Proto:The Magical Quest starring Mickey Mouse

This page details one or more prototype versions of The Magical Quest starring Mickey Mouse.

An early prototype of The Magical Quest, then titled "The Mystical Quest", was dumped anonymously and then released on November 18th, 2018. Hand-written labels on the ROM chips give a build date of 1992/5/21, six months before the game's Japanese release date. The date lines up with Summer CES 1992 (May 28th to May 31st), so this is almost definitely the build featured there.

The game isn't even half done at this point: Only two out of the six stages are finished, with areas from later stages only being present in rough outline form.

Download Magical Quest Starring Mickey Mouse, The (Proto) File: Magical Quest Starring Mickey Mouse, The (Proto).zip (512 KB) (info)

Sub-Pages

Stage Differences Conspicuous absence of enemies.

Graphical Differences What is that thing?

Gameplay Differences

General

• The player always starts with six hearts in the prototype. In the final game, the player starts with either 5, 3, or 2 hearts depending on the difficulty setting.
• The player starts with 3 lives in both versions, but lives are counted differently. The player's last life at x1 in the prototype and at x0 in the final game.
• Every time the player enters a new area, the music resets and the energy meters for the player's outfits will be refilled. In the final game, the music will not reset and the player's energy meters will not be refilled.
• Every time the player dies in the prototype, they're sent back to the map screen before going back to the start of the section they died in. This is thankfully not the case in the final game.
• Once the player completes Stage 2-3, the game resets.
• Pressing 1P L + 1P R will slow the game down to about 1/5 speed.

(Source: SNES Central (Jonny))

Control

• It takes slightly longer to go from walking to running while on a sloped surface: 20 frames in the prototype, 12 frames in the final version.
• In the prototype, the player has to keep the Hold button held down to carry objects, and release the Hold button to throw/spin them. In the final game, the player only has to press the Hold button once to pick up an object and press it again to throw or spin it.

It seems that someone on the development team was nostalgic for the old system; the old control scheme appears as a setting in the Options menu in future games.

Outfits

• To show off how the costume system works, the player starts out with all three outfits.

• If the player is hit while charging in the Wizard costume and keeps the Shot button held down, the magical energy will stay in the same place it was before the player got hit. Once the player regains control of Mickey, the magic snaps back to Mickey's finger.
• In the prototype, the player has infinite air while underwater. The final game adds an invisible oxygen meter; if it depletes, the player will start taking damage. Thankfully, the Wizard outfit got a new ability: A protective bubble that provides air while underwater.
• Running out of energy in the Firefighter costume will still let the player spray at full blast in the prototype. In the final game, running out of energy will only let the player shoot a single short spray of water.

• The Mountaineer costume has an energy meter, but there's nothing in the game that depletes it. Even if energy is set to 0 through RAM manipulation, the costume will function normally.
• Mickey can't climb up grey blocks in the prototype.
• In the prototype, if Mickey is hanging from a ceiling or block, the only way to get him to stop hanging is to hold down until his rope is exhausted. In the final game, the player can also press the Shot button to stop hanging.

Items

• Apples are worth 200 points in the prototype, 500 points in the final game. The second fruit (Either cherries or blueberries depending on the version) increased from 100 to 200 points in the final version.
• The treasure boxes only contain fruit or coins in the normal maps; in the final game, they can also contain small hearts, Mickey dolls, or a big heart. The early version of Stage 4-2 has an extra life in one of the boxes, so it's clear that the ability to drop things other than fruit and coins has already been coded.
• Treasure boxes have 64 HP in the prototype, meaning they take 16 uncharged magic shots or 4 full-powered magic shots to destroy. They only have 5 HP in the final game, so shooting just 2 uncharged magic shots is enough to destroy them.
• The number of coins that the player can have is capped at 9999 in the prototype and at 999 in the final game.
• There's code for big hearts in the prototype, though it's not known at this time how to spawn one. Looking at the code, though, reveals that there's no cap on the number of hearts that the player can have. The final game limits the player to 10 hearts.
• There are no magic lamp or fire hydrant power-ups in any of the prototype maps.
• In the final game, destroying a yellow block will sometimes spawn a single small heart or coin. This isn't in the prototype yet.

• There are two extra item graphics in the prototype. The first is a rope and grappling hook that would have refilled the Mountaineer's outfit's energy meter.

The second item is this pulsating star, which probably would have provided temporary invincibility.

Timer

• The timer is set to 999 at the start of a stage, and going to a different area in a stage does not reset the timer. In the final game, the timer is reset at the start of each area and the amount of time put on the clock is dependent on the area. Losing a life will reset the timer in both versions.
• In the prototype, each second on the timer lasts 32 frames. This was doubled to 64 frames in the final version.
• In the final version, the timer starts flashing red and a strange warning sound plays once it's at 29 or below. This feature is not in the prototype.
• The "TIME OVER" screen isn't in the prototype. Instead, the game just cuts to black and goes back to the world map screen. The player does not lose a life.

