Proto:Aidyn Chronicles: The First Mage/February 10, 2000

This is a sub-page of Proto:Aidyn Chronicles: The First Mage.

To do: There's much more. Research further into the build for more graphical differences, such as comparisons between the party members' icons. There's a few text differences.

The pre-alpha build of Aidyn Chronicles: The First Mage, compiled on February 10, 2000 at 13:29:00, originated from the American THQ offices, which sent the build, along with the May 9, 2000 one, to the European offices via FTP. An anonymous user would then obtain the builds by accessing the FTP server and eventually send them to Eyesoftheworld94, who uploaded the builds to the Internet Archive.

Considering the the game is early in development, it's significantly incomplete, and there are a bunch of differences.

General Differences

The build uses a completely different main theme tune upon being booted up.

Prototype	Final

• The Expansion Pak screen, the copyright screen and the Nintendo 64 logo screen are not displayed.
• The THQ logo uses its previous logo, and the background is white. Compile information in black is shown above the logo.
• The trademark for the H2O Entertainment logo is smaller.

Prototype	Final

The title screen is completely different from the final, and is a still image. It also uses a different logo, and also states that the build is a pre-alpha version. Alaron can also be seen in the image behind the logo.

• Upon starting the game, you spawn in a world that doesn't match any of the locations used in the final game. This world still exists in the final game; albeit unused.
• The party members, including Alaron, use different and darker textures.
• Two extra party members are unlocked at the start, who are Rheda and Becan.
• Two digits displaying the game' frame rate are placed onto the compass near the bottom-right of the screen.
• Upon encountering an enemy, the game freezes for about a second before cutting to the battle.

Prototype	Final

The message that appears when you pick up gold sports a very simple design, including a different look for the text.

Prototype	Final

• The pause menu is rather simplistic; the options can be chosen separately.
• There are debugging features that allow you to spawn in other maps, change your character model or start a combat.
• It is not possible to load or save a game.

Prototype	Final

• The area upon starting a battle is always a simple, plain field.
• Instead of showing the healthbars of the party members and enemies on the top sides of the screen, completely different and horizontal ones with gradient coloring appear above the character models.
• The shapes indicating the barriers that appear revolving around the player are red and untextured.
• When a character is prepared to attack, a red outlined circle appears on the attacker, and a green outlined circle appears on the victim.
• The text that appears at the bottom of the screen is different (which can still be found in the final game), and no icon shows up to the left of the text. Generally, during a battle, the text is yellow. However, when a party member or an enemy is killed, the text is colored black.
• The circle-shaped minimap at the bottom right of the screen that shows the characters' positions in the area is absent.
• The battle is completely silent.
• The animations of the party members' getting hurt were not implemented yet.
• The numeral(s) that pop up and describes the HP taken from an enemy or a party member is absent.
• Usually, the enemies default to using the Giant Bat model. The only unaffected enemies are the Ogres.

Graphical Differences

Prototype	Final

• The HUD is significantly different. The icons depicting the time period, the compass in which the camera is facing and the slots of players resemble stone structures. The final game's HUD icons use transparent squares and circles with white outlines along with simple letter and time icons.
• The icons are completely different.

Prototype	Final

The Inventory screen is completely different; the items have early designs, the party members' icons are placed on the left of the box, there are three differently-colored rectangles (red, blue and yellow, in order from top to bottom) stacked on top of each other, and the box is on a black blackground, with four copies of the text "safe zone" in gray placed on all four sides of the screen.

Prototype	Final

The Treasure screen is also completely different; they consist of black boxes containing items on a dark gray background.

Prototype	Final

• The map is very simple and completely different from the final; it seems to be a placeholder.
• There are no trees or buildings drawn on any points of the map.
• The calendar is missing.
• It is not possible to camp nor read your journal.

Crash Handler

Prototype	Final

• Only "CRASH" is displayed on the top of the screen.
• The screen does not describe the Thread nor Return logs.
• The screen displays and describes the last frame taken prior to the game crashing and its number.