Before the Awakening there is Mission 00

Not content with a packed OST release, several guide books, models and figures, Namco decided to go one step further into merchandise land.

The result was a tape named "Mission 00". The title may be misleading at first, as it's not about a mission that takes place before the game proper begins. It's also not an anime prologue, but considering the "quality" of many game-related OVAs, we're better off that way!

Scrapped Weapons

Here are two pictures, one from the international opening and one from the game itself.

Courtesy of resident AC3 scholar (;D) Fabian.

6/25/2023: Thanks to the european presskit and its higher-res screencaps, I've ID'd the last two remaining weapons. They are the "Heavy Missile" and the "Long-range Missile" Unlike for the "Homing Laser", there's no trace of them in the game files.

 

...and the digging comes to an end.

Mission ID 13

Name Above The Thumbnail: (Garbled Graphics)
Save Game Screen Name: ----
Before Starting Mission Name: GAME SHOW
Background Music: None
Selectable Aircraft: Su-43 Berkut


Screenshot 1 : Mission Thumbnail
(May vary, I could not find an explanation to this)
Screenshot 2 : When you start the mission, there's an
F-16XA flying in front of you, It is the only primary target in the mission...
Screenshot 3 : ...But if you destroy it the mission doesn't end.
Screenshot 4 : There's also two R-101 flying near the F-16.
Screenshot 5 : Do you see that white line in the map??
Screenshot 6 : They're the legendary floating gun turrets!
Screenshot 7 : Another view of the guns
Screenshot 8 : And Another view of the guns.
Screenshot 9 : Your allies trying to destroy an R-201 in the Southeast corner of the map.
Screenshot 10: At 4:00 this message appears, hurrying you to do something
Screenshot 11: Smoke on the Water!
Screenshot 12: And finally at 5:00, the mission ends (fails).
Screenshot 13: If you save the game from the options menu, and then, you return to the title screen and select "Download", you'll see this.

If you load from that file, you'll start directly
in the mission.

Strange Arrow in "A Canopy of Stars"

Different Font

(EDIT August 8th, 2010) Forgot to add credits to contributor Fabian, who as it turns out found even more hidden files.

Digging Further

Ouroboros' Flyable Airplanes

Garbled stuff in the NW corner

Electrosphere - Part 2 (Unused Thumbnail)

Thanks to: Fabian for digging this stuff up and the screenshots.

Relic of Development - Work In Progress XR-900

Here is a visual comparison of the prototype, WIP model of the Geopelia (left) and the in-game, final model (right).

Differences

• Bottom engines are blue.
  
• It has a more conventional jet sound as opposed to the XR-900.
  
• The flames that come out of the upper engines are freaking big.
  
• Lack of any details in the bottom of the plane (just plain gray)
• The rest of the grey-colored part of the plane also displays a distinct lack of detail.
  
• The Prototype has flames, the final model has Aeon particles.
  
• Top speed: 2856 km/h
  
• Missile payload: 199
  

Thanks to: Fabian for the screenshots and text.

Website Re-organization

Hi folks - just a quick message to say that the blog now comes under the projectnemo.net parent site. The site design is "simply functional" so please do not expect anything like the DataSwallow ver4.0 GUI just yet :-)

Namco Official Guide Book

Been a while since the last update ;^_^ Anyhow, here are some photos I took of the Official Guide Book. I got this from eBay and I've been wanting to own it for aaaaaaggess!

Some photos are attached - which got me thinking: there's *plenty* of Japanese in the guide and scope for us to translate this too once the game translation is 100% complete - what do you think?

Namco has not forgotten AC3

Namco have not forgotten about Ace Combat 3 - they know there are a contingent of fans out there who love the game and would just love to see a remake (oh, and in English!).

Did you know that a fairly recent game, the Xbox 360 title "Ridge Racer 6", contained a lot of references to the game? Does anyone else know of any other Namco games which reference AC3?

I recently acquired the official Namco Japanese AC3 guide book from eBay, it's something I have wanted to get hold of for a looong time. I will post highlights from the guide in my next post.

Direct Audio with AppenDisc (overview)

If shortly means three full months, then the full article presenting the Direct Audio is finally here!

Books of AC3 - Mission & World View

-Cover with dust-sleeve and obi-

Here we are, second AC3 book, first one not made by NAMCO. Can it measure up to the S-Rank achieved by the Official Guide Book? Well, yes in some respects and no in others. Let's get down to business...