Much like my post last night i'd thought it would be interesting to take a look at the Esaka stage from KOF-i and compare it to the original version(s) from KOF96. As Team Japan and the Psycho Soldiers team both shared the Esaka stage i uploaded both versions i found from Google Image just for the sake of completion.
Much like the Factory stage this stage also has cameos from other SNK characters in the form of Haohmaru sitting atop a rock/stone in the left corner of the stage.
Since i figured out a way to get both versions of KOF-i on my iPod i also included screenshots of the original version of the Esaka stage.
As you can see in the image below Haohmaru's cameo was only added to the 1.01 version of the stage, as well as Mai Shiranui appearing on the TV screen.
Also since i only managed to get back version 1.00 today i decided i might as well do a screenshot for Iori's Factory stage again so you can see the stage without the cameos (of the USA Sports Team, Rocky, and Candy).
The changes between the Esaka stages are fairly small, the biggest change would be the steps on the right hand side of the stage of the original has been changed into a similar kind of seating area similar to what appears on the left side.
I'm guessing that it was easier for them to reuse sprites on both sides of the screen to save time.
One thing i did find kind of interesting was that the SNK building's sign was not updated as SNKP, though i'm not actually sure whether SNK did actually change their sign.