Proto:The Magical Quest starring Mickey Mouse/Graphical Differences

This is a sub-page of Proto:The Magical Quest starring Mickey Mouse.

Fonts

Prototype	Final

Unused in the prototype

Several of the letters (like the E, P, T and W) were more closely styled after the font used in the Disney logo. Those characters were likely changed to make them more readable, while others received minor touch-ups. Only the B, H, J, U and ! remain untouched.

Prototype	Final

The score and extra life graphics are thicker and rounder in the prototype. Mmm-hmm.

HUD

Prototype	Final

The gold palette in the HUD has poor contrast in the prototype; in the final game, the dark brown color of the palette was darkened, and the other colors were brightened. The fancy border around the stage timer is slightly fancier in the final game. Both the player's score and the high score are flush with the player's coin counter in the prototype, while the final game moves both scores closer to the text at the top. Finally, the heart meter only supports one row in the prototype, while the final game splits the meter into two rows of five hearts each.

Prototype	Final

The palette used for the energy meters (also shared by the hearts and the Firefighter's costume's icon) is red, orange, yellow, and white in the prototype, while it's red, pink, yellow, and white in the final game. This was likely changed to make the different sections of the energy meter more distinct.

Mickey

Prototype	Final

There's less contrast in Mickey's default palette in the prototype. The final game brightened the white and light yellow colors and darkened the light gray, dark gray, and brown colors.

Mickey's default pose underwent the most touch-ups of any sprite in his default set. The shading on each part of his body -- mouth, lips, eyes, ears, hands, and trousers -- was improved in the final sprite. Mickey's left arm was made less thick, and the missing pixel on his right arm was filled in. Mickey's shoes also went through a redesign; In the prototype, there are no outlines or shading at the bottom to denote where the shoes end.

Prototype	Final

The shading on the bottom of Mickey's upper lip is one pixel wider in the final game. Not interesting, but it is a difference.

Prototype	Final

In the prototype walking animation, the shading on the bottom of Mickey's upper lip is made of two separate segments, but the shading isn't consistent between frames. The final game uses a single, unbroken line of shading.

Prototype	Final

One of the pixels in Mickey's right eye is darker in the final version. Wow!!!

Prototype	Final

Mickey's hands were redrawn in his hurt / defeated animations, and the hands were lowered and placed closer to his head in the second and third frames. His shoes were also redone to match their updated design.

Prototype	Final

There's more shading around Mickey's eyes in his head-shaking animation, and the shape of his eyes in the second frame was redrawn to match the eyes in the first frame.

Prototype	Final

Mickey's idle animation while carrying an object underwent similar (but not identical) changes as his normal idle animation did.

Prototype	Final

Mickey's carry & falling animation had some mouth adjustments.

Prototype	Final

Mickey's eyes look odd during his throw animation; he almost looks like a bear or a badger or something in these frames. The final game adjusts his eyes and adds another line of pixels to the left of the eyes. Unfortunately this was not a consistent change, as Mickey's ducking & throwing animation and both of Mountaineer Mickey's throwing animations still use the older eye graphics.

Prototype	Final

In the prototype, the player has an infinite amount of air, so swimming isn't a concern. In the final game, if the player spends too much time underwater, they'll start taking damage. For some reason they didn't put a visible air meter in this series until the third game, but at least they updated the swimming animations to clue the player in about swimming being potentially dangerous.

Mickey's left foot is higher than the right in the prototype, while in the final game his feet are level. This ended up introducing an error in the sprite - a transparent pixel to the right of Mickey's right shoe - but it's not that visible in the game proper. Mickey takes less time to face the player in the final game.

Prototype	Final

Besides the expression change, there are also some minor adjustments to Mickey's trousers.

Wizard Mickey

Prototype	Final

Mickey's wizard costume underwent similar palette changes as his default design did, with the addition of the every red color being brightened except for the darkest red, which was darkened even more.

Wizard Mickey's idle hands (and legs) were redrawn, and shading was added above his pupils.

Prototype	Final

Wizard Mickey's hurt animation underwent minor changes - just some pixels at the bottom of his left pupil being darkened - while his defeated animation underwent more noticeable changes.

