Gex (3DO)/Unused Levels

This is a sub-page of Gex (3DO).

To do: Detail the main levels and add more screenshots.

Unfinished/Unused Levels

To access these levels, bring up the remote menu in any map screen, hold Right Shift and press Left, C, Down, Left, Right, Right, Up, Right, Right ("LCD WEENEE").

GRAVE5, JUNGLE6, and KUNGFU6

No intro. All three of these hang the game when loaded.

GRAVE6 (Disco Inferno)

Uses the same name, objectives, and intro as GRAVE3 (albeit with no sound), but the level itself is completely different, possibly being an earlier version of it. There is no background, and only the foreground has graphics loaded for it. Dying kicks you back to the Cemetery map's entrance, as there's no map icon associated with it. This applies to all other levels with no indicated map placement.

BONUS6 and BONUS7 (Frankie & Heli)

Both repeats of GRAVE4. Possibly placeholders for Bonus rounds.

Secret Levels

Found in the level select menu, these were used by developers to test various aspects of the game. Each level begins with a placeholder level intro screen that cycles through every character in the HUD font one-by-one until the player hits A, B or C, at which point you'll begin the stage. None of these levels have associated map screens, so they crash upon completion or player death. SECRET2, SECRET3, and SECRET7 do not appear to work.

SECRET1

A level intended for testing New Toonland mechanics that has no music or background. You start off in an area full of bouncy couches that are in varying degrees of completion. To the right is a wall you can scale that is meant for testing falling objects. You're constantly bombarded by pianos, safes, and anvils as you make your way to the top of the wall, where a lone extra life resides. The upper-left corner of the map features an area for testing sloped terrain as well as several dynamite and carrot platforms.

SECRET4

A semi-finished version of the level "Pow!" There is no music, many sounds are missing, and the level exit lacks the "EXIT" text.

SECRET5

This level serves as an introduction to the unfinished levels of the game. It is entirely mute and lacks a HUD. It consists of some basic geometry and a hint with the following message:

CHECK OUT THE ONES THAT DIDN'T MAKE IT: GRAVE5 GRAVE6 JUNGLE1 JUNGLE4 JUNGLE5 JUNGLE6 KUNGFU4 KUNGFU5 KUNGFU6 REZ3 REZ5 AND ALL OF THE SECRET LEVELS HERE FOR TESTING.

Despite their inclusion in the list, GRAVE5, JUNGLE6, and KUNGFU6 hang the game when selected.

SECRET6

A test bed for the hidden Breakout minigame. It contains all of the assets used for the game except for the breakable blocks, which are replaced by extra lives, none of which can be collected or hit. There's no solid geometry, requiring you to use the Debug Mode to explore it.

SL68 (The Project)

Minigames

Within Planet X level SL68 (The Project), there are two hidden minigames made by some of the game's developers, both of which can't be accessed in the main Stage Select menu nor the one for the Planet X levels. Finding either portal that contains a minigame will display this hint (located at hex offset 11780F90 in "bigfile"):

this door will take gex so far away that he can't come back! make sure you've saved your game recently!

If either minigame is won or lost, the game doesn't go back to regular gameplay nor back to the title screen or one of the world maps, which is usually what would happen if a life is lost or the player gets a Game Over. The only way to get out of them is to reset the game. Note that these minigames are not accessible in the PS1 version, as the portals to access them do not appear.

Breakout Clone

A rather simple Breakout clone made by game scripter Susan Michelle, with its portal located near the bottom left of the map.

The music here is the main level theme from New Toonland. Pressing either Up or A causes Gex to hurl up a ball that can be bounced on the blocks above, and it must be caught before it falls. He can also use his tongue to catch it from a distance by pressing A. Unlike Breakout, the ball doesn't simply bounce off until it's spat back out after being caught. Graphics here are rendered and animated more choppily than in the rest of the main game. Ocasionally, either The Flatulator or a flying metallic acorn that spawns blocks pops up from the one side of the screen, and can be hit. If The Flatulator gets hit, Gex gains what seems to be a temporary shield that wears off after a while.

If the minigame is lost, a text box gets printed on-screen that says either "YOU LOST", "NO SHOTS LEFT!" or "SEEYA!", and the minigame reloads itself.

Shoot Em' Up

A side-scrolling shooter made by game designer Evan Wells.

The music here is the same one used in The Project and The Web. It consists of various waves of enemies mostly coming from the left side of the screen, some taking more than one hit to defeat. A is the only button that is mapped to shooting. You start off with 5 lives and 5 credits. If you lose a life, you continue from where you left off until all lives are lost, costing you a credit and you go back to the beginning. Interestingly, instead of keeping a score, the score counter will simply display a random line if an enemy passes by or gets destroyed, or if the player loses a life.

Upon losing all credits, the game locks up on this screen, and unlike the Breakout clone, doesn't reload itself. Again, the only way to get out is to reset the game.

A full list of in-game text can be found in "gxsupprt", in order:

For defeating an enemy (hex offset 00000600):

who cares!
really high!
who keeps score!
are you still counting?
90210
69 dude!
666
astronomical
infinity
i lost count
way up there
googleplex
i don't know
watch your butt not the score!
score is cool, huh, huh.

For missing an enemy/being killed (hex offset 000006F0):

missed one!
DOH!
you suck!
loser!
sucks to be you!
not a chance!
how bad are you?!
could you be any worse?!
is your controller plugged in?

The default "score" (hex offset 00000790):

0000000

All credits lost (hex offset 00002510):

thank you for playing!
Programming: Evan Lindsay Wells
             Gregg Tavares
Design: Evan Lindsay Wells
Art: Steve Webb
Music: Steve Henefin

All lives lost (hex offset 000025B0):

game over
credits remaining: %d

Score counter and lives (hex offset 00002710):

score = %s
lives = %d

Completing the game (hex offset 00002730):

you missed %d, out of %d enemies
that's %d percent!
Now try it twice as hard!

Boss

Also hidden within The Project is this weird boss fight against someone who was also possibly a dev. Unlike the other hidden boss in SL71, this boss actually leads to an exit. All he does is walk around from left to right, but you still get hit when you touch him. He vomits when hit and dies upon getting hit a fourth time.

Planet X Boss Fight

This level is accessible only through a unique level select cheat. At the title screen, hold Right Shift and press Left, C, Down, A, B, C, A, B, C, A, B, C, C, B, A. Select SL71 from the menu that appears and you'll be taken to an unfinished boss fight.

The level features a unique scrolling background (that includes the ships from the hidden shooter minigame) and plays the secret ending music. The boss itself is a large mech with a working shrink ray. Getting hit by its beam will cause Gex to shrink, which impacts your movement and jumping. Being shrunk too much will render the player immobile until they are killed.

The mech slowly walks forward, fires the shrink ray several times, then steps back and fires the weapon again. After this, it will jump forward to the left side of the screen (damaging the player if they are jumped over, due to unfinished collision detection), which causes a green power-up to fall from the sky. It then turns around, repeats its attack pattern, and jumps back to where it started. The entire pattern repeats infinitely, bringing a power-up down with each loop. Eating the power-ups will cause the player to grow in size. Once you are large enough, you are able to damage the boss with your tail whip and bounce attack. Hitting him three times at a sufficient size will destroy the mech, but leave you stuck in the level.

Miscellaneous Unused Listings

GLUE2 (WIN)

Contains nothing but a black screen and a lone sprite that cycles through HUD graphics. Possibly leftover from an extremely early ending scene, as indicated by the name.