Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex

Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex
Also known as: Crash Bandicoot: Der Zorn des Cortex (DE), Crash Bandicoot: La Venganza de Cortex (ES), Crash Bandicoot: La Vengeance de Cortex (FR), Crash Bandicoot: L'ira di Cortex (IT), Crash Bandicoot 4: Sakuretsu! Majin Power (JP), Crash Bandicoot: Return of the Demon King (KR), Crash Bandicoot: De Wraak van Cortex (NL) Developers: Traveller's Tales (PS2/Xbox), Eurocom (GameCube) Publishers: Universal Interactive Studios (US/EU), Konami (JP), HanbitSoft (KR) Platforms: PlayStation 2, GameCube, Xbox Released in JP: December 20, 2001 Released in US: October 29, 2001 Released in EU: November 23, 2001 Released in KR: March 28, 2003 (PS2) This game has unused areas. This game has unused code. This game has hidden development-related text. This game has unused enemies. This game has unused graphics. This game has unused models. This game has unused sounds. This game has unused text. This game has debugging material. This game has a hidden level select. This game has regional differences. This game has revisional differences. This game has a prototype article This game has a prerelease article

Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex is the first game in the series released on multiple consoles, and is also the first Crash platformer not developed by Naughty Dog. Originally being conceptualized as a free-roaming title, the final product was cobbled together in about 1 year of development after a fallout with Universal Interactive and Sony. Most long-time fans say it shows.

To do: Document the editor. Document unused animations.

Sub-Pages

Prototype Info

Prerelease Info

Debugging Features

Unused Models

Unused Graphics

Unused	Used

An alternate version of the Aku Aku crate featuring an image of the in-game model went unused, though it can be seen in the game's level editor. The final version takes its icon from Japanese promotional art.

The "proximity crate" has a texture and can even be loaded in, though it functions exactly the same as a regular crate, leaving its intended function unknown.

"Stuff" Folder

The aptly-named "STUFF" folder found in the main directory has an assortment of seemingly random bits and pieces dated far earlier than most of the content on the disc, some of them predating the game's release by a good year and a half.

All Versions

These can be found in all three versions of the game.

Dated all the way back to June 9, 2000, this simplistic looking font is chronologically one of the earliest resources put into the game. The file name ("ARIEL32") suggests it is merely the word processing font Arial, used as a placeholder by the developers until the typical stylized font was created. However, the font is clearly closer to Franklin Gothic than Arial, as can be seen by the uppercase G and Q, as well as the lowercase g. This can also be found in Finding Nemo.

"COL16", dated June 13, 2000. Some kind of 16-color test image, featuring a green-to-red gradient and some solid colored rectangles.

"COL256", also dated June 13, 2000. The same image as above, but with a 256-color palette.

"ENVTXT", dated October 26, 2001. A basic bumpy chrome texture.

A very early smoke texture, dated even earlier than ARIEL32 (May 3, 2000). It may have been a remnant from the project animation demo of Crash And Burn, which was pitched to Universal Interactive by Traveller's Tales prior to coding the game.

"SPECTXTF", a small white dot with no obvious purpose. The "SPEC" part of the filename may imply that it was used as a specular highlight.

"TTUNNEL", a larger white spot, purpose unknown.

"CLOUDSLO", an even larger white spot. May have been an early cloud texture that was replaced with a far more refined graphic.

Xbox and GameCube

The Xbox and GameCube versions have more that were removed from the PlayStation 2 version completely.

myload.raw a placeholder for the loading screen that was used in some earlier builds of the game like the one at E3 2001. The actual loading screen is just text saying "LOADING" against a black background.

copyr1.raw is a splash screen for Traveller's Tales. The one used is 3D during the intro sequence.

testfont.bmp is an unused font. It was used when the game was in early development with HUD icons for Crash and Coco seen in trailers.

Xbox

Skycube.dds and WaterCubemap.dds are an image of the interior of the Microsoft building. It's from the DirectX SDK.

lega2l.bmp is a screenshot of the opening sequence's copyright screen, dated 2001, while the Xbox version came out in 2002.

GameCube

The GameCube version similarly has leftover data from an SDK, more specifically, an entire folder labeled "carddemo". Normally used for an application designed to test saving and loading data from a GameCube Memory Card.

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  banner.tpl

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  gamecube.tpl

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  heiho.tpl

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  icon.tpl

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  luigi.tpl

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  marioCI.tpl

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  yoshi.tpl

Curiously, the Heiho (the Japanese name of Shy Guy) and Yoshi .tpls appear to use sprites ripped directly from Yoshi Sample.

Unused Text

The Test Zone

b\testzone\test
TEST ZONE

References to an area known as the "Test Zone" exist in memory, grouped in with the text for all of the level names, internal or otherwise. It can't be accessed by any means in-game, but its existence can be proven by these references.