Prototype	Final

Wizard Mickey's underwater idle animation uses the same expression as every other costume in the prototype. In the final game, Wizard Mickey has an additional power: An air bubble that keeps him from taking drowning damage. So, Wizard Mickey is now happy while idling in the water. Mickey looks happy while swimming in the Wizard costume in both versions, so this power might have been planned from the start.

Prototype	Final

Wizard Mickey has a different victory pose in the prototype. Every other victory pose ends with Mickey facing the screen, which is likely why this was changed.

Prototype	Final

The same change can be seen in Wizard Mickey's costume change animation.

Firefighter Mickey

Prototype		Final

Firefighter Mickey's spriteset underwent the most changes of any costume, and most of them have one thing in common: Boots. The boots in the prototype sprites are lighter and seem to be cut off at the bottom, while in the final version, the boots are darker and have definite soles.

Prototype		Final

Some poor artist had to go through every sprite that had Mickey's feet touching the ground and redraw the boots.

Prototype		Final

This might not seem like much, but it adds up.

Prototype	Final

Firefighter Mickey's stunned animation spends more time fully ducked in the prototype, while in the final version the last animation of the hat floating in the air lasts longer. And above all else, boots.

Prototype	Final

Standard underwater idle changes. Mickey's gulping like a fish in the final version.

Prototype	Final

Firefighter Mickey's sclerae shrink and expand between frames in the prototype, while they keep a consistent shape in the final game. Mickey's nose is bouncier in the prototype animation.

Prototype		Final

Boots, won't you?

Mountaineer Mickey

Prototype	Final

Swimming is bad for you. So is that pixel above Mickey's left eye that keeps disappearing, thank goodness that was fixed.

Prototype	Final

Did you know: Rodents are not aquatic mammals.

Prototype	Final

Two of Mickey's latch-on frames were redrawn in the final game. His straight-up latching animation is particularly off-model in the prototype.

Prototype	Final

Mountaineer Mickey faces toward the camera while climbing in the prototype, while he faces away in the final game. The overall quality of the animation was greatly improved too.

Prototype	Final

Mickey now looks up while swinging upwards in the final game.

Items

Prototype	Final

The shape of the apple is almost identical between versions, but the shading is very different.

Prototype	Final

The second fruit item in the prototype is a pair of cherries. They're a bit too similar visually to the apples, so the final game changes it to a bunch of blueberries.

Prototype	Final

The shading is inverted on the small heart in the prototype, giving it a "glassy" appearance. Whether this was intentional or the result of an earlier palette change is unknown.

Prototype	Final

The big heart is shaded slightly differently, and the divide is higher up.

Prototype	Final

The Mickey doll is smaller in the prototype and is made of four unique 8x8 tiles. The final game instead uses five unique 8x8 tiles and mirrors them horizontally to create a larger, more on-model Mickey doll.

Prototype	Final

The lamp, like the small heart, seems to have incorrect color assignments. Who ever heard of a blue magic lamp? This ain't no Bubble Bobble. Get out of here.

Prototype	Final

The sparkles that appear when the red blocks are respawning is slower and less impressive in the prototype. The slower animation makes the pink blocks take 12 frames longer to respawn.

Magic Door

Prototype	Final

The magic door's closing animation has an extra animation frame in the prototype that was removed later to free up VRAM. It's only visible for 3 frames, so it's not that big of a loss. The dark gray color is solid black in the final sprite.

Wizard

Prototype	Final

The helpful wizard has angel wings in the prototype! It's not clear why they were removed: Either Nintendo or Disney had a problem with them, or Capcom was being overly cautious with regard to Nintendo's content guidelines.

Prototype	Final

There's a stray line of pixels on one of the Wizard's talking frames in the prototype.

Coin Bird

Prototype	Final

The coin-dropping birds have a slightly different color palette in the final game; the grays of the prototype were replaced with purple and lavender. As for its sleeping animation, it's faster in the prototype, with a simpler animation for the bubble rising and popping.

Prototype	Final

The bird is fatter during its "groggy" phase in the final version. The prototype sprite is missing a tile on the right side. This is normally not visible since Mickey's hand would be covering it up...

...but turning around reveals the gap in the sprite. The final version fills in that gap.

