If you appreciate the work done within the wiki, please consider supporting The Cutting Room Floor on Patreon. Thanks for all your support!

Proto:Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage!/September 15th, 1999 build

From The Cutting Room Floor
Jump to navigation Jump to search

This is a sub-page of Proto:Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage!.

Hiddenpalace.org logo.png  This prototype is documented on Hidden Palace.

The September 15th, 1999 Prototype of Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage! is a review version of the game dated around 15 days prior to the final PAL release version. It was released on September 17th, 2022.

File Structure

Below is a table containing the modification dates of each of the files within the disc image, compared against the final PAL version of the game.

File Description Sep 15 PAL Review Sep 30 PAL Final
KART/ CTR demo 1999-09-15 06:59:16 1999-09-25 16:54:16
SPEECH.STR Soundtrack and dialogue 1999-09-15 00:25:58 1999-09-30 19:02:46
SPYRO2.EXE / SCES_021.04* Executable code 1999-09-15 04:43:56 1999-09-30 04:06:18
SPYRO2.TRD Padding 1999-09-12 08:22:34 1999-09-12 08:22:34
SYSTEM.CNF Configuration 1999-03-16 10:44:04 1999-09-22 15:00:26
WAD.WAD Data and overlays 1999-09-15 07:37:00 1999-09-30 04:06:16

Note that the executable SPYRO2.EXE is called "SCES_021.04" in the final game. Despite the "KART" folder having its folder dates updated, none of the files it contains (files for a Crash Team Racing demo) changed between the two builds.

Primary Volume Information

The creation and modification dates in the primary volume differ from their final numbers. The modification date is notably over a week earlier than the latest file dates in this version, for some reason - this modifcation is present in builds of Spyro 3, too, and in fact the September 4th review build of Spyro 3 shows both the same creation and modification dates as this version of Spyro 2.

Sep 15 PAL Review Sep 30 PAL Final
Creation 1999-07-12 21:04:06.00 1999-09-30 12:30:37.00
Modification 1999-09-05 23:30:00.00 N/A

General Differences

Startup and Title Screens

  • The build has the usual dongle protection used in early builds. It matches the protection used in the August 11th Prototype, meaning that a single dongle can be used on both of these builds.
    • If the dongle check fails, the game will freeze during the opening screens.
  • The game does not have its usual Libcrypt anti-piracy protection, unlike the final PAL version.
  • The pre-title opening screens look a bit different.
    • The Sony Computer Entertainment Europe screen does not include the URL at the bottom of the screen that is present in the final PAL version.
    • The Universal logo is a little squashed and the text at the bottom of the screen uses a different font. Rather than including the game's full name, it's referred to as "Spyro 2".
    • There are some visual differences in the Insomniac logo.
  • The title screen uses a short audio clip from the Skelos Badlands outro cutscene, and then the music cuts out entirely. The Glimmer theme does not play here, as it usually would.
  • Unlike the final PAL version, the title screen intro cutscene can be skipped, similar to the later NTSC release. There's no chime sound effect when skipping the intro, however.
  • Most of the sound effects used on the title screen are different. Perhaps most notable is a gulping sound playing when each menu loads.
  • The "Ripto's Rage" logo is used, rather than Gateway to Glimmer's.
  • The language select uses the same graphics used in the Spyro 1 language select - or, at least, one very similar in style to it. The final instead opts in favour of purple Comic Sans text.
  • The typeface used in the title screen menus is different, and arguably a lot more "unfinished" in appearance.
  • The demo mode only includes one autodemo, of Hurricos. The final game includes several autodemos, and none of them are in Hurricos.
    • There is no on-screen "DEMO MODE" text during the demo.
  • After quitting the game, the usual copyright text that would appear at the bottom of the screen does not appear.

