Proto:Mega Man X2/The Eight Mavericks Part 2

This is a sub-page of Proto:Mega Man X2.

Overdrive Ostrich / Sonic Ostreague

Level Graphics

Early Prototype	Later Proto + Final

The early prototype has an unusual green sky, yellow clouds, and no structures of any kind beyond the dunes. The final background has an ordinary blue sky and adds a few buildings all the way in the back.

This background design actually made it to the final game in both Overdrive Ostrich's level icon and in the rocket sequence at the end of the stage.

The dunes closest to the camera are one pixel taller in the early sample. This is just barely enough to reach the next layer of parallax scrolling, as can (barely) be seen here.

Early Prototype
Later Prototype
Final Game

The background in the early prototype is much darker than the later ones, probably because the hanger door isn't open yet. Later backgrounds have less detail for the floor tiles. The final version redraws the columns, removes the stubby ones above the windows in the center of the screen, and adds another one that extends all the way down.

Early Prototype	Later Prototype	Final Game

The missile base's background got progressively more vibrant in each version. The early prototype's background is 128 pixels shorter than the others.

Early Prototype	Later Prototype	Final Game

The frame and nose cap of the rocket at the end were redrawn, reshaded, and reshaped in the later prototype. In both prototypes, the tip of the nose cone uses the same palette as the cycling lights on the frame. It's yellow in the final game.

Layout

Early Prototype	Later Prototype	Final Game

The bridge underside, lights, and ceiling graphics are all less detailed in the early prototype. It's also missing all of the collapsible bridges seen in later versions. The later prototype has those bridges, but they're all slightly offset to the left. Every last one.

Early Prototype	Later Proto + Final

There are lit-up tiles underneath the ceiling lights in the early prototype. These were likely eliminated to make room for new tiles - they're a good candidate because this is the only place they're ever seen. The early support beam graphics are the same shade as the purple walls, while in the later prototype and final game they're a lighter shade of purple. The final tileset adds detail between the crossbeams and eliminates the curve at the bottom of the edge of the wall.

Since the Aclanda enemy has yet to be coded or even drawn, the reason for its absence should be obvious.

Early Prototype	Later Prototype	Final Game

The final version adds a large life energy pickup before the X-Hunter shutters, as should be expected by this point.

Early Prototype
Later Prototype
Final Game

The early prototype uses a darker color for the outline of the tan columns and beams seen here and is missing most of the edge tiles for the platforms on the right. The door in the middle of the X-Hunter arena is partially open in this version but completely closed in later builds.

There's two screens worth of content to the right of the X-Hunter arena that was cut from the final version. The path exits to the room right of the (not functional) Silk Shot fill-up station. This area isn't particularly noteworthy outside of it existing in the first place, but, well, there it is. At least this path's deletion actually saves space in the ROM.

Early Prototype	Later Prototype	Final Game

Crash Roaders aren't in the early prototype yet. Strange that they didn't add some kind of placeholder enemy, though, like a Scriver or two. In both prototypes, the ladders on the right side are shorter than the ones on the left. They're all the same length in the final game.

The way the first Crash Roader is placed in the later prototype forces the player to wait until it passes by to avoid taking damage. The final version changes this by placing that Crash Roader all the way to the left. The third Crash Roader was removed.

Early Prototype	Later Proto + Final

Road Riders start showing up much earlier in the older prototype. It's replaced by a Crash Roader in the newer builds.

Early Prototype	Later Proto + Final

The final layout adds another support beam below the slope, which is itself more worn than it appears in the earlier prototype. Look also at the cracked rocks in the desert area: In the early prototype they're completely natural, while in the later prototype and final game they're filled with machinery.

Early Prototype	Later Prototype	Final Game

The machinery below the long bridge is missing from the early prototype, and there's an extra Road Rider that comes in from the left side of the screen. The design for said bridge is different in both prototypes and resemble the collapsible bridge objects.

Early Prototype	Later Prototype	Final Game

The Road Rider in this area comes in from the right in the early prototype and final game (though it was moved more to the right), while it was moved to the left in the final game.

Early Prototype	Later Prototype	Final Game

Here, the Road Rider comes in from the right in both prototypes and from the left in the final game. A Crash Roader was added to both this and the previous area.

Early Prototype
Later Prototype
Final Game

The cliffs on both sides of this pit are sloped in the prototypes, making progress without a Ride Chaser more of a challenge. The final game makes the cliffs truly vertical and adds yet another Crash Roader.

