Proto:Starship Titanic

This page details one or more prototype versions of Starship Titanic.

Starship Titanic: Beta Release, 397 is a prototype with a currently unknown origin, curiously dated just eight days before the final games EU release date (although there is some confusion on the final game's EU release date, so this may not be entirely accurate). While the prototype is mostly planned out by this point, there is a lack of general polish seen in the final game. Also showing a few alternate puzzle solutions, bugs, and a few early versions of or entirely unused assets.

The title screen marks the build date as February the 2nd, 1998, but has many differences to the final. The game claims that TrueTalk (the chatbot engine used by NPCs) has 'logging' enabled, but it's currently unclear where, if anywhere, these logs are saved.

A text file titled "Created.txt" is put into the game's root directory after install, containing the following text: "Created : Monday, February 02, 1998 (17:58)"

(Source: https://archive.org/details/starship_titanic_build_397 & Original TCRF Research)

The Answer

In the assets folder, there is a single file titled "y1916.xxx". The FileMap.txt says that it was originally called "answer.xxx". It contains a sequence of bytes that appear to spell out (using hexadecimal digits, not ascii) 16 instances of 42, five instances of "C0 FF EE", and another ten 42s. This file did not survive to the final game's files.

It's also exactly 42 bytes large.

FileMap.txt Oddities & Contextual Details

There's a text file in the game's directory called "FileMap.txt". This file lists all of the original game asset filenames and their original path before being moved into the game folder and renamed to the less human readable codes used in both this prototype and the final game. It therefore offers invaluable clues as to the purposes and context surrounding said assets.

Notable examples from the file are described below.

Leovinus Sculpture

According to the FileMap.txt, the sculpture of Leovinus (which is actually a 3D scan of Douglas Adams head) was originally titled "ugly_bastard.avi". How lovely.

PET Classes

The file structure and references from the FileMap imply that the idea as to having unique PET graphics for each class had already begun to be implemented, but no unique graphics have been designed at this point.

"a ChatterBot"

The FileMap.txt in this prototype answers a question posed both by this prototype and the final build, specifically, who was the removed robot whose only surviving assets lay with the set of old small PET portrait icons used in this build? The original title for those graphics are "chatter.tga" and "smchatter.tga", from the "charactors" directory (typo included). This confirms him to be linked to a 'talking to' string found in the final game refering to him as a ChatterBot.

Early Setup Application

Autorun Dialogue

An earlier setup autorun application. Very similar in function to the final, and already has support for selecting up to three CD drives for disc swapless gameplay.

Beta '397'	Final Release

Setup Splash Screen

Beta '397'	Final Release

An early or place-holder splash screen.

Unused or Different to final Images\Video Stills

Parrot

Unknown still image that doesn't fit anywhere, the parrot is normally fully animated at all times.
Referred to as "carryparrot.tga" by FileMap.txt.

Early Maitre'D Arms

Included is what appears to be a very crude placeholder arm, presumably for Maitre'D. It's next to the unused notes item below in the files, interestingly. One of his arms may indeed be holding some notes, instead of the key as in the final. There is a graphic for one arm holding the Green piece of Titania's brain, though this is technically 'used'. It appears floating in the restaurant and can't be picked up. Because you can't get the key in this build (as far as we know, anyway), you can't complete the music puzzle and release the grip on Maitre d'Bot's arms, thus, you cannot see the graphic of the empty opened hand.

The image of the used arm is included here anyway since it seems to differ somewhat from the final one.

y1844.tga, the crudely drawn arm, is referred to as "testarm.tga" in FileMap.txt.

Scrapped 'Notes' Item

Some unused voice lines in the final hinted towards a scrapped 'Notes' item in the game. Well, here it is. These two images appear to be the only further infomation on this item in this build. There's, sadly, no larger version of the actual note, making it impossible to read. It seems this item was scrapped before even this build.

They are referred to simply as "note1.tga" and "note2.tga" in their order of appearance here, by FileMap.txt.

Items

Mostly early renders with weird lighting and bad transparent edges. There's also a strange yellow gradient block in here, which the filemap refers to as the "musickey.tga", making it an early Music System Key graphic.

Miscellaneous

Originally titled "liftlight.tga", and was found in the 'objects' folder.

PET Portraits

To do: Using final game assets for this section, mostly. They should be identical and are unused in both final and in this proto, but I want to make a note to triple check this.

This prototype makes use of most of the alternate PET portraits found left over in the final game, but it only uses the smallest versions, rendering the higher res versions unused both in the final and this prototype. Only the ones unused to this prototype are listed below.

That said, both portraits for Titania and the ChatterBot are universally unused in any known builds.

In addition, there is an unused very small portrait for Maitre d'Bot, who was notably absent from this portrait set as leftover in the final game.