General Gameplay Differences

  • During gameplay, the player's coordinates can be found at all times on the pause menu. The coordinates that are shown are his actual position variables divided by 1024, to 2 decimal places.
  • Sparx uses his Spyro 1 model during gameplay, but in cutscenes he is seen with a model akin to his final gameplay model.
  • The quality of the streamed XA format music used throughout the game is much lower than it is in the final game. It seems to be the case that the tracks were flattened to mono in PAL versions of the game to make room for the extra dialogue audio, but in this particular build it was done in such a way that greatly reduced the overall quality of the audio, due to the increased volume causing clipping.
    • Some levels, such as Skelos Badlands, are especially bad.
    • Several levels use slightly earlier mixes of their final tracks, in addition.
    • This also helps to explain why several of the unused themes present in the final game are in a lowered quality - they're mixes that are carried over from this version of the game, but didn't receive updates to their quality due to going unused later in development.
  • Many levels have slight differences to their moby (object) layout.
  • All of the loading screen skyboxes differ from their final variants, though for the majority of them the differences are too minor to notice.
    • The most notable difference is Shady Oasis's skybox - in both the level itself and the loading screen transition, the skybox features a tan coloured desert under a blue sky, rather than the cloudy skybox used in the final game. This early skybox can also be seen in the final game's credits model for Shady Oasis.
  • There are a fair number of dialogue lines which were changed in the final product. Many of these changes were related to the localisation and specifically correspond to minor spelling tweaks or corrections to the non-English lines, but there are a few instances of more significant changes.
    • Most of the English language changes correspond with changing "D-Pad" to "directional button".
    • Several spelling changes were made to words which differ in spelling between British and American English.
    • One of Moneybags' lines in Crystal Glacier is entirely different from the audio dialogue that plays. The text dialogue was changed in the final to fix this.
    • Many audio dialogue lines are replaced with their equivalent English lines when playing in other languages.
    • Tweaks are made to a number of the non-English dialogue strings.
    • In one instance, an important character is missing from a French question prompt dialogue string, causing the selectable "No" response to merge with the question itself, which looks somewhat unusual.
  • After a certain point in the final game, level portals and world vortices start showing the number of orbs collected in each of their respective levels. In this version of the game, this is only true for level portals - the vortices have no such orb count in them.
  • When travelling between homeworlds, the "Auto Saving..." text does not appear at the bottom of the screen. The game still auto saves, despite this, however.
  • When saving to a different file, you are not given the option to overwrite the save file, as you would in the final. Instead, it overwrites without warning.
  • In each of the Speedway levels with water, if Spyro hits into the water, his tail will appear to stretch and distort dramatically for a moment. This does not occur in the final game.
  • The text on the Game Over screen is visually quite different, as is the "Press Start" text that flashes at the bottom of the screen.
  • In the "Quit Game" screen in the pause menu, you can use the up and down buttons to navigate the options, rather than just the left and right buttons as per the final. If the up and down buttons are used, however, there are 4 invisible selectable options on top of the usual "Yes" and "No", for some reason. All of these options function the same as selecting "No".
    • Oddly, it's possible to select the "Quit Game?" text via this method, in combination with pressing left and right.
    • Additionally, navigating this menu with the left and right buttons makes absolutely no sound effect, whereas the clearly unintentional up and down button movement does play a sound effect.
  • Getting a Game Over in a fresh save file before completing Glimmer causes an unusual glitch where the player will respawn in Summer Forest without Summer Forest's overlay loaded. This causes some bizarre effects, such as the player's movement locking and the mobys (objects) around the level not functioning. In the final, getting a Game Over before finishing Glimmer will respawn the player in Glimmer.

Individual Level Differences

Summer Forest

  • There is a polygon missing above the door which blocks entrance to Crush's Dungeon. When the door is down, the hole can be clearly seen in the ceiling.

Glimmer

  • Bounsa the Gemcutter has some unusual behaviour which was mostly corrected in the final game:
    • If he is not spoken to in advance of killing the first lizard, then the player will be teleported off side of the platform, facing Bounsa, rather than standing on the same platform as Bounsa with Bounsa turning to face Spyro. Attempting to speak to Bounsa in this state will cause some unusual animations to play out, as Spyro will attempt to walk off the platform to stand in front of Bounsa. In the final, Spyro will be teleported onto the same platform as Bounsa almost every time, with the exception of when Spyro starts to fall off a platform at the same time as he gets teleported, in which case he may teleport to the same position he does in this build, with the notable difference that Bounsa will still turn to where the player should have teleported.
    • If he is spoken to in advance of killing the first lizard, he should behave the same way as he does in the final.

Hurricos

  • The Hurricos minigame uses a unique theme that goes unused in the final game. This also explains why the track is in such low quality in the final game - it's identical to the theme present in this version of the game, and all of the music in this version is in a lowered quality.

Crush's Dungeon

  • The HUD icon showing Crush's face is not present.

Skelos Badlands

  • The level uses an earlier mix of the track used in the final game, identical to what is heard in the intro and outro cutscenes for this level. See the Soundtrack section of this page for more details.

