Gold Dragon Builds

This is a sub-page of Prerelease:Spyro the Dragon (PlayStation).

To do: Finish clean up / missing info

While later than the "Silver Dragon Builds", the "Gold Dragon Builds" still presents a particularly early version of the game, seemingly dated around April 1998. The HUD design is beginning to shape up to its final design a little bit more, Sparx now has the three different colours seen in the final game, and the game overall looks a bit more recognisable than the previous build. At this point, it appears that only levels from the first three worlds are present.

Gold Dragon Press Screenshots#

A collection of official press screenshots would be used across a number of magazines and websites, particularly around the game's initial reveal. While the Silver Dragon materials were generally seen in European publications, the Gold Dragon materials tend to have originated from US-based publications.

There's more levels featured in this build than the previous one - here, we see an early iteration of Town Square.

• The HUD now takes its final font design, but the green gem icon is still present in place of the chest icon.
• The dragon statue is shown to have yet another different design, with its model neither matching the silver dragons from the previous build nor the design seen in the final game. It appears to have been rendered with "shiny" surfaces unlike the final model, too, and it's gold instead of the final's turquoise.
  • Another dragon - Thor - would normally be visible from this angle. It's not known whether it is missing here due to a lack of a low-poly model for the dragon, or if it simply was not present yet.
• One of the platforms near the beginning of the level holding several red gems is quite a bit wider and more stretched out in the final game.
• The toreador gnorc's clothes are red and yellow, differing both from the basic grey design seen in the June 15th Prototype and from the more complex design used in the final game.
• In the toreador screenshot we can also see several instances of the level model being updated before release - the fountain originally had a flat surface atop it where the player would be able to stand, and the area behind the fountain where the egg thief awaits has more of a sloped design than the large step found in the final game.

A screenshot of Peace Keepers shows some unusual shading in the HUD. It has been suggested that this may be the result of using level select cheats, as a similar effect can be seen in the released prototype builds after using the level warping cheat. We can also see that, once again, a portal appears to be present in place of an exit vortex in Cliff Town. This is likely the case for all other levels in this version, too.

Trailer 1#

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A trailer that appeared on multiple demo discs shows us a build similar to the screenshots above.

• Almost immediately, we see that some of the flowers placed in Artisans feature a different design, and one of the archways is missing its surrounding castle design.
• Shortly afterwards we can clearly (if not briefly) see the aforementioned gold dragons (as well as the lack of a low-poly model for said dragons). The placement of the statue itself (where Argus would be in the final game) was also changed, being inside the dragon head instead of in front of it. Thus, either the level would have been accessible from the start, or the dragon would have only been revealed after completing a level.
• At around 0:13 a dragon pad can be seen in Cliff Town in a location where a dragon is not found in the final game, as seen in the Silver Dragon build.
• At 0:16, a distant exit portal can be seen in Ice Cavern.
• At 0:32, the tents in Peace Keepers are shown to use a slightly different texture to their final look. Shortly afterwards, Spyro's flame appears to use the early particles seen in the Silver Dragon build.

Music#

Using phase inversion to remove the music from the video, one can hear the tracks used in each level. This version of the soundtrack does not match the one used in the released prototypes - the soundtrack files used in these prototypes appears to have been dated May 15th 1998, which puts this build some time before then. The tracks featured in this video are shown below, alongside the May 15th soundtrack for the sake of comparison.

Next Generation Issue 42#

The 42nd edition of the magazine Next Generation which came out in June 1998 (initially released in a limited format at E3 1998 in May) shows some screenshots from one of the earliest known builds of the game (the magazine claims it to be an alpha version). Regardless of the exact date, we can see that the screenshots present quite a number of differences.

Wizard Peak#

Near the end part of Wizard Peak, where the home vortex would normally be, there appears to have been a portal / gate not unlike the ones found in the Magic Crafters home (see #Miscellaneous Screenshots).

Note also that in the final game, Spyro has to jump up a few steps on the way up this section of the level - no steps are present here. The top of the peaks also seem to lack snow.

This next screenshot depicts Spyro flaming an Ice Gnorc at the end of Wizard Peak. The aforementioned portal / gate is shown and Lucas is missing (it's possible that he may have once been on one of the platforms you can only access via Supercharge).

Dry Canyon#

This screenshot of Spyro flaming a vulture in Dry Canyon shows that there used to be only two gems instead of three.

Cliff Town#

This screenshot of Spyro approaching the second Fat Lady in Cliff Town shows some interesting differencesː this enemy and her cauldron seem to be closer to the "river", and there doesn't appear to be any cacti behind her.

Peace Keepers home#

A screenshot of the beginning area of the Peace Keepers home. The texture on the wall is different, as it appears to it and the pillar texture were swapped early in development. The lighting also seems to be brighter.

This screenshot of the scared Gnorc Guards in the Peace Keepers home shows the earlier version of the tents with their large "shadow".

Ice Cavern#

The three red gems normally leading to the Gem Container are missing.

Toasty#

This screenshot of the fight against Toasty shows that the HUD icon next to your gem count used to be a green gem and not a treasure chest like in the final game.

Artisans home#

The Boatman, a Viking-like character who would have transported you to the Peace Keepers, but was ultimately replaced by the balloonist. The magazine mentions that in order to board the ship you would have to collect a certain amount of treasure, while in the final game you need to rescue a certain amount of Dragons in order to progress to the Peace Keepers. Unused text in the Tabloid demo still references the Boatman.

PS Extreme Volume 3 Issue 7#

Volume 3, Issue 7 of PS Extreme, from June 1998. It seems to depict a similar version of the game to the Next Generation build.

Artisans home#

A screenshot depicting a gate that was later removed from the Artisans castle. Curiously enough, Spyro Reignited Trilogy would end up adding a door to the Artisans home in this exact location.

Several screenshots used in the magazine confirm that the dragon statues used the early gold-coloured model in this version of the game. The statue for Argus is once again placed inside the dragon mouth instead of outside.

Featured Levels#

Looking over all the sources of information for this build, the table below lists which levels are the ones known to be present at this point in development. There may be other levels which were not shown in any of the pre-release materials.

Levels marked in bold are present. By the looks of it, most of the work had been done on the first two worlds at this point, though part of the Magic Crafters world is present, too.

Note that PS Extreme Issue 31 describes that the journalist got to experience several unfinished ("future") levels, and one of the "treasure levels". The description seemingly represents Night Flight. Since Night Flight does not appear in any screenshots, it's possible the level was not yet accessible under normal means - or at least not in a state they wanted to show too publicly - but was still present and playable in some form.

Alpine Ridge was not shown directly in any of the materials, but due to its presence in the Silver Dragon build, it's very likely present here, too, but perhaps once again not easily accessible.