Spyro the Dragon (May 16, 1998 prototype)
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A prototype of Spyro the Dragon for the Sony PlayStation, dated around three months before the final build.
Notes
The prototype originates from a "News Version" disc which has green label. The build appears to be a match for the version used at E3 1998, though this particular "News Version" type disc would have usually been used for early previews in Europe in 1998.
- Build date is based on latest files' modification date. Primary volume modification date is May 19th, 1998; primary volume creation date matches other prototype builds in being April 21st 1998.
- Requires dongle to work - otherwise
bad memory card dongle.message will be printed to the TTY debug messages. There are a few ways to circumvent this:- Dongle check can be bypassed by NOPing instruction at address
80012E18- for example, using Gameshark code80012E18 0000. - Patching the iso with this xdelta patch before playing.
- Using a dongle file matching the one the game requires.
- Dongle check can be bypassed by NOPing instruction at address
- There are several dongles accepted by the game, and each have different effects.
- The game starts with a landing screen not used in any other version. There is no option to select a save file.
- The game seems to only have the first three worlds. Later worlds would have been present at this time, so these were likely voluntarily excluded.
- Spyro’s movement is quite different to later builds, much more stiff.
- HUD elements have different shading and rotate more quickly. The life count is in the middle of the HUD instead of on the right, and the dragon count is on the right instead of in the middle.
- Dragons don’t have fairies yet, and saving the game or replaying dragons is impossible.
- Gem placement is different across the game. Dragons have also been moved in places.
- Many sound effects are missing, including the sound Sparx makes when he picks up a gem.
- Much of the sound track is in a different order to the final game. Only 8 unique tracks are present. All of these are in stereo quality, which was not the case for all of these tracks in the final game.
- Life statues are golden instead of silver.
- The end of level vortex uses a model matching that of the dragon pad instead. Each level vortex has a gem hovering in it, a feature not present in the final game.
- Dragons do not rumble when approached.
- Only dragons in the homeworlds feature their cutscenes, the rest of the dragons display text dialogue on screen instead, often differing from their final cutscene lines. The dragons cutscenes that are present feature lines and dialogue takes that are totally different to the final game, and in particular, the Peace Keepers dragons seem to use developer recordings instead of voice actors. Magnus also has a very different and much more basic animation.
- Boss levels and Flying levels are just called "Boss" and "Flying" respectively. Levels from Beast Makers onwards are called "Level A" through to "Level F" in each world. Alpine Ridge is called Alpine Cliffs.
- World transitions are much more basic - the dragon dialogue style text is used for the balloonist (instead of text boxes) and when going to another world Spyro flies through an empty void to reach the next world. A balloonist can be found at the start of Peace Keepers and Magic Crafters to take Spyro back to the previous world; the balloonists at the end of the worlds only take you forwards in this version.
- Requirements to move between worlds are different to the final - Peace Keepers to Magic Crafters only requiring 500 gems.
- Balloonists have different textures, and are the same in each world instead of different in each one.
- The transport balloons typically sit much lower than usual in each level they appear.
- There is no introductory cutscene. Similarly, there are no end-of-game cutscenes.
- There is no option to quit the game on the pause menu.
- Pressing circle or square in the pause menu or inventory functions the same as pressing X.
- Chest unlocking and thief egg collecting cutscenes are unskippable.
- The Game Over screen is much more basic and features the text "GAME OVER RETURNING HOME...".
- The Artisans Home includes a locked chest not present in later builds.
- In the Artisans Home, unlocking Sunny Flight requires jumping on the stones in a specific order instead of any order. In addition, from the beginning of the game, these will light up to indicate progress. In the final, they only light up like this when the player has spoken to the relevant dragon in Wizard Peak.
- Some of the collision acting as the boundary to Stone Hill is reversed, for some reason. This reversed collision still seems too high for the player to reach, though.
- The gnorcs in Town Square use a different texture.
- The dragon near the end of Town Square is closer to the vortex.
- Toasty's portal opens after completing a level, rather than also requiring you to free Argus first.
- Flight levels repeatedly play the timer running out sounds, regardless of how much time is left. There is a different amount of time awarded to the player at the start of flight levels and when collecting the items in the course.
- Toasty features some occlusion (rendering) issues.
- A platform in Toasty is higher than usual.
- The tents in Peace Keepers have a slightly different texture.
- In Peace Keepers, Gunnar is guarded by two enemies, instead of none.
- Dry Canyon and Ice Cavern include red spring chests, a type of gem container that only appears in one place in Lofty Castle in the final.
- Ice Cavern includes an additional, unmanned dragon pad.
- Doctor Shemp includes a few decorative birds that fly around various parts of the level out of the player's reach. These are not present in later builds.
- Fairies that give the player direction are missing from Night Flight.
- The Magic Crafters Home appears to use too much memory, causing some strange behaviour.
- This can typically be fixed by forcing the player to die.
- Mobys will act unusually (such as following the incorrect path), dragons will not play their cutscenes (displaying some default dragon text instead), and portals will appear to say "HOME" and will cause Spyro to fall through the floor.
- Exiting levels into this world can cause the player to instantly die or cause the game to crash.
- Magic Crafters and High Caves are full of lamps that are usually only used in Wizard Peak. In the final game, the spots where these lamps would go are still lit as if they're there.
- Magic Crafters includes a big, useless room with nothing in it.
- Some of Magic Crafters' opening rooms are textured blue instead of red.
- All of the fairies that appear in High Caves use an earlier, goofier design.
- In Wizard Peak, a usually static thief tries to run from Spyro.
- In parts of Wizard Peak, the top of the skybox will disappear.
- Blowhard plays very differently to the final game, in that the small wizard enemies are instead large hat-wearing wizards. To defeat them, their hat must be flamed before they are. The green druids also use this hat mechanic. Doors will open when all hat-wearing enemies in the area (and Blowhard) have been defeated (/attacked).
- Blowhard includes two dragons, one of which uses a text dialogue line that goes unused in all later builds. Neither of these dragons are in these positions in the final game, and instead, a dragon is in an extra room inside the cave (which isn't present in this version).
Screenshots
Origin
Disc Front.
Videos