The collapsible bridge in this area is the only one that's offset to the right instead of the left. The reason for the change? When these bridges collapse they create a small pile of sand. That sand graphic is clearly misaligned and going over the cliff in the sample.

Early Prototype	Later Prototype	Final Game

The early prototype places a Croak Hopper and Scrambler here as placeholder enemies. At least one would think they'd be placeholder enemies. In any case, they're missing from the later prototype. It would take until the final version before anything else was placed there, namely an extra life on the roof (Only accessible by jumping off the Ride Chaser) and a Crash Roader.

Early Prototype	Later Proto + Final

The jump that the Ride Chaser has to make to get to the next section exists in both layouts, but the setup is different. In the early layout the first, upward slope straightens out and then slants downward into a pit, while the second slope is a platform that hangs in the air. In the final layout, the first slope terminates in a straight section and ends in a smaller pit, while the second slope is part of the floor.

Early Prototype	Later Prototype	Final Game

The platforms and crossbeams in this section were either redrawn or recolored in each version of the game. They might have gone overboard with the lights here. There's a hill of sorts at the bottom in the early prototype that was leveled in later layouts.

The spike pit / Heart Tank puzzle is different in all three versions:

• In the older prototype, the spike pit is small enough that the player can get to the Heart Tank with just the air dash or a charged-up Speed Burner, though getting back across the pit requires both. The Heart Tank is nicely placed on a platform of its own.
• The newer prototype changes the spike pit to extend all the way to the wall. The player is supposed to use the Ride Chaser to reach the Heart Tank, but with the air dash and a charged-up Speed Burner they can make it safely to the wall on the other side, grab the Heart Tank, and then dash safely back.
• The final game adds spikes to the wall at the end to discourage players from using the above method, though if they don't care about losing a life it's still an option. Large and small life and weapon energy pickups were placed before the Heart Tank.

The Croak Hoppers were replaced by Aclandas, while the Scrambler was deleted entirely. The first Aclanda was later moved to the right a skosh.

Early Prototype	Later Prototype	Final Game

The wall decorations in the Light Capsule chamber are different in the older prototype. Since this Light Capsule gives the Leg Parts in the final game, and the game has to demonstrate how the air dash works, the chamber that the capsule's in had to be opened up a bit.

Early Prototype	Later Prototype	Final Game

The last enemy before the boss shutters is a Croak Hopper in the early prototype, absent from the later prototype, and an Aclanda in the final game. Then the ceiling was lowered so the player can't just jump over the thing.

Early Prototype	Later Prototype	Final Game

The missile chamber is brighter in both samples.

Boss

Damage Taken

Protos	1/2/3/4	2/0	1/1	1/1	1/1	1/1	1/1	1/1	1/1	2
Final	1/1/2/4	3/0	1/1	2/2	1/1	1/1	1/1	1/1	1/1	2

• The final version adds a second weakness in Silk Shot and makes Crystal Hunter more effective.

Damage Given

	Protos	Final
Contact	3 HP	4 HP

• Overdrive Ostrich has no invincibility frames after breaking out of his Crystal Hunter-induced frozen state. Fixed in the final game.

He can actually be hit by the Crystal Hunter again after the shimmering effect stops but before breaking out of the crystals. This will not re-freeze him, not will it activate invincibility frames.

• In the final version, he'll always follow up getting hit by a Crystal Hunter shot by doing his overhead Sonic Slicer attack. This behavior isn't present in the prototypes.
• Overdrive Ostrich doesn't have any sound effects assigned; he squawks in silence.

Miscellaneous

• The prototypes only have two checkpoints: one at the beginning, and one at the end. The final version adds a checkpoint before the first Ride Chaser and another at the entrance of the missile base. The checkpoint that the final game uses for the credits sequence is in neither prototype.

• In the later prototype, the Spin Wheel blocks near the Light Capsule leave the wrong tile behind after they're destroyed. It seems they copied the code from the sand blocks earlier in the stage and forgot to change the tile number.

Both Prototypes	Final Game

• The missile cutscene plays out differently.

• In the prototypes, X stays still as he rides the missile up into the sky. The camera pans down to the bottom of the missile, which starts exploding and eventually detonates.
• In the final game, X automatically switches to his X-Buster and starts firing rapidly into the missile as soon as it takes off. The camera pans down, but not all the way down to the bottom, and X stops firing after the missile starts exploding.