Prototype	Final

The bird's eyes are open in the prototype, closed in the final game. In the prototype, the bird's beak doesn't match its shape in other animations; the final game fixes this oversight.

Prototype	Final

The coin bird suddenly returns to its compact sleeping size in the prototype, and it has a happy expression again. To keep some continuity between animations, the bird maintains the size and expression it had during its panicked state in the final game.

Flying Berry

Prototype	Final

The flying berries take off in different ways in both versions. In the prototype, a long stem extends from the center of the berry and the sepals start spinning at top speed immediately. In the final game, there is no stem and the sepals take longer to rotate at full speed. There's a more exaggerated rotating animation in the final sprite.

Prototype	Final

The conditions under which the berries burst is different too:

• In the prototype, once the berry reaches the peak of its flight, it will come careening down. When it hits the ground, it bursts.
• In the final game, once the berry approaches the peak of its flight, it starts throbbing and it then bursts in the air. Only in the final animation do the sepals fly off the fruit.

Cloud Platform

Prototype	Final

The cloud platforms are 16 pixels wider in the final game. The clouds are grey in the prototype, which doesn't really match up with the blue clouds seen in the stage's background.

Prototype	Final

Stepping on the cloud platforms will make them disappear in both versions. The animation for the cloud dissolving is pretty simple in the prototype, while in the final game the cloud seems to buckle under Mickey's weight before disappearing. The final animation takes longer in the final game, but the amount of time that the cloud remains solid matches the prototype.

Bee

Unused in the prototype

Prototype	Final

The shape of the bee's antennae during its diving animation is slightly different in the prototype.

Prototype	Final

The prototype has a different hurt animation for the bee...look at those teeth! The body is reused from the bee's idle-to-diving transition animation. The final game reuses the sprite from the diving animation and gives the bee a less extreme expression.

Tomato

Prototype	Final

The calyx of the rolling tomato is brighter and thicker in the final game, and the shine is shinier.

Frog

Prototype	Final

This enemy was changed from a fish with webbed toes and eyes in its mouth to a simpler frog design.

Prototype	Final

This enemy has one more frame in its swimming animation in the prototype; the developers were able to recycle one of its jumping frames, something which was only possible before the redesign.

Prototype	Final

Fish or frog, they both get bonked.

Starfish

Prototype	Final

The starfish and fish / frog share the same palette in both versions. As a consequence of the redesign, the starfish got a duller palette.

Leafling

Prototype	Final

The falling leaves are brighter in the final game, while the midrib was darkened to make it stand out more.

Prototype	Final

The leafling's emerging animation is timed differently in the prototype. It looks around more, then immediately gets up. The final game recycles one of the frames it uses for submerging to transition between the looking and walking animations.

Prototype	Final

Here's that walking animation. Look at that sweet midrib and/or midvein go.

Prototype	Final

Leaf got hurt. Poor leaf.

Mudfish

Unused in the prototype

Prototype	Final

The big fish's eyes are less sinister in the prototype.

Prototype	Final

The fish is thicker in the final game, with a larger and more prominent tongue.

Cocoon

Prototype	Final

The string of the cocoons/bagworms/beans or whatever in Stage 2 is the same color as the body in the prototype, while it's a darker color in the final version. The bobbing animation is a bit less smooth in the prototype.

Boioioing

Unused in the prototype

Prototype	Final

This is the only graphic of Boioioing in the prototype; in the final game, the body and skirt are separate sprites. The prototype design has an open mouth like Bat and Cro-Magma, a shorter skirt, and a more awkward idle stance.

Clubber

Prototype	Final

The clubs that the stumps in Stage 2-3 use are thicker in the final game when they're held up. The in-between and downwards swinging frames are identical in both versions.

Rock Block

Unused in the prototype

Prototype	Final

The big rock block in Stage 3-2 has more unique tiles in the prototype: Check out the center of the blocks in both versions. The developers were able to free up four spaces in VRAM by using existing tiles and mirroring them horizontally / vertically.

Fang Block

Unused in the prototype

Prototype	Final

The fang blocks are more intimidating and less block-shaped in the prototype. The design was likely changed to make it obvious that they can't hurt the player unless they get crushed by them.