Proto:Jurassic Park (Genesis)

This page details one or more prototype versions of Jurassic Park (Genesis).

This prototype is actually very different from the final in some parts, and in others it's just what you'd expect: incomplete.

Title Screen

The title screen's music plays at a much slower tempo than the finished product and sounds a bit different.

The game skips the SEGA screen and starts on the main menu. The song starts and the doors open, just as in the final. However, the sky is more purple-ish and the rest of the music only plays after the loud thunder. At around that time, the game's logo will fade in vertically with grain-like effects. Some portions aren't filled correctly. When you press Start, the game begins on the first level, the Jungle, as Grant. If you press A, you'll be given the main menu.

Main Menu

The palette is a bit different and the flames flicker ludicrously fast, but it's the same as the final's. You can't enter the password screen. The character selection screen is all glitched, but you can still choose the left (Grant) and right (Raptor) options, even though it won't memorize them. Choosing Start will show you the garbled character selection screen again (if you opened it before, or else it'll just start the game), but you can't choose this time. If you press Down, you'll be presented with the main menu but with the first two options garbled. Other D-Pad directions in these menus just navigate through them in confusing ways. Entering the Options menu will give you the debug menu, but with a different look!

Debug Mode

The debug mode is already enabled in this proto when you play, but it behaves a bit differently.

• D-Pad moves you around like in the final.
• A: Disables music and toggles sound effects. It also heals you up to 15 points of health (instead of 16 - full health) and gives you all weapons and full ammo. As with the final, it only gives you 25 ammo for the tazer.
• B: Locks the map's graphics on the Y axis and causes other strange graphical glitches.
• C: Lags the game while it's held.
• Start: Soft-resets the game.

Debug Menu

It works mostly the same as the final menu, and the times at the bottom are 10:36:02 AM at the 29th of April, 1993 (Thursday).

The T-Rex roar can be heard in the sound menu, it's just that the SEGA screen is not implemented. The track "You Win" is also here and equally unused. There are more <unused #XX> tracks, and they're still silent; this time they go from 12 to 19. The sound effects are the same, mostly, and most are unused. Some of them are named differently, like the sound effect for when steam comes out of pipes, which is called "high self a-steam"...

The sound effect for the tazer powering up goes unused in the proto, but is actually different from the final version.

Those beeps at the end loop. Grenades were also meant to count down. They play the same beeps as the tazer 4 times.

Using this menu, one can also play as the Raptor.

To do: Play as the Raptor and search for differences.

Grant's Levels

Jungle

The Jungle's music is quite different from the final.

You start with no weapon selected, and the default control scheme is A to shoot, B to jump and C to switch (they're shifted rightwards in the final). One thing that's quickly noticeable is that there is some ammo for the tranquilizer gun at the left, but under the car, so you can only get it by crouching. This exercise wasn't kept for the final. In this prototype, the Triceratops will only get mad at you if you shoot it, whereas in the final, it'll attack you if you stay close for long enough. Here, it doesn't even turn left on its own. Amusingly, if you go all the way to the left, it'll follow you and disappear. It'll respawn when you go to the right again.

Moving on to the right, you'll find more ammo where the Dilophosaur should be. ...And on the 3 platforms under it. In fact, all instances of that dinosaur have been replaced with tranquilizer ammo. When you collect your first super tranquilizer darts, you'll notice that you have 48 of them. A few places have Compies in the final game but not in this proto (for instance, the alcove after the horizontal vines). There is also a Pteranodon before the stone caves.

The falling boulders in the cave drag you down with them, without hurting you, and they're also faster. To their right are 2 sets of super tranquilizer ammo, but one of them is on a half-pipe, and you can't reach it without slipping, and the other is on a higher platform that you also can't reach. Lower in the cave, there are 2 Compies where there should be a Triceratops, though said Triceratops has been moved to the platform where the boulders finish their path. The ledge can't be grabbed after this, so you'll have to come from above or use debug mode. To the right there is actually a Dilophosaur that hasn't been replaced with ammo. It's a bit more docile, though: it'll only spit at you if you hit it. It can also float in the air if it goes to the right of the platform it's supposed to remain on. The Brachiosaurus up ahead will never lower its head to let you pass, so make you sure you use the top path. If you continue through the top path, you'll find a food pickup.

Power Station

To the right of the start, there is a foreground machine with a circular top in the final, but it's in the background in this build. The Dilophosaur to the right can spit through the wall, but the projectile is stopped by this "background machine". Some of the ledges that should be grabbable aren't; same goes for some of the stairs.

The next two sub-levels of the Power Station have little to no ammo scattered around. When you reach the T-Rex, its bites will just take a bit of your health away, instead of killing you instantly. If you hit it enough, it'll freeze in place, and it can either respond to further shots with a mere growl, or by staying frozen forever. The control panel that opens the doors can't be interacted with, but the doors are already open to begin with.

