Spyro: Year of the Dragon (Jul 27, 2000 prototype)
(Redirected from Spyro: Year of the Dragon (prototype))
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Spyro: Year of the Dragon (Jul 27, 2000 prototype) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
| Download Spyro: Year of the Dragon (Jul 27, 2000 prototype) (info) |
A prototype of Spyro: Year of the Dragon for the PlayStation.
Notes
File dates and primary volume dates are unhelpful for this prototype, as with a number of Spyro: Year of the Dragon builds. The save file identifier string includes the date "7.27", suggesting a date of July 27th 2000 at the earliest for this build. This same string is also used by all but the first of the demo versions (all of which are later than this build). It is possible that the true date of this build is a bit later than this.
- Build is an NTSC-U build, but has a European license.
- Build has dongle protection that crashes the game before it reaches the title screen. It can be circumvented via either of the following methods:
- This dongle file, inserted into slot 2.
- Patching the game using this xdelta file.
- The logo screens during the loading sequence are a little different.
- The top right corner of the screen displays three variables relating to the adaptive difficulty at all times.
- The title screen is still based on the title screen from Spyro 2. Large amounts of the model appear to be missing.
- The general text colour still matches the one used in Spyro 2. The font style also matches the one from Spyro 2 - most characters are the same, but notably, the letter “I” is sans serif.
- The HUD uses a different, slightly earlier egg sprite, which appears to have fewer animation frames. A single frame of this is used in the Atlas.
- The egg image that appears in unopened portals uses an earlier green design, also seen in the April prototype.
- Eggs don't shake when they're hatching. Further, most of the dragons are named differently and have different animations.
- Many dragons across the game have different names and animations.
- On-screen notifications given when you've collected all of the gems or eggs in a level lack their grey backgrounds and appear with different timing to the final game.
- Music assignment appears to be effectively random across most of the game. Some levels have their intended themes, in particular most of the levels that had their intended theme in the April prototype. A handful of the tracks use early arrangements, mixes, and one level - Spike's Arena - uses a theme that had not previously been heard anywhere else. Many of the tracks are ones not included in the earliest final release that were deferred to a later revision, and a handful were not included in the final game at all, but had previously been heard in other prototype and soundtrack releases.
- Skill points are absent.
- There are no trace of antipiracy checksum values in this build, suggesting this is from before the anticrack protection was implemented in any substantial state.
- The level images used in the Atlas are broadly different. Many of them use other levels' images with a negative filter applied and a large level ID number written over the top. For a handful, the images are of a much earlier design for the level, particularly from the block-out stage.
- The "Where To?" menu is called "HUB2HUB".
- No cutscenes are present yet. As a result, when freeing critters, there is an effect where their cage disappears into a shower of sparkles and the critter hops out and thanks the player for freeing them. This effect is present in the final game, along with the unused dialogue lines, but isn’t seen under normal means.
- A number of dialogue lines are still missing. Some lines use different audio takes and some are worded differently.
- In the final, one of the egg fragments erroneously uses a gold texture from a much earlier build. At this stage of development this error has not yet occurred, meaning all of the egg fragments are textured correctly.
- There is only one Help menu, and rather than this menu using level-specific data which depends on what gameplay style the player is in, it’s a single menu hardcoded in the executable. The menu appears very large in-game and the player can select entries in this menu as if they’re settings on the pause menu. Exiting requires pressing the start button.
- Moneybags does not get instantly paid off across the game by defeating the Sorceress. He also has no final showdown in Midnight Mountain Home.
- All Hunter missions in the speedways are yet to be implemented. Even Hunter himself is absent from these levels.
- Hunter's skateboarding model has red shorts instead of purple ones. The skateboard he holds isn't present yet.
- When leaving the level as a critter, Spyro will appear and the camera will pan towards the portal as with non-critter levels, rather than the screen simply fading to black.
- The underwater visual darkening from Spyro 2 is still present.
- The loading screen consistently uses the image of Sunrise Spring Home instead of using a different one in each world. The image of Midday Garden Home can sometimes appear under unclear means. The loading screen also appears to be misaligned and the right side of the image overflows onto the left side of the screen.
- The game over screen is the one from Spyro 2.
- Bosses are largely missing their death animatics, but will still perform their death animations.
- The first egg you encounter (DeeDee, or Isabelle in the final) is in a slightly different position, seemingly matching its position in the April build.
- The rock holding an egg in Sunrise Spring Home is much larger, and its fragments are untextured.
- Sunrise Spring Home has some alternative dialogue takes for Zoe and Hunter, the latter of which is worded differently. Hunter also seems to have a duplicate line of audio dialogue for some reason, and Zoe has an unused line about making the powerup active, a feature that has been heard about in a number of dialogue lines but isn’t implemented in any known build.
- In Sunny Villa, Mayor Leo has an extra line of audio dialogue which is just a duplicate of Marco's dialogue, but without the "Alas," at the beginning.
- Hunter's Sunny Villa dialogue differs in places, with many of them using different audio takes. Hunter has a couple extra lines of dialogue he uses when the egg challenges are finished - these lines are in the final game too, albeit unused.
- The Sunny Villa course record challenge isn't present, and doing tricks does not give you points.
- Mushroom Speedway has some unused geometry for a door to cover up the nook that Hunter stands in. This isn't in the final game, but the final's Country Speedway has a similar piece of unused geometry for covering the entrance to the building Hunter stands in.
- Buzz's Dungeon uses slightly redder / oranger lighting.
- The ladder in Midday Garden Home uses a vine-like texture instead of that of a manmade ladder. This matches its appearance in one of the cutscenes in the final game.
- Midday Garden Home's model includes an extra room attached to the opening building, which can't be accessed in normal play. This room appeared in the low-poly LOD model in the final.
