Rockman & Forte: Mirai Kara no Chōsensha

This page details pre-release information and/or media for Rockman & Forte: Mirai Kara no Chōsensha.

Early Build#

Several prerelease images exist of a quite early build of the game. One such image (from Pocket Games Issue 2, from Spring 2000) shows the octopus miniboss from Aircon Man's stage:

Prerelease	Final

This image shows several differences from the final game:

• Rockman's sprite (as well as Forte's sprite, as seen below) is completely different. He is drawn in a style that more closely resembles his sprites from other Mega Man games, while in the final it seems the artists leaned into their own personal style.

• There is a weapon ammo bar with "RM" written beneath it. In the final game, the weapon bars have images of the weapons below them, instead of their initials.

• Also, there is no weapon in the final game with the initials "RM".
  • This may mean that these initials likely stand for Rockman, and that this represents the Rock Buster. However, in the final game, the weapon bar does not appear when using the Rock Buster.

• There is a boss health bar on the right side of the screen. As in other images seen below, this bar is present throughout the entire level, rather than just the boss fight at the end of the level.

• Also, the prerelease image shows a skull below the boss health bar. This graphic does not appear in the final game.

• The Met's jumping animation is slightly different.

• There are no walls on the sides of the room.

• There are no platforms moving across the room.

• The ground uses a different texture.

The next image (from Game Players(遊戲誌) VOL. 108 (August 26, 1999)) shows an early section from Grey Devil's stage, with three major differences:

• This layout is not seen in the final game,
• Neither of the enemies pictured is found in this level in the final game.
• The background is much darker than the version in the final game.

The last image is from the official WonderSwan website, and it shows part of Compass Man's stage. Once again, the layout is much flatter than anything seen in the final version of the level, and neither enemy is present in this level in the final game.

Later Build#

There are also two prerelease images of a slightly later build of the game. We can tell this is a different build because the boss health bar is no longer constantly on the screen. One image (from Game Players VOL. 107 (August 14, 1999)) shows another early section from Aircon Man's stage, this time from the rooms after the octopus mini-boss.

In the final game, there is only one ballooning octopus per room, and all of these rooms have many spikes in them and a lighter background. From the way the room is set out, it seems that the platforms behaved differently in this build (e.g. maybe they moved up and down instead of just up).

The other image (also from Game Players VOL. 107) shows an early version of Compass Man's stage with a few differences:

• Interestingly, this image has the same part of the level as the Early Build image of Compass Man's stage, except that it has different enemies. This shows that the developers were still changing enemy placement and type (seemingly haphazardly?) to see which ones fit best in each level.
• Only the dragonfly enemy appears in this level in the final game.
• There appears to be a bubble on screen. These are produced by the crab enemy, who also does not appear in the final version of this level.

Near-Final Build#

On the back of the box, there are two photos from a near-final build of the game. The first shows a slightly different version of a room from Konro Man's stage. In the final, the platform on the left was raised by a block, the spikes were lowered by a block, the black pixels around the spikes were removed, and the robot enemy was moved one block to the right.

Prerelease	Final

The second image shows an early version of a room near the start of Aircon Man's stage. In the final, the ladder texture was changed, the blocks in the terrain were slightly altered, and the crab was moved up by a block. Also, either the camera system may have been altered as well, or the room may have been a standalone room rather than part of a larger, scrolling room. This is because it is impossible to get both the prerelease camera placement and Forte's prerelease position at the same time in the final game.

Prerelease	Final