User:OverFloyd/Sandbox

LEGO Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures (Windows)/Unused Levels

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The game has several unused levels, some are their own thing while others are work in progress or earlier versions of the used ones.

Levels

HUB_A.CSC

A very basic version of the main hub still in the LEGO Star Wars format. It has 12 rooms, 3 of which being empty ("and a waste of time"). It has:

• the main hall, completely empty, it only contains the transition doors to the other rooms;
• the office, it has various objects like some tools, furniture and an Egyptian tomb. None of the objects seem to have collision;
• the mall, for the mailboxes, it has the cabinet with a carpet in front of it (used for interacting with the cabinet, has no functionality here), other random wooden boxes;
• the cutscenes room, it has the benches, the camera and the carpet. Again no collision here;
• the cheats room (named "Core"), with benches, the teacher's desk and the blackboard (and the carpet);
• the customizer room, with some tables and a couple of closets, and two gray cylinders as placeholders for the two custom minifigs;
• the library, pretty much like the one in the final game except for the lack of textures and functionalities;
• a "maps" room, pretty much a room with benches and three large maps (aka the ones for accessing the three movies);
• the relics and gym rooms, completely empty.

HUB_C

A cut sector of the hub, built around puzzles to progress. It features several rooms (all of them have incorrect names):

• the player starts off in the (for real this time) gym room, with seats and a basketball pole, which is destroyable and rebuildable into a tall platform. Climbing onto it makes accessible the transition area to the next room;
• Indy's Workshop, which is in reality some sort of pool room, with a dinghy, two springboards, two crawlspaces for small characters. Going through the crawlspace makes the player go on top of a tall platform with a spinner. Using the spinner makes the dinghy inflate and then disappear, pulling the ropes simultaneously makes the pool drain, making the next room accessible;
• Theatre, which is, infact, a basement. It has some miscellaneous furniture, a heater and a shovel. Using the shovel on a specific spot of terrain reveals a pipe bomb, which can be used to destroy the heater. Doing so will make the hanging metal pipes to fall down, which can be rebuilt into stairs that lead to a hieroglyph puzzle, used to unlock the next area;
• Library, a big empty room that contains nothing but three torches and three pillars which come up when the player approaches them. As the player puts the torches on top of the pillars a big staircase will slide off the wall to the next floor. This new floor has a glass box that contains a gem and an invisible Kali statue, both apparently serve no purpose. Going through the door leads to the (used) artifact room. If the player picked up the gem from the glass box, it will be carried over to the artifacts room (which would have been better than randomly finding it on the floor for sure).

(Source: RogerRoger from 22:50 to 28:08)

HUB_ART

An earlier version of the used hub, or just the first room where the player spawns in. It lacks the three boards used to access the stories and has a wooden wall with some books and a textureless Indy behind it. The room is pretty much incomplete, with no objects and several differences with the geometry.

HelenTest2

An early version of LOSTTEMPLE_A and B from LEGO Star Wars. It has an object layout, although different (like carrots in place of tribal golden heads and the lack of many gimmics), and some geometry doesn't have any associated texture. The background is also different, showing a much denser jungle than in the final level in some places. The "B" section lacks the raft and includes boulders to traverse the water instead. Unlike the previous area, there's not as many objects and the transition to the inside of the temple is missing.

Cutscenes

TODO

DESCRIPTION

Prerelease:LEGO Racers (Windows, Nintendo 64, PlayStation)

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Development Timeline

WIP

• 1995: brain storming at High Voltage Studios begins and various documents are created with early ideas for game mechanics and power-ups
• 1996: an overview document is created to make a draft of how the game will be;
• early 1998: development begins;
• march 31, 1998: the first ever demo for the game is presented to the press;
• may 1998: game is presented at E3. Two stages are shown, one being an early version of Magma Moon Marathon and another being of a castle-like level, possibly the earliest iteration of Royal Knights Raceway;
• december 1998: the game is in alpha stage, stages are being worked on, some are similar to how they look in the final game, others are vastly different. Cars are prebuilt, their design is very different, and there's jewels instead of bricks for power ups;
• early 1999 TO BE CONFIRMED: the game is greatly resized due to the PS1 version not being able to handle the complexity of some tracks and car models;
• february 1999: the final models for boss drivers are made, testing for player-built cars are being made;
• july 1999: the game is released;
• october 1999: a demo for the 2001 version is released;
• late 1999: promotional material is being produced for the game: a general promo with gameplay and some sort of halloween deal.
• january 2001: the game is rereleased;