Bubble Crab / Bubbly Crablos

Level Graphics

Early Proto + Final	Later Prototype

The later prototype changes the main stone graphic used in most of the stage - compare how the middle-left stone is drawn and shaded between sets. This change was later reverted for unknown reasons.

Early Prototype	Later Prototype

There's more to the sunset background in the early prototype. The first 32 lines were erased in the later prototype and replaced by a single color. The reason for this change is because those lines are normally off-camera...

...except at the very start of the stage. The later prototype was overzealous in deleting those tiles; it's now possible to see where the background ends.

Later Prototype	Final Game

The background in the final game adds some of those tiles back in to fix the cut-off issue.

Early Prototype	Later Proto + Final

The most obvious change is the deletion of the sunken submarine seen in the early prototype. These tiles were removed to make room for graphics added in the later prototype. The early background is brighter and is missing the furthest tier of ocean floor (the darkest blue area.)

Early Prototype	Later Proto + Final

The deep blues of the early background were changed to teal colors in the later prototype. Some of the incorrect edge tiles for the trench on the right were corrected, though both versions have their own errors for this background element.

The tower lights start off earlier in the older prototype. Early enough to see where the towers end, in fact, which is why they were deleted from this particular section.

Early Prototype	Later Proto + Final

The pods in the back have two sets of cycling lights in both prototypes: The main set of cycling lights surrounding the pod, and two cycling lights in the center. In the early background, both lights are on the same cycle and the two lights in the center are red. In the final background, each set of lights is cycled inversely to the other set, and the two lights in the center are pink.

The lights in the grid-like pattern next to the towers are closer together in the early prototype, but they're more sparsely placed. They're further apart in the final background and take up every available bit of space.

The blue lights extend further to the left in the prototype, which leads to yet another visible background cut-off error.

Prototype	Final

The background in the Dr. Cain cutscenes actually uses the tileset from Bubble Crab's stage. While those cutscenes have not been coded in yet, the room layout is already present in the later prototype.

The floor was initially drawn flat, while the final version has the floor drawn at a slightly overhead perspective to give the room more depth. The coloring errors with the shutters around the purple monitors were corrected in the final game.

Layout

Early Prototype	Later Prototype

Barite Lastars and Croak Hoppers (which are damn near everywhere in this version) take the place of Batton Bone Gs, which have been drawn but not yet programmed.

Later Prototype	Final Game

There's a big gap between the two cliffs in both prototypes. This makes getting to the other side with the extra life very annoying; the player has to scale the cliff face while avoiding either a Barite Lastar or a Batton Bone G. The final game narrows the gap, letting the player get to the other side with a simple dash jump, but also adds a fifth Batton Bone G above the gap.

Early Prototype
Later Prototype
Final Game

Frogs aren't fish, but when fish haven't been coded yet you make do. The water in the earlier prototype is darker than in later versions.

All of the Fisherns were placed on the left side in the final game.

Early Prototype	Later Prototype	Final Game

Not sure what kind of animal a Barite Lastar is, but it's probably not a fish.

This is where the fourth Fishern is in the prototype. The final version also narrows the gap on the fall down.

This Fishern is placed low enough to cause a graphical glitch. If the Sea Canthller launches and the player goes back up to this area, its tiles will be glitched for a bit before its own graphics are reloaded into VRAM.

Both Prototypes	Final Game

There's no background behind the rocks on the left. Some well-meaning developer realized this and changed the transparent tiles to the left of the Sea Canthller gate...but didn't realize that the camera never goes far enough left to see those tiles, so the change wasn't necessary.

There's one Jelly Seeker in the prototype. It's in the middle of the Sea Canthller's path, which is likely why it was removed later on.

Early Prototype	Later Prototype	Final Game

This is where a Heart Tank would be in the final version, but in both prototypes there's just an extra life. The platform the life / tank is on is higher in the final game.

The early prototype is missing all of the Probe 8201-Us (does every dang thing in this game have a name? Criminy) that would let the player access the sea cave. What it does have is an extra Jelly Seeker. Joy! There are three Probe 8201-Us in the later prototype, two in the final. The remaining Jelly Seeker swam to warmer waters.

The topmost Probe rockets too high in the later prototype. X is pushed through the Probe a tad when it tries to rocket him into the ceiling.

Early Prototype	Later Prototype	Final Game

The Silk Shot life energy refill station is barricaded by Spin Wheel blocks in the early prototype, which of course can't be destroyed in this build. The later prototypes adds two wall decorations to the room.