River

There are more tranquilizer ammo pickups than there should be. The first Dilophosaur is floating. The T-Rexes are also placed above the gratings' hole. The Brachiosaurus on the bottom is always lowered (and there's only one this time). The final dinosaur near the exit is a Raptor, not a Triceratops like in the finished build. A Dilophosaur was meant to spawn next to it, but it spawns under and falls to the bottom of the level when it's loaded.

Pump Station

There is no super tranquilizer ammo at the left of the starting point. The Brachiosaurus lowers when it's loaded, and the ledge above you can't be grabbed. When you reach the first switch-opened hatch, you'll notice Grant kicks the switch. However, the hatch won't even budge. When you climb the ladder, if you hold Up, Grant will be stuck under the hatch, but the screen will keep scrolling up. After a while, the camera will go back down to Grant and you'll see that he's now on top of the hatch. The top switch can be interacted with in the same way, and you can go down the ladder as if the hatch wasn't there.

The horizontal bars you can climb to the right of the Brachiosaurus go all the way to the wall. The left part of the tube above this one is blocked. The wheel rolls down the same way, but without noises. Getting run over it will knock you to the ground immediately, but won't hurt you. If you land on top of the wheel, you'll just spazz out and be stuck. If you try to jump on the left part of the tube after the wheel, you'll fall through it. Instead of there being one box that floats, you have 3 boxes, stacked in a pyramid, and you have to push them individually trough the hole you came through in, so they stack and make a platform.

The hatch in the next part is still uninteractable with. The timed switch for the big hatch works as intended, although it's prone to freezing the game. You can also climb the ladder with the hatch closed, and the screen will still scroll up, but the game'll eventually freeze. The ledges on the T-Rex part can't be grabbed. The Raptor, instead of feasting on a dead Dilophosaur, is taking bites out of the ground. At times the Dilophosaur does load, but it's alive. Should you see this happen, keep a close eye on it, as you may see it fly away randomly. On the long corridor after the Raptor, at the right side of the map, is a super tranquilizer ammo pickup inside the wall.

Grant also kicks the valves, but the steam coming out of it won't stop. That's not a problem, though, as the steam is harmless. There are 3 boxes stacked in a pyramid here; you can only climb up if you go to the topmost one. If you let it drop, you won't have enough height to reach the platform. All of the steam in this level is harmless. The chains and the switch that activates them work well, surprisingly, but only if you're close enough. In order to go from chain to chain, you need to tap the direction, not hold it, or else Grant will fall. He spazzes out even more when on top of the floating crates, but there are 2 of them now. The stuff it floats on kills you in one hit, but it only saps away a bit of your health in the final. Grant has a tendency to die when jumping on the final set of platforms in the stage.

Canyon and Volcano

The Canyon uses the Volcano's music (the Canyon's music isn't present in this build), and there are Pteranodons flying inside the volcano. Everything else seems to be the same as in the final game, though glitchier.

Visitor Center

The box on a string doesn't fall when you shoot at it, and the platform under it makes you wobble every time you walk. You can push it horizontally and walk on it, however. You can push the computer monitors around, something only the Raptor can do in the final. The elevator buttons are kicked, as would be expected by now, but the doors don't open. The unreachable flash grenade ammo pickup can actually be obtained in this version, as the pillar doesn't block Grant.

There is an ammo pickup for the tazer under the spawn point of the second portion, but it's blocked by a crate; this is absent in the final version. The Raptor gets stuck when trying to go down the stairs. The darker crate after the Dilophosaurus can be pushed, and if pushed off the platform, it'll just float.

Because you can move the monitors, if you push the one at the end of the first corridor on the 3rd section off the desk, you won't be able to reach the vents. The first corridor is also missing a Dilophosaurus. The race with the 2nd Raptor doesn't happen correctly, the Raptor just starts climbing the platforms and eventually passes through the air vents. Every time you stop walking, Grant will fall for a split-second.

On the final level, the ammo available is for flash grenades, not explosion grenades. The collision detection on the larger dinosaur skeleton is a bit off. There are no Raptors, only a Dilophosaurus on the top-right corner, next to a set of rockets. The only way to complete this level is by walking to the right edge of the screen at ground level, where you'll be taken to... The Raptor's Power Station!

Power Station (Raptor)

The palette is messed up, no music plays (though you get to hear a lot of buzzing electrical noises), and you are still Grant. The game is supposed to load the Raptor, as indicated by the HUD. There are parts of the skeletons from the last level in the background. You can't be harmed, but you can't harm anyone either. The game freezes at certain points, but it keeps going after around 1 minute. When it freezes for the second time, you'll hear a Dilophosaurus over and over. However, the third time it freezes... It's for good. Luckily, if you move across the ground at high speeds with the debug mode, you'll be able to bypass it. But once you reach the ending, you'll just get stuck out of the screen, and the next level won't load.

