Garou Mark of the Wolves 2 Data Found

[BlackaneseNiNjA]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1547189070064807936

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1550166472634163200

 

[SignOfGoob]

View attachment 58599

There’s not a lot to work with there…could be anything…I’m certainly not going to state any strong opinions on it.

 

[Ajax]

Have you ever been able to pause a Neo Geo game in the arcade? Also, have you ever seen a fighting game in an arcade where time was set to infinite? I am legitimately asking, but in my case, it's no to both of those things, and I've spent thousands of hours in arcades here and in Japan over the last few decades.

I don't know where the screenshot came from, but I think it's pretty safe to rule out the possibility of it coming from a location test.

Also, I keep coming back to this - people keep mentioning dumping something in relation to this. What do people think there is to dump? I'm skeptical that a playable build was ever compiled, judging by the limited number of assets. But who the hell knows?

 

[BlackaneseNiNjA]

Also, I keep coming back to this - people keep mentioning dumping something in relation to this. What do people think there is to dump?

Hey whats up Ajax, I think fans are happy to have something rather than nothing. However, some would rather have the actual data/asset files made available to the community rather than just screenshots of folders and images; I think that is the stance that some fans have taken with regard to what has been shared so far.

 

[SignOfGoob]

Have you ever been able to pause a Neo Geo game in the arcade? Also, have you ever seen a fighting game in an arcade where time was set to infinite? I am legitimately asking, but in my case, it's no to both of those things, and I've spent thousands of hours in arcades here and in Japan over the last few decades.

I don't know where the screenshot came from, but I think it's pretty safe to rule out the possibility of it coming from a location test.

Also, I keep coming back to this - people keep mentioning dumping something in relation to this. What do people think there is to dump? I'm skeptical that a playable build was ever compiled, judging by the limited number of assets. But who the hell knows?

Yeah, I noticed the same things but…we now know that there was a KOF 98 with Ken and Ryu in it for internal research use and if anyone showed pictures of that before we knew of it we’d be very confused and probably call it fake.

The main issue with this particular “MotW2” image is that it has “EGM Shen Long” stank all over it. Why is it cropped? Why is it blurry? Why do we only see two guys who’s sprites already exist in other games? If they ever built anything playable it would be something that let you play Terry versus a new character, why does this shot show nearly nothing interesting?

 

[Fygee]

Have you ever been able to pause a Neo Geo game in the arcade? Also, have you ever seen a fighting game in an arcade where time was set to infinite? I am legitimately asking, but in my case, it's no to both of those things, and I've spent thousands of hours in arcades here and in Japan over the last few decades.

I don't know where the screenshot came from, but I think it's pretty safe to rule out the possibility of it coming from a location test.

Also, I keep coming back to this - people keep mentioning dumping something in relation to this. What do people think there is to dump? I'm skeptical that a playable build was ever compiled, judging by the limited number of assets. But who the hell knows?

No, but you can with an AES game. There's nothing saying that this screen originates from an MVS cab/BIOS. And it wouldn't surprise me if development builds had a pause feature for MVS that gets removed later by the time it reaches beta.

The screenshot is so old that it's nigh impossible to determine if it's legit or not. It looks like something that was captured from a CRT, but considering this is a 20+ year old picture, that'd be pretty easy to do.

Since, so far, the data from the CDs doesn't have anything for Mr. Karate or that background, I'm inclined to think it's fake unless this data is from a much older build where it seems like it hadn't reached any kind of playable status yet. If there's some UI assets that match, then that would add a big wrinkle to it.

 

[sirlynxalot]

Around 2002 I was on a mugen forum called Mugen guild, and at that time, someone on the forum claimed to have made that screenshot with Mugen.

 

[Fygee]

Makes a ton of sense to me.

 

[Ajax]

Interesting. Would love to see that post. I do strongly suspect that's the answer. Something about that screenshot has never added up to me.

I do suppose it was probably pretty common practice for SNK (and probably other studios) to use an existing game as a foundation for a sequel, so maybe it is possible that a playable build of MOTW 2 did exist. Would love to hear directly from a developer who was there.