Early PET Assets

Some of these can be found in the final game, but they are more complete in this build. FileMap.txt confirms that these assets were used in an old PET design prior to this prototype.

The purpose of many of these individual assets can be extrapolated from the original filenames in FileMap.txt, and will be detailed below. If cross-referencing the asset filenames found on each image on this page with FileMap.txt yourself, please remember that assets for the PET were originally and predominantly found inside the "hiddenroom" folder, as the PET appears to actually be the so-called 'hiddenroom'. Items are also moved to the 'hiddenroom' while they are in your inventory.

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Unhelpfully referred to simply as "panels", though presumably intended to make up the bulk of the interface background. Based on the final game's interface rules, the ones containing a slim separate box at the bottom would have that be where the player's input text shows up, with the larger 'whole' box being for other PET modes, such as the inventory.
The purpose of the one with empty space on the right of the (probable) text input field is unknown, as is the purpose for the smaller set of boxes.

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These arrows were for scrolling the text parser.

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Purpose unknown. Originally titled "skrew.tga". Presumably interface fluff.

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Originally titled "send_to_suc.tga" and "get_from_suc.tga". Related to Succ-U-Bus PET remote control functions.

Note please the baked in circle shape, very similar in appearance to "skrew.tga" above.

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The specific purposes for all of these arrows are unclear. Definitely a part of the PET graphics, some of the arrows appear identical in shape while varied in colour. This could be an indication of early passenger class PET changes, but this cannot be confirmed nor denied by the context offered by FileMap.txt.

They are all prefixed in original title by the word "obcon_", e.g obcon_right_03.tga.

y1221, y1222, and y1223 originally all contained the word "bot" in their title (e.g. obcon_bot_03.tga)

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Seems related to the Starmap interface at the end of the game.

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Purpose uncertain. Originally titled "mode_off.tga", "mode_on.tga", and "mode_none.tga" respectively.

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Originally titled "petclass1.tga" and "petclass2.tga" respectively. Presumably some kind of toggle light or button related to your current class.

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Early graphics for the Designer Room Codes, or chevrons, that act as a "serial number" for each room in the game. In this early set, the red components would be for 'lit' (or 'on') chevrons, while the blue components would be for 'unlit' (or 'off') chevrons.

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Early PET Remote-Thingummy Portraits

A collection of red wireframe versions of the icons used both in the SGT class room puzzle, as well as for certain other game functions. These were from an even earlier PET then the one used in this prototype, according to FileMap.txt.

This first set of images are stored together in a video, the frames of which have been extracted for presentation on this page. Said video (y1204.avi) has the metadata title of "sgtIc".
Its original filename as per "FileMap.txt" was "sgtpeticon.avi", stored in the hiddenroom folder that houses PET-related assets.

Interestingly, the video has a fairly early last modified date of 01/08/1997 18:40.

The next images are stored separately as individual images.

In order from left to right, the original titles for these images were:

control_tv.tga,

control_sub.tga,

control_pellerator.tga,

control_light.tga (note that only the First Class Stateroom lights can be remote controlled),

control_lift.tga (note similarity to the fourth button here),

control_doorbot.tga,

and control_bellbot.tga.

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Early Night Sky Photo

This asset is actually used in this prototype, but the final game replaces its place in the Starmap interface with a frame from its inventory video instead. In addition, notice that this version of the photo is in the player's home while its lights are on. The only time the item is seen is after the Titanic crashes into your house, obviously destroying the overhead lighting in the process. The final game uses a very similar image for the actual item (instead of the starmap as in this prototype) as it sits on the mantelpiece, but with the lights in the room 'off' (destroyed).

This asset has a file date of 28/12/1997 12:42, making it a fairly early asset in lines with the unused PET interfaces above.

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Elevator PET Mode

Two versions of the PET button pane exists in the files, the used one, and the version below with an extra button filling in the whole vertical space allocated for PET mode buttons (third from the bottom).

The full original filename & path as per "FileMap.txt" was "v:\starship titanic\rooms\public\hiddenroom\3classpet\3iconsold.tga", while the one that WAS used in this prototype was called "3icons.tga".

This icon is basically identical to another unused icon found here. Based on the title of that unused asset, we can safely assume that controls for elevators would have had a dedicated PET mode, before being rolled into the Remote-Thingummy both in this prototype and the final build.

Early Cursors

Some minor differences for the cursors, including a lack of up and down arrows (opting to rotate the left and right arrows instead), along with an early magnifier and egg timer.

Starmap UI

Unused instructional text and two unused star lock lamp colours.

Scene Differences

The alternate upgrade banner seen in the SGT class room. It doesn't properly fit the exaggerated CRT curves.