Early Prototype	Later Prototype

There's an extra Jelly Seeker at the top of this section. The ground below the extra life (which is below the lower camera boundary) extends further down and to the left in the later prototype.

Later Prototype	Final Game

The large life energy pickup swapped places with the extra life. Then the extra life died.

Having realized that the added ground tiles below the extra life / life energy don't really serve a purpose, the developers removed them from the final layout.

Early Prototype	Later Prototype	Final Game

The ceiling above the large weapon energy pickup is natural in the older prototype and man-made (Reploid-made?) in the newer versions. The bottommost floor tiles went through a similar change as the ones in the previous area.

Early Prototype	Later Prototype	Final Game

This obscure room can only be accessed through the higher jump height that the charged Bubble Splash gives X, and is directly above the previous area. There's an extra life here in both samples, while the final game downgrades the reward to a large weapon energy pickup.

Early Prototype	Later Prototype

As you may have noticed, the older prototype has far too many Jelly Seekers for its own good. Only the second one made it in.

Later Prototype	Final Game

The method of getting this large life energy pickup changed:

• In both prototypes, the player is supposed to use the Spin Wheel to destroy those blocks at the top. Even though the later prototype properly implements the Spin Wheel's block-destroying mechanic, the blocks here are still unbreakable.
• In the final game, there's a fake wall on the right side of this platform that the player can go through to get the pickup.

Early Prototype	Later Proto + Final

One less Jelly Seeker, one more Probe rocket.

Early Prototype	Later Prototype	Final Game

Now this is just silly. The last three Jelly Seekers were destroyed, and a helpful Probe rocket was put in the large pit. Said Probe rocket starts out much higher up in the prototype.

Early Prototype	Later Prototype	Final Game

This area was successively toned down in each version. The older prototype has a spike pit at the start and a spiked ceiling in the top-right. The later prototype removes the ceiling spikes but keeps the spike pit, which was later taken out of the now finalized layout.

Early Prototype	Later Prototype	Final Game

This Barite Lastar was lowered slightly in the later prototype, then lowered again in the final version. In both prototypes, there's no safe place to stand on the platform; in the final game, hugging the wall lets the player avoid the lasers.

Early Prototype	Later Prototype	Final Game

There's a Scriver placed on the platform below the X-Hunter room entrance; this is almost unavoidable if the player used that exit, which seems unnecessary and cruel. So, the kind developers put a large life energy pickup in its place to heal up from the fight. To counterbalance the loss of that enemy, a Barite Laster was placed below that platform.

The final game removes the spiked wall trap, thank goodness, and the Scriver by the boss shutters was deleted. The added Barite Lastar was moved down for the same reasons as the one in the previous sectioin.

Boss

Damage Taken

Proto	1/2/3/4	0/0	1/1	1/1	2/2	1/1	1/1	1/1	1/1	2
Final	1/1/2/4	0/0	1/1	1/1	3/4	1/1	1/1	1/1	1/1	2

• The Spin Wheel does more better damage in the final version.

Damage Given

	Proto	Final
Contact	2 HP	3 HP

• No sound effects for Mr. Crab at this point.

• The background in Bubble Crab's arena doesn't go up as far as it should in the early prototype, and it vanishes once the fight starts.

• In both prototypes, the cycling lights in the background are visible when the player enters the arena, but disappears when Bubble Crab enters the room. This in itself is not an oversight -- the background disappearing is because that layer is used by Bubble Crab's shield -- but the player shouldn't be able to see it disappear. To mask this, the final version removes the transparency from those shutter tiles. This has the added benefit of making it so the developers didn't have to make an extra background for the Dr. Cain cutscene.

Miscellaneous

• The final game adds another checkpoint before the Sea Canthller entrance.

• There are two checkpoints used for cutscenes in the final version; The first is for Dr. Cain, and the second is for the epilogue. These are partially set up in the later prototype, but they use temporary parameters: Dr. Cain's checkpoint teleports X to the start of the stage with a shifted background layer and invisible enemies, while the epilogue checkpoint teleports the player on top and slightly to the left of Bubble Crab's room with the camera locked.

• The tiles in Bubble Crab's walls alternate between being low and high priority in the early prototype. All tiles are low priority in later versions.
• The cymbal section of Bubble Crab's track isn't the same length as the rest of the song, causing it to go out of sync after the first loop.
• All of the gates in this stage use the X-Buster shot as a placeholder sound effect.
• Sea Canthller is missing his bombs, searchlight, and laser in the later prototype...which is weird, since they work fine in the early prototype. All it can do in the later build is float around the stage and drop mines.
• Sea Canthller's sonar ping and movement sound effects are missing.

