Proto:Major Havoc

This is a prototype of Major Havoc, under a working title of "Alpha One". So far as the specific role this ROMset served, lead developer Owen Rubin believes it may have been a location test.

Intro
The introductory text is worded differently, and the enemy descriptions are not present.

Aesthetic Differences

 * No music is present in Alpha One, and most of the sound effects are radically different.
 * the font is more jittery in Alpha One.
 * Many graphical effects are different in this prototype, including the explosion at the end of each space station stage

Diagnostics Differences

 * There seems to be a small status display consisting of various Xs at the bottom right of the screen. It is currently unknown what these represent, and the lead developer has no memory of their presence.


 * The maintenance mode mode dipswitch behaves differently, creating a screen overlay that displays a statistics screen. This screen attempts to display various statistics (eg. playtime, though not all are currently known), but fails. Owen has suggested this may be tied to MAME not emulating certain PRAM functions.

Gameplay Differences



 * The single-use shield is seemingly not present, though it appears to have been planned by this point in development as the stage 3 hint text refers to it.


 * This may be a emulation bug, but the maze stage opener's vectors either are absent or blink in and out of existence. This makes the stages substantially more difficult.