Proto:Star Fox 2/April 15, 1994 Build

This is a sub-page of Proto:Star Fox 2.

The April 15, 1994 prototype of Star Fox 2 was dumped around August 6th, 1999, and has many differences from later builds; It still feels more like a tech demo than an actual game at this point in development.

NOTE: This prototype requires the console's WRAM to be initialized to zero at boot, otherwise it will lock up at a black screen. One way to run it is by loading the game in Snes9x, and resetting it once.

Download Star Fox 2 (Early Prototype) File: Star_Fox_2_(J)_(Early_Prototype).smc (923 KB) (info)

General Differences from Final

The menus at this point are placeholders, with a different font, compared to the rest of the builds, on a black background.

April 15, 1994	Final
Not in this version.

Miyu and Fay are not present, instead there are "Saru" and "Lady". The lack of character portraits makes it difficult to determine which one is which, but based on both the Battle mode menu and the former name being a Japanese word for monkey, it can be inferred that Saru is the Andross-looking elderly primate, and that Lady is Fara Phoenix from the 1993 Star Fox Nintendo Power comic strip.

The conspicuously empty mission map

Starting the game with the "Mission" option loads a blank map with no planets present. After pressing a button, a screen appears, and you may choose from 6 Planet levels and 3 Space levels. No mission briefings are given.

The stages lack functional missions. Each one does have a small area squared off, and they all have one or two unique aspects to them, but there are no objectives to complete, no targets to destroy, and no interior base sections.

Whee!

Another Arwing transformation is present in the space stages - instead of transforming into a Walker, you become a floating turret that can freely move in 3D space. It's difficult to control, and is likely why the idea was scrapped.

The Walker, using a different model here, is fully functional, but has a ludicrously slow walking speed. It can be sped up by holding Y, but this is still nowhere near as fast as the final's walking speed. The transformation animation is also needlessly long, spinning the camera around wildly as the Arwing morphs.

There is an overheating mechanic: when boosting, or braking, a small meter in the bottom right fills up. When it does, the Arwing overheats, with visible backfire, and is unable to boost again until the bar empties.

There are no bombs. Instead, the Arwing fires missiles. This feature is retained until the August 31, 1994 prototype, where a homing bomb is used instead.

The particle effects that help the illusion of a 3D environment don't seem to be synced properly to the movement of the background, and so fall away before the horizon has the chance to move more than a few pixels.

The bosses Space Blade and Mirage Dragon are in this build.

There's also an emphasis on multiplayer in this build, with a controllable second Arwing spawning in a select few stages. However, when both ships are destroyed, the game won't end, forcing you to quit.

Missions

Name	Image	Description
STG1-GROUND		An empty field populated with ostrich-like enemies. After awhile, visibly out of place platforms with a flashing center appear around the torsos of ostrich-shaped enemies. Uses the Ground music.
STG2-DESERT		A very empty stage containing a strange, textured, hexagonal platform that the map marks as an Enemy, and a tall, segmented, flashing tower. Spawns in a second Arwing. Uses the Ground music.
STG3-MAGMA		Does not contain magma. Another field with morphing ramps, objects that change collision sizes, and one enemy that triggers the boss encounter. Uses the Ground music.
STG4-PARK		An urban environment. Contains some buildings and four-legged, harmless enemies. Near the Skyscrapers are Statues. Destroy the one that is moving - a boss will appear. Uses the Ground music.
STG5-SUN		An impressively large stage, taking place above the Lylat sun. There is no ground collision, and the player can transform into the free-moving turret. To trigger the boss, destroy the rotating rocket. Has unique music.
STG6-SEA		Similar to Fortuna in the final, this stage is split into above-water and underwater sections. Above water is veiled in thick fog, with many Rings laid out similar to the training stage in the original Star Fox. There are also static helicopter and bird enemies. Below water, a rotating submarine can be found. The transition from above to below water is unfinished, lingering on the slooowly descending walker. Has unique music.
EXT1-SENKAN		A fleet of spaceships, and several static enemies, just chilling in space. Being a space stage, the player can transform into the free-moving turret form. When trying to destroy enemies, the game may crash, freeze, or glitch badly. Uses the Space music.
EXT2-ASTEROID		A set of suspiciously cubic asteroids hanging in space. Being a space stage, the player can transform into the turret form. Glitchy, and prone to freezing or crashing. Uses the Space music.
EXT3-HIDORA		Mostly empty, containing some mean enemies, and also some... magma-made dragon heads sporting sunglasses? This stage also tends to crash a lot. Being a space stage, the player can transform into the turret form. Glitchy, and prone to freezing or crashing. Uses the Space music.

Battle Mode

A mode which was added eventually after the WCES 1995 build.

Ambiguous Selection Screen

April 15, 1994	December 28, 1994
	Not in this version.

Menu

April 15, 1994	December 28, 1994

Character Select

April 15, 1994	December 28, 1994

April 15, 1994	December 28, 1994

Test Mode

To do: Does the programmer select option do anything?

This mode will load up one of the four implemented level types, with the second player Arwing spawned, and no enemies present. There is also an option to choose which Nintendo employee you are before the level loads.

Training Mode

Here you have the option to choose between one of two broken training modes. Both explain the controls in Japanese and don't have much more function than that.

"Type"	"Train"

Type mode claims you can leave by pressing X. "Train" mode says you can leave by pressing Start. Neither of these things are true.