Crystal Glacier

  • Several of the icebuilders at the start of Crystal Glacier do not play audio dialogue, despite it being present in the STR. This is due to a quirk of this particular group of NPCs.
    • In the final game, all three of these NPCs are duplicates of eachother and play the same dialogue lines, but have their name strings switched out on the fly using extra name strings in the executable (although in-game they appear as Kludgie, Mankie and Widgie (and their respective translations in other languages), all of them are named "Kludgie" prior to being spoken to). Usually, characters with different names are separated by being given different type IDs, but doing so also means each of these NPCs would have access to a different set of audio dialogue messages - presumably, this implementation was done to avoid needing to duplicate audio dialogue.
    • By contrast, in the review build, each of the NPCs are assigned a different dialogue type ID (which is usually done to define different dialogue sets for each NPC of a given class), and as a result two of them point at type IDs with no associated audio dialogue, resulting in them being completely silent. Each of the NPCs simply use the names defined in their dialogue tags too - two of the characters are called Kludgie and Mankie just as they appear in the final game, but the third NPC incorrect uses the name Kludgie, too, instead of Widgie.
    • None of the name strings are in the executable in this version, as it's all handled via the level data (nor are there any unused name strings).
  • Though many levels have dialogue differences, this one notably includes an unusual line in Moneybag's text dialogue - his audio dialogue remains the same as it is in the final game, however:
Sep 15 Review Dialogue Sep 30 PAL Final Dialogue
As you know Spyro, you need all the talismans to open the castle and defeat Ripto. Be careful on the other side of that bridge. I don't want anything bad to happen to my favourite customer.
  • The level uses an earlier mix of the track used in the final game, identical to what is heard in the intro and outro cutscenes for this level. See the Soundtrack section of this page for more details.

Shady Oasis

  • Shady Oasis uses a different skybox for its entrance and exit portals as well as its in-level model. In the final PAL version, it uses a purple-grey cloudy design, whereas in this build it uses a tan-coloured desert similar to Scorch's skybox. The skybox used for the level in this build can also be seen in its credits model, in both this build and the final game.
  • In the final, the level has a foggy theme, and this visual effect is a result of the level having no low-poly LOD model. In this build, the level still has a low-poly LOD, meaning much more of the level can be seen from a distance.

Fracture Hills

  • Oddly, likely due to error, the Magma Cone crystal popcorn theme plays instead of the bagpipe theme when freeing the Satyrs.
    • As such, the bagpipe theme goes unused.

Gulp's Overlook

  • The HUD icon showing Gulp's face is not present.
  • For some reason there seems to be some sort of movement boundary at the base of the level which maintains Spyro's height should he fall into it. This can be put to its full potential should the player manage to get out of bounds, where they can observe that even diving into the boundary will not cause Spyro to fall through it. Even within the arena, the boundary can be observed by gliding over the lava, which Spyro is capable of doing with ease. No such boundary is present in the final, meaning it's perfectly possible to fall into the abyss in that version.

Mystic Marsh

  • The platypus attacks give an extraordinary amount of knockback, that appears to accelerate the player until they hit a wall.

Metropolis

  • The dialogue that is displayed shortly before being given the second UFO minigame orb oddly includes the difficulty rating for that minigame. Usually, the difficulty is only displayed before the minigame starts.

Dragon Shores

  • The enemies seen in the drop chamber appear to instantly disappear once hitting the water, rather than playing an animation while sinking. Additionally, the plank they are sitting on appears to drop, whereas in the final game it does not move.
  • The coaster is a little bit unfinished. The minigame itself is mostly complete, but the cart's movement is a little bit wobbly and the camera follows Spyro through the entire loop section rather than showing a distant panning shot while Spyro goes round.
  • When entering the movie theatre, the visuals in the bottom left of the screen can briefly be seen to smudge across the screen as though each frame is being overlayed on top of eachother.
  • Additionally, the "Movie Theatre" guidebook graphic is distorted, appearing to overlay both the "Movie Theatre" and "Ripto's Arena graphics on top of eachother.
  • The font colour used in the movie theatre is yellow, rather than alternating oranges and browns. The "Select" and "Return" graphics are placed slightly differently.
    • None of the cutscenes have translated names in non-English languages.

Ripto's Arena

  • Ripto's blue attack gives Spyro much more upward momentum than it usually would, sending him high into the air. Attacks from the bird in the final stage of the fight also act similarly.
  • There are a couple of large holes in the lava that can be seen during the first two phases of the fight, near to the castle structure. These are not present in the final game.
  • While dialogue changes are not uncommon in this build, one particularly strange instance is Zoe's dialogue in Ripto's Arena. While the audio dialogue matches the final game, the English text dialogue contains an additional line that was removed in the final, along with some minor additional tweaks:
Sep 15 Review Dialogue Sep 30 PAL Final Dialogue
Spyro, we want to help you fight Ripto! Elora is using the orbs you collected to store powerup energy. Hunter will throw the powered-up orbs to you as they become ready. And even as we speak, the professor is experimenting with new forms of powerup energy, so you'll soon have abilities that no one has ever seen before! Be careful, though...now that Ripto has the power crystal, he is more powerful than ever. Spyro, we want to help you fight Ripto! Elora is using the orbs you collected to store powerup energy. Hunter will throw the powered-up orbs to you as they become ready. Even as we speak, the professor is experimenting with new forms of powerup energy, so you'll soon have abilities that no one has ever seen before!

Cutscene Differences

Hmmm...
To do:
Work in progress

Localisation Differences

Many changes were made to the localisation late in development. This affects not only the non-English languages, but also the British English localisation present in the final PAL version.

