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Proto:Spyro: A Hero's Tail (GameCube, Xbox, PlayStation 2)/Early Demos

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This is a sub-page of Proto:Spyro: A Hero's Tail (GameCube, Xbox, PlayStation 2).

This cactus is UNDER CONSTRUCTION
This article is a work in progress.
...Well, all the articles here are, in a way. But this one moreso, and the article may contain incomplete information and editor's notes.
Hmmm...
To do:
  • More audio differences (SFX and voice clips).
  • Character/item design differences.
  • Test levels.
  • Unfinished breaths/breath bombs.
  • Other unfinished abilities.
  • Oxygen meter/Aqualung (cut gadget)

At least two different demos were released for this game, across multiple demo discs:

  • The early demo was released on the E3 Crash Twinsanity & Spyro A Hero’s Tail demo disc, and also the infamous PlayStation Underground Holiday 2004 demo disc.
  • The late demo was released on demo disc 51 from the PlayStation Magazine in Europe, and later on issue 61 as a bonus demo.

They both have the same levels to pick from:

  1. An intro section featuring the first few bits of Dragon Village.
  2. The gliding tutorial in Dragon Village where you retrieve a Dragon Egg for Hunter.
  3. Hunter's section of Dragonfly Falls.
  4. The 4th Sgt Byrd minigame "Lava Palaver".

There are subtle differences in controls and visuals between the two, and a few major level design changes (especially in the normally inaccessible Dragonfly Falls level).

Sub-Page

SpyroAHT-LateDemo-DragonVillage-12.png
Demo Level Differences
How the game's levels evolved from the demos to the final game.

Map Screen Differences

Level Names

By cycling through the map IDs using hacking it's possible to find early names for the realms, levels and minigames.

Realm names:

Demos Final
Dragons Homeland Dragon Kingdom
Ancient Ruins Lost Cities

Level names:

Map ID Demos Final
135 Gnastys Cave Gnasty's Cave
162 Professors Laboratory Red's Laboratory
146 Critter Camp Critter Calamity
147 Cliff Speedway Island Speedway
148 Cavernous Flight Cavern Chaos
214 Water Rush Outlandish Inlet

Early Crocovile Swamp Map

Crocovile Swamp's files don't exist within the demos, but by hacking the map screen you can find an early version of Crocovile Swamp's map. Unfortunately no other unused maps can be found this way.

Demo Final
SpyroAHT-Demo-BetaCrocovileSwampMap.png SpyroAHT-Final-CrocovileSwampMap.png

Music & Audio Differences

The music is completely different from the final game. This is due to the game switching composers very close to deadline. The game's soundtrack was originally composed by Guy Cockcroft, a member of the Eurocom sound team. On the 19th of May, 2004, it was decided that responsibility of the music was moving to Vivendi Universal, the game's publisher. On the 4th of January, Vivendi outsourced the soundtrack to Game Audio LTD. It would've likely taken roughly 10 weeks for the team to replace all the music by Guy Cockcroft. Sometime in the middle of August 2004, Eurocom received the final samples from the team, which is what is heard in the final game.

(Source: Paul Lawler (Spyro: A Hero's Tail main composer), Jon Williams (Spyro: A Hero's Tail producer))

A total of 27 tracks were composed for the demos. The early demo only has 25 of these within its files, while the late demo contains all of them (and a duplicate of the title screen music).
Of these 27 tracks, only 8 of them are used in the early demo, and the late demo added a dedicated track for Dragon Village totaling 9 used tracks. Some of the tracks can only be heard by accessing unused areas which have the tracks tied to them (for example the ball gadget level).
When the new composers were put on, all the tracks were merely overwritten with the new music, which means some of the demo tracks were left in the final release. (see Unused Music/Sounds)

Here's a list of all the unused music:

Audio Filename Purpose
_mus_mfx_ball_gadget_1 Theme for the first ball gadget level. (remains in the final game's files)
_mus_mfx_challenge_lost Purpose unknown, filenames indicate they are jingles for when the player wins/loses a challenge. (remains in the final game's files)
_mus_mfx_challenge_won
_mus_mfx_dark_gem_01 Theme used for the opening cutscene.
_mus_mfx_dark_gem_02 Ambiance for the dark gems.
_mus_mfx_minigame_sgt_1 Purpose unknown, filename indicates it's a theme for a Sgt. Byrd level. (remains in the final game's files)
_mus_mfx_minigame_sgt_2 Theme used in the Sgt. Byrd level featured in the demos.
_mus_mfx_minigame_sgt_2_lost Jingles for winning/losing the Sgt. Byrd level featured in the demos.
_mus_mfx_minigame_sgt_2_won
_mus_mfx_minigame_spy_1 Purpose unknown, filenames indicate they are for a Spyro Turret level. (_mus_mfx_minigame_spy_1 remains in the final game's files)
_mus_mfx_minigame_spy_1_lost
_mus_mfx_minigame_spy_1_won
_mus_mfx_realm1a_roam Theme used in Dragon Village. (exclusive to the late demo)
_mus_mfx_realm1b_roam Theme used in Crocovile Swamp, which is not playable in the demos.
_mus_mfx_realm1c_roam Theme used in the unfinished Spyro section of Dragonfly Falls.
_mus_mfx_realm1z_battle Theme used in the unfinished Gnasty Gnorc boss battle.
_mus_mfx_realm1z_death_1 Jingles used for when the player dies in the Gnasty Gnorc boss battle. In the final game, death_1 was replaced by the final composers and is the only used one. (_mus_mfx_realm1z_death_2 and _mus_mfx_realm1z_death_3 remains in the final game's files)
_mus_mfx_realm1z_death_2
_mus_mfx_realm1z_death_3
_mus_mfx_realm1z_safe Purpose unknown, filename indicates it's a theme used somewhere in Gnasty's Cave. (remains in the final game's files)
_mus_mfx_realm1z_spooky Purpose unknown, filename indicates it's the theme for Gnasty's Cave.
_mus_mfx_realm1z_victory Purpose unknown, filename indicates it's a theme used somewhere in Gnasty's Cave. (was recomposed in the final game's files, but still unused)
_mus_mfx_realm2a_roam Purpose unknown, as these two files have identical audio. Filenames indicate it's either a title theme or the theme for Coastal remains, though it's used as a title theme in the demos. Used as the theme for Dragon Village in the early demo.
_mus_mfx_titles
_mus_mfx_realm2c_roam Purpose unknown, filename indicates it's a theme for Cloudy Domain. (exclusive to the late demo)
_mus_mfx_realm5b_roam Used in the Hunter section of Dragonfly Falls featured in the demos.
_mus_mfx_shop Used as the shop theme.

Perhaps the most interesting part of the unused music tracks are the ones for the Gnasty Gnorc boss battle (the files labelled with "realm1z"), as they imply the battle music was more elaborate than was seen in the final game. It also seems that each minigame would originally have had their own win/lose jingle, instead of the generic ones used in the final game.

It's important to note that an arrangement of the Crocovile Swamp theme from the early soundtrack ended up being used as the title theme in the 2004 mobile game Spyro: Ripto Quest for J2ME.

Control Differences

The controls in both the demos are quite different to the final game, and they are overall considerably more sluggish.

  • The camera moves a lot slower.
  • Spyro has slower acceleration and deceleration.
  • Whenever you charge, Spyro does his "charge from standstill" animation, regardless if you were standing still or not, instead of only when standing still like in the final game.
  • If you charge while in the air, Spyro will stay still for a bit before charging.
  • You cannot rotate while wing shielding in the late demo, but you can do so in the early demo and the final game.
  • Spyro's double jump has a much stricter timing.
  • Spyro's double jump doesn't go as high.
  • Spyro's first person view has the y-axis inverted by default.
  • Hunter's double jump has a much stricter timing.
  • Hunter has an extra third hit at the end of his punch combo.
  • As Sgt. Byrd, you have to hold the fly button while boosting, otherwise he won't do anything. In the final game, the boost button works as a fly button as well, and you therefore don't need to hold both buttons at the same time. (Interestingly, the final game still tells you to hold both buttons down, even though you don't need to.)
  • Exclusive to the early demo: Spyro's horn dive takes longer to perform.
  • Exclusive to the early demo: It takes longer for Spyro to start breathing fire when pressing the breath button.