*Edit*
I just noticed I got linked from http://www.unseen64.net/, mad props =D

Coded Arms sites:
1) Original Official Game site: (Much more "get to know the developers" friendly)
http://www.konami.jp/gs/game/coded_arms/psp/

2) Redesigned Official Game site: (Much more interested in selling the damn thing - pure consumer sale site)
http://www.konami-data.com/officialsites/codedarms/

3) Japanese game site over viewing the game (features interview with developers):
http://www.watch.impress.co.jp/game/docs/20050516/ca.htm
http://www.watch.impress.co.jp/game/docs/20050607/cam.htm
http://www.watch.impress.co.jp/game/docs/20050621/ca01.htm
http://www.watch.impress.co.jp/game/docs/20050621/ca02.htm
http://www.watch.impress.co.jp/game/docs/20050622/ca.htm
http://www.watch.impress.co.jp/game/docs/20050623/ca.htm


---------------------------



Coded Arms is an interesting game since it was Konami's first attempt at a Japanese First Person Shooter.
But they fucked it up - big time.


This is one of those games that went from being "like Atlantis" to "caveman" (opposite of how the development cycle is supposed to go)

The game first started off with the tentative title "Exploration Based Horror FPS"


Here one can see a video of the game in its very early stages:
http://sanik.hacking-cult.org/PSPJapan_Kon...3_01_wmvlow.wmv

The game originally had fully human made levels, as well as outside levels in the urban environment.
It even had totally different bosses from the final.
The HUD was very different as well.


Here one can see a shot from the video - showing the outdoor level as well as the simple HUD scheme.

The zoom in scope design of the sniper-rifle was different as well
Early Concept:


Final:


Well how did Konami fuck shit up?
Simple, they removed the human designed maps in favour of randomly generated levels which generate a map out of "40 slices" or so.'

Since this game takes place in a VR room, they prolly thought, "Hey, wouldn't it be more realistic if the computer GENERATED its own maps?"
Yes it would, but too bad the computer generated maps suck balls
"People play the same level in Tetris over and over again without getting bored, let's make an FPS like that!" *sigh*

They also cheapened the final product by *drum roll* using a trailer for the game as the intro to the game.
(Talk about lack of creativity for the intro-menu system)

Anyways, the shots above are from the early-concept version
Here's a shot of the Beta (after they had implemented the randomly generated levels)


The HUD in the Beta is totally different from the final:


Another difference in the Beta from the Final is that there are no doors in the Beta (or at least the doors opened once and would never close again)
This wasn't all so bad because the levels would feel like one map then - instead of sections of rooms connected together by random pathways

Also - when enemies died, the death animation lacked the numeric outline as seen in the Final

Beta death outline


Final death outline

Another difference in the Beta from the Final is that one of the powerups has a different look (but I've never seen that power up picked up to know which one it is)


I've written tools to disassemble the game data in the retail version, in search of Beta material, but they really "cleaned" the game data up pretty nicely.
No sign of unused levels or features.

This game has won many awards from websites, such as being on the list of the top-10 biggest hypes that flopped - badly
There was a sequal to this game called Contagion on the PSP, but it wasn't designed by Konami which is why the art style in the second becomes much more Western

Konami was supposed to do a PS3 Coded Arms called Assault, but that got canceled
It had nothing to do with the PSP storylines
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoIFrQbkhD4

I wonder if any one of you who knows Japanese, might want to take up the mission of hunting this early-concept version down

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For those of you who have trouble progressing in this game, here's an infinite health RAM patch I wrote (Single Player - USA):

<img src=http://sanik.hacking-cult.org/cas1.jpg>

Whoa, that's a frigging weird XMB. Assuming that's not a mockup, there's loads of differences there from the final 1.0 release =P

I love how you're trying to make the best of this =)
"The game sucked so bad that people prefer to talk about the XMB differences more than the game itself!"

Regarding the XMB and the early-concept:

One possibility is that it's running on a PC
Actual PSPs show a PSP splash whilst they load the game. In the video - it loads the game too fast - instantaneously

According to one of the developers - PSP dev units were hard to get early on so they coded on the PC

So it's all possible that they coded the game on the PC, tried to port it to the PSP - realized the limits and decided to do something differently.

Some of the texture data dumped from the game:


The only "UNUSED" thing, a dummy texture I guess - rittled with Engrish


Speaking of Engrish:


"It has been no accident since 1974 operation.
PJ3 Iron Mill inc"