Beta '397'	Final Release

Unused\Different Videos

Miscellaneous

Video files for an unused D-Pad like control for the PET, as well as an unused colour variation for the play button on the music room puzzle control panel. The music room button is present but unused in the final assets folder, too.

The D-Pad videos metadata has a title of "BUTTONS1.AVI", indicating it may have been intended as part of the Starmap.

The Bomb's Speaker

A curious unused loudspeaker with very cartoonish animations that seemingly can't be triggered in this build and is entirely removed in the final game. Presumably this would have been for a particular joke, or otherwise, it could have been intended for use in all of the Bomb's voice lines similar to how every other character has video files associated with speaking. It also intersects with the tumbler video files, which would have made it awkward to include both on-screen.

Fully Animated Orchestra

There's a fully animated video with closeups on Boppy Headcases band playing... something. The video doesn't quite sync properly with the final correct song in the game, and this video doesn't play at all in the prototype. Note that the video's resolution fits perfectly on a 640x480 screen when including the space taken by the PET, so it would have played in fullscreen. You also have to be recording the song to complete the puzzle properly, so a video that takes over your viewport isn't ideal.

Players' House Television

Surprise! The television set at the start of the game originally had several channels to pick from, with each clip below being chosen by using the arrows on the front of the TV, or your PET if you've hacked it enabled at this point. Switching channels repeatedly eventually bugs out the TV, causing it to loop midway into a single clip. Note however, the final two clips are NOT played in-game, presumably they were dummied out because of the use of renders aboard the Titanic as a backdrop, which makes little sense since you are still watching terrestrial television at this point. Presumably it was trimmed to save space, taking the file down from 15.4MB to 1.28MB.

Volume warning for the second clip of the beta video.

Beta '397'	Final Release

Outro Movie

As noted in the differences below, the endgame after landing on Earth is in a very early state, and regardless of whether you disarm the bomb or not, will always play this slightly awkward looking clip of the Titanic collapsing and exploding, softlocking on the white screened end of this video forever.

Beta '397'	Final Release

Boarding the Titanic

This video shows off an early door design inside the service lift that just fades to the final design once you've transitioned fully inside. The final clip was re-rendered with the final door design, but unfortunately the entire ship's keel unnaturally shifts around much more in the final clip when compared with the beta one.

Beta '397'	Final Release

The Parrot

The parrot has a more detailed set of clips in this beta, including eating the chicken, and being, shall we say, displeased with a sauce covered chicken. It also includes the full cage background rather than using a transparency mask as the final does. In the final, the Parrot won't even try to eat a sauce covered chicken at all.
Also, it seems that the central intellegence core's camouflage was supposed to flicker only when the Parrot shifted on it. It seems to flicker more or less randomly in the final game, probably due to the separation of these videos.

Beta '397'	Final Release

Level Select

A functioning version of the level select screen found in the final exists in this build, but it doesn't seem as though the item select and puzzle cheats screen has been implemented at this stage, since no images for it can be found. To access it, hold down CTRL + SHIFT while changing screen, and you will be taken to the so called "Cheat Room" instead of the expected node. Beware that your current state carries over to the new scene, so if you do this right at the start of the game, you won't have your PET unless you hack it enabled, nor will you have the photo of the night sky above your house (how nice), making the game unwinnable. As noted in the differences below however, that is a moot point, since you can never reach the credits in this build regardless.
Beware, going into level select while talking to Krage or Fentible may render you unable to resummon them again that save session.

The chicken doesn't seem to do anything.

Beta '397' VS Final Differences

A general listing of differences noticed between this beta and the final game.

General

• The chicken cooling system doesn't seem to be implemented yet.

• It seems as though Fentible has the most polished AI in this build, while the other bots may be more difficult to converse with. At least as long as he has his memory.

• For some reason you can drag some items onto Krage specifically and they will stay floating atop him. Fentible does not work for this. Leaving the node will leave the item floating on the node of the room you dropped it in. Using this method, you may drop items anywhere on the ship where you can summon Krage, and they will remain there until you come back for them.

• Entering an elevator will not automatically shift your viewport to Nobby, and so he will only begin talking when you manually look at him. Because of this, if you use the Remote Thingummy to control the elevator, it's possible to avoid speaking to him at all until you arrive.

• There appears to be no animation for elevators on mismatched floors arriving at your current location. Due to this, the system in which Elevator 4 randomly goes up and down is not present.

• The elevator floor indicator on the right of the main lifts is erroneously offset to the right.