• The gate blocks aren't properly marked as underwater tiles in the prototype.

• Once the red gate retracts, trying to go back up will glitch Sea Canthller's palette. Going back below the gate will fix this.

Early Prototype	Later Prototype	Final Game

• The water in the X-Hunter room was initially a little higher in the early prototype, so the Sea Canthller parked higher up too. The water level was lowered in the later prototype, but the developers forgot to change the Sea Canthller's position until the final version.

Wheel Gator / Wheel Alligates

Level Graphics

Early Prototype
Later Prototype

This is certainly the biggest difference so far...with that gaudy color scheme and domed / saucer-shaped buildings, this looks like something out of the classic series! This was heavily redesigned in the later prototype to use more traditionally colored and shaped buildings - the only thing kept from the older design are the medium-sized clouds and the tall, cylindrical building type. The now muted color scheme probably made it easier to implement the day-to-night palette shifting, too.

The old building designs can be seen in Wheel Gator's icon, which wasn't redrawn after the new background went in.

Later Prototype	Final Game

One of the 20,480 tiles that make up this background is wrong. They fixed it.

Early Prototype
Later Prototype

The lower part of this background -- used in the Ride Armor section in both versions -- is a continuation of the first background in the early prototype. Since the player can't actually see where the backgrounds connect, the later prototype and final game can get away with copying most of the previous background to make the skyline visible in the Ride Armor area.

Later Prototype
Final Game

For some reason, the tile that makes up the tall rectangular building furthest in the background is repeated multiple times in the later prototype. Those extra tiles were removed in the final version.

Layout

Early Prototype
Later Proto + Final

All of the rivets in Wheel Gator's stage face the same way in the early prototype. Starting in the later prototype, some of the rivets have been flipped horizontally; there doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason as to which rivets got flipped. There are extra horizontal lines in the stage's green plating that were erased in later builds. As to this section specifically, the early prototype has one more ceiling light than the final layout has.

The Tubamail-S enemies and Tubamail Generator were still being worked on in this build (See the X-Hunter base section for details), so they weren't ready to be placed in any level yet. The first Tiranos marks the place where the generator would be in later versions. The remaining Tiranos all initially face left in the early prototype, and they're placed such that they'll starting firing at the player almost immediately. In later versions, only the first Tiranos faces to the left, while the next two on the upper floor face right. The one below those two was moved more to the right so the player is able to go down that ladder before it turns around.

In the early prototype, it's possible for the player to go above the opening by climbing the wall at the bottom. There's nothing up there, and an invisible wall prevents the player from going any further to the right, but the player being able to get there in the first place might lead them to think there's something hidden up there. The later prototype and final game made that wall unclimbable to try to keep the player off, but the player can still get up there using Giga Crush or the Shoryuken.

Early Prototype	Later Proto + Final

This Tiranos is awkwardly placed: The bullets it fires go underneath the player, so the only way it can damage them is if the player accidentally runs into it. So, it was moved out of the pit and onto the next platform to pose more of a threat.

Early Prototype	Later Prototype	Final Game

The method for getting up to the Light Capsule in Wheel Gator's stage changed:

• In the prototypes, the capsule contains the Leg Parts. To get to it, the player has to either get the Arm Parts and shoot a charged-up Spin Wheel at those blocks, or do a dashing wall jump off the right wall and shoot a series of well-timed normal Spin Wheels at the blocks.
• In the final game, the capsule contains the Arm Parts. To get to it, the player has to either get the Leg Parts and do an air-dash to the left, or do a dashing wall jump and shoot a well-timed Strike-Chain into the left wall.

The little X-shaped wall block on the bottom-right is fine in the older prototype, but one of its tiles was corrupted in the later sample. This was corrected in the final layout, so that's good.

Early Prototype
Later Proto + Final

Since the switch-activated platforms aren't in the early prototype ROM, the spikes in this section had to be temporarily removed. The orange lights in the background are brighter in the older prototype. Both Tiranos were replaced with Disk Boy 08s.

Early Prototype	Later Prototype	Final Game

There's a nasty spike trap at the bottom of this drop in the sample version. The two Tiranos face left in the early prototype and to the right in the newer builds.