Interesting to note are the freakish Q-tarou and caveman (?) icons in the bottom left of Type mode's menu.

Config Mode

To do: Describe in more detail what each option does.

April 15, 1994	June 22, 1995

Accessible in the 1994 and 1995 builds is a CONFIG MODE, labeled CONFIG on the title screen, which functions as a sound test. This build only plays sound effects, while the 1995 build adds background music playback, a CPU to Audio Unit register writer (4 bytes, named ports), a more stylized font, and a cursor.

	April 15, 1994
SOUND	Toggles whether the in-game audio is in stereo or mono.
BGM	Can be incremented and decremented, but selecting a track does nothing. The playback function doesn't work until later builds.
SE	Can be incremented and decremented, and pressing A plays the corresponding sound effect.
EXIT	Guess what? Exits the menu.

The controls here differ between builds:

	April 15, 1994	June 22, 1995
Select option	Up/Down	Up/Down
Toggle option	Left/Right	Left/Right
Fast cursor		B + D-Pad
Confirm	A	B
Stop sound	B	X

Unused Graphics

To do: This Starfox-online.net topic talks about unused graphics found within this build. Investigate exactly what unused graphics exist and add them here. There is an unused tilemap at 0xD2150 - 0xD276B in ROM, compressed. Seemingly incompatible with graphics in the ROM, could be a results screen. Maybe look into this, possibly restore it?

Every asset listed in this section is compressed, unless otherwise stated.

Mission Mode Character Select

Despite not having a dedicated character select screen for Mission mode in this build, some graphics for it can be found in the ROM, along with a dedicated object palette for it.

April 15, 1994 Prototype (Unused)
June 8, 1995 Prototype and later

An early, unused version of Fox's portrait, from the 1-Player Mission mode character select screen, can be found buried in the ROM at 0xAB9EC - 0xAC07F (first frames) and 0xAC080 - 0xAC79B (last frame), along with three duplicates. The three duplicates are likely placeholders for Falco's, Peppy's, and Slippy's portraits, which don't exist in this build. Compared to the portraits in later prototypes, and the final build, Fox lacks most of his shading, his head is slightly larger, his eyes are brown instead of blue, and his expression is comical, but frightening.

To do: What does the Japanese text translate to?

April 15, 1994 Prototype (Unused) (Assembled)	August 31, 1994 Prototype (Assembled)

Additionally, a set of sprites intended for the Mission mode character select screen can be found at 0xAC79C - 0xAD533 in ROM. These include all 3 Arwing types, boost graphics, text, and the font used for character names + Arwing names in later builds. These Arwing sprites would later go used in the August 31st build, although the G-Diffusers on the B-Type Arwing were redesigned, and each Arwing has different color assignments in order to work with a new palette. The boost effect is entirely different though, with it being considerably more basic compared to the August 31st build.

2-Player Battle

These sprites, which are loaded with the other graphics in the Battle mode menu, appear to be intended for when both players have selected their characters. However, the screen just fades out with a mosaic effect when this happens in this build.

(Source: Patch93)

Small Fox Sprites

A set of small Fox sprites can be found in ROM at 0xAD534 - 0xAD98F, along with 3 duplicates much like the unused Mission mode portraits. There is a side-on view of Fox similar to his Battle mode ship select sprite, as well as sprites for an animation of Fox doing a thumbs-up, much like the unused Battle mode sprite. There is also a sprite of Fox putting one of his arms up, with his head slightly turned to the side. The intended purpose of these sprites are unknown.

Score, Coins and Items Table

The Score/Coin/Item Table, shown at the bottom, is used on the screen shown after boot and pressing Start once, but you can't see it because it's hidden by the BG layer containing the space graphics. The layer was removed for this screenshot.

Map Screen Planets

Planet graphics, intended to be used on the Mission mode map screen, are located at 0xCC7AC - 0xCCE87 in ROM. There are 6 planets, 5 duplicates of the small variant and a single large planet, with 4 frames of animation each. However, only the large planet has unique frames, every frame for the small planets are exactly the same. These would later get implemented in the April 1st build.

Room Background

This background is intended to be used for an interior stage... but they do not seem to exist yet at this point in development. The ceiling and the floor use the exact same palette line, and the gap between them in the center is extremely small compared to the final. Graphics can be found in ROM at 0xBB590 - 0xBB8D7, and the tilemap can be found at 0xBB8D8 - 0xBB97F.

Curved Room Background

Much like the room background, this is obviously intended to be used for an interior stage, except that this type of interior is only in the December 28th build (CES), and it is implemented in a different way. Graphics are the exact same as the room background, the tilemap can be found at 0xBC9BC - 0xBCACB and 0xC2604 - 0xC2713 (duplicate).

Early "Park" Background

This is an extremely barebones version of the "Park" background from the April 1st build, which went on to become the Venom background in the final game. The sky lacks a lot of detail found in the April 1st build, with "工事中" (under construction) written in the sky, and both halves of the background are identical. Assets for this background can be found in ROM, 0xC1C8C - 0xC2437 for the graphics, 0xC2438 - 0xC2603 for the tilemap. Unknown if it was intended for "Park" in this build.

Star Fox Venom Tunnel

Assets for the Venom tunnel from Star Fox can be found in the ROM, graphics at 0xD3BF8 - 0xD3E13, tilemap at 0xD3E14 - 0xD431B. Part of the palette can even be found at the end of the compressed palette file in ROM. Purpose unknown, although it could just be a leftover.