Proto:Escape from Mars - Starring Taz

All sorts of prototypes were leaked onto the Internet on February 23, 2008 by drx. These prototypes, among many other, originated from one of Sega of America's QA archives.

March 4, 1994 Prototype
This prototype is in a very primitive state.

General

 * No Sega logo, copyright, or title screens
 * No intermission screen pictures
 * Some of the levels are devoid of music
 * No sound effects
 * Most of the levels do not have a HUD visible
 * Pressing up and down do not move the camera up and down

Aesthetic Differences

 * The HUD is bugged and unpolished. It keeps track of the player's score, unlike the final. It also does not have a box around Taz's life icon.

Test


The prototype starts here and the frame rate is not limited to 30 frames per second in this level. You cannot get too far, because of Taz's limitations.

Mars 1
The breakable bricks are absent and the palette was brightened up.

Mole World 3
The boss is glitched up.

Megapolis 2


This particular level did not make the final cut, probably because the game is on a 16-megabit cartridge. There is not much to speak of, since the level is very barren.

Debugging


A detailed debug system can be found within this prototype. However, several menus are buggy and crash the game.


 * RESUME GAME - It returns you to the level
 * RESTART LEVEL - Restarts the level
 * Both of these options have unique features. Pressing the A button returns you to the game, but pressing B shows a list of NPCs and pressing C turns up a menu that can't really be used.
 * DEBUG FUNCTION - Unknown; crashes the game
 * RESTORE HP - Restore the player's health bar back to full health
 * LEVEL SELECT - Brings up a level select screen, as seen here:

This level selection menu is unreadable due to some VRAM issues. It is supposed to read: Test 1 Mars 1 Mars 2 Mars 3 Mexico 1 Mexico 2 Mexico 3 Mole World 1 Mole World 2 Mole World 3 Planet X 1 Planet X 2 Planet X 3 Haunted Castle 1 Haunted Castle 2 Haunted Castle 3 Haunted Castle 4 Megapolis 2 Marvins House 1 Marvins House 2 Marvins House 3