1995 Concepts Document

WIP

High Voltage Software started planning and brainstorming as far back as 1995. The first document for the game details early power-up ideas, opponents, champions and drones, the construction and car statistics aspect, car parts and tires and "repair and pit stops".

Damage mechanics and pit stops

Originally the cars were meant to take damage and deteriorate losing bricks after taking hits, and if they too too many hits the car would dismantle leaving the driver sitting on the ground shaking their head. After that the driver had to wait for the repair crew to arrive and rebuild the car; to avoid breaking the car the player could collect certain collectables or go through a pit stop. Interestingly this mechanic would be repurposed for the game' sequel almost like it was conceived, minus the collectables. In the first game upon getting hit the car just visually loses some bricks without any real damage being taken.

(Source: High Voltage Studios 1995 Lego Racers Concepts)

1996 HVS Design Overview

In 1996 HVS wrote down a draft document with a somewhat finalized idea of what the game will be.

It stated that the game will be devided into two primary sections, them being Construction and Racing. It goes on describing the gists of the controls for car building and the primary construction areas:

• the Showroom: basically the selection screen for all prebuilt and player-made cars. It was going to be divided into different categories like high speed, stock, off road and custom, all having their different properties when racing. The scene for the showroom was going to be, you guessed it, a showroom with Lego vehicles in the background fitting the theme of the currently selected car;
• Modular: what will become the regular car builder;
• Custom: a more advanced version of Modular mode, which would have allowed the player to build a car from scratch using a wide ranmge of parts. It would have taken place in a garage, idea that would later be applied to the regular Modular mode.

After the car was finished the played would have been brought directly to the test track to test its capabilities. After having done so, the player could adjust its attributes and going on with the game. The test track itself was composed of two sections: the test drive itself and a "tinker" section. The idea for the test drive was pretty much like it ended up in the final game: no CPU racers, no time limit. Although it was intended to have every type of track in the game and it would have been divided into sections where the player was to complete different tests, while the final track just has an oval-like circuit and an off road-like section with no real difference in gameplay.

After having complete the test drive the player was brought to the tinker section, where it could have been possible to change the tire set, repaint the vehicle or change the car's attributes.

The document goes on to describe vaeguely Time Trials and track layouts, without really saying the themes, how many there were going to be, the existance of circuits etc.

(Source: High Voltage Studios 1996 Lego Racers Design Overview)

E3 Demo

Gameplay

Gameplay seems to be largely the same as the March 31, 1998 build, although some aspects of it have been finalized such as:

• the number of laps is now a maximum of 3 instead of 6 from the previous build;
• a proper start/end of race sequence have been added;
• powersliding is shown for the first time, despite the dev log stating it was already a thing in the previous build. While powersliding the car doesn't tile;

Opponent AI

The AI for opponents used to be quite different. Based on several screenshots and on the March 31, 1998 prototype, it used to be, infact, similar to the one the player itself uses during the after race. This AI isn't very good and it tends to get stuck very easily if it loses its predetermined path, resulting in, quite frankly, very odd behaviors.

Due to this AI being largely unfinished and likely not having enough time to properly finish it, it was replaced for all opponents with another one far more basic that is stuck to the predetermined path like a train on rails, while the old one was kept for the after race.

The latter is also used as a fallback under very specific circumstances (mainly achieved through modding): if the driver is set to be driver 0 (the player) and no path is defined, the game will use the after race AI and will follow the boss' path until crossing again the finish line, where the regular AI will kick in still stuck to the boss' path.