• Many of the unused mechanical or physical sounds seen on the final game's unused audio page are used in this beta, but not in one specific place. Rather, a system that plays them at random is started the moment you board the ship's service elevator, and continues to play so long as you are onboard (The plinth intro cutscene pauses this system briefly, it starts again once you re-enter the ship.) The sounds are randomly chosen and have a seemingly random 3D audio position applied, likely using the game's QSound implementation, creating a slightly eerie feeling, as though another player were moving about the ship nearby. That said, the random nature of these sounds makes them feel disconnected from the area you're in, perhaps even becoming annoying. This randomness is also not ideal for slow CD-ROM drives or hard drives, and can easily cause a small stutter in gameplay as they are loaded. Obviously, this is not ideal when you are releasing a game with a minimum target of a 486 computer, which would almost certainly have a very slow optical drive and next to no hard drive space.

• The parrot's comments around the ship are absent. Some may consider this an upgrade.

• Some point and click nodes are misplaced or bugged, either taking you to the wrong place, or displaying the wrong icon.

• No cursor graphics exist for looking up or down, instead opting to use a rotated left and right arrow as a placeholder. There is no graphic for highlighting a button the cursor is hovering over; the final adds faux crepuscular rays around the cursor's point when hovering over a button. All cursors are either slightly or entirely different and can be seen above.

• The unavailable cursor is unavailable for most unavailable nodes, and as such only the PET informs you of some places your cursor says you can go, but cannot infact go. It does appear once in the SGT elevators, but funny enough, you can ignore it and go right on through to a nonexistent room.

• Television channels on the Starship Titanic are slightly different in this build. Chronologically specific instances will be documented here in their respective rooms, otherwise, more generic ones will be here. For instance, the unused mosquito channel seen on the final game's TCRF page is used in this build, only it has no specific trigger. It will instead always play on Titania's eye channel and loop abruptly. The video also suffers from interlacing issues.

To do: Check if this door sound is used for anything in the final, it sounds familiar.

• Doors for the service lift, Embarkation Lobby, and top of the well make different sounds. This sound seems to play automatically upon the entrance to those rooms, even when entered via the Level Select. The earlier service lift door noted above when combined with this sound could imply that this door, and perhaps the others, were intended as sliding doors. There is discontinuity even in the final regarding doors, they can seemingly change size and type once you have gone through them and looked behind you, and this is the case with most of the doors in the game. That said, such a function is entirely scientifically possible within the game's canon.

• Krage's AI is less sophisticated, while it can often recognize what you're trying to convey, he isn't able to pull as many good responses, and so can't always tell you what room you're in, where your stateroom is, etc.

• Various bots splice lines together in a haphazard way that the final does not do so often, such as Krage appending "where they are." to a line that ended as "I'm not too sure" with each being separate recordings. Coincidentally, you can see that behaviour on the Level Select screenshot above, in the Chat-O-Mat panel of the PET. Bots are typically able to comment on other characters as in the final however.

• There doesn't seem to be an idle timer to automatically summon Krage or Fentible when loitering on the same node for a while, like the final has.

• Cellpoint indicator dials sometimes (but not always) vanish entirely if you are not talking to a bot, leaving only the dial background.

Your Personal Electronic Thing (PET)

• The PET graphics are entirely different, taking on a more blunted 2nd class silver style, with dull wooden accenting frames. The only thing left of this early pet in the final game are the chat box arrows, and the small versions of the Bots' icons, with the exception of the small Maitre d'Bot graphic present in this prototype, which did not survive to the final.

• According to the general file structure, the plan for altering the PET for each class had already begun to be implemented by this prototype, but no graphics for the other two classes had been introduced yet. The file structure and FileMap.txt suggest the PET graphics in this prototype were intended for SGT class, or 3rd class as many files refer to it as in this prototype.

• The Real Life mode of the PET uses basic icons, a black background with grey text, to represent the save functions. Additionally, the SOUND pane does not label the four volume controls, making them rather confusing, even though they are still fully functional. Two of the volume controls are vertical in this build.

• There are only three save files in the Real Life mode of the PET. Save files do not show up in the LOAD pane until you next launch the game or load a file, but are otherwise functional. There does not appear to be a text limit on save files, but while you can continue to type offscreen, some of your text may sometimes not display until you backspace some or type more letters.

• The mode selection panel has a different order of buttons, swapping Personal Baggage and Chat-O-Mat when compared with the final.

• Clicking off of an item in your Personal Baggage leaves half a glitched border around the previous item until you select it or something else, or change PET mode.

• There are no additional PET graphics for alternate classes. You get the one PET for the whole game.

Your Lovely Home

• If you hack your PET to become visible, the Remote Thingummy does not identify the television in the room, as the final build's one does.

• You can't do the early Fentible talk bug from the final game because your cursor doesn't appear soon enough.

• Classical Mozart music quietly plays in the background, rather then a track specifically composed for the game as in the final.

