Proto:Knuckles' Chaotix/1207 Prototype

This is a sub-page of Proto:Knuckles' Chaotix.

This page sucks. If you could make it suck less, that would be awesome. Specifically: Needs a serious rewrite. There's some bogus information in here.

Download Knuckles' Chaotix (Prototype 1207) File: Knuckles' Chaotix (Prototype 1207).bin (3 MB) (info)

Knuckles' Chaotix Prototype 1207 for the 32X was released by drx during the February 23rd, 2008 proto release. This is the earliest of the Chaotix protos. Its compile date is December 7, 1994.

Various Differences

General

• The SEGA screen contains a picture of Carnival Island that can be seen in the manual.
• The title screen menu is wildly different from all other Chaotix versions.
• Cheat menus are accessible by highlighting OPTION, then pressing A + Start for Color Test, C + Start for Sound Test (with preliminary graphics), or B + Start for Jam Out mode, which acts similar to Toejam & Earl.
  • In Jam Out mode, press A, B, C, or Start to play the many different DAC samples. Up, Down, Left, or Right can be held to change between sound banks. A + B + C + Start will Exit the Jam Out menu.
• The Level Title card calls the game Knuckles Ringstar and refers to Heavy as Heaby.
• The backgrounds have scrolling issues, sometimes half the background lags behind, sometimes it doesn't.
• Knuckles has different climbing sprites in this build.
• All the 32X art is uncompressed, in final most of the static art uses the C42 compression. Everything that uses the 32X VDP is viewable in this prototype.
• The text "SonicCrackersS32X" is present in Time Attack's attraction screen. The S32X stands for Super 32X. This confirms that Sonic Crackers was in fact a Knuckles' Chaotix prototype.
• Background for the Data Select screen isn't in yet. Controls are also reversed (Up moves down, Down moves up).
• The title screen track has percussion thrown in, as well as most other tracks.
• Sound Test is a very basic screen. It's a black background with white text.
• Some songs are vastly different from the final. All the musical differences are based on the regular, keyboard notes, not the percussion that was later removed.
• Due to a sound driver issue involving interpolation in the PWM code, some songs beep, making the music in them unpleasant to listen to.
• The cutscenes before the bosses are fully implemented in this proto, although the boss music starts directly in the cutscenes instead of playing "Have Some Fun".

Title Screen Differences

1207 Prototype	Final

The title screen has a very different layout in the prototype. Some obvious differences are that the 1207 prototype doesn't have the main characters on the title screen and there isn't an intro. The Chaotix logo doesn't have any palette cycling nor a trademark next to it. Also, the main menu is where the copyright would otherwise be.

Gameplay Differences

• Only Mighty, Knuckles, "**********"/Tails, and Charmy have their abilities implemented.
• Vector's running animation is faster.
• The Line that holds 2 characters together is always blue.
• When clearing a level, "Mechanical Dance" plays instead of "From Party to Party".
• Free movement/Debug mode is always enabled.
• Time can't go up.
• Icons for your current powerup don't display at the bottom of the screen, unlike the final.
• When Mighty uses the wall kick, it is different and "automatic". It uses an unused sprite present in the final, and matches with the same unused sprite for Sonic in Sonic Crackers. Another thing to note is that the sound effect when he clings to a wall is different. (It's Vector/Espio/Knuckles' sound when they cling to a wall.)
• When Knuckles is climbing you have to keep B pressed to climb, otherwise Knuckles falls off.
• The invincibility stars are very different - there's less of them (only two at a time, it seems), and they're small, gold, five-pointed stars. The stars also only surround the first player, unlike in the final when both players are surrounded.

Level Differences

General

• All Speed Slider acts are the same.
• As with the final, the backgrounds undergo color changes depending on the time of day selected, except Amazing Arena, which just changes a window's colour.

Intro Level

• This version of Chaotix has an interesting intro stage. During the meeting with Metal Sonic in the stage Espio will just fall out of the sky and Metal Sonic will be in the far foreground afterwards staring at you, and after a few seconds, he will charge at Espio.

Bonus Stage

• The Bonus Stage does not use the special stage sprites like in the final. It just shows the current character's "hurt" animation.
• The "500 pts" block only gives you 5 points.
• The knockback from hitting a block is significantly reduced.
• There are no sparkles after collecting a ring in the Bonus Stage.
• The blocks that hurt you have no effect, you just pass through them.