  • Several spelling changes were made in level names, menus and dialogue, to words which differ in spelling between British and American English.
  • Oddly, many of the level names outside of the portals render incorrectly when playing in a non-English language. Usually, they appear as though part of the level's name has been cut off. As an example, the French name for Zephyr - Zéphyr - appears simply as "Zéph", with the letters offset to the left as though the "yr" part of the name is invisible. The final game displays all the level names correctly.
  • The Guidebook in the pause menu does not have language-specific texture - i.e. it displays as "Guidebook" for all languages, rather than having a different graphic for each language.
  • Several menu strings have different capitalisation in German:
    • "Level verlassen" instead says "Level Verlassen".
    • "Spiel speichern" instead says "Spiel Speichern".
    • "Level verlassen" instead says "Level Verlassen".
    • "Spiel beenden" and "Spiel beenden?" instead say "Spiel Beenden" and "Spiel Beenden?", respectively.
  • The German and Italian "Entering ..." strings were modified slightly between this build and release:
    • The German "Eintritt in" became "Ankunft in" in the final game.
    • The Italian "Ingresso" became "Ingresso a" in the final.
  • The "[Level] Complete!" text has not been translated. Additionally, it does not end with an exclamation mark in this version, meaning the text will read (for example) "Glimmer Complete" rather than "Glimmer Complete!".
  • On the Italian version of the main menu, the final game capitalises the "INGR 1" and "INGR 2" strings, which this build does not.
  • In the final, gem counts on the order of 1,000 separate the digits using a period when the language is set to Spanish. This is not the case in this version.
  • In speedway levels, the collectable items do not have translated names in non-English languages, and so they default to using the English names. This is also the case where they are referenced in the Guidebook.
  • The strings used in speedways menus - "All In One", "Total", "Press X To Continue", "Retry", "Quit", "Your Time", "Best Time", "New Best Time", "No Best Time", "Secret Challenge" and "Orb Awarded!", amonst others in the same levels - are located in the overlays for their respective levels, rather than in the exectuable. None of these strings have non-English localisations, in this version.
    • Interestingly the "All In One" and "Retry" strings are found both in the executable and the overlays in this version, unlike the final.
    • A couple extra strings are found in the Icy Speedway overlay, and are used by printf functions which output to the console. One of these is "v.z=0", while the other is "missed %d", which likely outputs something related to how many targets were missed in one of the challenges.
    • The "Orb Awarded!" string removes the exclamation mark in the final game.
  • The "Complete!", "Crashed!" and "Time's up" graphics in speedways are replaced with translated strings in non-English languages in the final game. In this version, the English graphics are used in each language and the translated strings do not exist.
  • A few of the level names are yet to receive their final localisations.
    • Breeze Harbour is spelled the same way as it is in the NTSC-U final - "Breeze Harbor".
    • The French name for Skelos Badlands is "P. Maud. Skelos", rather than "Pays Maudit".
    • The Spanish name for Skelos Badlands is "T. Árid Skelos", rather than "Páramo Skelos".
    • The Spanish name for Gulp's Overlook is "Fallo de Gulp", rather than "Foso de Gulp".
    • The Italian name for Sunny Beach is "Spiaggia Sole", rather than "Spiaggia del Sole".
    • The Italian name for Scorch is "Scottatu", rather than "Scottatura".
    • The Italian name for Gulp's Overlook is "Punto di Gulp", rather than "Casa di Gulp".

Guidebook Differences

General

  • Some of the page turning sounds in the Guidebook are a little bit different to their final equivalents.
  • The percentages on the right side of the page are spaced slightly wider in this version, when compared to the final game.
  • For some reason, in all languages, the incorrect graphic is shown on each of the boss pages. Prior to defeating the boss, it says "Defeated!", but after completion it says "Not Defeated!", completely opposite to how it's supposed to be.
  • In all four speedways, all of the collection item names instead show their English equivalents. Similarly, the "Yes" and "No" flags for each item are also untranslated.
  • A number of Guidebook graphics remain untranslated in all non-English languages:
    • The "Skill Points" graphic uses an incorrectly spelled English graphic - which says "Scill Points" - in all languages. This graphic is also placed slightly higher up on the guidebook page, and the arrow next to this graphic does not flash as it does in the final.
    • Similarly, on the Skill Points page, the left page title is "Level" and the right page title is "Skill Point" in all languages.
    • The skill point names themselves are untranslated.
    • The "Well Done!" graphic that appears when all skill points have been obtained is not translated between languages.
    • The "Epilogue" option text in the skill points menu is also untranslated.
  • The entries on the skill points page are a dull brown colour, rather than alternating browns and oranges.
    • Additionally, the line spacing is smaller, meaning the skill points take up a smaller portion of the screen. As a result, the "Return", "Epilogue" and "Well Done!" graphics all appear higher up on the page than they usually would.