Development Instructions

An absurd amount of text related to game development, graphic pointers, and errors exist on the disc. There is far too much to put on one page, but a sample of what it contains can be seen below:

unknown condition code %d
unknown condition '%s' at line %d
Tex Anim Assembler Fatal Error: too many labels
Tex Anim Assembler Fatal Error: too many global labels
scriptname
untiltex
TexAnim Processor Alert: Call Stack Overflow at (%d)
TexAnim Processor Alert: Call Stack Underflow at (%d)
TexAnim Processor Alert: Too Many Nested Repeat Loops at (%d)
TexAnim Processor Alert: REPEND without REPEAT at (%d)
TexAnim Processor Alert: UNTILTEX without REPEAT at (%d)
Alpha multiply underflow
unsupported rendertarget type
unsupported texture format
Quantized - %d colours
Texture width MUST be a power of two, not %d
Texture height MUST be a power of two, not %d
Loaded default mpg
Unknown Viftag (%08d)- stopping decode
VIF code decoded length does not match dmatag length
Duff frame pointer
Misaligned DMATAG
Misaligned DMATAG reference
Unknown tag id
NuGCutRigidSysFixUp: cannot fixup rigid object
EnableFlags
Debug Id

Provisional Level Names

To do: These level names are actually used in the PAL French versions.

Viewing the game's text in a hex editor shows a few early level names grouped next to their finalized counterparts in memory.

BANDICOOT ON ICE

Appears directly before "Arctic Antics", the first level in the game. It was likely changed due to bearing too much of a resemblance to the existing level name "Ice Station Bandicoot".

ROK A GO GO

An early name for "Rumble in the Roks", the first boss battle against Crunch with the Earth Elemental. It is unknown why it was changed.

H2O - OH NO!

An incredibly minor change was made to make this name flow more effectively - it therefore changed from "H2O - OH NO!" to "H2 OH NO".

roknrol

The name for the music file in the level "Bamboozled". Could either stand for "ROK N' ROLL" or "ROCK N' ROLL". The first is likely a pun on the character "Rok-Ko", the boss from the first warp room, which this level is in.

Miscellaneous

Test message

A very generic test message. Hey, if it works...

proximity_crate

A crate type which goes unused in this game. As the only indicator of this crate's existence is textual, it is unknown how it would function in-game.

MIDGET

A placeholder name closely tied to the cheat menu documented above, that seems to replace any selected name upon using the "RESET GAME" function. It is more than likely an internal joke between the developers.

Unused Stages

To do: Get better videos and info on how to access these. Also, there are a lot of either early or unfinished stages to add.

Unused stages can be found in the game, all of which retain some form of playability.

Fire Island

An all-red level with geysers and volcanoes. There are no sounds for any of the fire effects, volcanoes, or geysers.

Airship Level

You needed to destroy the guns in Neo Cortex's airship from Weathering Heights using the Glider. Compared to the other unused levels, this one is the most finished. It is also plausible to think that Weathering Heights was an extra part of this level.

Use the code below and enter Arctic Antics to start the level.

GameCube NTSC-U
AHTP-UHEJ-JM6YC URNQ-RA43-BVRWW

E3 Warp Room

An early warp room almost identical to the one seen in early trailers of the game and at the E3 2001 showfloor demo is still present on the disc, although most of its features have been removed. This old remnant showcases numerous differences from the warp room used in the retail product.

For starters, it is far more primitive in design and only contains 5 warp pads. The collision is mostly removed, rendering the hub difficult to navigate. The warp pads themselves feature holograms depicting the respective level overlaid onto the pad itself, a feature which wasn't carried over to the final version. They also don't warp you anywhere, and attempting to walk onto the pads causes you to fall through the floor, as the pads also lack collision.

Use the Action Replay code below to access the warp room.

GameCube NTSC-U
X2H5-8250-CK98K GUEF-YT7Q-7RY3F R8EE-UEQZ-M6WAE

Unfinished Fahrenheit Frenzy

An unfinished version of Fahrenheit Frenzy, with a few differences. Notably, some objects are either completely missing or don't load correctly.

Test Level

To do: Get a video of the entire level.

A test level is present in the game files.

Alternate Gold Rush

To do: Check each chunk in the NUS file to see if stuff matches up with the original file, the other textures seem normal at a glance?

Present in the folder for Gold Rush within the GameCube version is a copy of the NuScene file for the stage with an underscore at the end of its file extension. For whatever reason, the rock texture in this version of the stage is a green colour (although it appears blue in game), and more textures have normal map versions than the used version of the stage.

Unused western.nus_ Rock Texture	Used western.nus Rock Texture

The unused western.nus_ file swapped over the used western.nus file.

Unused Audio

Filename	Audio	Notes
us_coc27		A Coco Bandicoot line that was to be heard at the start of the cut airship level, as evidenced by her mentioning to destroy the guns on Cortex's airship. It's only present in the PlayStation 2 version.
USAKU24		A re-recording of one of Aku Aku's lines from Crash Bandicoot: Warped.
OUTRO1.old OUTRO2.old		The Xbox version has the ending cutscenes without any music or sound effects.

joytest_050702.bin

To do: Figure out if it's still possible to get it to connect.

Exclusively in the GameCube version is an extra GBA ROM that appears to have been used for testing.

