Johnny Mnemonic (unreleased proto)

[goldenband]

It doesn't look like there's been any discussion here about the Johnny Mnemonic prototype (has there?):

http://forum.unseen64.net/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=2016

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xxz4k20c5X0

http://forums.hidden-palace.org/viewtopic.php?p=8842

I haven't tried it yet, but I'm sure it's FMV-tastic.

[Shai'tan]

lol that's awesome! is there an image of it somewhere?

[CurlyPaul]

I'll be burning these tonight! Hopefully I'll be able to patch them to work on my PAL MegaCD

Thanks for sharing

[CurlyPaul]

All done, even created a torrent of the complete iso's - I hate all those free file hosting sites and all those damned ads

[Jax184]

I'm very afraid. The short story by William Gibson was great, but the movie was utter garbage.

[CurlyPaul]

I actually quite liked the film, but then I love B movies.

I'm not sure how the hell I'm supposed to be playing this game though, this is the fun of FMV games though.

[Shai'tan]

just wanted to thank Goldenband for posting this up

[Melf]

Please don't post links to ROMs or torrents. :)

[CurlyPaul]

Apologies Melf, I should have checked the rules first

[Melf]

No problem. If you want to exchange those links, you can use PMs.

[Shai'tan]

I hadn't even thought about that aspect of it considering it being a proto/beta. My apologies for asking about a link.

[Forgotten Sin]

Is this the same game as the one Spoony reviewed?

[kool kitty89]

I'm very afraid. The short story by William Gibson was great, but the movie was utter garbage.
It's almost certainly a port of the PC game based somewhat on the Movie using original footage.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssPtHjJr9j4
ssPtHjJr9j4





Edit, looking at the video for the MCD game, it looks like either uncompressed or lesslessly compressed 16 color streaming video as most Japanese FMV was and a few western games like NovaStorm (lossless compression) with heavy posterization and minimal dithering.
Was this being converted by a Japanese developer?
I'd think it would look a lot better using SoA's tile based compression format or related formats as used with most later (1993 onward) FMV on the MCD. (with several cases even being full-screen like Loadstar, Wirehead, Fahrenheit, or Eternal Champions)

[CurlyPaul]

Is this the same game as the one Spoony reviewed?

Yes it is. The video quality is much much lower than the windows version that Spoony covered, but a damn site easier to play considering the PC version will only run in Windows 3.1

The guy who dumped it says that it uses a lot of save memory, how the hell do I save?

I notice that if you put disk 2 in, it just starts playing from there regardless of whether you've finished the first disk :)

Was thinking about the obviously rushed encoding job on the video, would it be possible to take the video from the windows version and encode it with whatever and codec the MegaCD uses and switch them?

@Melf - cheers. Anybody want the torrent and I'll pm you page as soon as PirateBay unlock me

[kool kitty89]

Yes it is. The video quality is much much lower than the windows version that Spoony covered, but a damn site easier to play considering the PC version will only run in Windows 3.1

The video quality isn't just lower than the PC/Mac games, it's considerably lower than many other Sega CD games. (definitely doesn't look like it's using the western "cinepak for sega" format -especially the full screen stuff a lot of late games were pushing)

It was also out for Mac, though a Mac emulator is probably a bigger issue than trying to run it in Dosbox with win3.x/9x installed, or using virtualPC to dual boot.

It won't only run in win3.1x though, or I highly doubt that that's the case. All such early windows-specific multimedia games (often using Indeo video -part of "video for windows" -early versions very similar to early versions of cinepak) would run fine on win 95/98/98SE (not sure about ME and NT based windows would be more hit and miss -2000 might work to some extent, XP not at all).
A lot of those early 90s (pre 9x) windows games later got repackaged versions proclaiming windows 95 compatibility even though the software was really the same.


So either a dedicated win9x machine (98SE has the best overall compatibility iirc), or using virtual PC. (that's not an emulator but a virtual machine to allow multiple OSs to run and you do need to install the actual OS via an official install disc... or a not so official one for that matter) And Mac emulators require a real compy of the OS as well, so it's a similar headache to deal with.

[Glisp]

Hey there. I dumped the unreleased Johnny Mnemonic Prototype. ;) I'm also the guy who purchased the thing off of ebay along with a few other Sega CD protos and one Saturn. Really, the other protos aren't that interesting as they're pretty close to their final versions but Mnemonic here was a two disk proto. The second disk is dated just a day after the first one.

Anyway, for those of you interested in what other protos I aquired here's a photo:
http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash2/hs493.ash2/76683_158964054138754_100000754828631_261234_33726 35_n.jpg
The blank disk is a Virtua Fighter Remix Review proto for the Saturn. Most people have told me it's pretty much the final on a prototype disk. Nothing more. The disk does have the Sega logo on the inner and outer edges of the disk. The Fatal Fury disk doesn't though.

Unimportant fact: the Black Hole Assault proto was compiled on my second birthday. ;) That's like 22 days before the final release iirc. Been a while since I checked so I dunno. I think the game has some differences in where redbook pointers are and that's it but I'm not positive. I'd have to check it again. I have the final version afterall.

Regarding the Johnny Mnemonic proto some more, Kega Fusion doesn't seem to emulate it well for whatever the reason it plays fine aside from garbled bars going across the screen in some places.

[oldskool]

Right on, thanks for sharing that with us. I still have yet to burn the ISO and check it out on my X'Eye or CDX.

[CurlyPaul]

Hey Glisp, thanks for sharing your find its very much appreciated :)

I've also found that Fusion has problems with the audio stuttering and the occasional loud beep.

[Glisp]

@CurlyPaul: To answer your question regarding save memory in Mnemonic, it auto saves after certain points. And it actually doesn't take up a whole lot of memory but if you aren't planning on extended play, you should consider deleting the save file that's created after its been loaded as it could really prevent you from saving in your other savefiles you run out of room. Had that happen to me once. Sonic CD wouldn't load levels unless it was from the level select. All because my BRM was full.

[CurlyPaul]

oh right cool - was wondering how saving and loading worked in a game with no menus lol. I assume it autoloads any saves that it finds on boot?

[Glisp]

Yep, pretty much. For some odd reason, the first part of the game where you're trying to escape the house from the Japanese men is overly difficult to do for some reason. I had to do save states on Fusion just to beat that part. What makes it annoying is that you have to go to the back room and press a secret button on the wall to open a book case multiple times. Then after you clear this part, you get to have the chick fight some Japanese guy in hand to hand combat. After this iirc, you end up in a subway.

[CurlyPaul]

Do you know where there is a walkthru for the game? Spoony mentioned one in his review but I can't find one anywhere.
Would love to see more of the game but I cant even get out of the flat lol

[Glisp]

No I don't unfortunately. Sorry.