Epilogue

  • The front page of the Epilogue, as well as all of the graphics within, are written in English.
  • A few epilogue pages show small graphical errors when turning the page.
  • In the Faunas Mortas section of the epilogue, the left pages show a screenshot of Autumn Plains, rather than a screenshot of Glimmer like the right pages. The cut enemies on this page are generally placed slightly further to the left than they normally are, too.
  • Farmae Robotum is depicted without angel wings in the final game, whereas in this version it does appear to have wings.
  • Mister Fistus is depicted with a halo and angel wings like most other cut enemies. Oddly, in the final game, these are both removed from his graphic.
    • This may be related to the fact it would be reused in future Insomniac-developed games as an Easter egg character.
    • Additionally, its image is flipped in the final compared to how it appears in this build.
  • Nervous Tickus is flipped, coloured slightly differently, and had its angel wings removed in the final game. Both graphics feature a halo, however.
  • Wuss had its image flipped in the final game.
  • Some of the other graphics appear to have been tweaked slightly. The background graphics appear to be a bit brighter than they normally are.

French

  • Summer Forest's name graphic says "Forêt D'état", rather than Forêt D'été.
  • Summer Forest's last two orb names have incorrectly switched places. The only language for which this isn't the case is English.
  • Aquaria Towers' orb names are in English.
  • Autumn Plains' name graphic says "Plaines Automn." instead of the final's "Plaine Automne". Oddly enough, the graphic used in the review build matches the level's actual name, whereas the graphic used in the final does not.
  • The level name graphic on the Skelos Badlands page says "P. Maud. Skelos" instead of "Pays Maudit", matching the early name also used for this level in this build.
  • Crystal Glacier's Talisman name is a repeat of the level name - "Gl. de Cristal" - instead of "Cristal de Glace".
  • Cloud Temples' name graphic uses its English name instead of its French name, "Temple Nuages".

German

  • On the level pages, "Talisman" instead incorrectly says "Geschlagen!" (which means "Defeated!" and would usually be used on the boss pages). The lower case "g" is partially cut off.
    • Similarly, the "Kugeln" (Orbs) graphic also has its "g" partially cut off at the bottom, which is not the case in the final.
  • Summer Forest's last two orb names have incorrectly switched places. The only language for which this isn't the case is English.
  • Each of the Summer Forest orb names experienced minor changes to correct capitalisation and spelling. Additionally, one of the orbs is still written in English, in this version:
    • "Jägers test" would become "Jägers Test".
    • "Ein gegeimer vorsprung" would become "Ein geheimer Vorsprung".
    • "Hinter der tür" would become "Hinter der Tür".
    • "Behind the door" would become "Auf einer Leiter".
  • One of Glimmer's orbs also received a capitalisation change - "Lampenflug in höhle" became "Lampenflug in Höhle".
  • Two of Idol Springs' orbs changed names:
    • "Vorarbeiter Bud's rätsel" became "Vorarbeiter Buds Rätsel".
    • "Hulamädchen gesamt" became "Rettung der Hulamädchen".
  • Two of Colossus's orbs changed names slightly:
    • "Hockey gegen torwart" became "Hockey gegen Torwart".
    • "Suche nach bösem geist" became "Suche nach bösem Geist".
  • Each of Hurricos's orbs changed names slightly:
    • "Steindiebe-verfolgung" became "Steindiebe-Verfolgung".
    • "Gleiten über fabrik I" and "Gleiten über fabrik II" became "Gleiten über Fabrik I" and "Gleiten über Fabrik II", respectively.
  • One of Aquaria Towers' orbs also received a capitalisation change - "Rettung der seepferdchen" became "Rettung der Seepferdchen".
  • Each of Autumn Plains' orbs changed names slightly:
    • "Ende der burgmauer" became "Ende der Burgmauer".
    • "Langes gleiten!" became "Langes Gleiten!".
  • One of Skelos Badlands' orbs also received a capitalisation change - "Diese knochen" became "Diese Knochen".
  • Oddly, the talisman name graphic has an opaque background on Zephyr's page, instead of a transparent one.
  • One of Scorch's orbs received a capitalisation change in the final game - "Fasß voller affen" became "Fasß voller Affen".
  • One of Magma Cone's orbs received a capitalisation change in the final game - "Ungeladene gäste" became "Ungeladene Gäste".
  • The font used in Shady Oasis's talisman name graphic is a bit different from its final appearance.
  • One of Shady Oasis's orbs also received a capitalisation change - "3 diebe fangen" became "3 Diebe fangen".
  • Icy Speedway's orb name also received a capitalisation change in the final game - "Paragliding durch ringe" became "Paragliding durch Ringe".
    • Additionally, the words in the orb name were moved around slightly.
  • One of Winter Tundra's orbs received a capitalisation change in the final game - "Auf der hohen mauer" became "Auf der hohen Mauer".
  • Two of Mystic Marsh's orbs changed names slightly:
    • "Vielseitige diebe!" became "Vielseitige Diebe!".
    • "Stift des professors" became "Stift des Professors".
  • One of Cloud Temples' orb names also received a capitalisation change in the final game - "Agent Nulls versteck" became "Agent Nulls Versteck".
  • The boss "Not defeated!" graphic contains different capitalisation to the final game, and reads "Nicht Geschlagen!" instead of "nicht Geschlagen!" in this version. Additionally, the text is smaller in this version.