Game Over

Prototype	Final

• The prototype immediately gives the Continue prompt, while the final game displays the player's score and the high score first.
• The wizard's dialogue isn't in the prototype.
• The Game Over graphic uses a brighter palette in the prototype. It also lacks dithering.

Music Differences

Track Listing

ID	Proto	Final	ID	Proto	Final
40	Capcom Logo	Capcom Logo	50	Game Over	N/A
41	Title	Title	51	N/A	Drum Roll
42	Stage 1	Stage 1	52	Stage Clear	Stage Clear
43	Stage 2	Stage 2	53	Unknown 1	General Store
44	N/A	Stage 3	54	Unknown 2	Game Over
45	N/A	Stage 4	55	New Costume	New Costume
46	N/A	Stage 5	56	Map Screen	Map Screen
47	N/A	Stage 6	57	N/A	Stage 6 Intro
48	N/A		N/A
49	Mid-Boss	Mid-Boss
4A	Boss 1	Boss 1
4B	N/A	Boss 2
4C	N/A	Final Boss
4D	N/A	Intro
4E	N/A	Ending
4F	Death	Death

Most of the music for the game hasn't been composed yet. There are a few tracks in the prototype, though, that are never used in-game: Use Pro Action Replay (PAR) code 018127XX, where XX is the track ID, to replace the title screen music with that track.

Note that the World Map music is used as a placeholder track if the player tries to enter Stages 3-7.

Unknown 1

Track ID: 53
This happy little tune occupies the same slot as the General Store music in the final version, though it's not clear if it was intended for the same purpose.

Unknown 2

Track ID: 54
A jolly jingle with an unknown purpose. This slot is used by the Game Over music in the final game, even though an identical Game Over track is in slot 50 in the prototype. Not sure why they moved it.

New Costume

Track ID: 55
This is identical to the music in the final game, it's just unused at this point.

World Map

Prototype	Final

Track ID: 56
The World Map tune is about three times as long in the prototype! Unfortunately only about 8 seconds of the track can be heard before the game loads the next area, which is likely why it was shortened in the final game. After it was trimmed, the backing melody was made a little more complex.

Script

The only cutscene in the prototype is the one between Mickey and the wizard in Stage 1-1. The text is almost identical, but the formatting of the text was heavily modified in the final English version. Mickey uses the yellow text palette in the prototype and the blue text palette in the final game.

Proto	Final
HI YA! I'M LOOKIN' FOR MY DOG, PLUTO. HAVE YOU SEEN HIM?	HI YA! I'M LOOKIN' FOR MY DOG, PLUTO. HAVE YOU SEEN HIM?
YES. YOUR DOG WAS CAPTURED BY THE EVIL RULER OF THIS WORLD, EMPEROR PETE. HE WILL NEVER GIVE HIM BACK TO YOU.	YES. YOUR DOG WAS CAPTURED BY THE EVIL RULER OF THIS WORLD, EMPEROR PETE. HE WILL NEVER GIVE HIM BACK TO YOU.
EMPEROR PETE?!	EMPEROR PETE!?
HE WILL PUT AN EVIL SPELL ON PLUTO AS HE DOES ALL HIS PRISON- ERS. I WARN YOU, HIS POWERFUL MAGIC HAS NEVER BEEN DEFEATED. DO NOT ATTEMPT TO RESCUE YOUR DOG. SAVE YOUR- SELF.	HE WILL PUT AN EVIL SPELL ON PLUTO AS HE DOES ALL HIS PRISONERS. I WARN YOU, HIS POWERFUL MAGIC HAS NEVER BEEN DEFEATED. DO NOT ATTEMPT TO RESCUE YOUR DOG. SAVE YOURSELF.
NO!!PLUTO'S MY PAL. I WON'T GIVE UP! CAN YOU TELL ME WHERE I CAN FIND THIS EMPEROR PETE?	NO!! PLUTO'S MY PAL. I WON'T GIVE UP! CAN YOU TELL ME WHERE I CAN FIND THIS EMPEROR PETE?
IF YOU INSIST ON GOING, FOLLOW THE EMPEROR'S STATUES ONE AFTER ANOTHER. THESE WILL LEAD YOU TO HIS CASTLE.	IF YOU INSIST ON GOING, FOLLOW THE EMPEROR'S STATUES ONE AFTER ANOTHER. THESE WILL LEAD YOU TO HIS CASTLE.
GOSH, THANKS! SO LONG!	GOSH, THANKS! SO LONG!
I WILL SCATTER MAGICAL BOXES THROUGHOUT THE LAND. THEY WILL HELP YOU WHEN- EVER YOU FIND TROUBLE ALONG YOUR JOURNEY. GOOD LUCK,AND BEWARE THE EMPE- ROR'S MAGIC!	I WILL SCATTER MAGICAL BOXES THROUGHOUT THE LAND. THEY WILL HELP YOU WHENEVER YOU FIND TROUBLE ALONG YOUR JOURNEY. GOOD LUCK, AND BEWARE THE EMPEROR'S MAGIC!

(Source: Original TCRF research)