- In Midday Garden Home, the Hunter outside of Spooky Swamp uses a totally different voice actor for some reason.
- The Enchanted Towers NPCs have a different hair colour and use a different vocal performance. These NPCs are ones that the developers were apparently asked to "tone down", according to John Fiorito in an Insomniac Live session from 2018.
- The underwater cracked wall with extra lives is absent from Bamboo Terrace. The pool at the end of the level has a much more sloped floor than the final.
- Hunter can be found at the start of Evening Lake. He just stands there and is never animated, but evidently this was preparation for the cutscene where he falls into the cage.
- The hole he would fall down is very noticeable as it's textured differently to its surroundings. The room he'd fall into looks a lot different and has collision where the final's wouldn't.
- The ladder textures in Evening Lake are a bit different.
- Like the final, Evening Lake has a couple lines of unused audio dialogue for the professor. Like the September 4th build there's an extra line here too which was removed from the final.
- There's some extra spike shaped geometry in Frozen Altars which is clearly not supposed to be visible in the location it's in.
- The Ninja boxes in Fireworks Factory are placed differently and don't have the "Ninja!" texture.
- The fairies in Charmed Ridge look a bit different to their final appearance. In addition, Princess Ami (in both Charmed Ridge and Evening Lake) uses a different voice actor for her lines.
- One egg in Charmed Ridge is on the "Impossible Tower" instead of the easier to access tower nearby.
- The impossible tower is typically used to obtain a skill point, though in some demo builds later than this one the name for the impossible tower egg is missing and in its place a new skill point name is present in Bamboo Terrace.
- In Scorch's Pit, the fire enemies look very visually primitive. The red bullets aren't displayed with an on-screen counter, and the green rockets have a counter which uses a sprite of a biplane?
- Midnight Mountain's textures are different in a number of places, and are notably bluer than the final's. The Desert Ruins portal in this level is also framed by a blue helmet instead of an orange one, and it is surrounded by a patch of sand. The Dino Mines portal frame is much simpler than its final design. The layout of the level is slightly different, with the Super Bonus Round island being significantly further out. The latter is therefore only accessible with the use of a whirlwind that appears in this build when the player has collected all gems and eggs (e.g. with the use of a cheat code). The door to Sorceress's Lair is textured differently, and behind it is another door instead of a dark void. Neither door opens though, and getting into Sorceress's Lair instead requires talking to a fairy next to the door called "Kludge Fairy", who takes you there if you've got over 120 eggs.
- Harbour Speedway has a 100 egg requirement instead of 90 eggs. Sorceress's Lair requires 120 instead of 100.
- The bears in Crystal Island have a translucent design.
- Desert Ruins has blue lava instead of green. This is even reflected in the skybox, which is blue at the bottom instead of green. Interestingly, in the final game, the Portal for this level still uses the old skybox.
- The eggs in Desert Ruins do not have their names or dragon models yet, resulting in a very anticlimactic hatching sequence.
- The Sheila sublevel of Desert Ruins looks much simpler and is clearly incomplete. It functions roughly fine, but the two Sheila exit portal frames on each side of the level are missing. Walking back towards the start of the level will make you leave as if you've walked through the portal, but the portal on the other side isn't present. Sheila's dialogue and name just reuses the dialogue from Gus.
- The metal enemies in Desert Ruins use an effect similar to shiny objects in Spyro 1. In the final, they're a simple textured grey.
- The large brown scorpions in the main section of this level are blue here, like some of the scorpions in Sheila's sublevel.
- Interestingly, in the final game, the large brown scorpions in the main area and the blue scorpions in the Sheila area use blue and brown fragments respectively, as if they're the wrong way around. In this build, both of these scorpions use blue fragments, so it's possible that the wrong set of fragments got recoloured when this scorpion changed.
- In the final, one of the hand platforms is totally offset from its visual model. In this version, they match.
- The earthshapers in Haunted Tomb poop out their bombs, with a matching "plop" sound. It's unclear why anyone would want to remove this.
- The dinosaurs in Dino Mines hatch from eggs akin to the lava lizards in Spyro 2. These eggs are present in the final game, but they go unused and have a different texture. The egg fragments that are created from these eggs are also unused in the final game.
- The green and blue Dino Mines dinosaurs each had slightly different designs.
- An entrance to Dino Mines' infamous removed sublevel is present in the level's geometry. However, like the final game, the portal trigger and visuals are slightly out of bounds, meaning this area remains inaccessible under normal means. The content of the sublevel area has not changed between this version and the release build.
- Spyro exits the sublevel at the same position he does in the final game. However, this version's geometry actually accounts for this exit properly, whereas in the final Spyro will often hit the geometry and fall into the void when exiting the sublevel.
- The door blocking entry to the Agent 9 sublevel in Dino Mines is invisible.
- Harbor Speedway's collection sprites aren't animated.
- Agent 9's Lab has a large black gateway at the end of the level near the exit portal.
- Agent 9's Lab's panic buttons turn grey instead of remaining red after being destroyed.
- Some of the vehicles in Sorceress's Lair use totally untextured flay grey models.
- Super Bonus Round is a very unfinished level. Much of the geometry differs from the final, many passages and tunnels not yet present. No gems are present, nor any powerups or gem gates. The base of the level is a large circle of solid pink lava, instead of a void. There are many holes in the geometry. Two sublevels are present and both are mostly non-functional:
- The submarines level just spits Spyro out underwater and an invisible exit portal is near to where he spawns. No submarines are present yet.
- The skateboarding sublevel features a completely different design to the final's. The area is in a very primitive state and no gameplay aside from free skating is present.
- The third sublevel is not present and its portal and the section leading up to it are just totally missing.
Screenshots
Title screen
Videos
Origin
Disc front.