(Source: Original TCRF research)

Driver Animations

Based on the E3 demo screenshots and the March 31, 1998 prototype, the driver still doesn't seem to have animations, as when steering and after the race is finished they just sit still.

Cars

The E3 demo includes early versions of racers like Basil the Batlord, King Kahuka, Captain Redbeard, Ann Droid, Baron Von Barron and an unknown racer resembling Alpha Draconis. Two other racers are known to exist based on the 1998 dev log but they aren't shown in the publily available screenshots.

The cars are also completely different from their final game counterpart, and some would stick around throughout the early development stages.

Tracks

A very early version of Magma Moon Marathon was included in the E3 demo showing King Kahuka at the finish line with the mine power-up collected. The terrain seems like it doesn't have textures, just the geometry is colored, much like the March 31, 1998 build.

What would soon become Royal Knights Raceway appears in a screenshot from E3 1998, showing the racers around the starting point.

HUD & Visuals

In the E3 demo, the minimap isn't implemented yet and a different version of the speedometer is shown at all times. One of the screenshots also shows an early version of the mine power-up, also present in the March 31, 1998 build.

The layout of the race's info and statisyics has been finalized since the marct 1998 build but still differs from the final game: the text is still yellow and bigger, the "3 2 1 GO!" text has been added but it's red and it features an exclamation mark. The font itself has the same design as the final but the letter "E" has a different design, being drawn as lowercase for some reasons.

The camera system seems to have been worked on since the March 31, 1998 build, as one of the screenshots shows the end-of-race camera at a different angle.

Power-ups

The power-up system seems to be identical to its early 1998 iteration, though the HUD sprites were changed and special effects were added (like the turbo booster behind the cars). The race start boost was also added in this build, as shown in the castle level screenshot.

Later Prototypes

HUD

Later in the N64 version a basic minimap was implemented, showing a white square with the map of the track as seen from above inside. It would show the walls instead of the track itself with a pink color. It seems like the player marker would stay fixed in place and the map would rotate left or right, much like the alternate version of the minimap present in the final game.

It would show up on the left side of the screen rather than replacing the speedometer like in the final game.

(Source: 64 Magazine Issue 25)

Power-ups

It's interesting to note that for the majority of the development, the power-ups were in the form of jewels, instead of bricks. Their design matches the jewel rock element released with the Adventurers sets in 1998. This was evidently changed fairly late into development, as many gaming magazines published in the months leading up to the release of the game, had screenshots of demo builds with the jewels still being used. It was only when the game was very close to release, that screenshots showing bricks as power-ups were seen.

Their mechanics have mostly been unchanged since their introduction: white jewels served as upgrades, red jewels were projectiles, green jewels were turbos, yellow ones were hazards and blue were shields. A concept art for power-ups was made early on, showing four of them: a space gun(?), the cannon ball, the shield and a bomb.

The Australian Playstation Magazine from September 26, 1999 describes different behaviour for the lightning and cannonball power-ups: a car zapped by the lightning would "bouce off the track" and the cannonball would make the car jump and spin around before resuming racing. The latter was also seen in early screenshots (such as the one in Knightmare-Athon featuring the boulder and another in Royal Knights Raceway), it would later be reassigned to the triple rockets in the final.

(Source: Australian Playstation Magazine p. 36)

SHIELDS

Cars

Elaborate on the designs, as they changed many times, upload screenshots

Menus

The 64 Magazine from april 1999 shows screenshots of the N64 version being in a very different but somehow overall complete state.

(Source: 64 Magazine)

Main menu

The main menu was much different: it didn't have the giant minifigure waving at you but instead a background with blue sky, a giant "START" sign and a car right under it. Like the final game, all the options and gamemodes are placed to the left, just with different button designs.

(Source: Nintendo Official Magazine n. 81)

Builder

The N64 Pro Issue 20 also shows the "build" menu featuring different buttons and a much different version of the car showcase, which seems to show some sort of castle hallway.

(Source: N64 Pro Issue 20 p. 6 and 7)

Edit driver and license

The character builder has a very different UI, showing the minifigure t-posing, while the "Edit license" has a white background with two checkered flags and a LEGO tire.