Other than that, it seems to be the same as the final version's level, but without pickups.

Raptor's Levels

To play as the Raptor, you must select it and an appropriate level on the debug menu. Unless otherwise noted, none of the Raptor's levels can be completed, as the trigger points that should load the next level do nothing; most of them actually make the Raptor stuck.

Power Station

On the debug menu, you'll see that the first Raptor level is the Power Station, and not the Jungle. It's the same level as Grant's Power Station, with all the slowdowns and everything. This time around, the palette is corrected, you can interact with other things, and the bones from the Visitor Center's final level aren't there.

Jungle

The human enemies are dressed in purple rather than green, and all they do is shoot rockets every few seconds. There are several more health pickups around the level compared to the final release.

Pump Station

When the level starts, you can immediately notice one out of every three tiles or so has a white/green palette, as does the majority of the background. A few animated tiles also have weird greenish palettes. Other than that, the level seems to be the same as in the final. Oh, with the exception of Grant falling through the ground when running at the end of the level.

Canyon

Like with Grant, this level uses the Volcano music. On the start, the block you can drag to crush the human is more to the left than in the final game. If you high-jump in this spot, the camera will try to catch you under the level, but it'll quickly scroll up again and continue like normal. You can high-jump to the left and be taken to the right side of the level, where there isn't much else to do except go left to hit a death plane. The Pteranodons are a bit glitchy: they fly in place, turning left and right, and they may suddenly attack you without warning, or they may float forever. If they're far away from you, they'll go back into the background, a behavior never seen in the final game. You can actually jump to the ledge where Grant is, but you can't interact with him. When you touch the ending trigger point, you just stay on the bottom boundary dancing instead of advancing to the next level.

Visitor Center

None of the Visitor Center levels have music, oddly. In the first level, the Dilophosaurus under you spawns under the ground, and after a few hops, it falls into the lower level. There is a pushable box in the platform with the first Compies; it was probably removed because there was no point for it to exist. The doors only open around half the time and you can't pass through directly after opening them. The monitor after the second door can be pushed without having to stand on the desk. After the "elevator", there is a health pickup under the floor where you land, which is not present in the final. The nearby Dilophosaurus also spawns inside the ground.

The second and third levels are basically the same ones as in the final, but the second level starts with the camera centered on the Raptor, meaning you get to see a bit to the right of the start – it's just the left part of the level, seeing as the whole thing loops horizontally. This is all fixable by moving to the left once you start.

On the fourth level, there's a pointless pushable monitor on the ground of the third room. And surprisingly, this level actually has an ending trigger point active, and takes you to the final level!

On the final level, there are 2 humans on the platform under the one you start in, and there's no lamp to serve as a platform to help you reach them. There are also 2 humans on the other side, 1 Dilophosaurus, 2 Compies, and 3 humans on the floor. The skeletons have their heads completely messed up.

Food

Hold the phone... The explosion grenades are actually hunks of meat in this version! You can throw them like grenades, but they stick to the ground. If there's a Compy or Triceratops nearby, it'll go for it and eat it. This mechanic could've worked well in the final version, but they chose explosives instead.

Miscellaneous Stuff

• The game lags a lot more, overall.
• Some sound effects are missing.
• Grant doesn't grunt when he's hurt.
• Most of the ledges aren't grabbable.
• Spikes and bones will kill you instantly.
• A game over sends you instantly to the title screen.
• You keep your ammo when you die.
• Fall damage isn't implemented.
• There are more enemies and pickups overall.
• Projectiles can pass through certain walls.
• If you hold the fire button, you'll aim before you shoot. This is only true for the rocket in the final version, but in the proto, you can do this with the tranquilizers. You can crouch, nudge yourself a bit in a direction, or even jump (only if you nudge first) while aiming, but you can only do either of these once per shot.
• You can throw grenades one right after the other, though the number of flash grenades on-screen are limited; you'll just see your ammo decrease after a few.
• Grenades of any type are timed instead of exploding upon touching the ground.
• The rockets don't make a sound when they explode.
• At times, Grant will be able to run and crouch walk faster. This is just a glitch, though. Seems to happen if you spam grenades while jumping.
• If Grant is hit while climbing an horizontal vine, he'll be sent flying and will never fall to the ground.
• Raptors take around two times more rockets than tranquilizers to go down.
• The levels have no introduction/password screen.
• The PAUSE letters are missing when the game is paused.
• Lying Raptors still have hitboxes.
• You can have more than 99 ammo for a weapon, which will cause its counter to glitch up.
• Pickups don't make a sound when collected.
• Dinosaurs stomped on by the Raptor only stay down for a split-second.
• Humans need to be stomped on 3 times with the Raptor in order to be killed, and sometimes, they fall off ledges when walking.
• Some Compies can't be eaten at all.
• You Win is also present in this prototype, and is equally unused.
• Even though a lot of things are missing, they already added the Raptor's secret taunts.