Proto:Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando/September 4, 2003 build

This is a sub-page of Proto:Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando.

This page is rather stubbly and could use some expansion. Are you a bad enough dude to rescue this article?

To do: Everything.

A late prototype of Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando, with a working debug menu. It is dated September 4, 2003 compared to the final game's date of September 30, 2003.

Sub-Page

Debug mode Cheats enabled! Debug menu, and several other debug options.

Menu Differences

• Highlighted menu options pulsate slower than they do in the final game.

Title Screen

• Ratchet's plays on an actual PS2. This was removed in the final game due to requirements from Sony.
• The font for the text Press Start has a gradient and the word start is not capitalised like it is in the final game.

Proto	Final

General

• The pause menu has a different appearance

Proto	Final

Weapons Menu

• The weapons menu is sorted differently.
• Weapon preview images are smaller and do not properly fit in the containing box.
• The menu title is not centered.
• Upgraded weapon icons are coloured differently.
• The Exit button prompt is missing.
• Weapon mods are displayed differently, without a background and without any descriptive text.
• Weapons that do not use ammo display the message "Ammo: no ammo" instead of "Uses no ammo" like in the final game.

Proto	Final

Gadgets Menu

• Gadget preview images are smaller and do not properly fit in the containing box.

Proto	Final

Quick Select Menu

• Weapons are sorted differently, much like in the weapons menu.
• There are six slots for gadgets in the Quick Select configuration menu.

Proto	Final

Controls Help Menu

• The controls help menu does not work, selecting it does nothing.
• The description for the controls help menu is the same as the one for the controls options menu.

Moves Help Menu

• The Lock On and Strafe moves are missing from the list. Since these are the two new moves in Going Commando, it can be assumed that nobody had implemented the help menu items for them yet.
• The Super Glide move is missing a description. In the final game, the description from Ratchet & Clank 1 is reused.
  • It's notable that the description is missing here and that the move is called Super Glide since this name was used early in Ratchet & Clank 1's development before being changed to Glide.
  • This could suggest that development of Going Commando started with a very early version of Ratchet & Clank 1's codebase, before the description was implemented and the move renamed to Glide.

Proto	Final

Weapons Help Menu

• Many weapon descriptions are missing the orange highlight for weapon names. This is likely because the strings do not match the criteria for being automatically highlighted due to incorrect capitalisation and other mistakes.
• Descriptions that include single quotation marks are not correctly escaped, resulting in four sets of single quotes appearing instead of one.

Gadgets Help Menu

• The name for the Gadgets Help Menu is Gadget, in the final game this was pluralised to Gadgets.

Items Help Menu

• There's an Items help menu that was cut from the final game and replaced with a Ship help menu.

Save/Load Options Menu

• There is no "Checking Memory Card" message while reading from the memory card unlike in the final game. Instead, the memory card autosave icon appears.

Controls Options Menu

• The description for the controls options menu refers to a feature called "weapon auto-swap".
  • Presumably this feature was cut early in development or was never actually implemented as it does not appear in the controls options menu.

Camera Options Menu

• The option for 16:9 widescreen mode is missing.

Proto	Final

Movies Special Menu

• The movies menu shows a different entry compared to the final with a very "secret" making of video that was replaced with Rejected Commercials. Here is what developer Mike Stout had to say about it:

"We ran out of time for the secret makin-of video. We also wanted to put some RC2 commercials on the disc for secrets, but we couldn’t for some reason. When I found out, I offered to record some “rejected” commercials. Did those in an evening and Brian Allgeier edited them up." -Mike "Dodger" Stout

Prototype	Final

• The Qwark Gets to Test the Crotchitizer. Ouch! cutscene in the Cinematics submenu uses the wrong preview image.

Proto	Final

Cheats Special Menu

• All cheats related to special Ratchet skins are missing.

Proto	Final

Random Stuff Special Menu

• L2 + R2 + Circle can be used to unlock all items on this menu.

Proto	Final

• Instead of the Paintings and Endorsement Deals options that are present in the final game, there is a Ricardo's Photos option.

Proto

Level Differences

To do: Find sources for everything mentioned, especially the part on Clank's Apartment, a good place to look would be the Developer Commentary on the YouTube channel UselessPodcasts

Aranos (Tutorial)

• Ratchet doesn't wear his O2 rebreather in outdoor areas.

Proto	Final

Oozla

• In this build, the theme for the Megacorp Outlet is an entirely different track, which sounds much more intense compared to the peaceful elevator music heard in the final game.

Proto	Final

Endako

• In this build, instead of the Insomniac game console, they had an actual PS2, they also tried a ton of other things before settling on the moon seen in the final game. This was removed due to certification requirements from Sony.

Boldan

• The water on Planet Boldan is blue in this version unlike the final game where it's green.
• Originally, Boldan was called Otwock, this is still seen in this build.

Damosel

• The platinum bolt under the Megacorp building that's accessed by blowing up the entrance with a bot is missing.