Proto:Knuckles' Chaotix/1207 Prototype/Unused Time Attack Screen

This is a sub-page of Proto:Knuckles' Chaotix/1207 Prototype.

A strange oddity occurs in this prototype. Normally, selecting the "TIME ATTACK" option on the title screen brings you to the prototype's usual rudimentary character select menu and the "ATRACTION SELECT" screen. But very rarely, for reasons still unknown, selecting this option will occasionally boot into an unused menu specifically for "TIME ATTACK". Further revisions of the game would gradually remove/improve the "TIME ATTACK" option and ultimately replace it with the "TRAINING" option. Given the difficulty of triggering this screen, which seemingly just relies on luck, patience and a lot of rebooting, included is a working savestate of the screen.

Download Time Attack Screen Save State File: 1207TimeAttack.zip (89kb) (info)

As of the 1207 build, however, this alternate screen still exists, and contains some differences from the final game, and differences from later revisions. It contains a functional level select, with alternate level names, and what seems to be a simple graphical mockup of the results screen.

Alternate level names include:

• Botanic Garden (Botanic Base)
• Amusement Park (Speed Slider)
• Amazing Zone (Amazing Arena)
• Resort Hotel (Techno Tower)
• Marina Drive (Marina Madness)

And three "Time Attack Zones":

• Time Attack 1 - Loads alternate Isolated Island with Botanic Base's title card.
• Time Attack 2 - Loads another alternate Isolated Island with Botanic Base's title card.
• Time Attack 3 - Loads blank level with a nameless title card.

What's interesting is that one of the names listed on this results screen mockup is "NUTS", a name that doesn't seemingly correspond to any character. Speculation exists, but is unprovable and thus not suited for the article.

Supporting the idea that this is simply a graphical mockup is the fact that while character name strings in plain ASCII exist in this early ROM, there are no corresponding text strings for "NUTS".