Proto:Blast Chamber (PlayStation)/June 13, 1996 demo

This is a sub-page of Proto:Blast Chamber (PlayStation).

A demo build of Blast Chamber was bundled on Sony's Interactive CD Sampler Pack Volume Three demo disc. Its main executable is dated June 13, 1996, three months and eleven days before the final US version of the game.

Menu Differences

Being a stripped-down demo version, not much exists here in terms of menus. What does, however, is different from the final product.

Demo	Final

The font used in all menus differs in terms of design and variety of symbols.

Demo	Final

The title screen in the demo sports an earlier logo commonly used in promotional material of the time, albeit with "Chamber" written in yellow rather than blue. The copyright text would also see minor changes in later builds.

Demo	Final

A single menu allows the player to choose from four available chambers: two solo levels and two multiplayer cubes. Scrolling through them is sluggish and there's no spinning animation for the icons.

Demo	Final

Most of the icons themselves differ from the final in terms of angles and, in the case of "LaunchAcross," level design.

Demo	Final

In this build's results screen, the winning player's icon flashes on the screen while the losers are left in the dark. This would be changed so the winner's icon spins instead. In addition to a minor layout change, the final game also displays the name of the chamber the last match was played on.

In-Game Differences

Quite a few aspects of gameplay, graphics and sound differ from the final product at this point.

Demo	Final

Heads-Up Display

• "Leader bars" indicating remaining kill-clock time for players and their positions are yet to be implemented here.

• No ice texture overlays the timer of the player in possession of the crystal at this point.

• Fire trail and time addition/subtraction animations for when the crystal is placed in a reactor are absent.

• Active power-up icons are improperly aligned in the HUD, obstructing the player's death counter during Free-For-All games. They also lack the white square underneath them and are used for all power-ups, including "consumables."

Graphics

Demo	Final

• All power-up icon sprites use the same 256-color palette. Due to the absence of Psy-bomb, ViseGrip, Crystal Magnet and Crystal Disruptor in this build, as well as the eighth power-up's sprites being repurposed and replaced by the Crystal Magnet's later in development, the existing icons would see slight changes in their colors due to the additional compression required.

• Green is the default color for Player 1 and Red belongs to Player 3, as previously seen in promotional footage. These would be switched around later in development.

• All players use the same flame and smoke effects when less than 10 seconds remain in their kill-clocks. The final version gives them unique sprites representing each color.

• There are no sprites for a player pushing against the wall - the character just keeps running onto it.

• Spinning pyramid lights don't cover the reactors.

Gameplay

• There is no 3-second introduction where HUD elements are displayed and players are spawned, as the match starts right away in this build.

• A 1-second delay between a player's kill-clock reaching zero and their death being computed exists here.

• Players and the crystal respawn immediately after dying/being destroyed during Free-For-All games. In the final product, a 2-second delay exists.

• Reactors do not disappear after their corresponding players die in Eliminator mode and it's even possible to place the crystal in them, which does nothing.

• The match ends immediately after the second-to-last player dies in Eliminator mode. Once again, the final game introduces a 2-second delay.

• Opponent characters do not immediately die after the last human player loses in Eliminator mode.

• Landing on an opponent does not knock them down.

• Pit door traps aren't electric and have a chance of simply swallowing the player, unlike the final version in which players are toasted for merely approaching them while they're open.

• 20 seconds are added to the player's kill-clock when the crystal is placed in the reactor in Solo Survivor games. This does not happen in the final product.

Power-ups

Despite being omitted from the chambers available in this demo, power-ups are actually implemented for the most part. Notable differences in their behavior compared to the final product include:

• As mentioned in the Graphics subsection, Psy-bomb, ViseGrip, Crystal Magnet and Crystal Disruptor are yet to be implemented.

• Dying does not result in the player's active power-up being lost.

• Holding a "timed" power-up such as Mag Boots prevents the player from picking up "consumables" like Extra Time or Reactor Swap.

• Reactor Swap rapidly cycles through goal colors for two seconds when triggered, unlike the final product which simply changes them once. It also crashes the game if used when less than four players are present in the match.

