This page details one or more prototype versions of Colin McRae Rally 2.0 (PlayStation).

Demos

European Demos#

Demos for Colin McRae Rally 2.0 were released on multiple demo discs, but the majority of them are the same.

Euro Demo 60#

This needs some investigation. Discuss ideas and findings on the talk page. Specifically: Check later, if unused gameflow.exe could be used instead of game.exe.

• Unfortunately, all contents of this disc share the same timestamp: May 11, 2000.

• According to Codemasters Q3 2000 Demo, the demo's executable, GAME.EXE, was compiled not later than at 13:15:32 of April 14, 2000, so it predated the final build by about a month, since executable in final game was compiled on May 10. Demo directory CMR2 was last modified at April 14, 2000.
• The demo has only three tracks: the 1st French stage, 4th Sweden stage and 6th Finland stage. Only one car is available: the Ford Focus.

Frontend#

• No legal screen, developers intro and etc.
• The main and car setup menus aren't accessible, so the demo loads directly into the stage and displays the controls before loading.

• Personal best time doesn't show on loading screen.

Euro Demo 60	Final

• After finishing demo shows advertisement screens and quits to demo disc menu.

• GENGLISH.TXT has typo in one string.

• This file also shorter than it's final counterpart and lacks next strings:

FINISH IN THE TOP 6 TO COMPLETE THE CHAMPIONSHIP
total rally times
default
digital
analogue

Localisation differences#

• BOOT.OVR, FRONTEND.OVR and INTRO.OVR have lots of changes in localisation strings:
• French localisation

• German localisation:

• Italian localisation:

• Spanish localisation:

• SETUP.OVR also has lots of changes in localisation strings:
• French localisation:

• German localisation:

• Italian localisation:

• Spanish localisation:

Gameplay#

• The demo's pause menu lacks the selection for restarting the stage.

Euro Demo 60	Final

• Only digital dashboard presented in demo's OSD settings, so only "on" and "off" options available.

Euro Demo 60	Final

• Player's name in checkpoint results is P1, since demo doesn't have an option to input preferable driver name.
• Demo doesn't play sounds when driving through checkpoint. This also happens at finish of stage.

Euro Demo 60	Final

• For aforementioned reason replay lacks mentioning driver name.
• While demo also allows to switch camera view in replay mode from cinematic to ordinary in-game counterpart, only rear view is available and other options don't.

Euro Demo 60	Final

Tracks#

• .BFL files for each stage differ, while levels haven't any major visible changes.

Sounds#

• Almost all .PPV files are different from their final counterpart. No noticeable changes founded during gameplay.

Replays#

• Demo includes unique .RPL replay files for Finland 6th and Sweden 4th stages.

Symbol Maps#

• Demo contains MAP and SYM files of GAMEFLOW.EXE.

Dongle Protection mentions#

• Despite not having dongle protection, some files (BOOT.OVR, FRONTEND.OVR) still contain text related to it:

SECURITY CHECK
CHECKING DONGLE
DONGLE VALIDATION FAILED
STANDARD MEMORY CARD FOUND
PLEASE INSERT A VALID DONGLE
FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT
CODEMASTERS SOFTWARE LTD
+44 (0)1926 814132
NO DONGLE WAS FOUND
PLEASE INSERT A VALID DONGLE
QA RELEASE 1.0
EITHER DONGLE IS CORRUPT OR THE INCORRECT ONE HAS BEEN INSERTED
PRESS <START> TO CONTINUE
PRESS <X> TO CONTINUE
FATAL ERROR, CANNOT CONTINUE.
ERROR BOX
WARNING BOX

Hidden Developers Comments#

• Some developers comments from BOOT.OVR:

It didn't work! :-(
All drivers present and accounted for - excellent!  :-)

Codemasters Q3 2000 Demo/Euro Demo 102 difference#

• Demo build from these discs lacks GAMEFLOW.EXE and it's symbol files.

Prototype

This prototype is documented on Hidden Palace.

A PAL prototype of Colin McRae Rally 2.0 dated May 2, 2000 (eight days before the final European build) was released by Hamm Mann on November 30, 2021. The available dump shows severe corruption in the second half due to the poor condition the source disc is in. As a result it misses:

• Half of /CMR2/FMV files
• All /CMR2/SETUP files
• All /CMR2/SOUNDS files
• All /CMR2/CARS files
• All /CMR2/TRACKS files
• Track 2

Proto won't normally boot due to the lack of these files, but you can replace these files with the final version ones, and it will work fine. The lack of files makes us unable to check for differences in sounds, car models, or tracks.

Dongle protection is present. In order to run the proto without dongle you also need to crack the ISO by replacing BOOT.OVR with this one

Download Dongle crack File: CMR2-proto-donglecrack.zip (info)

Known Differences#

Track Locations#

Some track locations are misplaced.

Proto	Final

French Translation#

French translation misses some end of lines, making the text overflow from the dialogue boxes.

Proto	Final

Track Name#

Track name for Finland 9th track was Inari instead of Jamsa.

Proto	Final

Cheat Codes#

Cheat codes were already implemented in this pre-release version, but some of them differ from the final ones: