Spyro the Dragon (PlayStation)

Spyro the Dragon
Developer: Insomniac Games Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment Platform: PlayStation Released in JP: April 1, 1999 Released in US: September 10, 1998 Released in EU: October 23, 1998 Released in AU: November 15, 1998 This game has a hidden developer message. This game has unused graphics. This game has unused music. This game has unused sounds. This game has unused text. This game has regional differences. This game has a prototype article This game has a prerelease article

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Spyro the Dragon is the first game in what would become one of the PlayStation's best-selling and most iconic series. Gnasty Gnorc has crystallized the inhabitants of the Dragon Realms in a fit of rage, and it's Spyro's job to free the dragons, reclaim their stolen treasure, and toast some gnorcs!

Sub-Pages

Regional Differences Japan got the dragon's share of changes.

Pre-Release Materials

Prototype Info

Prerelease Info

Post-Release Demos

To do: The content is very similar across the demos, consider merging the pages.

Three of the game's demos were built after both English-language final builds.

Crash 3: Warped Demo The demo included in Crash Bandicoot: Warped, accessible with a cheat code. Both North American and European versions exist.

Foil Demo The demo used on a standalone demo disc released in 1999, with similar content to the above demo.

Developer Message

A rather cryptic compendium of text, repeated multiple times to fill up leftover space on the disc, can be found in the "DRAGON" file, containing extracts from Shakespeare, Dickens, Melville, Edgar Allen Poe, and other esteemed authors. It reads:

Now is the winter of our discontent...
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...
Call me Ishmael...
Stately, plump Buck Mulligan...
Call me Jonah.  My parents did...
Gaily bedight a gallant knight...
Beware the ides of March...
Tyger tyger burning bright...
...
I always get the Shemp...

Insomniac also managed to sneak this into the files of the second and third game. The term "Shemp" is an internal joke among the developers, as if something didn't go as planned, or if someone messed up, they "got the Shemp". It is itself found in the name of the boss Dr. Shemp.

Unused Text

Unused Dragon Names

The name listings for all of the dragons and balloonists (as well as Toasty and Jacques) contain a few names which go unused by any of the characters found in the final game.

RASHIDI
JETHRO
FINLAY
GALE
SILVUS

Notably, Silvus was used in demo builds of the game as the name of the cowardly dragon in the Artisans home, which was renamed to Tomas in the final release. The internal order in which the names are listed implies that they would have been used in Jacques (Rashidi), Cliff Town (Gale), and one of the Magic Crafters worlds (Finlay and Jethro).

Miscellaneous Text Strings

DRAGON X

The EXE in one of the demo versions references the "Dragon X" string many times in the dragon name pointer array, suggesting that it would have been used for Dragons whose names were yet to be decided. Despite this, prototypes which do contain dragons with undecided names instead show the name "Silvus" in their cutscene, corresponding to the first name in the array.

THIGH MASTERS

This... unusual piece of text is grouped in with the world names. This was clearly intended as a joke on Insomniac's part... although could you imagine if there actually was a Thigh Masters world?

This may possibly be a remnant from a time where 7 worlds were planned for the game, and in fact the earliest demo contains inventory data for a 7th world. Should the player access this inventory page, its world name will (unsurprisingly) display as "Thigh Masters".

Unused Graphics

To do: Get a better rip of the life icon - also identify if the head icon is actually present at all (and where?), as it seems like it may have been an edit of the other sprite.

Grouped in with the graphics displayed on the title screen is an unused life icon. This icon depicts Spyro's severed head in typical platformer fashion, more closely resembling the counters used in the second and third games than the 3D modeled head used for the life counter in the final game. Spyro's head is superimposed onto a metal plate with several cavities around its edge; apparently intended to hold the same life orbs which orbit the life counter in the final game. This graphic is also briefly seen in an early trailer for the game.

Also included within the title screen icons is a text sprite which reads "LOAD GAME" - despite being loaded into VRAM alongside the rest of the icons, it is never used. It's also only present in the data of the final North American version of the game.

Unused Sounds

The "WAD" file contains all of the audio resources in the game, but a small number are rendered unused throughout the entire game.

A rather crude "impact" sound, sounding very much akin to a cartoonish "slap". It was found in the files for the Dream Weavers home, and may have been intended for the large feminine druid enemy.