Early Prototype	Later Prototype	Final Game

The Ride Armors in the background are missed up in each version, but in different ways. In the older prototype, their shoulders and the platforms they stand on are assembled correctly, but the legs don't look like they connect to the rest of the armor. In the later prototype and final game, the legs have been fixed but some of the platform and shoulder tiles have been incorrectly flipped.

The Ride Armor was moved out of the pit. A Tiranos briefly took its place.

Early Prototype	Later Proto + Final

The later prototype adds a few more cracks to the floor in this already damaged area. Note that some of the Ride Armors in the background (The ones furthest to the left) still look like they do in the early prototype.

Early Prototype
Later Proto + Final

After all of the Tiranos that have been encountered so far in the prototype, one would expect to see them here, too. One would be wrong; they only appear in the later prototype and final game. The slope by the last Rideloid-G is further to the right and dips down more in the early prototype.

Early Prototype	Later Proto + Final

The green walls use more of those...paper-clip looking tiles in later versions. What are those things, anyway? Tiranos added on right side.

Early Prototype	Later Prototype	Final Game

More spike removal was required here, though they missed one underneath the extra life. That helpful extra life was replaced by a less helpful Disc Boy 08.

If the player sits on the switch-activated platform too long, they'll go into the ceiling and be pushed out. To prevent that from happening, the ceiling was spiked. That'll learn 'em.

Early Prototype	Later Prototype	Final Game

No switch platforms, no spikes, no problem! What is a problem are the Tiranos that drop from the ceiling. They're clear placeholders for the flying Tubamail-S enemies, so the early prototype has an excuse for not placing them here. The later prototype has no such excuse, seeing as they've already been properly placed everywhere else in the stage!

If the player has the air dash and can use the charged-up Speed Burner, they can fall down the large chute and reach the left wall, where they'll see where the foreground ends. The later prototype attempts to fix this by extending the floor to the right to keep the player from seeing where it cuts off, but it didn't work. So, the final game just locks the camera before the player can see the floor.

Early Prototype	Later Prototype

The lone Scriver transformed into a beautiful Disc Boy 08. The power-up cubbies are occupied by enemies in the later prototype, though they forgot to take those power-ups out...

Later Prototype	Final Game

...until the final version. It's just as well. Both prototypes have been giving extra lives away like penny candy.

Early Prototype	Later Proto + Final

Temporary spike removal, not-so-temporary extra life removal.

Early Prototype	Later Prototype	Final Game

Two Scrivers became Tiranos, one Tiranos became a Disc Boy 08. Circle of life.

The three Tiranos enemies later went extinct. Over millions of years, their bodies decomposed and eventually formed a valuable large weapon energy pickup.

Early Prototype
Later Prototype

Not much here in the early prototype, just three Scramblers. In the later prototype there's a Tubamail Generator, two Scrivers, two Tiranos, and four individual Tubamail-S enemies that fall from the sky! Whoa!

Later Prototype	Final Game

That's a little too much to handle, so those haphazardly-placed Scrivers were taken out of the final game. Good riddance, I say.

Early Prototype	Later Prototype

One of the 128x128 slope blocks is too low in the early prototype. Scrivers hold the place of the Tubamail Generators.

If you thought the floor was extended to fix another cut-off oversight, you'd be right.

Later Prototype	Final Game

This hidden large life energy pickup peeks out from behind the green column in both prototypes. It's fully hidden in the final game.

Early Prototype	Later Prototype	Final Game

Not much here in the early prototype. Tubamail Generators were added in the later prototype; the final game properly centers those generators and places three large life energy pickups behind the tail.

Early Prototype	Later Proto + Final

There's nothing stopping the player from entering the boss shutters in the early prototype. There's a unique gradient on the top-left of the "eyelid" in the older layout; that tile was deleted from the tileset to save space.

Boss

Damage Taken

Protos	1/2/3/4	0/0	1/2	1/1	1/1	1/1	2/2	1/1	1/1	2
Final	1/1/2/4	0/0	2/1	1/1	1/1	1/1	3/5	1/1	1/1	2

Damage Given

	Protos	Final
Damaged Wall	3 HP	2 HP

• Wheel Gator is supposed to be invulnerable to everything except Wire Chain during his Bullet Eat attack. In both prototypes, charged-up weapons other than the X-Buster still work. What's worse, while he's doing this attack he has no invulnerability frames, meaning that weapons like a charged-up Magnet Mine can destroy him in about a second.

