Spyro: Year of the Dragon

Spyro: Year of the Dragon
Developer: Insomniac Games Publishers: SCEA (US), SCEE (EU) Platform: PlayStation Released in US: November 1, 2000 Released in EU: November 10, 2000 This game has unused areas. This game has a hidden developer message. This game has unused enemies. This game has unused sounds. This game has a hidden sound test. This game has revisional differences. This game has anti-piracy features. This game has a prototype article This game has a prerelease article

Spyro: Year of the Dragon is the third game of the Spyro series and the last for PlayStation. It was also the last Spyro game developed by Insomniac Games.

Anti-Piracy Message

This game is unique in that it has a LOT of anti-crack "booby traps", checking for alterations to the game alongside the existing copy-protection. One wrong bit and the trap is triggered. This deliberately made cracking the game a real pain!

Once the trap has been triggered, all sorts of weird things will happen. Zoe will politely inform you that your game is hacked early on in the game. Random eggs and gems in levels other than the one you're in are removed to render the game unwinnable. The game deliberately crashes in odd and confusing ways. The language in the European version changes randomly... all sorts of "fun" things to make pirates pull their hair out!

Here's an article by one of the developers, explaining the whole process.

Thanks, narc.

Unused Text

Located in the main directory of the disc is a file called 'SPYRO3.TRD'. It contains the following text:

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...

This text is also present in the files for both predecessors. (in the "DRAGON.TRD" and "SPYRO2.TRD" files respectably)

'Shemp' is referenced multiple times in the Spyro series, starting with the boss in the first game called 'Dr Shemp'. It's thought to be an in-joke by the developers whenever an unexpected error occurred or when one of the developers messed up, and in either case, they would "get the Shemp". It was likely added to reduce any leftover space on the disc, a conclusion further supported by its inclusion in the files of the playable Crash Bandicoot demos accessible in the series.

Brian Allgeier, we love you.

Grouped in with the epilogue text within the Atlas is this sneaky message by Insomniac Designer Head Brian Allgeier, who at the time of Spyro 3's development was a level designer at the company.

The very last egg, no really it is. 

Where do you think you're going with that egg. You just put that back this minute.

You can't trust anyone these days.

A (rather long) string of text which appears to have been inserted purely for humour and doesn't occur at all in the game (because it's far too long to fit into an Atlas description for a start)

Stop, thief.

Possibly tied to the above string, again rendering it as part of the developers' quirky sense of humour.

fuckety fuck fuck

A slightly ruder text string. A similar string is used in an earlier prototype of the game as an error handler, so it's possible that this was either used for debugging or error handling, too.

Hunter's Dialogue Oddity

If the player completes both of the Sunny Villa skateboarding egg challenges and talks to Hunter, he says the following:

You can go for the course record now, if you want. Whenever you hop on a skateboard, a timer will start.
Score as many points as you can until the timer expires or you wipe out. Good luck!

While this is mostly true, wiping out doesn't end your run; the run is only over when you run out of time. This is simply a leftover from an earlier version of the game - in two different demos of the game, wiping out causes the timer to stop and your points to reset to zero, meaning if you had broken the course record during the run, it isn't counted unless you can survive until the time is up. The difficulty of this may have been what motivated the change. Most notably, while Hunter still says exactly the same dialogue, the audio file for the dialogue is missing. Given how late in development the demo was, it's possible that they changed the challenge after the dialogue had been added, and due to time constraints they couldn't fix it.

Sparx's Dialogue Oddity

Sparx has dialogue left over from an earlier version of the game, too. In Honey Speedway, Sparx says the following:

Honeycomb Speedway is home to the fastest racing bees in the world. It's also one of the only speedways that operates at night!

"Honeycomb Speedway" is the early name for Honey Speedway, and it can be found in unused text strings in the earliest demo of the game.

Scorch's Pit Unused Content

To do: Get a graphic rip or screenshot of the ammunition and enemy.

Unused Animation

2 unused variations of the bullets Bentley provides you with in the Scorch's Pit boss level can be triggered if one hacks the game. The first, symbolised by a spiked snowball rather similar to the Crystal Glacier Talisman from the previous game, acts as a 'smart bomb', killing all other entities on the battlefield (both enemies and chickens, but there is no effect on the boss). The second is a temporary invincibility function, which acts like the power-up usable in Evening Lake and is represented by the same small shield icon which has represented invincibility since Spyro 2. The latter may have been scrapped for a number of reasons, whether due to Scorch's lack of challenge or due to how the invincibility isn't an offensive powerup and as a result may slow the player down, while the former was probably scrapped because it was too damaging and thus is overpowered.

