User:Darkaiser/Prerelease:CTR/E3 1999
This is a sub-page of User:Darkaiser/Prerelease:CTR.
The game was initially unvailed at E3 1999 and feature a playable demo on the show floor from May 13th to May 15th. The demo features access to 1, 2 and 4-player options with selected tracks and characters preset locked at Arcade mode. Despite not having much footage, leftover data of the E3 menu in the public demo versions can help infer what content was playable in the booth.
E3 Demo
General Differences
| Mode | Track | Character |
|---|---|---|
| 1P | Dingo Canyon | Crash Bandicoot |
| Papu's Pyramid | Dr. Neo Cortex | |
| Blizzard Bluff | Tiny Tiger | |
| Crash Cove | Coco Bandicoot | |
| Tiger Temple | Polar | |
| 2P | Papu's Pyramid | Crash Bandicoot |
| Dr. Neo Cortex | ||
| 4P | Tiger Temple | Crash Bandicoot |
| Dr. Neo Cortex | ||
| Tiny Tiger | ||
| Coco Bandicoot | ||
| Blizzard Bluff | Crash Bandicoot | |
| Dr. Neo Cortex | ||
| Tiny Tiger | ||
| Coco Bandicoot |
- The demo would allow you to select 8 preset configurations, each with a fixed character and track. These include 5 options for 1-player mode, 1 for 2-player mode, and 2 for 4-player mode.
- In single player, characters are assigned to a particular track, while in multiplayer modes it is always defaulted to the main four (P1 - Crash, P2 - Cortex, P3 - Tiny, P4 - Coco).
- There is a demo mode that shows 4-player gameplay. In the final game, all rolling demos are set to 1-player only.
- The camera is always behind the player, rather than panning the race from different angles of the scenery.
- The demo sentence is longer and reads "play" instead of "exit".
- The usual HUD differences seen in many pre-release builds of the game - early icons, early speedometer, early traffic lights, lap counter separated by a hyphen, and lap times recorded after completing the lap.
- A bug sometimes prevents characters from displaying the head-turning animation when turning the kart.
- The racers start in random positions.
- The Wumpa counter does not glow when juiced up.
- Collecting a Wumpa fruit doesn't show the pick-up HUD animation.
- This also applies to the item roulette, which does not come out of the box.
- The item roulette cycle doesn't make any sound effects.
- The unused Spring power-up can be seen cycling in the roulette.
- Finishing a race displays the "Finished!" notice onscreen. The camera rotates around the character and the race HUD still remains.
- An early pause menu is shown after Cortex finishes the race in 2P race in Papu's Pyramid. The screen turns dark instead of a monochromatic screenshot, and the menu is uncentered and lacks a background box. Two options are available: "RESUME" and "RESTART RACE".
Tiger Temple
- The two Wumpa boxes are missing in Tiger Temple. Instead, there is a single Wumpa fruit.
Possible Screenshot
Although not totally clear, this specific screenshot might have been taken from the E3 demo, or at least from a closer build. Two differences caught the attention: First, even though the player has 10 Wumpa fruits, the counter isn't glowing. You can get over 10 Wumpas in the B-Roll build, however this one is clearly later, due to the HUD being fully functional at this point. Second, the HUD would remain on-screen after a race was over - however the Finished! string that would appear after crossing the finish line is missing here. These evidences lead to believe the date of the build shown here is from May, the same month of the E3 show. Finally, Crash is the playable character in Dingo Canyon, which is also consistent with the current footage.