• Time Bomb has no effect implemented and just hogs the player's power-up slot for 20 seconds.

• The eighth power-up, unused in the final game, has the same (non-existent) effect as the Time Bomb here, lasting 20 seconds instead of 2.

Sound

A fair amount of differences is found in the audio department, with some clips not being implemented yet and others differing from the final product.

Demo	Final

• Different voice clips are used for the announcer's countdown as five seconds remain in a player's kill-clock. They're also encoded at a higher sample rate (22050 Hz versus the final's 11025 Hz).

• The announcer says "goodbye" at the end of her countdown during Free-For-All and Solo Survivor games. This only happens in Eliminator matches in the final product.

• Crystal possession changes, time addition/subtraction and power-up usage are not announced in this build.

Demo	Final

• The player breath sample is noticeably louder here, partly thanks to it being encoded at 22050 Hz like the announcer's voice clips above.

Demo	Final

• In this build, seven different voice samples may play whenever the player jumps. The final game cuts this number down to four, replaces one of the clips and reduces the pitch of the other two.

• Falling from high places plays one of two different voice clips. This does not happen in the retail game.

Demo	Final

• Hitting a springboard whilst airborne produces a different voice clip than the final product, which incorporates said clip to the pool of jumping voices and instead repurposes the scream previously associated with falling.

• Using the Hi-Jumps power-up does not produce a unique voice when jumping.

Demo	Final

• A different sound clip is used when players barge into each other with the "shove" button.

Demo	Final

• One of two different explosion samples may play whenever a player dies. These are replaced by a single, new sound effect in the retail game.

• A beep sound effect plays roughly every 30 seconds of game time. No such signal exists in retail versions.

• No sound effect plays at the last five seconds of a match, whereas buzzer sounds appear in the final game.

Demo	Final

• The regular player explosion sound effects play when the crystal is destroyed. In the final version, a unique effect is used instead.

• No sound effect plays when Reactor Swap and Paralyzer power-ups are picked up.

Chamber Differences

Demo	Final

As mentioned in the Menu Differences subsection, "LaunchAcross" is the only level present in this demo that's visually different from the final product, with its "crosses" sporting different textures.

Level Order

Although this demo only contains files used by the four playable chambers, its executable still references the full level order for both multiplayer and solo modes. This order differs greatly from the final product, with references to various cut levels and a hint at how far production of this aspect of the game had progressed at this point: 15 multiplayer chambers and 35 solo cubes had been implemented so far.

Multiplayer

The multiplayer chamber order is mostly different here, referencing six levels that were ultimately deleted from game data and are absent from all currently available builds.

Pos.	Demo	Final	Pos.	Demo	Final	Pos.	Demo	Final	Pos.	Demo	Final
01	[10M] CornerBlitz*	[18M] Chamber 101	06	CUBE06M	[23M] Pitfall	11	[11M] Elevators	[30M] Hang Time	16	N/A	[13M] ReactorLeak
02	[12M] LaunchAcross*	[19M] Level 2	07	[13M] ReactorLeak	[21M] Gates of L	12	CUBE03M	[09M] Spike City	17		[07M] Dungeon
03	N/A*	[20M] Drop In	08	CUBE14M	[24M] CenterStage	13	[09M] Spike City	[27M] Blow Me Up	18		[32M] Wind of Death
04	[15M] Cubicles	[10M] CornerBlitz	09	CUBE04M	[12M] LaunchAcross	14	CUBE01M	[25M] Up and Over	19		[29M] Radioactive
05	[05M] Cover Up	[22M] One-Eighty	10	[07M] Dungeon	[15M] Cubicles	15	CUBE02M	[31M] Revolution	20		[28M] Tenderizer

* "CornerBlitz" and "LaunchAcross" are the only multiplayer levels present in this demo. The gap at position 03 means that at least one of them was relocated from its original slot, replacing CUBE08M in the process of assembling this stripped-down build.

Solo Survivor

The solo order is also rather different from the retail versions, albeit without as many references to entirely cut levels.