Spanish

  • Summer Forest's last two orb names have incorrectly switched places. The only language for which this isn't the case is English.
  • Glimmer's Talisman is called "Pico Mágoco" instead of "Pico Mágico", and a different font is also used for this graphic.
  • The Skelos Badlands level name graphic reads "T. árid. Skelos" like the early name used for this level in this version, whereas the final says "Páramo Skelos".
  • The orb graphic order is incorrect in Skelos Badlands - the bone orb is supposed to go last, but it appears first here.
    • Additionally, the name of this orb is "Hueso Antiguo", matching the Talisman name, rather than "esos huesos" as per the final.
  • Gulp's Overlook's level name graphic says "Falio de Gulp" rather than "Foso de Gulp". The actual level name in this version is "Fallo de Gulp", though.
  • One of Cloud Temples' orbs - "esc. del agente secreto Cero" - is instead written as "esc. secreto agente cero" in this version.
  • Ripto's Arena's name graphic erroneously reads "Fuedo De Ripto" instead of "Ruedo De Ripto".
  • The boss "Not defeated!" graphic contains a typo, and reads "¡No está vendido!" instead of "¡No está vencido!".

Italian

  • Summer Forest's last two orb names have incorrectly switched places. The only language for which this isn't the case is English.
  • One of Colossus's orbs is untranslated - "Hockey vs. Goalie" would become "Hockey vs. portiere" in the final game.
  • The Zephyr orbs "Recinto insetti I" and "Recinto insetti II" became "Recinto mucchine I" and "Recinto mucchine II" in the final, respectively.
  • Gulp's Overlook's level name graphic says "Castello Di Gulp" rather than "Casa Di Gulp". The level itself is called "Punto di Gulp" in this version, though.

Soundtrack Differences

While all audio tracks differ from their final counterparts, for the mostpart this is due to the tracks in this version being substantially lower in quality, rather than due to them having mix differences. Despite this, there are several cases of tracks using different mixes to their final versions, as well as cases of tracks being used differently to how they would later in development.

  • The quality of the streamed XA format music used throughout the game is much lower than it is in the final game. It seems to be the case that the tracks were flattened to mono in PAL versions of the game to make room for the extra dialogue audio, but in this particular build it was done in such a way that greatly reduced the overall quality of the audio, due to the increased volume causing clipping.
  • The minigame section in Hurricos uses a theme that is not used in the final game. It's not known why the theme was cut, but it is present in an unused form in the final PAL version - interestingly, the unused theme in the final is completely identical to this one, which explains why it's a noticeably lower quality than other tracks in the final PAL release version.
    • This theme is also present in the August 11th build in a higher quality state, but is still unused even in that version.
  • Skelos Badlands uses an earlier mix of its theme, which can also be heard in most of the pre-release demo builds as well as the August 11th prototype. It is notable for having particularly poor audio quality in this version.
  • Two versions of each of the two Skelos Badlands lizard minigame themes are present in this version:
    • There are two copies of the first minigame theme, whereas the final only has one such copy. Each version of this track is a little bit different, and in particular, the lengths of each of the two copies are different. It's not known if there are any other notable differences between the two copies.
  • Like the final game, there are two copies of the second minigame theme in this version - once again, each copy is of a different length. The longer version of the track in this build is identical to the shorter (unused) version of the track present in the final PAL version, which explains why that track is of such low quality in the final game. It's not clear from a cursory glance which of the two copies of the theme are used in this version.
  • Crystal Glacier also uses an early mix of its theme which is heard in other versions of the game. Once again, this one is of a particularly low quality. Interestingly, the final PAL version does include an unused early mix of this level's theme, but it is not byte-for-byte identical to the copy of the track present in this version of the game.
  • The Fracture Hills satyr theme is not used, likely due to an oversight. Instead, the Magma Cone crystal popcorn theme is used instead.
    • Additionally, the theme is 9 seconds long in this version, like the NTSC-U final, rather than the slightly slower 11 second version used in the (earlier) PAL version. The reason for this discrepancy is unclear.

Note that the instrumentation levelling in Shady Oasis's theme is different in the August 11th prototype when compared to the final game, but it's not entirely clear whether the version of the theme in this version of the game is closer to the August 11th theme or the final theme, due to the quality of the audio making it difficult to discern.

