Hippa Linda Demo (Scans & Download)

  So this is something neat: a demo disc for Hippa Linda (despite being a very short game as it is.)  This might've been the demo used for the 2001 E3 showing at Atlus' booth, as info from places like IGN and the game's JP site mention both it being in Japanese and the R1 + L1 instructional error made about activating the scarf bomb.  Regardless it's still a neat curiosity, plus it features otherwise unseen artwork of some enemies/Linda.

  On top of scanning all the assets I've also made a BIN rip of the game, both for preservation and for people to try out/research.

Hi-Res (600dpi) Scans & Download

Hippa Linda (Demo) Download

Freak Out (EU, English Midas) Scans

Another European release, made two years later(!) by Midas Interactive featuring fancier art.  Fun fact: I've seen Midas copies featuring a red manual like the Swing release, but I snagged a copy that features a different manual cover.  The wording in the manual's very slightly different from the U.S. version but is otherwise the same.

Freak Out (EU, Édition française) Scans

Well it hasn't been a full month yet so I'm on time, right? Right?  Anyways here are scans of the European release of Stretch Panic (called Freak Out) in French.  There's also a trilingual box of this game I haven't snagged yet but this version seems to be the most common online.

 Download ZIP of scans from MEGA (300dpi, 126 MB)

Stretch Panic Pre-Release: Spong's Freak Out Page

Wow, it's been a month already?  I wasn't expecting to hold off on an update that long.  So what we have here are prerelease images of Stretch Panic taken from a site called Spong.  There's quite a few noticeable differences in these, and like with the GameGo images there'll be comparison images from the U.S. release.

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• Miss Mecca's in Cinder's room instead of her own arena.
• There's no HUD whatsoever.
• There's some explosions in the background, possibly from launching bombs like Spinner does.  She only fires missiles one at a time in the final.
• Her robot doesn't seem to have a metallic surface, just a plain one.
• The sky outside is just a flat black color instead of a cloudy sky.

• Again, a boss in Cinder's room who isn't supposed to be there.  For some reason Siren's tucked away in a corner partially buried in the wall instead of in the center.
• The room has a slightly different design than in the final, such as the red part of the wall along the bottom.
• There's thirteen visible followers in the room; she only has ten in the final.  Also the way they're walking and grouped together makes it look like they're following Linda around.
• No HUD or sky, just like in the previous image.  They could both be mockups.

• The sky isn't darkened in Siren's demonic form.
• A primitive HUD is present; the health meters are simplistic transparent stars, the points text is a simple font, and the stretch meter's a standard gauge rather than the scarf's eye.  This HUD will be present in the rest of these images.
• The demonic followers' scythes seem to be blue rather than green, though it could be due to image quality.
• The environment is much more simplistic looking and features a different background.
• Only five followers are present when again, there's ten in the final.

• Linda's eyes have a very basic design, consisting of two solid circles with no details.

• Just the HUD.

• Spinner's in EX-Island instead of her own arena.  I'm guessing the bosses didn't have their arenas designed when this screencap was taken.
• EX-Island looks WAY simpler. The walls seems to be just a flat brown color instead of having a rock texture.
• There's a black-and-white ball here that isn't used in the released game.  There is a different ball present here in the Hippa Linda release but it's smaller and has a completely different design.  Wonder why they didn't have any in the western versions?
• The scarf's eye isn't glowing while pinching something.

• Miss Mecca's arena looks completely different than in the final game, and seems to have a more cubic shape.  There's no electric barriers for dealing red damage either, so it either wasn't implemented yet or you had to do something else.
• Linda's pom is as dark as the rest of her; the brightness seen in the comparison shot's pretty much the darkest it ever gets and is practically glowing all the time (which, considering that it tells you how low on health Linda is, makes sense.)

• Cinder's fire looks completely different, almost like a laser beam.  The final uses a simpler visual effect where she sprays fire sprites from her mouth.  The old fire breath attack was in some promotional art for the game back when it was shown at E3 in 2001.

• EX-Island's layout in the first screenshot is slightly different and features very basic palm trees (they might even be simple untextured shapes.)
• The door's placement similar to the Japanese version's, but not exactly.  It's weird how there's some things in this prerelease that match up to the later Japanese revision's rather than the earlier western ones.

• Fay Soff's in Samantha's arena rather than her own
• The only object here is an unknown one at the center of the arena.  A parasol maybe?
• The cloudy sky's brighter than in the final.

• More of Spinner and the black-and-white ball in very prototypical EX-Island.

• As seen in the GameGo prerelease, the monkeys have censor dots for whatever reason. Those aren't present at all in the final versions.
• The snap attack's graphics look different, featuring polygonal spikes similar to the HUD stars rather than cogwheel outlines.

• Some more beta stuff already seen in the GameGo screenshots but there are some images here and there, such as there being platforms in the arena rather than slopes.
• The rock Linda's holding in the first screenshot looks completely different.
• The sky's clear and blue, meaning the lightning probably wasn't implemented yet.
• Linda's simplistic dead eyes are here again.  They look kinda creepy in these images.

• More beta Fay Soff images featuring more censor dots.  The bright light in the first image might be from her fire attack, which could've used the same laser-like fire as Cinder.  The final releases give her final Cinder's fire breath visuals.
• There's a monkey on one of the corners near a turtle, but there isn't a corner like that in the final.

• More of what we've seen before; different snap attack graphics and a more transparent visor for the Satellite Zakos.

• Aside from the HUD nothing's out of the ordinary.

• The walls lack the glossy semi-white coat the final has.
• The exit door's wide open but Linda's still bumbling around.  You might've had to walk into the doorway manually to warp back instead of automatically warping when you snap it open.
• The sky's texture/positioning's a tad different, for those who are nitpicky.

• Barely noticeable, but the cloud in the first image looks different.  Might be using EX-Island's sky like in the other prerelease images.
• The first image looks like the player's in lock-on mode, but there's no circular scarf reticle to show what they're locked onto.

That does it for these images.  Up next are gonna be scans from the two European releases by Swing and Midas, the former in French and the latter in English.  They won't take a month to do, I swear.