Unused Enemy

There's an unused re-colouration of the fire trolls that doesn't give off a 'steam' effect and is green instead of orange. It doesn't seem to have any sort of attack and it just runs at the player.

Sergeant Byrd's Texture Oddity

To do: Screenshots. Also, which versions of the game is he seen with his early texture?

In early versions of the game, Sergeant Byrd uses a texture which more closely matches his official artwork - instead of wearing a green hat and a belt, he wears a silver studded hat. The colours of the inside of his mouth and his chest seem to be different, too. This texture is actually seen in-game - in the "Bianca Strikes Back" cutscene, Sergeant Byrd is briefly seen in a cage with his early texture (and what appears to be a much larger model than his playable one) alongside some rhynocs which were also seen in early screenshots of the game, but didn't make it into any of the levels. Later on in the game, when he is is locked in his cage next to Moneybags, in certain versions of the game he sports his older model, while in other versions he uses his newer one.

Dialogue Test

The game has a hidden mode for testing dialogue voices from the current level. It can be accessed by pressing Square, Square, Circle, Circle, Square, Square, Circle, Circle in the pause menu. Text indicating the chosen NPC and sound clip will appear below the pause menu. Use Up and Down to select the voice you want to hear.

You can exit the dialogue test by inputting the cheat a second time.

Due to the way audio streams are stored in this game, the voice clips override the music track. Once you play a voice clip and leave the menu, it will loop infinitely in place of the music track for that level until you leave the area.

Unused Dialogue

By using the dialogue test cheat in Evening Lake, two unused dialogue strings of The Professor can be heard. In Fireworks Factory, Greta does mention that the blueprints for the Professor's 'wocket' have been stolen (these are used to build a rocket seen at the end of the level), and a rocket does take you from Evening Lake to Midnight Mountain, but the Professor himself is only seen in Agent 9's Lab (and makes an appearance with Elora during the ending sequence).

Oh dear... Oh dear, I've been trying to build a rocket to take you to Midnight Mountain, but I appear to have misplaced my plans!
Now I can't even remember where I was working...

Don't worry about me, I'm just gathering my thoughts- eh, let's see... I was working on the plans, some ninjas appeared...
eeh, geh, then everything gets fuzzy.

Using the dialogue cheat in Sunny Villa reveals two dialogue strings which would have been said by Hunter. This time, the text strings are still present in the code, and have even been translated in the PAL version, but they are never seen or heard in-game:

Now that you've mastered the basics, let's see you do some stunts!
Try using the X or Triangle button to jump off ramps and turn in the air.

This is the most fun I've had since we chased King Flippy on the manta ray.

Most notably, these strings are present and used in the earliest demo of the game. In this prototype, Hunter's "course record" dialogue isn't present at all, and he alternates between saying each of the above strings instead.

The following string is seen a number of times in the code but appears to be unused:

Thanks for freeing me. Why don't you come visit me in my home world?

Furthermore, each of the playable characters (aside Sparx) can be heard saying this when using the dialogue cheat in each homeworld. This dialogue is never seen or heard in-game though, since a cutscene plays immediately after freeing them, in which they thank Spyro and enter the portal. It's possible that this dialogue was used when the cutscenes hadn't been implemented yet.

Unused Music

To do: Gather information on other builds of the game, particularly the original US Version 1.0. Do they contain the Greatest Hits Tracks?

Multiple areas across the game reuse prior level themes in early builds of the game (and in some cases the final build), such as Enchanted Towers playing the same theme used for Sgt. Byrd's Base. Whilst this is a common practice frequently employed in platformers and adventure games, Year of the Dragon is notable for level themes differing depending not merely on the build of the game, but on its region, multiple pieces of music remaining exclusive to NTSC builds of the game and not occurring at all in PAL versions. Even more strangely, some of the corresponding themes are present on the PAL disc, and it is unknown as to why they don't play in-game.

The themes for Evening Lake and the Sorceress' Lair, both used in their intended areas in the Greatest Hits release, are rendered unused in every other variant of the game, including the original US version as well as (unusually) the PAL Platinum release, the latter of which applies the majority of the Greatest Hits edits otherwise. Even more bizarrely, these 2 themes are the only Greatest Hits exclusive themes that can be found on the PAL disc, the others (including the Enchanted Towers Skate Park, Crystal Islands, Haunted Tomb, Lost Fleet and more) not being present at all.