Garage

Very notable is the garage where you build the car, which feels more like a proper workshop, which features windows.

(Source: Nintendo Official Magazine n. 81)

Track selection

TODO

Tracks

Some tracks are shown in prerelease screenshots and magazines. In april 1999 all the 12 tracks were playable although still in the process of being refined. High Voltage said that they were building them based on four LEGO sets, being Pirates, Castle, Space and Adventures, without really mentioning them having a boss to beat. Also no mention of Rocket Racer anywhere.

The tracks, based on that, are sorted like this:

Pirates Imperial Grand Prix Tribal Island Trail Pirate Skull Pass Castle Dark Forest Dash Royal Knights Raceway Knightmare-Athon

Space Magma Moon Marathon Ice Planet Pathway Alien Rally Asteriod Adventures Desert Adventure Dragway Amazon Adventure Alley Adventure Temple Trial

All of the tracks had slightly different power-up placement.

Dark Forest Dash

POWER-UP LAYOUT

To the right of the waterfall, instead of a tree there used to be a forest house.

(Source: Nintendo Official Magazine n. 81)

An odd piece of geometry sticking out of the fence near the waterfall. That spot in particular appears to be badly patched in the final version of the track.

Magma Moon Marathon

TODO

Desert Adventure Dragway

Desert Adventure Dragway used to have a different path in the early stages of development, the most known fact is that it used to not have the sphinx shortcut but a different kind of monument with obelisks and water, with paths going on the side of it.

The left path is still present in the final game while the right path was removed, most likely to make room for the more interesting pyramyd shortcut (which was also present at this point but likely had a different route).

PYRAMID SCREENSHOT

Just before the falling egyptian pillar, there used to be a desert-themed jeep on the right side of the track. The area is also quite similar to the intro FMV for the game, being a little bit more open.

COMPARISON SCREENSHOTS

(Source: Nintendo Official Magazine n. 76 and n. 81)

Tribal Island Trail

STARTING POINT BG, POWER-UP LAYOUT

Royal Knights Raceway

ALPHA VERSION
https://archive.org/details/64-magazine-25/page/n27/mode/2up

The hammer hallway used to be located right after the starting area and it featured two hammers instead of one.

(Source: Nintendo Official Magazine n. 76)

Ice Planet Pathway

Some early screenshots show parts of Ice Planet Pathway which are recognizable but still feature different power-up layout and different background features.

(Source: N64 Pro Issue 20 p. 6)

UNRECOGNIZABLE LOCATION
https://archive.org/details/nintendo-official-magazine-uk-76-january-1999/page/108/mode/1up

Amazon Adventure Alley

SCREENSHOTS

Amazon Adventure Alley used to be quite different, having different starting point and entrance to the temple area. The latter would survive in the form of the Baron von Barron cutscene for circuit 5.

It also used to have a different intro cutscene before starting the race, showing the racers from a weird angle.

(Source: LEGO Mania Magazine)

Knightmare-Athon

SHORTCUTS

Pirate Skull Pass

PC screenshot showing the very start of the track. Worth noting are the different HUD and power-ups (diamonds), the sea background (a thing that was removed from the PC version but kept on console for some reason) and a transparency bug on the pirate boat's ropes.

N64 Prototype	Final

As it is pretty well known, Pirate Skull Pass used to have a shortcut at the start of the track, which was removed last minute in development given how badly it was patched out. A screenshot from IGN of the N64 version shows where it would have started, in the final game a fence was put in place to prevent access.

SCREENSHOT

In addition to that, there were some geometry differences such as the sea being visible in the portion of the track where the skull monument is placed, lacking the rock wall and having a fence instead. The NPC cars and the player-made car designs suggest that this was changed very late in development.

Concept art

The previously mentioned concept art for power-ups.

Another concept art showing a cinematic for the game or just gameplay in general.

Bugs:Asterix & Obelix XXL (PlayStation 2, Windows, GameCube)

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