• The television at the start of the game has many other 'channels' in addition to Douglas' clip from the final, switchable by clicking the arrows next to the power switch that go unused in the final game. There are actually more channels in the video file this television uses than are shown in-game, involving footage of real people acting out various short skits using renders of rooms aboard the Starship Titanic as a chroma keyed background. These probably go unused in this beta because it makes absolutely no sense chronologically to have those backgrounds, be it on the television in the player's home, or aboard the Starship Titanic televisions with humans on-screen. The initial idea appears to have been to channel surf for a bit before Douglas' comes on telling you to get on with the game, but the final uses only Douglas' clip, scrapping the rest entirely. In addition, the channel swap buttons eventually bug out and get stuck on the 'C a t' channel. You can also use the channel buttons while the TV is off, which will play the television's audio without the video.

• The photo of the night sky above your house is erroneously titled as "Music System Key". It's actually impossible to get the real key in this prototype, so it's interesting that the string has already been implemented, even if it is improperly so.

• The unused gunshot sounds found in the final are used on one of the clips on this build's television.

• The computer in the Players' home has much larger click targets, being able to click anywhere on or near the computer to open the drive tray. You can also remove the disc while the computer is reading it, but this causes no ill-effects except to snap the tray to the closed position as the screen repositions for the Titanic's grand entrance into your modest abode.

• Compared to the final, Fentible seems more scatter-shot with his animations. He barely stays still.

To do: Check if Fentible goes silent in final, pretty sure he doesn't.

• Fentible will not repeat his YES or NO question forever and will eventually go silent until you answer.

• You can get the picture of the sky above your house early. For some reason, you can also drop the picture onto Fentible, causing it to float atop him and slightly bug your PET's graphical state until you reach out and pick it up again. Leaving the item on top of Fentible and continuing to enter the ship causes you to lose the item forever for that game session.

• Fentible's cellpoint settings do not work during his intrusion into your home, and are stuck at zero on all three dials.

The Service Elevator / The Pellerator / Stateroom Lifts

• As above, Fentible's cellpoint settings do not function while he is in the lift with you.

• As you enter the service lift from your home, you'll notice an early version of the door inside for a moment before it fades into the final version of the door. The fact that an intentional fade was added here implies that the developers would have rathered not re-render the fairly computationally expensive video of entering the lift at this point, though they did eventually decide to re-render it for the final game.

• Though most video transitions in the game use a slightly lower detailed scene compared to the game's static images, the transitions with Fentible present in the service lift appear to use very slightly higher quality reflections compared to the static images in this scene. The sky outside is also darker, similar to the view outside your windows before your home is destroyed, while the static image is a fair bit brighter.

• Strangely, you are able to look around while in the service elevator for the first time with Fentible. Because his animations and the view outside of the ship are dynamic at this point, the transitions are slightly janky, probably why this function was disabled in the final game. However, even though he looks at the wall instead of the player, this build does have unique transition videos that include Fentible in the elevator.

• Entering the service lift from the lit Embarkation Lobby does not stop the music. It will abruptly end when entering the bilge room and loading its track.

• The pellerator sometimes bugs out when moving away from its control panel after pressing a button, showing a slightly offset positional view of where the game thinks you are in the pellerator.

• You can trigger the Pellerator announcers 'other side' warning multiple times, stacking them atop each other. There seems to be a hard integer limit on how many can be played at once.

• Sometimes after a journey in the Pellerator, if you turn around and choose the same location on the other control panel, you may go for another ride back exactly to where you already were.

The Bilge Room

• The Bilge Room appears to use a slightly different ambience, with a little less clanking and no dynamic echo.

• The longer you stay here, the more likely it seemingly is for random metal clangs to play, eventually becoming stacked on each other and sounding very unpleasant. It's conceivable the game might crash if left to this behaviour for a sufficient amount of time, but this is untested.

• For Mother, see: The Succ-U-Bus on this page.

Moonlit Embarkation Lobby

• Skipping the plinth introduction with ESC continues playing the introduction music until it ends.

• The top of the well door Easter egg is not implemented, and in fact the door does not appear to be a click target at all. Likewise, Marsinta's Easter egg is not implemented, the pet will still tell you off for ringing her bell but she will not say anything early. Her click target also appears to be larger compared to final.

• While facing the Service Lift from inside the Embarkation lobby, the left click target erroneously uses the right facing cursor, and weirdly snaps to the left facing angle without a transition, as though you had held Shift.

• The service lift door does not make a bang sound, but does register your click and tell you that it is not available.

• You may only go left or right from the service lift while facing out into the lobby, you may not move forwards to the centre as you can in the final. You can still move to the centre from this angle once the Embarkation Lobby has been lit up.

The Embarkation Lobby

• The node facing the lobby Succ-U-Bus is erroneously using the lower detail rendering settings used in the video transitions for the room, meaning no reflections.