Unused Sounds

2 unused sounds can be heard in the WAD, though both (the Guidebook page turning sound and the "Level Complete!" fanfare) are leftovers from Spyro 2.

Unused Graphics

To do: Perhaps get direct texture rips of the sprites, or at least screenshots

Power-Up Icons

Through a little bit of hacking, the power-up sprites can be viewed in the pause menu. Only three power-up gates are featured in the final game - Superflame, superfly and invincibility. While the ice breath power-up is available in Frozen Altars, it is not activated with a power-up gate, nor does the player only have the power-up for a limited time. As a result, the ice cube sprite (a leftover from Spyro 2) which would normally go atop the power-up meter goes unused. The weird blue ball sprite seems to go totally unused.

Icy Peak Rhynoc Head

Amongst the graphics used in Icy Peak is a single unused frame of a rhynoc's head. The rhynoc matches the ones seen in the ice dancing minigame, except without a helmet, just like in this early screenshot. Given the placement of the sprite - where animation sprites usually go, it's likely that this was one of multiple animation sprites meant for a scrapped counter used in that minigame, but only one animation frame was ever created.

Bamboo Terrace Counter Icons

A prerelease screenshot of the game indicated that in earlier versions of the game, there was a counter in one of the Bamboo Terrace minigames. A zero is used in place of where the animated icon would go. In the final, no such counter is present, but animation sprites for the an icon matching the minigame do exist.

Spike's Arena Zero

An extra "0" is found in the graphics files for Spike's Arena, after the animation files for the sprite of Spike's head. Like in the screenshot previously mentioned, this was probably used as a placeholder when the animated sprite wasn't complete.

Frozen Altars Cat

In the cat hockey minigame in Frozen Altars, a single sprite of a cat is placed between the animation sprites for Spyro and the rival rhynoc. Once again, this was probably the first animation frame for some sort of counter - given that the game already has counters tracking both the player's and the AI's score in the final game, it's not exactly clear what this would have been used for, or why it became unused.

Unused Areas

Spyro: Year of the Dragon has several unused areas in the game. It is likely that these areas were meant to be accessible, but never made it into the game for unknown reasons.

Fireworks Factory Cave

In the level 'Fireworks Factory', there's a hidden cave with a life inside, and can only be reached through hacking or glitching. The cave is located near the start of the level, and acts as though it was supposed to have a wall that could be busted when rammed into, but doesn't.

Midnight Mountain Island

'Midnight Mountain Home' has a small island that is far out of reach to the player during normal game play that has three lives on it. This island was originally intended to house the Super Bonus Round portal before it was moved. In the words of senior artist Craig Stitt:

A long time ago the portal to the Super Bonus Round was on that island.
The only way to get to that island was beat the Sorceress in the final
battle. Once you had done that a VERY VERY tall whirl wind would appear
in the room just outside the entrance to the final boss round. This
whirlwind would take you up high enough that you could glide ALL the way
out to that island. If I remember right it was like a 20 or 30 second
glide. It was very cool. I was actually the artist who modeled the level.

Unfortunately, the way vacations that year worked out, I needed to take
mine right before we shipped the game. When I came back I discovered
that the Super Bonus Portal had been moved MUCH closer and that the
super-whirl-wind had been removed (for unknown reasons). Unfortunately,
the artist who made all the changes (as per the programmer's and
designer's request) failed to remove the old island way off in the
distance. Same with the programmer who overlook removing the goodies
that had been placed there.

By the time I was back from vacation the game was done and out the door.

The very tall whirlwind object still exists in the game and can be restored. (Ignore the egg on the island at the end, it was added by the hacker.)

(Source: Neoseeker)

Dino Mines Arena

An image of the level in a level viewer.

There's a completely different area in 'Dino Mines' that may be accessed using a swim-in-the-air glitch. Once executed, the player must swim to a wall past a red building and go behind it, and there will be a portal that is hidden and regularly inaccessible. Once through the portal, the player will be in an empty arena with a platform in the middle. It was likely going to be used for a boss battle to obtain an egg, much like in Spooky Swamp. To return to the normal level, there is an invisible portal in the middle of the platform. However, simply exiting the level may prove better, seeing as Spyro has nothing to stand upon exiting, and will fall continuously until game over. (occasionally the player may end up on the opposite side of the wall standing on the ground however, indicating where the portal once was located.)