Special Stage

• The Special Stage has transparent checkerboard floors that while flickering become yellow again (as in, half the squares are transparent when you do find the checkerboards), and at one point, the junction from the tube to the "outside" part, there's a huge hole. There's no limits nor rings; it's all empty. There's issues with the way the tube bits (3D models) are connected, and you can sometimes see a black line, especially when it goes diagonally down. The level just repeats itself until you fall, you can't run out of rings.
• There is very little in the special stage itself, no messages, sprites, etc.
• Special Stage 6 only seems to have the finish line pattern, and freezes the player in place after about 2 seconds, forcing a reset.

Training Level

• Training level shows Botanic Base title screen and plays the same music (Door Into Summer) that is found in the title screen.
• Introduction level in stage select is vastly different from Introduction in "main" mode and plays the same track that the final does.
• Training 0 stage may have been used as an Engine Test level because its design is very different from the other training stages. This level features a closed place with platforms, loops and slopes. In the final game it is replaced by a copy of Training 1 although the boundaries fit the prototype version.

World Entrance

• World entrance uses the Combi Select BGM.
• There are no "EXIT" or "PLAY" signs.
• You can't walk off to the left to exit to the title screen.
• Right before you enter the level select screen there's a Speed Monitor underground.
• World entrance shows no screen, has no collection minigame, no slider. It is empty and just leads to the NPC SELECT screen, in this case only including Heavy, Bomb, Vector, Charmy and several question marks, one of which can't be selected. Afterwards is a level select screen with vastly different names:

Prototype	Final
BOTANIC GARDEN AMUSEMENT PARK AMAZING ZONE RESORT HOTEL MARINA DRIVE	BOTANIC BASE SPEED SLIDER AMAZING ARENA TECHNO TOWER MARINA MADNESS

• "Atraction" is misspelled with only two Ts.

Speed Slider

• Speed Slider appears to be based roughly off the rocket stage in Sonic Crackers. It has been edited since then; so, nothing matches exactly. However, there are noticeable similarities.
• The palette change in Speed Slider between the lower and upper background occurs too high, with the result that some of the tents appear green instead of red until a certain height.
• There are lots of loops in this Zone and none of them work.
• The Zone has no end-sign.
• The boss is not implemented.

Marina Madness

• Marina Madness' Act 4 boat doesn't move, nor does Act 5's.
• Collision on Marina Madness's boats that bob up and down is glitchy.
• The clouds and some other background details don't appear until after the title card has cleared.
• In the final, the area with the Invincibility also has a Speed Shoes.
• The boss is fully implemented.
• The background deformation is entirely different from the final and also incomplete. This is likely due to the fact that Marina Madness uses an unconventional background - it uses sprites to represent the background because the real background plane is reserved for the boats.

Isolated Island

• A portrait graphic similar to the ones on the attraction sign in the World Entrance for Isolated Island exists but is not used.

Amazing Arena

• Amazing Arena has a light on the first level. The hologram Eggman is also functional and can hit you with his fists. The next build with a switch near that first clock is the Jan 19 build, and even then its hologram's fists don't cause damage and instead just flail around.
• In Amazing Arena 5, the cutscene for the boss entrance is in and is fully functional. However, the boss itself never appears, leaving the level unbeatable.

Techno Tower

• The boss is fully implemented.

Botanic Base

• The boss of this level is implemented, but no music plays.

Early/Unused Graphics

Combi Catcher

Graphics for an early version of the Combi Catcher, which goes unused as the associated minigame is not yet present. Subsequent builds ditched the futuristic space pod look in favor of a tube-shaped capsule with a hatch on the top.

Strange Device

Graphics for an unusual device. Palette unknown. May be an animal capsule like in earlier Sonic games.

Flickies

To do: Upload images later

There exist graphics for several Flickies in the game, similar to the ones found in earlier Sonic games.

Sonic & Tails

• Graphics have been discovered in the ROM for monitors that were used in an earlier version of Chaotix - likely when it was still running on Genesis/Mega Drive hardware. The image above uses a palette that was unused in Sonic Crackers. As you can see, these graphics represent Sonic & Tails, conclusively proving they were intended to be in Chaotix.

• There is an empty space in the character selection menu following Mighty, who originally was Sonic. This space is believed to originally be reserved for Tails - the palette above is assigned to the character in the slot after Mighty, and contains many similar colors that were used in the Sonic Crackers prototype for Tails. In later protos, the palette still exists, but the character's palette pointer points to Mighty's palette instead. Presently, the character in this slot is unplayable due to crashing issues.

Images

• Chaotix1207 1.png
• 
• 
• Chaotix1207 5.png
• Chaotix1207 6.png
• 

External Links

Sonic Retro discussion thread

• Hidden Palace Release Page
• Videos of this prototype: Video 1 Video 2

(Source: Sonic Retro)