• Marsinta uses a much quicker sign in process. In fact, after giving your name, you are immediately given a room. Afterwards, you will be dropped into a standard dialogue sequence with Marsinta. In the final game, Marsinta will, after a long questionnaire that has little effect on your actual room assignment, give you a room, then call Krage. In addition, if you turn away from Marsinta without saying anything while she is active, she will play a line of annoyance as to the fact that you just kind of walked off. Lines for this sort of behaviour exist in final, but they only play in the prototype. Doing this also causes the game to linger for a while before changing your viewpoint for some reason. The room assignment string is somewhat mangled, not placing spaces between each word (e.g. There's your room number.Elevator1Floor1Room1Good luck!Any questions?)

• The logic for assigning a random SGT stateroom seems to be either very buggy, or poorly seeded. It often fails to assign a valid room, instead giving out the game's default room code. Because this default 'room' apparently exists on Floor 1, which happens to be the Top of the Well, this may soft-lock the game.

• Responding to Marsinta's question about your reservation seems to immediately upgrade you to SGT class while printing the following message to your PET: You have been assigned 'Super Galactic Traveller' status

This message is never displayed in the final game.

• You can call Krage or Fentible either here or in the bilge room before signing in, but the function for them to tell you your room does not appear functional in this build. It would probably default to the game's standard Floor 1 Elevator 1 Room 1 setting in all likeliness however. If you call either one early, they will just appear after a few moments with no announcement requesting their presence. Indeed, anything involving Marsinta's voice is disabled until after you have activated her once.

• If you do decide to manually call Krage, he has a much shorter introduction: "Hi. The name's Krage. Spelt K-O-O-L."

The Top of the Well

• You have to use your PET to enter the elevators, as they will not open just by clicking on them.

• Looking down the well plays a rather disturbing ambience as in the final, but does not seem to stop the music. The final uses a chilling ambient music track that halts regular music while looking down. Looking up does nothing.

• The second class axial canal has no click target, and the omnipresent text about passengers being unable to enter has not been implemented yet.

• The four golden symmetrical chamber door nodes are really bugged out. Moving left or right from them almost never takes you the correct direction, as if someone quickly copied&pasted the nodes and didn't mirror them properly.

• Very sadly the symmetry breaking wall opposite the Pellerator is still there in this build, and this time does not even include a "There is nothing to see here, honestly" click target message. This may imply that the wall was always intended to be just that, a wall, and the message was added to prevent players from assuming it important. Ironic, considering this only added to the mystery of this wall in the final game. What the early\alternate pellerator seen on the final game's TCRF page was for then, is still a mystery.

• The music sometimes fails to play here.

The Bottom of the Well

• Like the elevators upstairs, the elevators down here cannot be entered with just the mouse and require use of the Remote Thingummy. However, more annoyingly, you cannot leave the up-close view of the elevators at the bottom of the well until you have called and entered it.

• You'll find LiftBot 4's head down here as normal, but you'll also find a crushed television set, since the system for Krage tossing it down the well has not been implemented yet. This ensures you can at least progress. It's possible at this point in development they had not even come up with the idea of making Krage toss the TV in the first place.

The Ballroom \ Parrot Lobby

• When you pick up the parrot, his icon in your inventory will be upside down. It is unknown if this is intentional or a bug. It appears as though he is not coded to immediately skip his timer and escape upon leaving the ballroom as he is in the final game, and will only escape on his timer\the player's screen transition count.

• When looking towards the back railing of the central well, the one opposite the second class canal, the right click target is bugged and always takes you left despite using the correct cursor.

• The real Parrots Perch is bugged and sometimes appears or disappears randomly. The grab cursor will always show when hovering over the Perch even if you have already taken it. You can put the Perch back for some reason. However, much of the time, you cannot take the Perch at all and will become soft-locked on the node looking at it (or the absence of it, as the case may be). In this event, you can't even load a previous game.

• There appears to be an alternative movement node between the stick and the entrance door that is unused in the final, possibly due to its ridiculously small click target. TODO: Is this unused? Check final video too and compare.

• The television here by default shows a static dark planet usually used in the channel transition. It vanishes if you turn the TV on and off again.

• You cannot get Krage to throw the television down the well, but fortunately for you, there's already a crushed television set at the bottom of the well, waiting for you. Small world, ain't it?

Titania's Chamber

• The fuse box click target is smaller, limited to the nameplates. Clicking anywhere else will just take you out of the fuse box.

• The yellow chicken fuse is not visible upon opening the fuse box, but is functional and present. You can click where it should be, which causes it to appear and float as an item until you manually pick it up and either place it or put it in your inventory. The red creators chamber fuse acts exactly the same and is present by default despite not being initially visible.

• The fuses are named differently in this build:

Yellow: Chicken dispenser bridging piece

Red: Suspension beam bridging piece

Blue: Fan bridging piece

Green: Season bridging piece

• The rotary switches do not flip back without a fuse like in the final game.