Cheat Codes

Many of the cheat codes differ from their final variants, and several of them are only present in pre-release builds, perhaps for debugging purposes. All of these are to be entered on the pause menu.

Type 0 - Permanent Invincibility

Gives Spyro permanent invincibility. The code is not present in any final version of Spyro 2, but despite this, it uses the same code as the one used in Spyro 3's prerelease builds.

Circle, Circle, Circle, Circle, X

Type 1 - All Abilites

A cheat code that is also present in the final game, albeit occupying cheat type 0 rather than 1, due to the permanent invincibility code being removed. The cheat functions similarly to how it does in the final game, enabling all of Spyro's abilities, with the same code as is used in the final:

Circle, Circle, Circle, Circle, Square

Unlike the final game, loading a save file after this cheat has been activated will take a large amount of gems from the player, as if they had paid Moneybags for the abilities. This can result in negative gem counts, which causes strange graphical glitching in the HUD. Unsurprisingly, having a negative gem count does not let you purchase things from Moneybags, which can impact the player's ability to progress through the game. Additionally, this cheat code can be used to turn abilities on or off, whereas the final only turns them on.

Type 2 - Max Totals

Another cheat code not present in the final game. The code performs a number of operations with the net effect of giving people a "complete" save file, with all gems and orbs marked as obtained. The actual result of using this cheat code is a little bit more complicated, and the operations performed are as follows:

  • Each level's gem count is set to 400. The actual gem collection flags are not affected, so there'll still be collectable gems lying around in each level.
  • Each level's orb count is set to its intended maximum - or rather, the orb collection flags are set for each level.
  • Each level's Talisman flag is set, for levels with a talisman (i.e. levels without a Talisman are unaffected).
  • Sets the total gem count to 10000.
  • Sets the total orb count to 64.
  • Sets the total Talisman count to 14 (this is not directly seen to the player but is used whenever the game checks how many Talismans the player has).
Square, Square, Square, Square, Circle

Note that the end of level NPCs for Winter Tundra also set a flag in these Talisman tables. As these levels don't have Talismans themselves, the cheat code does not set them. These flags are required for the "Level Complete!" fanfare to play, so the Winter Tundra levels will not play this fanfare after the code is entered unless the player also speaks to the end of level NPCs themselves, either before entering the code or afterwards. Additionally, this cheat code does not affect the boss defeat flags, so each boss will be marked as undefeated. As such, the player's save file will only have a 99% completion figure overall, if this cheat is used on a blank save file, rather than a full 100% completion.

Type 3 - Credits

A cheat code that is also present in the final game, albeit occupying cheat type 1 rather than 3, due to several codes being removed. The cheat functions identically to how it does in the final game, activating the credits sequence, albeit with a simpler cheat code:

Version Code
Sep 15 Review Square, Circle, Square, Circle, Square, Circle
Sep 30 Final Square, Circle, Square, Circle, Square, Circle, Left, Right, Left, Right, Left, Right

Type 4 - Permanent Superflame

Another cheat code not present in the final, activating the permanent superflame powerup. Despite not being in any final build of Spyro 2, it is still present in prerelease builds of Spyro 3, with the same cheat code.

R1, R2, L1, L2, R1, R2, L1, L2, Circle

Type 5 - Level Warp

Also not in the final game, this cheat code lets the player instantly warp to any level in the game.

Up, Down, Up, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, Square, ?, ?

The last two button presses represent the ID of the level one wishes to travel to - simply concatenate the number corresponding with the first button to the second button to get the level ID:

Button Number
Circle 0
X 1
Square 2
Triangle 3
Right 4
Down 5
Left 6
Up 7

Despite not being in any final build of Spyro 2, this is the same code as the one used in Spyro 3 and its prerelease builds. However, unlike Spyro 3's equivalent of this code, it does not also warp the player to cutscenes. Attempting to enter a cutscene's level ID will either crash the game or, oddly, put Spyro into a frozen state inside the level model for the cutscene being warped to, with all the moby models from the previously accessed levels still loaded - this can be most easily observed by entering Ocean Speedway and warping to level 71, 72 or 73. Additionally worth noting is that using this cheat code will immediately warp the player to the level in question, also skipping the pre-level intro cutscenes. Oddly enough, you can crash the game by attempting to move the cursor on a Guidebook contents page which has no visited levels. This is not something that is observable during normal gameplay, but by using this cheat code to warp from a fresh save file to a Winter Tundra level and entering the Guidebook, it is possible to move back to the Autumn Plains contents page despite having never visited any Autumn Plains levels. Moving the cursor up or down on this page will crash the game.

Absent Cheat Codes

The big head mode, flat mode, and colour change cheats present in the final game are not implemented in this version.

