Sorry! Late night. Updated the original post with the missing SRAM files. 🙂
Nothing for Moto GP. I spent quite a bit of time digging through
Japanese websites, old forum posts, archived pages, strategy guides,
blog posts, and various bits of information that have been floating
around the internet for years.
I searched Japanese forums, GameFAQs, Arcade-Projects,
old Geocities mirrors, Wayback Machine archives, personal websites,
wikis, fan pages, and even translated Japanese pages looking for
references to hidden characters, time-release content, operator
settings, and password unlocks.
Unfortunately, a lot of what I found either conflicted with other
sources, led to dead ends, or simply couldn't be reproduced on the
actual arcade versions.
There are quite a few claims out there regarding secret characters,
time-release content, and hidden features, but many of them appear
to originate from PlayStation 2, PSP, Xbox, or other home console
releases and were copied from site to site without ever being
verified for the arcade versions.
Bloody Roar 3 was one example.
I found several references claiming Kohryu could be unlocked after
defeating him around Stage 5 and clearing Arcade Mode, but despite
repeated attempts I couldn't reproduce it myself, and I suspect the
information actually came from the PlayStation 2 version rather than
the arcade release.
I also came across references to Uranus appearing on Stage 16 and
being unlockable, but that mode doesn't appear to exist in the arcade
version, leading me to believe this was another case of console
information being mixed in with arcade information.
Battle of YuYu Hakusho was another interesting case.
Multiple sources claimed Koto was a hidden playable character, and
some even suggested she might be exclusive to the arcade version,
but despite all of the searching I never found any screenshots,
videos, operator manual references, or unlock methods that could
actually be verified.
I ran into several similar cases while researching Moto GP,
Technic Beat, and some of the Gundam titles.
There are definitely still mysteries left, and I'm sure some
information has simply been lost over the years.
For this project, I wanted everything to be based on things I could
personally verify and reproduce rather than just repeating
information that might not actually be accurate.
So if anyone has original operator manuals, magazine scans,
strategy guides, Japanese arcade books, or information that can
be confirmed on real System 246/256 hardware, I'd love to see it.
There's still plenty of arcade history left to preserve. 🙂
New Link: here