A secondary "death" sound for the Armored Spider enemy in High Caves, which sounds like it's getting squished or getting hit with considerable force. It may correspond to a scrapped event featured in the June 15th 1998 prototype of the game, where instead of a fairy granting Spyro a "superflame" powerup to dispose of these enemies, the same fairy would shrink the spiders down to half their size, allowing Spyro to defeat them with a normal charge. This feature being changed may have necessitated this sound effect's removal, with the same sound being used regardless of whether you defeated the enemy with the temporary "superflame" power-up or with the supercharge.

Unused Music

To do: Outdated info; going to fix later.

Multiple themes are present in the game which play after staying in a level long enough, although the exact circumstances that cause this are unknown and seemingly random. The only reason they play is due to a glitch in the game's audio looping and streaming. Although these themes aren't actually "unused", it's slightly unlikely that most players would hear them, as they only seem to play after most players will have left the level.

Unique Themes

Many of the themes are unique tracks not heard anywhere else. Some of the following tracks are only present in later releases of the game. The "Versions" column indicates which versions of the game they're present in.

Track	Notes	Versions
	A completely original theme, which sounds like a mix of several Spyro 1 themes (such as the Dark Hollow / credits motif and some of the Peace Keepers level themes), alongside original composition.	All
	Sounds similar to Wizard Peak.	All
	This track is notable in that it appears to have served as the basis of the European/Japanese variant of High Caves theme.	All
	Sounds like a mix between Alpine Ridge (the actual composition) and Gnasty Gnorc (the instruments used).	All
‎	Sounds vaguely like a more mellow version of Metalhead's theme.	European, Japanese
‎	Has a rather similar feel to Icy Flight.	European, Japanese
‎	Boasts immense similarities to the Beast Makers home.	European, Japanese
‎	Appears to resemble a calmer version of Jacques' theme.	European, Japanese
‎	A slightly altered variant of Blowhard's theme, with instrumentation similar to the European variant of High Caves.	European, Japanese
‎	A completely original theme, which sounds like a mix of several Spyro 1 themes (such as the title theme, Metalhead, Dark Passage, Blowhard and Town Square), alongside original composition.	European, Japanese

Duplicate Tracks

Several themes are duplicated within the STR files, meaning that a few tracks that are virtually identical to the ones heard in-game technically go unused.

North American Version

One such track is a duplicate of the Dark Hollow theme without the silence at the beginning.

There's also a duplicate of the Dream Weavers theme which seems to be identical to the one that is used.

On top of that, in the North American version of the game, a further six tracks are duplicated in order to fill out the last STR file (PETEXA0.STR) to include 8 tracks. These tracks are copies of the six themes that come immediately before the duplicates, and all four of the unique unused themes listed in the table above are included within this list:

• Credits Theme
• Alpine Ridge (Alt)
• High Caves (American)
• Wizard Peak (Alt)
• High Caves (European, Alt)
• Unidentified unused track

European/Japanese Versions

By the time of the European version's final build, the eight duplicate tracks had been removed. These were replaced with the European/Japanese version of the High Caves track, six entirely unique unused themes mentioned in the table above and one new duplicate track:

This seems to be a duplicate of one of the unique unused themes, but slightly quieter.

Note, also, that the addition of an updated High Caves theme means that the old theme goes unused in the European/Japanese versions, as the old theme was not removed.

Low-Poly Model Oddities

To do: Get images for the following: There's some slight geometry changes in Gnorc Cove.

There are a few notable differences between some of the level models and their respective low-poly variant that suggest the low-poly level models may reflect an earlier version of the level that they derive from.

Blowhard Exit Portal

Prior to the introduction of exit vortices, Spyro would exit the level using a portal similar to the one used to enter the level. These can be seen in some of the game's pre-release material. By the looks of it, Blowhard's exit portal stuck around in its low-poly model.

Low-Poly Model	High-Poly Model

Metalhead Platforms

Platform differences only seen in Metalhead's low-poly model.

Low-Poly Model	High-Poly Model

Unseen Level Geometry

In the Beast Makers home is a giant tree whose upper trunk and branches are normally never seen in-game due to the level's short draw distance.