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Proto:Spyro: Year of the Dragon/Demo 4

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This is a sub-page of Proto:Spyro: Year of the Dragon.

The fourth demo of Spyro: Year of the Dragon is the second demo of the game released to the European and Australian audiences, and the last demo to be released on compilation discs. While very similar to the later Crash Bash demos, there are several ways in which it is unique.

For some reason there's also a variant of this demo (on the Euro Demo 95 Disc) with an altered SPEECH.STR file causing no music or character dialogue to play throughout the demo. The SPYRO3.EXE and WAD.WAD files are identical however, so it's functionally the same demo.

Sub-Page

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Text and Translations
Much of the in-game text was still unfinished in this build, particularly in languages other than English.

Gameplay Differences

  • Performing two "twisted lemon" skateboard tricks in a row displays the move as "Double Twisted Lemon", similar to how two twisted limes displays the text "Double Twisted Lime". In the final game, however, a double twisted lemon is called "Twisted Lemon x2". Due to the length of the string "Double Twisted Lemon", it overlaps the score text next to the trick names, so it's likely that this is why the string was shortened. The same is also true for triple twisted lemons.
  • Two skill points are unobtainable in this demo. No instance of the word "skill point" is present in the data, since just like in Spyro 2, obtaining a skill point plays a sound effect, but gives no text notification. Despite the fact that a couple of the skill points cannot be obtained, however, there is Atlas text corresponding to all 20 Skill Points within this demo. See the section below for more details.
    • While the course record challenge in Sunny Villa is present (in the sense that a timer appears and a score can be racked up as per usual), when the time is up, no menu appears comparing your score to the course record. In fact, there isn't any way of knowing what the course record is. As it turns out, breaking the course record (which is 4000 in this demo as opposed to 3200 in the final game) causes the game to crash, so it's possible that this challenge was just incomplete. Another thing worth noting is that, unlike the final game, when Hunter says "Score as many points as you can until the timer expires or you wipe out.", he isn't lying. Wiping out stops the timer and resets your score to zero, drastically increasing the difficulty of the minigame.
    • The other missing skill point is the one hidden in a wall in the egg thief sub-level in Molten Crater. Usually, a life jar is found in this wall, and nothing else. Breaking the jar gives the player the skill point. In this demo, however, both a life jar and a gem safe are found in the wall (usually the safe is closer to the supercharge track). The jar clips slightly with the safe causing some strange visual effects, so it's possible that when the life jar was hidden in the wall, they intended on moving the safe, too. Bizarrely, the jar cannot be broken, stopping the player obtaining the skill point. There doesn't appear to be a butterfly in the jar, either, even when the safe is removed. This might be nothing more than a strange graphical glitch, though.
  • Like all other demos of the game, Moneybags isn't present. This is almost definitely just to make as much of Molten Crater playable as possible.

Atlas Text

Epilogue

This demo is the first to include the epilogue text, though it goes unused as the Atlas is inaccessible under normal means. While the epilogue is present in the previous demo, it's completely empty and there is no trace of it in the code. In this demo, if the epilogue is accessed, it can be viewed in its entirety, albeit without the pictures which are usually shown. While mostly the same, one line differs:

A rhynoc primadonna entertains cloud city

In the final game, it says:

A rhynoc primadonna entertains cloud spires

In the earliest version of the game, "Cloud Spires" was referred to as "Cloud City", though in every subsequent demo it has been renamed as its final name, making it somewhat peculiar that it would ever be referred to as "Cloud City" this late in development.

Skill Points

Not only is this the first demo to contain epilogue data, but it's also the first to contain Skill Point names. The strings corresponding to the Skill Point names are actually encrypted in all versions of the game, with each byte having been XOR'd with 0x6B, for some reason. The strings can be found just before the data corresponding to the epilogue strings.

After decryption, one will find that one skill point is missing and a skill point not present in the final is here. Firstly, the Charmed Ridge tower skill point is not in yet:

The Impossible Tower

Instead, a new skill point between Spooky Swamp and Sgt. Byrd's Base is present:

Smash the underwater wall

Given the level order and the name of the Skill Point, it seems fairly certain that this would have corresponded with the underwater breakable wall in Bamboo Terrace.