Additionally, the extra hitpoint cheat is not implemented either, through the maximum hitpoints variable has some partially implemented functionality, likely a partial leftover of the Japanese version of Spyro 1:

  • The max hitpoints variable itself is implemented, likely as a leftover from the Japanese version of Spyro 1 (where it served as an unlockable feature from the Pocketstation functionality). It functions pretty much as expected - however, obtaining an extra life sets Spyro to 3 hitpoints rather than to any increased maximum.
  • Increasing Spyro's health above 3 points makes Sparx disappear in this version, as clearly this is not an intended hit point value. In the final game, Sparx of course does not disappear when your health is at 4 points.
  • Additionally, however, increasing Spyro's health above 3 points does display the four-pointed star visual that surrounds Sparx, despite this not being something a player would ever experience in normal gameplay, in this version. This is also the case in all known earlier builds of Spyro 2, and as such it is likely to be a leftover from the Japanese version of Spyro 1 - however, the Japanese versions also include a second 5-pointed star visual for the case where Spyro reaches 5 hit points, which none of these English pre-release or final builds have.

Dialogue Differences

Hmmm...
To do:
Finish this

Credits Differences

The credits contains numerous differences from both the PAL and NTSC-U finals. For the sake of comparison, it will be compared to the PAL final, below, unless otherwise stated:

  • Chad Dezern is not credited.
  • Vanessa Russell is credited as Vanessa Jones Russell.
  • The PAL final has a section on SCEE employees which is replaced with a section on SCEA employees in the NTSC-U final. This build, despite being a PAL build, has a shortened version of the SCEA section.
  • The "Presented By Sony Computer Entertainment America" section is missing the "Presented By" heading, the "SCEA" acronym and job titles for each person credited.
  • Only Grady Hunt, Perry Rogers, Jeff Ng, Ami Blaire, Molly Smith and Christian Davis are credited in this section, excluding many of the names included in the final.
    • Jeff Ng and Christian Davis are not included in the final game.
    • Ami Blaire is credited as Ami Matsumura-Blaire in the final game.
  • The credits ends with "Next stop, Dragon Shores!", a line not displayed in the final game.
    • For some reason, this line instantly disappears once shown.
  • As a result of the credits being a lot shorter than they are in the final game, several credits level models are not used in this build. The credits ends in the Skelos Badlands model.
  • Text that is present when the screen fades between levels will also fade out and back in again. In the final, the text persists during the fade out.
  • Rather than there being a separate (identical) credits text block for each language, there is only one.
  • There is only one copy of the credits text block in the review build, as opposed to the five identical copies (one for each language) present in the final.

Save File Information

The save file header information differs from the final game. The August 11th Prototype and the fifth pre-release demo version (which is earlier than this build), as well as two of the final versions, have been included for the sake of comparison. Broadly speaking, the save information in this version resembles an early version of the final NTSC-U version's save information, rather than the final PAL version's - interestingly, the review build additionally uses a unique version of the "SPYRO2 RIPTO”S RAGE" string which is used by both the earlier demo version and the later final NTSC-U version.

Info Aug 11 NTSC-U Preview Demo 5 (NTSC-U) Sep 15 PAL Review Sep 30 PAL Final Oct 11 NTSC-U Final
Icon Spyro 1 NTSC-U icon
3-frame gem animation
Spyro 1 PAL icon
1-frame gem animation
Spyro 2 PAL icon
1-frame Spyro animation
Spyro 2 NTSC-U icon
3-frame Spyro animation
Title SPYRO THE DRAGON SPYRO2 RIPTO”S RAGE SPYRO  RIPTO S RAGE SPYRO2 SPYRO2 RIPTO”S RAGE
Product Code SCUS-99999 SCUS-94425 SCUS-94425 SCES-02104 SCUS-94425
Identifier SPYRO2 SP2A SP2G SP2RR
Region US US US EU US

Unused Strings

Several strings found in the game's code are never shown directly to the player, and are often just output to the console through the use of a printf function.

  • A couple of strings found in the Icy Speedway overlay code, neither of which is present in the final game. These are used by printfs and seem to reflect numbers relating to the player's performance in the minigames:
v.z=0
missed %d
  • Several strings relating to CD errors, none of which are present in the final game. These are also printf'd to the console, and one of them even reveals the name of one of the functions that is used in reading the disc:
CDR ERR 0, LoadStage=%d
CDR ERR 1, LoadStage=%d
CDReadDone() -- not reading
  • Another feature exclusive to prototypes of multiple games in this series is a string which is printf'd to the console upon loading each level, containing the level ID and the available memory:
Level %d, Memory Available: %d

Dongle Protection

As this build is dongle protected, a special save file on the second memory card is required in order to play the game. The data required is captured within a string containing the product code and identifier string for this file:

BASLUS-99999SPYRO2