What's worse, Strike Chain will also bypass invulnerability frames in this state as long as the chain doesn't hit Wheel Gator's mouth directly -- this is easiest to see by using the invincibility debug command. If he's brought down to 0 HP in this state, Wheel Gator's collision will be disabled but the fight will not end. The only way out is to reset the game.

• In the early prototype only, if the player shoots a Crystal Hunter at Wheel Gator when he's doing his Bullet Eat attack, the game will freeze.
• In both prototypes, shooting at Wheel Gator during his Bullet Eat attack with a weapon that he doesn't have a bullet graphic for (Bubble Splash, Spin Wheel, Strike Chain, Speed Burner, and Giga Crush) will result in him eating the weapon, then opening his mouth without firing a bullet. In the final game, he'll eat the weapon and then exit the Bullet Eat sequence.

Miscellaneous

Early Prototype	Later Prototype	Final Game

• The priority of the green tiles in Wheel Gator's stage is different in all builds.

• In the early prototype, the tiles above openings, ceiling tiles, and rectangular "connector" tiles are high priority while everything else is low priority.
• In the later prototype, the tiles above openings are now low priority.
• In the final game, all of the green tiles are high priority except for the tiles that make up the background wall at the Ride Armor section.

• In both prototypes, if the player reaches the end of the first hallway with a Tubamail-S trailing behind, they can see its palette being overwritten by the Light Capsule's palette. The final game fixes this by putting the Tubamail-S palette in a different slot.

• Two more checkpoints were added in the final version: the first after the Ride Armor section, and the second to the right of the X-Hunter room.
• In both the later prototype and the final game, the background palette changes every 18 seconds until nightfall. In the prototype, the palette starts changing immediately, while the final version adds a 60 second delay before the palette changing starts.

• Both prototypes loads new graphics -- Scriver in the early proto, Disc Boy 08 and switch-activated platform graphics in the later proto -- too early. If there's a Rideloid-G going after X, its graphics and palette will glitch out while it's still on-screen. Moving back to the left will reload the correct tiles and palettes.

• The Heart Tank's graphics aren't properly loaded in the early prototype.

Crystal Snail / Crystar Mymine

Level Graphics

Early Prototype	Later Prototype	Final Game

A good amount of minor changes between the early and later prototype backgrounds. The later background adds more stalactites and stalagmites and fixes the rock columns at the top and the border for the machinery at the bottom.

In both prototype backgrounds, the background layer is transparent and set against a solid black background color. In the final version, the layer is opaque and the black color is part of the background layer.

The transparent approach works well until the game needs to display text. When the text scrolls up, the background layer is supposed to mask the text so it looks like it disappears. With a transparent background layer, though, the text can still be seen after it scrolls up. It even sticks around when the message box is closing.

Layout

Early Prototype
Later Proto + Final

This is another stage where every single screen has some minor change; it's like Flame Stag's stage, but with large blue crystals. The ceiling tiles are different too - in the early prototype they're blockier, while the final tileset rounds them out.

On this screen, some of the background wall crystals (the green ones) were removed, the opening in the walls at the end was shortened, and some enemies were added.

Later Prototype	Final Game

The enemies weren't placed particularly well, though. Look at that Batton Bone G just hanging around. Besides that, the two Refleczers placed in that narrow corridor were thankfully replaced by a single Batton Bone G.

Early Prototype	Later Proto + Final

The crystals that are creeping up on that slippery slope don't go as high up in the newer builds. Graphics for the background wall at the end changed. Ho hum.

Early Prototype
Later Prototype
Final Game

The older prototype is sparse with the wall details here. Makes for a more boring flight to the Heart Tank.

There's a much harder Ride Armor jump in both prototypes. Not only is there greater distance between the two platforms, but if the player jumps out of the Ride Armor to get more distance, they'll be stranded with no way out but a bottomless pit. The final game shortens the gap between platforms and adds a moving platform that the player can use to get back safely.

Early Prototype	Later Proto + Final

The early prototype uses Barite Lastars (they get around) in place of Refleczers.

Early Prototype	Later Prototype	Final Game

The crystal floor that the Ride Armor destroys uses the green palette and design of the blocks that the Ride Armor has to punch. In the final game, it uses the purple palette and design of the crystal blocks that are destroyed by those large sliding green crystals.

There's a Barite Lastar / Refleczer here that's all but guaranteed to hit the Ride Armor once those blocks are destroyed. The developers showed a modicum of mercy in taking it out of the final product.

Early Prototype	Later Proto + Final

The older sample is missing the power-ups that would be underneath the breakable crystal blocks. Different design for the machine-laden floor, too.