• The Missive-O-Mat e-mail system does not initially display the word 'Login', but otherwise functions as expected. It displays properly upon further uses.

• When looking at Titania, her intelligence core sometimes appears outside its slot, but cannot be interacted with. This happens regardless of if you have recovered it from the parrot or not. Clicking it, or any other part, causes the PET to display the test "It's some sort of slot".

• The bomb's count down is slightly quicker and freezes when doing video transitions. The final seems to move the countdown to an independent global variable that is not effected by transitions.

• The bomb has no lines for hitting the glass. TODO: Could have been a bug.

• The exit elevator leaves your view port reversed towards entry rather then exit, which can be rather annoying if you aren't paying attention, as you'll just keep accidentally clicking down back into Titania's Chamber.

SGT Lobby \ SGT Class Staterooms

• Music does not play in the SGT lobby for some reason.

• The Succ-U-Bus does not suck up the chicken from the malfunctioning SGT restaurant.

• You cannot read the SGT restaurant menu.

• The unknown object attached to the ceiling in the SGT lobby does not make a sound when clicked as in the final, and in fact, has no click target at all.

• While you can look up at the upper SGT rooms, clicking them does not give you the room number.

• You can enter any SGT room to partially trigger the upgrade process, rather then just your assigned room. However, this often just causes every SGT room, including your own, to get jumbled up and become very extremely broken. This may soft-lock you, making it impossible to retrieve the magazine from the drawer. Speaking of...

• In this build, you do not go to the Succ-U-Bus for the magazine, you simply open your drawer after watching the advert. This explains why the video file the drawer uses had the magazine on it in the final game, but could otherwise not be found in that context in the final. Sadly, you still can't seem to read it, so those close up images of the magazine are unused even here.

• The PET descriptions of each module in the SGT rooms is different in this build. They are as follows:
  Flowers: Say it with... , Folded bed: Un/folds the bed , Toilet: If you feel the need , Closed drawer: Operate the drawer , Television: Operate the television , Settee: Relax in comfort , Unfolded bed: Un/fold the bed , Toilet Module: Jouer avec le commode pour se laver , Unfolded Desk: Operate the desk , Mini-settee: Un/fold the chair , Sink Unit: Sir/Dame would like to freshen up? , & Opened Drawers: Somewhere to put your things. Trying to use the bed before expanding the correct modules results in the different message: The bed will not currently support your weight. Thank you for trying.

• Channel 3 has an alternate competition banner upon completion of the SGT room, pictured here. You can also trigger it multiple times.

• Entering the correct SGT room after pre-configuring an incorrect SGT room that became yours causes it to bug out, apparently tossing the drawer module into the void.

• Weirdly, you can enter a room when the SGT elevators are at the bottom floor, which should be physically impossible, for the bottom floor rooms are offset for the sake of the elevator to the other two floors. Despite this, the unavailable cursor makes its first appearance, ironically in the one place you can apparently just ignore it.

• The buttons in the SGT elevators flash red when pushed. TODO: Does this happen in final?

• The Succ-U-Bus does not seem to say anything when you activate him after seeing the upgrade advert on the telly.

• On one transition inside the SGT Leisure Lounge, a small circular object can be found on one of the arm-rests. This object randomly disappears in the other transitions, and the video was re-rendered entirely without it in the final release.

Second Class \ Second Class Lobby \ Second Class Staterooms

• Marsinta has alternate, shorter dialogue for upgrading you to second class, and doesn't notice your magazine as soon as you start talking to her like in the final.

• The second class staterooms do not tell you the type of candy when you rustle them.

• A few transitions don't work, such as the one between the bed and the television.

Sculpture Chamber

• Marsinta's second knob sometimes disappears outright and can't be set.

• The sculpture dials make a different sound when interacted with, and behave differently. They linearly switch into the next position, rather then acting as a push-and-hold style switch that springs back afterwards. This, in theory, allows for full manual control of the bots cellpoints, rather then the just "ON" and "OFF" style seen in the final, however, the cellpoint settings fail to show up on the PET as you interact with the sculptures. The parrot seems absent from the room. It's likely this system was scrapped as the dials and knobs must return to their original position for the sake of the video transition back from them, this would absolutely have been confusing for new players. It was likely considered outright insane to render each and every possible dial state for every camera position in the room as well as every transition. It's a shame, as this beta system is much more satisfying to use. TODO: See if you can get Krage to discuss 'The Reason' with precise manipulation of his cellpoints.

• Several cellpoint knob positions bug out sometimes. Krage's seem the most stable.

Creators Chamber

• No televisions here (as the unused lines in the final implied), but the head sculptures do rotate entirely too fast to read the names on them in this prototype.

• There seems to be no animation for the head sculptures falling to the ground.