Pos.	Demo	Final	Pos.	Demo	Final	Pos.	Demo	Final	Pos.	Demo	Final
01	[14S] 2nd Grade*	[13S] Kindergarten	11	[07S] Stepinstone	[06S] Backstab	21	[18S] Platforming	[19S] Fall N Arch	31	CUBE31S	[25S] Rainbow
02	[30S] Airlift**	[14S] 2nd Grade	12	[10S] Magic Carpet	[07S] Stepinstone	22	[23S] Crumblers	[42S] Up the Wall	32	[32S] Tightrope	[28S] Head Cracker
03	[05S] Step Up		13	[12S] Wallcrawler	[03S] Catwalk	23	[27S] Fugitive	[17S] Ferris Wheel	33	[33S] The Cage	[38S] Ladder Time
04	[08S] The Vault		14	[22S] Plasm Chasm	[10S] Magic Carpet	24	[24S] Shortstop	[18S] Platforming	34	[34S] Leap of Faith	[33S] The Cage
05	[01S] Triple Climb	[16S] Long Stare	15	[04S] Holy Grail	[12S] Wallcrawler	25	[29S] Fanfare	[23S] Crumblers	35	[35S] Lavapalooza	[34S] Leap of Faith
06	[02S] Deadline	[36S] Ziggurat	16	[11S] Bait&Switch	[22S] Plasm Chasm	26	N/A**	[27S] Fugitive	36	N/A	[35S] Lavapalooza
07	[09S] Switcheroo	[01S] Triple Climb	17	[21S] Plasm Spasm	[04S] Holy Grail	27	[20S] Quad	[24S] Shortstop	37		[37S] Spin Cycle
08	[15S] Launchpad	[02S] Deadline	18	[19S] Fall N Arch	[11S] Bait&Switch	28	[16S] Long Stare	[29S] Fanfare	38		[32S] Tightrope
09	[03S] Catwalk	[26S] The Lab	19	[26S] The Lab	[21S] Plasm Spasm	29	[25S] Rainbow	[30S] Airlift	39		[39S] Nick of Time
10	[06S] Backstab	[15S] Launchpad	20	[17S] Ferris Wheel	[09S] Switcheroo	30	[28S] Head Cracker	[20S] Quad	40		[40S] Terminus

* "2nd Grade" is one of two solo levels present in this demo. It is mislabeled "Kindergarten" on the main menu, which is a dead giveaway of its relocation, likely from position 02 as that's where it sits in other versions of the game.
** "Airlift" is the other solo chamber available here. The gap at position 26, along with the fact that this level is sandwiched between "Fanfare" and "Quad" in all other available builds of the game, suggests it was relocated from that slot in the process of stripping the existing prototype down.

TTY Console Output

The demo prints some messages to the TTY console upon boot and termination. The strings used here are found in the main executable at 0xA29.

Hello, Hello
Hello, I am a playable game section.
I am running in interactive mode, with a timeout of 60 seconds.
For your entertainment, I will be using 1 CD tracks starting at track 3.
...
...
...
End of this lovely demo

Unused Text

CUBE.EXE

All text specifically intended for the demo is stored in the main executable. Some of it goes unused, however:

Training 2
Training 1
# Kills
Kills in #
Last Alive
Puzzle

All Finished

TEXT.ENG

This file is a remnant of the original prototype the demo was built upon. It contains all strings corresponding to existing menus of the time.

Choose A Language
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Press X To Select

Activision (TM)
ATD: Attention To Detail Ltd.
Playing Intro Sequence

Copyright 1996 Activision
Press Start

Top Ten Puzzle Scores

Credits
PROGRAMMERS
Stephen Bennett
Geraldo The Singing Orangutan
Andrew Wright
ART
Jon Baker
Tony Heap
MUSIC
Will Davis
LEVEL DESIGNERS
F.B. Stu
Mac
TESTERS
Unknown Tester 1
Unknown Tester 2
Unknown Tester 3

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Finished all puzzle levels
Hard Luck, Try Again
Enter Your Initials
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Congratulations Player 0
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The Cube

Unused Audio

Four player voice clips are left unused in the demo's soundbank: a rather interesting yell and three "yeahs" that may have been used at an earlier point in development.