Regional Differences

To do: Menu button inputs are different in Japan and Korea versions

Copyright Screen

International	Japan	Korea

The game title and copyright notices were updated for each respective region.

Logos

International	Japan	Korea

The international version features a registered trademark symbol next to the Konami logo, and the colors are dim. The Korean version uses the same logo as the Japanese version, though the colors are slightly different.

The Korean (SLPM-64513) version includes a logo for HanbitSoft, the publisher for that region.

International	Korea (SLPM-64513)

The Traveller's Tales website URL is more spaced out in the Korean version. In addition, the animal in the logo appears to be smaller, and the moon is further away.

Title Screen

International	Japan	Korea

Both the Korean and Japanese versions retain the original English voiceover for the Universal Interactive and Traveller's Tales logos, but redub the game title. The Japanese version uses the Crash Bandicoot theme song that was featured in ads and previous releases in the country.

Memory Card Notice

US, Europe	US Greatest Hits, Japan, Korea

The notice for when a memory card isn't detected was separated from the title screen in the US v1.01, Japanese, and Korean releases and it was lifted up a bit. In addition, the Korean (SLPM-64509) release requires a minimum of 67KB instead of 66.

HUD

International	Korea (SLPM-64513)

The Korean (SLPM-64513) version uses a smaller, thinner font for the HUD.

General Differences

To do: There's supposedly more level differences. Get pictures of them if necessary.

• The opening cutscene features a brief, ringtone-esque section of the title theme in all non-English language versions.
• The Japanese version features a loading screen inbetween the two sections of the opening cutscene.
• The Japanese and Korean versions include the level title and number on the pause menu.
• The Japanese version includes gameplay tips from Aku Aku, which was a customary change that had been in place since the first game.
• The Japanese PS2 version loads significantly faster than the other languages.
• Certain areas that lagged the game in the other languages don't in the Japanese PS2 version.
• The Red Gem path in Bonzai Bonsai is significantly easier.

(Source: Crash Mania)

International	Japan

• The "TNT" label on TNT crates has been replaced with an image of a bomb, and the "Nitro" label has been written in Japanese.
• Two different Korean releases exist: SLPM-64509 features English audio and text, while SLPM-64513 features a full Korean dub and translation.

Revisional Differences

To do: Level/crate count differences.

• The original PS2 version is notorious for its long load times, averaging around 45 seconds. According to the founder of Traveller's Tales, this was actually a leftover of a small minigame earlier in development that would occur where you could move Crash through hyperspace and collect Wumpa Fruit as he warped into the level, and any Wumpa Fruit collected would be added to your totals when the level loaded. However, due to a patent Namco had over loading screen minigames at the time it had to be removed, and due to time constraints the long load times from when the minigame still existed couldn't be removed.
  • The Greatest Hits/Platinum re-release shrunk them down to a much more tolerable 15 second average.
  • The GameCube and Xbox versions reduce them even further. In addition, both feature altered load screens -- the GameCube version completely removes the falling animation and simply shows the text "LOADING" against a black background, while the Xbox version uses a fairly different falling animation through a green vortex instead of a red-and-blue gradient background with particles shooting up, and the camera angle is dynamic instead of fixed.
• In what appears to be a debug leftover, in the original PS2 release, hitting the Select button after starting the Time Trial in "Wizards and Lizards" warps you to the end of the level. Despite its removal in the later Greatest Hits/Platinum re-release, it's still listed in multiple PS2 cheat code books from around the time.
• The PS2 version is the only version to include a unique theme for Medieval Madness, the Xbox and GameCube versions instead just reuse the song from the Gauntlet.
• In the PS2 version, when menu options are highlighted, they flash orange and blue. The GameCube and Xbox versions have the currently selected menu option permanently blue and pulsing in and out.
• The music stops when pausing the game in the PS2 version; the other versions leave it playing.

Xbox and GameCube

• Selected menu options pulsate in and out.
• The message "PRESS START TO RESUME" is seen on the pause menu.
• A confirmation menu for quitting out of levels was added.
• The opening cutscene features a brief, ringtone-esque section of the title theme.
• The Xbox version has higher quality textures and improved lighting, most notably adding fur to the Bandicoots.
• The Xbox version is also the only one natively capable of running in 480p.
• The Xbox release is the only version where the music properly loops; in other versions it abruptly stops before restarting.
• The GameCube version features a loading screen in between the two sections of the opening cutscene.
• The GameCube port has a rather poor framerate that often dips below 30.
• The GameCube port lacks haze effects, and fog is not as prominent. (This is most noticeable in "Droid Void" and "Knight Time")
• The US and original European GameCube releases contain bugged audio: turning the volume down will not mute sound effects, and some sounds (such as the falling missiles in "That Sinking Feeling") always play at maximum volume. This was fixed in the European Player's Choice and Japanese releases.
• Cutscene textures are broken in the US and original European GameCube releases. Outlines can be seen around a number of textures, and others lack transparency.
• The GameCube version includes exclusive content in the form of an unlockable minigame called Crash Bandicoot Blast, which can be played by connecting a Game Boy Advance to the GameCube's GBA link cable, plugged into the 4th controller port.