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Jumping Flash!

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This page details pre-release information and/or media for Jumping Flash!.

To do:
The interview in The PlayStation #9 seems to have some dev details, someone with good JP lang knowledge should go through and parse/translate - https://archive.org/details/the-play-station-9-7-28-1995/The%20PlayStation%209%207%2028%201995/page/154/mode/2up

Development Timeline#

1994

  • Early - Sony gets wind of Exact's Geograph Seal for the Sharp X68000. They soon enough set up Exact with Ultra to develop a similar game for the yet-unreleased PlayStation.1
  • March 12 - Geograph Seal is released for X68000 in Japan.2
  • March 14 - Telebi Asahi's Tonight reports on upcoming video game industry projects. Part of this involves showing a prerendered PlayStation tech demo known as Spring Man, involving a rabbit-like vehicle jumping about a city in first-person.
  • June - Issue 9 of Edge magazine reports on some of the Tonight footage, Spring Man included.3
  • August/September - Development of the full game begins.
  • November 25 - Jumping Flash! first appears in Weekly Famitsu's release schedule, in No. 310 on page 203, set for a yet-unknown time in 1995. The name is considered tentative and it lacks the Aloha Danshaku Funky Daisakusen no Maki subtitle.4

1995

  • February - A missed launch month for the Japanese version.56
  • March 23-24 - The dates on the files in the Japanese version.
  • April - Issue 19 of Edge magazine reports on the impending release of the game in Japan. It mentions Spring Man by that name, and confirms it to be the demo that got turned into the final game.7
  • April 28 - Jumping Flash!: Aloha Danshaku Funky Daisakusen no Maki is released for PlayStation in Japan.89 Also the date on the files in the Japanese demo version.
  • May 11-1310 - The game is shown at E3 1995.1112
  • June 15 - The date on the FMV files in the North American and European versions.
  • July 18 - The date on the files in the North American version.
  • July 19 - The date on the files in the European version.
  • July 24 - The date on the MAIN.PEX files in the Japanese Europe-ban version.
  • September 9 - A missed launch date for the North American version13, and also the launch of the PlayStation in North America.14
  • September 29 - Jumping Flash! is released for PlayStation in Europe, being one of the system's launch titles in that region.1516
  • October - A missed launch month for the North American version.17
  • October 27 - SCEA issues a press release revealing the North American release date of November 3rd.18
  • November 2 - Jumping Flash! is released for PlayStation in North America.

1996

  • February 20-March 13 - The later dates on files in the Japanese Europe-ban version.

Spring Man#

Spring Man refers to a prerendered tech demo from Sony that ultimately got turned into the final game.19 Shown behind closed doors, footage made it to Telebi Asahi's Tonight, and details/screenshots of said footage made it to English-speaking press afterward.

Tonight 1994-03-14#

Watch on YouTubeThis episode of Tonight featured footage/demos of numerous upcoming games, Sony's Spring Man included. Showing a polygonal 3D city seen from the viewpoint of an early HUD, the audiovisual aesthetic is very different to the final game.

JumpingFlash_TonightShort.mp4

At 3:22 is a shorter showing of the demo, showing a lower view of an early Robbit jumping into action, then cutting into the first-person view of him jumping about the city. It seems like looking downward happened during the first jump here rather than the second in the final.

Where the health and lives information is in the final, some VU meters are instead.

In place of the Kuma Goro in the final game is what looks to be a mirror, showing random live stock footage for some reason.

JumpingFlash_TonightLong.mp4

At 5:35 is a longer cut of this clip, showing the early Robbit fully from the front. This design has a translucent cockpit with no pilot, with what seems to be a blank "face" with yellow "eyes" on the surface. The final seems to have scrapped this "vehicle" concept for a more sentient-seeming robot bunny with a cute bunny face. It also has more pronounced legs with gray "toes", as well as a pair of front lights.

The end of this particular clip goes on long enough to show more of the mountains in the more "volcanic" biome, as well as spikes on the orange volcano close to where the fireballs shoot out.

Edge UK Issue 9#

Two screenshots of the Tonight footage made it into June 1994's issue of Edge UK.

Spring Man

Final

Spring Man

Final

References#

  1. The PlayStation Magazine #9 July 28, 1995, pgs. 154-155↩︎
  2. Micom BASIC Magazine No. 141, pg. 275↩︎
  3. Edge UK 009, pgs. 8-9↩︎
  4. Index of /16/items/Retro_Magazines-Books/Weekly Famitsu - 1994 Complete V1.0 [Gaming Alexandria]/↩︎
  5. [Games] The playstation (very long lines - blame MS-EXCEL). "Jumping Flash! Feb-95 xx00 Sony Computer Entertainment Robot Usagi with a machine gun in the future! 3D action"↩︎
  6. ** Playstation Games Schedule **. "Jumping Flash 2/95"↩︎
  7. Edge UK 019, pg. 42↩︎
  8. GDR プレイステーション ソフト一覧 1994～1995年 - PlayStation Software List 1994-1995↩︎
  9. Jumping Flash! Fanbook [ジャンピングフラッシュ！ファンブック] (600DPI), pg. 50↩︎
  10. E3 1995 - E3 Guide - IGN. "The E3 inaugural event was born out of the Chicago Consumer Electronics Show (CES), where game publishers and developers were relegated to the basement of the Chicago's McCormick Center. Envisioning a show that focused solely on the video game industry, the Interactive Digital Software Association (IDSA)--which would later become the Entertainment Software Association (ESA)--decided to hold the first official E3, E3 1995, in the Los Angeles Convention Center May 11 - 13, 1995. "↩︎
  11. E3 Video Contents. "Jumping Flash - Playstation"↩︎
  12. Gamefan Volume 3 Issue 07 July 1995 ALT, pg. 30. "Included first and foremost, Jumping Flash, and of course Toshinden and MK3 (which is the first 100% perfect arcade port I have ever seen)."↩︎
  13. Gamefan Volume 3 Issue 07 July 1995 ALT, pg. 72. "AVAILABLE SEPT. 9"↩︎
  14. Business Development/North America ｜ CORPORATE INFORMATION ｜ Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.↩︎
  15. JumpingFlash FAQ v1.1. "I got my Playstation when it was released here in Sweden (September 29th)." "Jumping Flash was released in Europe (or parts of it) at September 29th. It is Copyright Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. 1995"↩︎
  16. Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. "1995/09/29 PlayStation introduced. (SRP 299 UK Pounds/ 1,999 F Francs/ 599 D Marks)"↩︎
  17. Gamefan Volume 3 Issue 10 October 1995, pg. 28. "AVAILABLE - OCTOBER"↩︎
  18. Sony PlayStation: Jumping Flash! Press Release. "FOSTER CITY, Calif., October 27, 1995 -- How many times have you dreamed of flying, soaring above the roofs of buildings and trees in your neighborhood? See your dreams take flight as Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA) brings an original and innovative new game to retail this Friday, November 2nd: Jumping Flash!(TM) "↩︎
  19. Mega Fun Magazine (April 1995), pg. 15. "Eines der ersten Grafikdemos fur die PS-X, Spring Man, erblickt nun doch das Licht der Welt, wenn auch unter neuem Titel; und Sony Computer Entertainment hat sich bei ihrem in-house entwickelten Jump'n Run hehre Ziele gesetzt."↩︎