• The exit door suddenly starts using the Sculpture Chamber door while you are exiting, but apparently was edited or re-rendered on the correct side of the Top of the Well. This corner cutting doesn't quite pay off, because said door happens to be covered in Designer Room Codes for the Sculpture Chamber.

The Restaurant

• The Maitre d'Bots right arm is just floating off to the left of the screen, despite still being attached to his body and holding the green centre. Its transparency mask is not properly implemented, so it has pink edges. Trying to click it displays "You can't get this."

To do: Reconfirm behaviour of final.

• Maitre d'Bot sometimes comments when you pick up his other arm off the table. "Ouch. Please. That too is my arm."

To do: See if the real key can be found in this build. At least one other puzzle is different to the final, so it's possible the key is still in here.

• You can't rip off the Maitre d'Bot's left arm, so you can't get the Music System Key. This means you can never unlock the Music System box, and you can never get Maitre D to release his grip on the two items he holds. That all said, it's important to note that in this build, Maitre d'Bot only has graphics for holding a piece of Titania's brain (as in the final), and possibly some sort of notes. In that case, the arm doesn't even have the key in the first place, but is rather holding notes in this build instead. Where the key would have been found at this point, then, is unknown. And no, the erroneously titled night sky photo (which is actually called Music System Key in this prototype) does not unlock the box.

• In total, Maitre d'Bot appears to have three arms. The one floating off to the left that you can never get (holding the Green piece of Titania's Brain), the one on Scraliontis' table (possibly holding some notes), and the one visibly attached to his body that you can never remove.

• Maitre D has no chat icon, the space for an icon in the PET therefore remains blank. Since the final game doesn't include a portrait for him in the old set of small icons used in this prototype, we can safely assume he never received one until the change over to taller portraits.

• Some of the left and right nodes don't change the cursor, but work fine.

The Bar

• You can't talk to Fortillian by the TV like you can in the final, you have to ring the bell.

• The vision-center is far duller in colour. It was probably made more vibrant to stand out more.

• The bell Easter egg seems easier to trigger.

• The glass glitches on and off the table sometimes if you don't take it immediately.

• Fortillian won't comment on repeated bell presses, or breakages.

• The glass uses a different item video while in your inventory. It looks shinier.

The Succ-U-Bus

• Uses alternate denotation for 'gibberish' noises, e.g. <Foul noises>

• It appears to be next to impossible to get anything coherent out of Shorbert. He ignores everything you say or ask and merely spouts, as the game puts it, foul noises. More then usual, that is.

• He can however respond to queries about lost items, but just as the final, tells you to see... Mother. Mother of course will not give you your items. Just as in the final, you have to get your items from the Succ-U-Bus in Titania's Chamber after flicking the Succ-U-Bus fusebox switch, which is contrary to dialogue cues.

• Mother is not self aware and responds as any other Succ-U-Bus when queried about it.

• Mother makes a unique sound, like that of a printer or fax machine, when receiving, and can be triggered to 'receive' even when there is no item to get. This sound was listed as unused on the final game's TCRF audio page. This sound does not always play when receiving however, and may be semi-random or dependant on spam-clicking. More testing required.

The Bridge & The Ending

• The announcer doesn't seem to welcome you into the captain's transport. You also cannot go back to inside Titania's Chamber once on the bridge, so if you haven't disarmed the bomb, you're not going to either.

• No sounds play while the helmet is put on.

• A generic clunk plays instead of the normal 'scanner' sounds when inserting the photo into the navigation system.

• "Cruise around a bit" only turns the ship a little to the left, then back again.

• Switching to the photo during the 'Navigate-O-Ship' portion seems to just display a randomly chosen still from the 3D wireframe view, rather then the photo of the night sky above your house. That photo is still in the files for this prototype, so it appears to have just not been implemented yet.

• There doesn't seem to be any sounds for either the Navigate-O-Ship section as a whole, nor piloting the ship back to Earth.

• Once the ship lands on Earth, and you're looking at the keel, you curiously gain control back. You have no PET, but can choose to click either the television, or the starship's keel. If you click the starship, it will fly out towards the horizon without you, and you'll regain control. If you choose to zoom into the TV, it will automatically play Leovinus' left message for you, and you can also zoom out of the TV again while it's playing if you like. Zooming out of the TV moves the Titanic back into the horizon regardless, and the node to click on it is updated in accordance to its new position. You can replay Leovinus' message as much as you like before clicking the starship, or you can skip it entirely and click on the starship immediately. Clicking the starship causes it to immediately collapse and explode, softlocking the game on a white screen forever.

• There seems to be no way to win the game in this build, the starship will explode even if you disarm the bomb, and softlock on a white screen, never playing the credits for either the good or bad ending. The ship doesn't even take you with it, leaving you in the ruins of your old home.