampant name-changing the Ristar team went though, we could assume that Volt was a name for Ristar at one point.

Here's a timeline:
Feel -> Volt -> Ristar -> Dexstar -> Ristar

I could see why they would call him "Volt" at one point, due to his color-scheme. However, the "RISTAR IS NOT VOLT" text is very odd, and may just be a programmer joke.

Although the possibility of Volt being a codename isn't too out of the question. :P

And also, about "Dexstar," I spoke with djbrayster on the subject and he brought up the possibility of it being a US localization name at one point.

This post has been edited by Sonicguy: 25 February 2008 - 06:04 PM

[Durean]

It seems there's a lot to be found in the Game Gear Ristar 09/09/94 proto, so I figured this was the best place for it. Quick list, and there's a lot more to be checked:

- Sega logo is on plain blue background, and plays the same sound as when you pause as opposed to the little musical jingle.
- A TON of layout changes - I barely know the original GG Ristar layouts so I won't even begin to tackle this one.
- Debug is on: pause, and you can press 2+Start to skip to the next stage, Up+2+Start to get to level select, and 1+Start for "debug," where if you continue to hold 1 you can move Ristar around - when you release 1, you can play as normal again.
- No after-level bonus screen
- The big one here: all of the Mega Drive stages are listed in sound test (except Scorch). 2-1 & 2-2 are "Splash Down" and "Break Silence," and 5-1 and 5-2 are "Ring Rink" and "Ice Scream." However, the actual music isn't changed, as 2-1 & 2-2 still play Fanturn's stage music (as do 5-1 and 5-2, as a matter of fact). Also of note is that Timu's music, 4-1 & 4-2, is unnamed.

There could be more to be found by going through each area in level select, so I'm planning on doing that next and seeing if there's anything left over. Also, most of this stuff is gone by the 10/19 proto - even the level layouts of Neer/Flora 1 and Fanturn 1 (the only ones I compared) seem to have become final.

[Rafalapso]

Valid passwords for 0701:
NOTONE - Onchi System Set Up! (Enables Onchi, an option in the Sound Test that distorts the music being played)
NOTEKI - Ristar Was Invincible! (Ristar will pass through enemies)
ILOVEU - RD.Select Active (Stage Select)
MIEMIE - True Sight (Shows hidden items)
FEEL - Hyper Mode ON (Gives the effects of NOTEKI, MIEMIE and ILOVEU)
AAAAAA - Free Continue O.K.!! (Infinite Continues?)
STAR - Star Star Mode (?)
BSDEMO - Boss Battle Demonstration (?)
AKUUYS - Real Staff (?)
AGES - Copyright S E G A 1995

0718 has the same passwords as the final release, except for the MACCHA - The Miyake color!!! which was added at the 0812 proto but it appears that only got coded in the final release.

This post has been edited by Rafalapso: 24 February 2008 - 06:26 PM

[drx]

If you think the VOLT thing is a joke, look at Ristar's shoes.

[RattleMan]

0701, you can walk around in the cutscene right after you defeat Greedy. Greedy himself and the bosses you fought in the previous level are not gold, but blue, when they latch onto Greedy as he escapes. In addition, you are the one who must grab the spinner to get out of Greedy's Castle; the CPU does not do it for you.

EDIT: More. In the ending credits, Ristar doesn't do any other animation other than walk, whereas in the final he did basically all of his moves. Only Ristar is shown in the proto, whereas in the final some enemies appeared as well.

This post has been edited by RattleMan: 24 February 2008 - 07:54 PM