...Well, kinda. This is old, but I dug out my twinsticks and decided to begin nerding out over this game again.
The Japanese Dreamcast release of VOOT had netplay, as you may know. You could even customize the appearence of your VR to take online, though offline play was limited to a test mode; just a quick fight against your own customized VR.
After the Dreamcast release of VOOT, the arcades saw a second update of the game. Version 5.66 ran on Naomi hardware, so, like the Dremcast port, it had simplified backgrounds and fewer transparency effects. On the upside, it added 3 new VRs (Apharmd C, 10/80 Temjin, Stein-Vok), new arenas (well, it brought the DC-exclusive ones to the arcades), and probably had some gameplay tweaks. It also had a VMU slot, so you could load customized VRs from the Dreamcast 5.45.
So, wait. How would you customize the new VRs? A disc was released with the Japanese Official Dreamcast magazine that contained the VR customization feature, allowing you to do just that.
Of course, there was no test mode, so you couldn't try the new VRs.
In comes Scott Robinson. Long-time leader of the VOOT Netplay Project, and an all-around cool guy, he found that 5.66; engine, arenas and all, was on the disc. Specifically, test mode was there, but there was no option to enter it.
Scott released a bootdisk (available on the Sourceforge site linked above) that allows you to access test mode if you have this disc. It also allows you to load customized mechs in the original game, US or Japanese, in any offline mode.
(pictures from Scott Robinson)
So, it's more like a 5.66 preview due to the lack of multiplayer, but it's still fun to mess with the new VRs.
The VOOT Netplay Project has been idle for a hell of a long time, I think, but he actually did get it to play via broadband adapter. Impressive for reverse-engineering.
After this "5.60" was discovered, Sega decided to re-release VOOT for the Dreamcast (greatest-hits style). It broke my heart that they didn't bother to polish this up and release it instead.
The Japanese Dreamcast release of VOOT had netplay, as you may know. You could even customize the appearence of your VR to take online, though offline play was limited to a test mode; just a quick fight against your own customized VR.
After the Dreamcast release of VOOT, the arcades saw a second update of the game. Version 5.66 ran on Naomi hardware, so, like the Dremcast port, it had simplified backgrounds and fewer transparency effects. On the upside, it added 3 new VRs (Apharmd C, 10/80 Temjin, Stein-Vok), new arenas (well, it brought the DC-exclusive ones to the arcades), and probably had some gameplay tweaks. It also had a VMU slot, so you could load customized VRs from the Dreamcast 5.45.
So, wait. How would you customize the new VRs? A disc was released with the Japanese Official Dreamcast magazine that contained the VR customization feature, allowing you to do just that.
Of course, there was no test mode, so you couldn't try the new VRs.
In comes Scott Robinson. Long-time leader of the VOOT Netplay Project, and an all-around cool guy, he found that 5.66; engine, arenas and all, was on the disc. Specifically, test mode was there, but there was no option to enter it.
Scott released a bootdisk (available on the Sourceforge site linked above) that allows you to access test mode if you have this disc. It also allows you to load customized mechs in the original game, US or Japanese, in any offline mode.
(pictures from Scott Robinson)
So, it's more like a 5.66 preview due to the lack of multiplayer, but it's still fun to mess with the new VRs.
The VOOT Netplay Project has been idle for a hell of a long time, I think, but he actually did get it to play via broadband adapter. Impressive for reverse-engineering.
After this "5.60" was discovered, Sega decided to re-release VOOT for the Dreamcast (greatest-hits style). It broke my heart that they didn't bother to polish this up and release it instead.