Early Prototype	Later Prototype	Final Game

The crystal wall to the left of the X-Hunter shutters is only assembled correctly in the early prototype. All other versions use an incorrect tile for the topmost border piece.

The slippery wall uses a green crystal design in the prototypes. This was changed to a partly-mechanical, partly-crystal, dull blue design in the final game.

There are no Probe rockets in the early prototype, so it's impossible to get up to the shutters without hacking. The later prototype adds those rockets, but each one is placed higher up than it should be.

See? Way too high.

Early Prototype	Later Proto + Final

Different machine-based wall tiles in the X-Hunter boss arena. The older prototypes has a space for the large weapon energy pick-up but doesn't have the decency to place it there.

Early Prototype	Later Prototype	Final Game

The wall tiles on the left side were heavily rearranged in the later prototype, and pick-ups were placed in the appropriate spaces.

The X-Hunter exit tunnel is made up of the standard crystal walls in both prototypes. Curious players might try to get in through the bottom, which would most likely result in their death. To discourage such inquistive behavior, the left and right sides at the bottom of the shaft were converted to slippery green walls.

The cave wall to the left of the bottommost Refleczer was adjusted in each prototype. The topmost Barite Lastar became the topmost Refleczer, then became the topmost nothing.

Early Prototype	Later Proto + Final

This is a little hard to see, but the later prototype adds a small pile of dirt underneath the Magna Quartz crystal to really sell the idea that it's embedded in the ground.

Early Prototype	Later Prototype	Final Game

Folks, do you abhor a vacuum? Have too many extra lives? Why not try NEW Large Life Energy Pickup!

Early Prototype	Later Prototype	Final Game

The early prototype is missing enemies, the extra life chamber, and space for X to talk to the Dr. Light capsule on its own level. Poor hologram ends up expositing to a wall.

All Refleczers in the Light Capsule passageway were moved more to the right after the later prototype, and the one in the middle was moved more to the garbage can. That middle Refleczer can hit X while in the middle of the Dr. Light hologram's dialogue; for more info on why this is a bad idea, please reread the section on Morph Moth.

Early Prototype	Later Prototype	Final Game

The game giveth and it taketh away; that Refleczer is only present in the later prototype. The final game adds five Batton Bone Gs in its place and extends the ladder further down.

In the final game, the player can charge up the Silk Shot in the top room to spawn large weapon energy pickups. That has yet to be coded in either prototype.

Early Prototype	Later Prototype	Final Game

Usual changes in the early prototype: No enemies, background walls and crystals are different.

In the final game, both Batton Bone Gs were repositioned (the one on the purple crystal block is particularly poorly placed, since it hangs on thin air once that block is destroyed) and another was added at the end.

Early Prototype	Later Prototype

The spikes at the top of the ceiling in the early prototype make dodging the second sliding crystal an actual challenge! Refleczers swapping in for Barite Lastars is par for the course, but the later prototype also positions the second Refleczer higher up.

Later Prototype	Final Game

They moved the Refleczer. Moved 'em down. In fact, this is where the Barite Lastar was in the early prototype. Huh.

Early Prototype	Later Proto + Final

The ceiling pipes and background walls weren't symmetrically placed, and that just would not do.

Boss

Damage Taken

Protos	1/1/2/4	0/0	1/2	1/2	1/2	1/1	1/2	3/4	1/1	2
Final	1/1/2/4	0/0	1/1	1/1	1/2	1/1	1/1	3/4	1/1	2

• The final version removes the extra damage from the charged Bubble Splash, Silk Shot, and Strike Chain... but not the Spin Wheel, for some reason.

Damage Given

	Proto	Final
Contact	2 HP	4 HP

• In the prototypes, using Giga Crush while Crystal Snail is using his charged Crystal Hunter attack greatly confuses the game as to what it should be drawing, resulting in the graphic mess seen above.

Miscellaneous

• In both of the sample versions, the large sliding crystals will activate immediately when X gets in close enough range. In the final game, there's a 50 frame delay before they start sliding.

During the delay, the crystal will shake back and forth to free itself, finally coming loose with a shower of purple crystals and a shattering sound effect.

• In the older prototype, there's an oversight that can be seen if the player gets the Ride Armor past Magna Quartz's room. There's a sliding crystal to the right of that arena; if the player passes below the crystal and then air-dashes back to the left, the Ride Armor's graphics will be overwritten.