Rocket League Alpha

**Rocket League Alpha** was a early version of Rocket League which was heavily incomplete and lacked features. It was available for download on Steam and it was playable for a certain period in 2014.

## Background

On August 23, 2013, Psyonix announced that they were working on a new game called *Battle-Cars 2*, and announced that a playable Alpha version would be coming to Steam in 2014, You would either need to Sign up for the Alpha or a Friend to give you an invite key.

Servers were shut down on August 10, 2014 to reduce running costs, and later on, the Beta was released and servers opened up again in October. People who originally played the Alpha would have had to restart their progress.

The game's title was later renamed to *Rocket League* on February 26, 2014.
[*citation needed*]

## Stages

### Early Alpha (February 2014)

The first versions of Alpha were released on February 27, 2014, It had just basic game-play features while other dates would update them and fix various bugs included.

### Closed Alpha (August 2014)

On August 10, 2014, *Rocket League* servers were shut down and Psyonix started working on the Beta to be released in October and November of 2014, players who participated in Alpha would have their progress reset.

## Build Numbers

Each update in the Alpha had its unique update/build number, which would represent what update of the Alpha you were running. These updates also included the names of cars that were in SARPBC. Your build number would be located on the top-left of the screen in menus and some game modes. Build numbers would change if you installed large updates.

* Octane (131210.2831.62543) 12-10-2013
* Octane (140123.1782.58193) 01-23-2014
* Octane (140227.2923.78621) 02-27-2014
* Octane (140410.339?.?51??) 04-10-2014
* Marauder (140424.56693.82609) 04-24-2014
* Marauder (140516.61883.84370) 05-16-2014
* Backfire (140628.60269.87456) 06-28-2014
* Backfire (140702.38637.87639) 07-02-2014 (6449766485294411255)
* Renegade (140711.47684.88287) 07-11-2014
* Renegade (140728.18482.57194) 07-28-2014

## Garage Customization

The rarities were originally planned to be Common, Uncommon, Rare, Epic, and Legendary.

### Cars

Cars like Octane, Gizmo, Hotshot, Backfire, and X-Devil were included in the Alpha. All cars but Backfire had a different name, where as many of these names became their internal name, and most cars got a minor visual upgrade, except for Octane, which got a major visual upgrade sometime in Beta.[*citation needed*]

* Gizmo was "Spark"
* Hotshot was "Torment"[*citation needed*]
* Octane was "Pepe"
* X-Devil was "Torch"[*citation needed*]

### Decals

Most Decals in the Alpha were similar to racing decals. Some decals had the number 15, which was because *Rocket League* was planned for Spring 2015. Some other decals were normal, as the decals were edited and revamped in the Beta and Rocket League Release Candidate (In June). Some, like Flames, stayed and were edited later on.[*citation needed*]

### Wheels

Wheels were more customization in the Alpha, as you could change the rim and the tire. Wheels in the Alpha were more rigged.

### Rocket Boost

Rocket Boost was included in the Alpha. There was not much to choose from, but there was an ability to change your rocket booster/Engine.

### Toppers

Toppers were also in the Alpha. Toppers could be earned as a reward after earning certain in-game achievements.[*citation needed*]

### Antennas

Antennas were included in the Alpha. Antennas became more popular in the Beta. They could be earned during matches after earning certain in-game achievements.[*citation needed*]

## Arena Features

### Goalpost

The Goalpost in the Alpha had its team color and name on it, Transparent goalposts also didn't exist.

### Soccer ball

The soccer ball was styled to look like the ball in SARPBC Throwback Stadium. An image circulating online shows a different ball similar to the one in SARPBC's Urban Central. It is unknown if this ball was playable in the Alpha, or if the image was a teaser/fake or an early unreleased prototype.

Around mid-July, a teaser was released and it included the former Rocket League soccer ball, the ball got updated to this one in October when the Rocket League Beta was announced.[*citation needed*]

### Bots

Bots were included in the Alpha, instead of bots bearing names like Khan and Tex, they were just named "[Bot]" and in later versions "[Bot X]" with a number.[*citation needed*]

### Stadium background

The stadium background is full of hidden things removed later on.

Octane Statue
The Octane statue seen in Champions Field was different than the new one because:

1. It has the old Octane and ball.
2. The Octane is facing right when the newer statue faces forward.

This Octane statue can be also seen in Urban Central and features the old Octane design.

## Crafting

In the Alpha, you were able to craft items such as

* Sheet metal
* Sprocket
* Fusion core

It is unknown what these items would have been used for, but they could be used to craft cosmetics.

## How to run (not fixed)

Go to steam console and type the following:

download\_depot 22590 22591 6449766485294411255

(this will not give you the game for free as Steam checks if the depot-id is owned by said account) Currently Steam has addition to 64X clients so this does not work at the moment.

## Alpha rewards

After the game fully released, the following rewards were given to those who participated in the Alpha testing. They were available to PC players only. They can not be obtained anymore and must be traded.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Rocket League Alpha Ends August 10, Beta News in October on Psyonix Forums (archived from original)
2. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20190501225038/https://psyonix.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=9263
3. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20190501223422/https://psyonix.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=9280
4. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20190501225042/https://psyonix.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=9391
5. ↑ SARPBC 2 Name Announcement on Psyonix Forums (archived from original)
6. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20190501235119/https://psyonix.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=9653
7. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20190501235149/https://psyonix.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=10377
8. ↑ https://youtu.be/mGnby6Rgd7w
9. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EA9sAqinBUo
10. ↑ Cite error: Invalid `<ref>` tag; no text was provided for refs named `Battle-Cars 2 Progress`
11. ↑ Rocket League Alpha Gameplay on YouTube
12. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20190502001003/https://psyonix.com/Highres\_Screenshot\_00028.png
13. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20190501225042/https://psyonix.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=9391
14. ↑ https://youtu.be/Qavx1pjHjpI?t=214