Introduction

I guess nothing better than to work on a special page dedicated for this very underrated game from a very underrated mini-franchise. If only SEGA ever bothered re-releasing this one outside of Yakuza games...although maybe they never do because of how people struggle to play it in those...

My Arcade Mode runs

What it says on the tin. Some of these are slightly edited (Nerfed Jag and Temjin VS All Jag) but most are unedited as they are 1CCs.

Playing as Jaguarandi (and related details)

Jaguarandi is a hidden boss in Virtual-On that will be activated after the fifth fight if the total time between the fights you won (this will NOT apply to fights where you lost and conitnued at) is too high - currently unconfirmed what the exact numbers are if playing with two rounds, but if playing with only one round, then this time limit will be 2 minutes and 55 seconds, and if you were to take that long to get past the 5th fight without using continues, then you WILL get the Jaguarandi fight. It will get weaker when you continue against it, but on first encounter will have the biggest size and armor.

I even made a video analyzing Jaguarandi's spawn conditions, attacks, quirks and how it is to play as it.

Click to see the video

On the note of how to play as Jaguarandi, it is only LEGITIMATELY accessible in two versions, while in any other one you'd have to find a way to force it as your Virtuaroid. There's probably no way to force Jaguarandi as playable in the Kiwami 2 arcade port nor the PS3/X360/PS4 ports, although Jaguarandi would likely behave the same as in the Arcade/Windows port if that were possible.

Arcade Version - Jaguarandi is NOT unlockable (wouldn't be until VOOT and Ajim where the arcade version added a way to play as the secret boss). It IS possible to play as Jag through Cheat Engine (Admiral McFish's playthrough), although it almost covers up the whole screen, and for some reason has very low damage against Z-Gradt (which I theorize is for the purpose of showing the Jag VS Z-Gradt fight in the name entry after completion and not have Jag instakill Z-Gradt lol).
Saturn version - Jaguarandi IS unlockable. Has weakened damage and nerfed ammo refill on the left (Trap Bomb) and right (Missile) weapons, but the center weapon (10 Laser) still has the same massive damage, and has some additional moves that Jaguarandi didn't have as an enemy (this is only noticeable if you play as Jag in the arcade/PC version to see what it lacks) such as the ability to use crouch attacks and even dash attack with the left/center weapons. Here it also has a custom launch animation, a similar continue screen to Fei-Yen, and will appear at the ending (although undamaged since it doesn't have a damaged armor model).
Playstation 2 Version Jaguarandi IS unlockable. Does NOT have a custom launch animation or intermission/ending model, and will show Jaguarandi standing in Secret Base (its stage) on the continue screen. However, this version of Jaguarandi, while also having low durability, has the damage on all the weapons intact while also gaining the extra moves from the Saturn version (crouch attacks, dash laser/trap bomb). The closest to legitimately playing Jaguarandi in the arcade version officially, and even has the weapon names labeled.
Windows Version Jaguarandi is NOT unlockable. It IS possible to play as Jag but only through Cheat Engine to force it as your virtuaroid, with some side effects. The game crashes if VR is set to Jag when about to display the model in the intermission (must skip it or temporarily swap to another VR's until the model is gone), the game softlocks at the end unless you switch to another VR ID to get a cutscene animation when having to shoot at Nirvana, and you will also get CPU Jaguarandi's armor downgrade if you visit and continue against CPU Jag. Also lacks the extra moves in SAT/PS2 and struggles to beat Z-Gradt.

Versus Matches Footage (pre XBLA/PSN/PS4)

There's been many versions of the first Virtual-On game, most having some form of versus with linked consoles or online, but barring the XBLA/PSN and PS4 re-releases which obviously were intended for online (and thus more common to find VS videos for), finding versus footage of older versions than that is what I found interesting to look for.

The most interesting version to think that had online would be the SEGA Saturn version through Netlink, but a few videos also exist of the PC version in versus mode, whether testing the splitscreen or the network vs feature (the later being more like a LAN mode - it CAN work over long distances with Radmin VPN and ipxwrapper...but it will be quite slow the longer the distance). There's also a few spots where I could find footage of VS matches from real arcade cabinets and (apparently) a few from the PS2 version through link cable, but that is to be added later when I pile all those links up.

Recordings from SEGA Saturn XBAND/Netlink Online

Cyber Troopers Virtual-On is one of the few Saturn games with NetLink support, and thankfully there's some videos recorded from back then showing how online battles looked in the SEGA Saturn version, as the Saturn version didn't have a link cable feature to show separate screens per console outside of Netlink/Xband. There's also a few videos from setting up a Netlink connection between consoles with modern tools in the past few years, allowing to see this mode with higher quality.

However, the Japan SegaNet version is currently useless as it does NOT let you do anything other than change controls and colors if the Modem isn't connected.

The USA NetLink version DOES let you play the game as normal, and even use the extra colors/Jag code, but you CAN'T use the custom colors you make offline, as unfortunately (and just like OT on DC later) they seems to be exclusive for online use, only that here you can't even test them offline.

Versus Mode in Windows version

The Windows version is a surprisingly faithful port for 1996 all things considered, besides the lack of lightning and 30FPS cap on an unmodified version. Can see this one being a superior choice for VON enthusiasts of the time if they had a compatible PC, with how the game was accurate in gameplay and visuals, along with having split-screen and LAN options. - A fanmade patch hosted somewhere online even enables a debug menu that includes a setting [Motion 1/1] to make the game run at 60fps.

See Splitscreen View Options

There's very few videos of the PC version specifically running in VS mode, but here's the few that I could find - credits to Vogel von Formosa for all of them (except the one where I'm testing the LAN feature on my own).