Midday Gardens Room

The lower-poly version of the level's geometry, showing the room.

Inside of the room where the Balloon/Whirligig/Rocket is, there is a texture of a locked door paved over what used to be a doorway to another room. Using the swim in air glitch, you can swim away from the door and the level begins to lower its polygon count. You can see from a distance a room appear behind the door. The previous purpose for this unused room is currently unknown. If you get too close to the structure, it will un-draw itself from the level geometry, as if you are far away from it.

There is no collision data for it.

Given that the incomplete Whirligig sits right in front of this door until you play every level of Midday Gardens and are able to move to the next level, one could assume that each mode of transportation had its own area and that the transportation modes may have varied on a world-by-world basis, the balloon to midday gardens and back, the whirligig to evening lake and back, and the rocket to midnight mountain and back.

Enchanted Towers Room

The lower-poly version of the level, showing the room and it's entrance.

Inside one of the structures near a minigame portal is an unused room that can't be seen or accessed at all in normal gameplay. It only shows up when the level is in it's lowest polygon count. The purpose of this room is unknown as there is another room in the level for Sgt. Byrd and it still exists in this low-poly geometry and is on a different side of the level.

Country Speedway Doorway

The lower-poly version of the level showing the door in the level.

Though not an unused room or area, there is what is supposedly a door under the entrance to Hunter's area in Country Speedway. The door is perfectly under the entrance and fits the entrance's shape. It may have been for Spyro to charge and as a result, break to allow you to enter Hunter's area. It only is shown in the low-poly model of the level and because of this, doesn't show it's texture if there is one.

Revisional Differences/Glitches

To do: Maybe clean up this section and put everything into a table. Perhaps come to a conclusion about the order of the builds of each version (NTSC 1.0, PAL 1.0, PAL 1.1, NTSC 1.1?). This link might be helpful.

The game had some noticeable changes between the original NTSC release and the Greatest Hits version. Partly because the game had to be rushed[needs verification]. Because of this, some music tracks are repeated, since not all tracks weren't completed in time. Here is a brief list of the differences. Keep in mind that this list may still be incomplete:

• A serious bug present in the speedways prevents perfect completion of the game; this was fixed in the Greatest Hits version. If one were to quit the level before obtaining the level's egg then that egg would become completely unobtainable, unless the save file is loaded with a Greatest Hits disc. After saving, the save file is still compatible with the original version of the game. [1]
• A similar glitch is present in the Spooky Swamp stage, where defeating an enemy can result in its gem falling into the water if the player doesn't have Sparx at that point, result in that gem being unobtainable. It is currently unknown whether this was fixed in the Greatest Hits version or not. [2]
• In the original version, the cutscene "Spike is Born" goes unused. It can still be accessed via the cutscene cheat once the game is completed. This was fixed in the Greatest Hits version where it plays directly before the Spike's Arena boss fight.
• The music for Lost Fleet was changed from the music used for "Super Bonus Round" to a remix of Sheila's theme.
• The music for Evening Lake was changed to its intended track. In the original, it erroneously plays the theme of Sunrise Spring.
• All of the speedways except the Harbor Speedway use different music tracks in the Greatest Hits version.
• In the original release, the Sorceress's boss theme goes unused, since it erroneously plays the Sunrise Spring track. This was fixed in the Greatest Hits. (similar case like Evening Lake)
• Dino Mines plays Molten Crater's theme in the original version, and replaced with a remix of Sunny Villa in the Greatest Hits version.
• Enchanted Towers' two subgame areas for Spyro (The Lost Wolf and the Stunt Skateboarding areas.) play the music track for Desert Ruins instead. In the Greatest Hits version, they use a different theme not heard anywhere else in the game. The main area of Enchanted Towers however still plays Sgt. Byrd's theme however, probably because Sgt. Byrd can be used in the main part of the level.
• Haunted Tomb plays Cloud Spires in the original version rather than its own unique theme that it gets in the Greatest Hits version.
• Crystal Islands plays Seashell Shore's theme in the original version but gets its own theme in the Greatest Hits version.

None of these changes are present in the 'Platinum' release, the European equivalent of Greatest Hits, except for the 'Spike is Born' cutscene being present and the speedway bug being fixed. Unusually, the Sorceress' boss theme in the Platinum release still isn't her original theme, but is in fact Spike's Arena.