 

[SignOfGoob]

If you're going to fake a screenshot you don't even need Mugen, you can do it in Photoshop, or even Paint.

I agree that if anything in the screenshot exists in the newly discovered data then that would be proof, I wouldn't count on it.

 

[SouthtownKid]

No worries. It's rare I have anything to contribute these days.

 

[sirlynxalot]

Interesting. Would love to see that post. I do strongly suspect that's the answer. Something about that screenshot has never added up to me.

I do suppose it was probably pretty common practice for SNK (and probably other studios) to use an existing game as a foundation for a sequel, so maybe it is possible that a playable build of MOTW 2 did exist. Would love to hear directly from a developer who was there.

It seems like the Mugen guild forum is still up but the forum content only goes back to around 2013. Older posts must have been lost in an upgrade or something. I'll check the Internet archive later to see if it has any backups. The smoking gun would be if any of the bg graphics could be matched up to an existing game, like if the ground is from a last blade stage and the sky from a kof stage, etc. No way would anyone trying to fake the screenshot take the time to make completely custom bg graphics. Pretty sure there is a version of this image that is larger and shows more of the play field than the one posted in this topic.

 

[Ajax]

Have we seen this article?

SNK Producer says he rejoined the company to complete the story of Terry Bogard and Garou

Maybe this isn't reslly news, but judging by his comments, it sure sounds like Oda is set on releasing a follow-up to Garou.

 

[sirlynxalot]

Here's a less truncated version of the pic, and allegedly another pic.






And here's some of the new Garou sprites recently shown on twitter that have been animated by an artist.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1545781066899738625

 

[sirlynxalot]

I overlaid that image on top of Okina's background from Last Blade 2 and I'm pretty sure the grass and bush/tree match. Not totally sure where the ocean is from, but I'm calling this busted as a mugen and/or intentional fake beyond a reasonable doubt at this point.




And I knew I'd seen that bird before too! I didn't get the LB2 screenshot at exactly the right time, but the bird continues to outstretch its wings to look even more like the bird in the MOTW2 pic.






On a different subject, someone has converted the beta MOTW 2 stages to Mugen

 

[Tempest]

Wow! I consider that screenshot debunked. Thanks for all the detective work.

 

[kernow]

I wouldn't call it debunked, you'll never know.

 

[doaal]

Interesting that the new moves for the returning characters are all aerial attacks.

MotW is one of the best fighters out there, made all the more impressive that it has no revisions. SF3 had a massive leap in quality from NG to 3S, compare FF3 to RBS, etc. Maybe SNK wanted to expand on air combos in the sequel.

 

[Fygee]

20+ years later, I'm calling this debunked too. Nice detective work sirlynxalot!

 

[geladobom]

*Theories
Funny how they find the 2nd unfinished game. I knew it. That SNK have all data saved and their job is constructive the missing games for the collection. Next will be The Karate Ninja Show or Ninja Gaiden 2. The Saudi Arabia Company is bleeding out the stuff or Japan is affaid to lost all is investment.

Even sirlynxalot found something interresting. Congrats dude.

 

[geladobom]

Around 2002 I was on a mugen forum called Mugen guild, and at that time, someone on the forum claimed to have made that screenshot with Mugen.

But the guy who post that picture was added in to is TV. Mugen is emulated on any console in 2003?

 

[SignOfGoob]

But the guy who post that picture was added in to is TV. Mugen is emulated on any console in 2003?

Do you mean “how do you get MUGEN on an CRT”? Everything was on a CRT when this photo was taken and many people still had computers that would even run in 240p.

 

[Johnny16Bit]

But the guy who post that picture was added in to is TV. Mugen is emulated on any console in 2003?

 

[sirlynxalot]

But the guy who post that picture was added in to is TV. Mugen is emulated on any console in 2003?

In addition to what's been said, You could run Mugen on an original Xbox at that time, or on a desktop or laptop computer that had RCA output for a TV, I owned one at the time

 

[geladobom]

In addition to what's been said, You could run Mugen on an original Xbox at that time, or on a desktop or laptop computer that had RCA output for a TV, I owned one at the time

Now that can solve the mistery.