Proto:Ganbare Goemon 3 (SNES)

October 24, 1994 Sample Version
This is a leaked "Sample" version dated two months before the commercial release. Sample versions are in Japan what demo versions used in stores and conventions are in the west. It went on sale on Yahoo Japan auctions back in July 2009, along with a prototype of Gokujou Parodius, and was dumped thanks to Matthew Callis.

This demo covers the game from the very beginning until the second section in the first castle, where the exit wasn't programmed. An invisible wall prevents further progress.

Debug Features
Some debug options are activated in this sample version:
 * Free Movement: Toggle it with R in overhead and side-scrolling areas. You can abuse it to bypass the Ninja blocking the path to the Ninja Village where you can swim to the entrance of the second submerged dungeon, but since Yae didn't join yet, you can't access it with the required mermaid transformation. (todo:Can she be hacked in the party with the required move?)
 * The free movement will often crash or reset the game in overhead areas when used to reach normally inaccessible edges of the current screen, but sometimes you just respawn on the other edge of the screen, or in the next area in that direction.


 * Money Modifier: While you are talking to an NPC indoors, press R to max your money, and L to reset it to zero.

Text Differences
There are text differences between this and the final.
 * (todo)

Attract Mode
All the attract demos from the final version are present here, with slight player input and length differences.
 * The first video is mostly similar to the final one until the part where Ebisumaru stops after defeating the robot enemy. The sample version doesn't cut off to the final, but instead the player continues to the next section and progresses quite a bit through it, but after climbing the first stairs, Goemon just makes a suicide dive.
 * The second demo taking place in the town is very different: it's basically the first playable moments in the game until getting the swimming equipment then trying it with Ebisumaru.
 * todo
 * The fifth demo, which consists of the Mode-7 boss battle with Bismaru Elegant, is different and longer, allowing her to be brought down to 30HP. It has very noticeable graphical glitches when she (?) attacks too close.

Other Differences

 * The title screen logo was moved upwards in the final.
 * The camera positioning during overhead sections is centered in this version, and more shifted toward the bottom of the screen in the final.
 * Goemon walks faster in the sample version.