August 14th, 1998 build

This is a sub-page of Proto:Crash Bandicoot: Warped.

Level DifferencesLayout changes, early textures, and inaccessible areas.

Cheat Features#

Cheat Menu#

This build contains a small menu that can be accessed by inputting Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, Circle while the game is paused. There are four features to be seen: GET ALL, OPEN LEVELS, ALLOW CAM, and NO CHEATS.

• GET ALL: Gives 25 crystals and 25 Silver relics from the start, as well as all colored gems and all abilities for Crash.
  • Notably, Tomb Time is the only level where the crystal is not retrieved when enabling this. Instead, a crystal will be assigned to ID 09, which does not belong to any level.
  • Furthermore, this option will only make the Cortex button to appear in the fifth chamber - although it is not functional due to the level not being on the disc, the player can remedy this by retrieving Tomb Time's crystal to make the other buttons reappear.
• OPEN LEVELS: Unlocks all areas of the warp room. Logically not available if you are not in the warp room.
• ALLOW CAM: Enables a free camera with the second controller. The pause menu is disabled on the first controller, but you can access it by holding down R2 and pressing Start. See the full instructions below.
• NO CHEATS: Ditto. This only appears if a toggleable cheat is enabled.

Freecam Controls#

These controls are specific to the DualShock controller. D-Pad and left analog stick are interchangeable.

• Left/Right: Modify X position.
• Up/Down: Modify Y position.
• L1/R1: Modify Z position.
• Triangle/X: Modify X rotation.
• Square/Circle: Modify Y rotation.
• L2/R2: Modify Z rotation.
• Start (in controller 1): Toggle frame advance mode.
• R2 (in controller 1): Advance frame.
• R2 + Start (in controller 1): The only way to bring up the pause menu ever again.
• Select: Snap back to trail.
• Any controller 2 button: Detach and freeze from trail (if attached). Certain levels, such as the game over screen, will freeze the game if this is enabled. Note that this freezes the camera trail, which is used by the game to control what to load, what to display, player movement, etc. If you want to progress in a level, press Select to snap the camera back to its trail and continue.

Level Stats#

Holding R2 and opening a level portal allows you to see the time trial leaderboards without the level's crystal, but also displays a fourth value set under the times. This fourth line displays the number of deaths and the playtime of the level, although it will only keep track of it until the level's crystal is retrieved. It applies to all levels that can display times, including Dingodile and N. Tropy.

Debug Mode#

To enable debugging features, you can turn on debug mode with the following GameShark code:

80068088 0100

General Differences#

Startup#

• The game starts with a warning screen labeling this preview as an Alpha Demonstration Disc and explicitly prohibiting any duplication or distribution of the disc content.
• A music track not used in the final version of the game is played here as a placeholder for the main theme. See the Soundtrack section for more details.
• There is no announcer presenting the company entities and the game's title.
• The Sony Computer Entertainment screen is similar to Crash 1, being a static text on a plain background.
• Universal's screen looks mostly identical to the Crash 2's one, just with the copyright info updated.
• There is no Naughty Dog box animation - it simply shows the company's logo with "Developed by" text above on a plain background.

Aug 14	Final

• The title screen also features a plain background and no sound effects at all.
  • Attempting to skip the logo animation will instead freeze it in its current frame.
• There are no idle demo modes.

Gameplay#

Crash 2	Aug 14	Final	Japanese

• Character icons are in a rather primitive state, seemingly styled after Crash 2 in terms of size and shading:
  • Crash's icon is a higher-res variant of his life icon - a re-drawn version of which is in fact used in the Japanese version.
  • Coco's icon is closest in pose to her pause screen icon, only with a green flower in her hair as opposed to blue, and rather rough shading.
  • Tiny, N. Gin, and Cortex reuse their boss portraits from the previous game as placeholders, albeit with minor differences, such as N. Gin and Tiny's lack of shading and Cortex's eyes and head shape being a bit larger.
  • Dingodile and N. Tropy are mostly similar to their final icons with minimal changes, such as Dingodile's ears and snout being redrawn and N. Tropy's clock being changed from grey to green.
    • Interestingly, their icons in Crash Team Racing bear a closer resemblence to the icons in this build than in the final game.

Aug 14	Final

• The Time Twister's portal graphic features a totally different design for the load/save screen. The fifth chamber also seems to be missing.
• Sapphire relics are known as Silver relics instead. Logically, they are silver-colored (not to be confused with Platinum relics, which are white).
• A white screen is used for loading transitions, rather than a distorting vortex effect.
  • The music does not fade out when entering a portal either.
• The intermission vortex cutscenes, opening cutscene and ending cutscenes are all missing throughout the game.
• There are no specific music tracks for bonus rounds and alternate routes - the main path music is always used in both instances instead.
• Much of the music is incomplete and differs from their final variants, usually with slightly different melodies or rhythm. The processing is much rougher and playback glitches are therefore frequent in this build, particularly at the beginning of certain tracks.
  • All tracks are in mono, regardless of the output option.
• Music volume defaults to 100% as opposed to 75%.
• Crash has only the two idle animations inside the levels: sighing and repeatedly glancing side to side, which are the same ones used in Crash 2. Additionally, he can also perform the dance while in the warp room.
• Coco does not blink her eyes in any of her animations.
• Crystals, gems, and relics do not play the choir sound effect, nor do they drop firework particles when collected.
• Checkpoint crates lack the chime sound when opened.
• Blank slot crates will give a single Wumpa fruit instead of nothing.
  • The fruit counts towards the main tally even when the player is in a bonus round.
• Gem platforms do not have the correct textures applied, and may commonly miss their solid outer edge.
• When all crates are destroyed, the clear gem will show up as soon as the box counter appears onscreen, regardless of where the player is. In the final game, the gem will only spawn when the player gets closer to the box counter.
• Collectibles now share the same percentage values as the Japanese release of Crash 2: 2% for colored gems, 1% for entering a boss level, and 4% for defeating a boss. Defeating the final boss would also add 6%, although the level not present in this build.
  • Relics do not contribute to completion percentage. Instead, the relics required to unlock the secret chamber are point-based: Silver and Gold are worth 1 point each, while Platinum is worth 2 points. You need to have a total of 25 points to unlock the platform. Once the secret chamber is unlocked, all 3 new levels will be available.
• Masks are lost upon returning to the warp room, so they cannot be taken into other levels.
• The dynamic difficulty adjustment system can only provide one Aku Aku mask regardless of the number of deaths, identically to Crash 2 and the European release.
• Extra lives will change into a x20-Wumpa fruit once the player collects it. In the final game, it changes into a single Wumpa fruit instead.
• The yellow aura visual effect is missing when Aku Aku is summoned or lost.
• During Aku Aku invincibility, Crash's speed will always be locked to his default running speed, meaning that every move he performs will retain the same speed, whether he is sliding, crawling, or running with the Speed Shoes.
  • As a result, his crawling speed will be faster.
• Breaking another Aku Aku crate while invincible does not reset the invincibility timer.
• Crash stops crouching if releasing the crouch button while crawling under iron crates, as there is no obj_box_duck_area property that forces the player to crouch.
• The shockwave caused by the super body slam cannot pick up Wumpa fruit and extra lives nearby.
• Double jumps can be only chained once with enemy and object bounces.
• Crash's spin range is smaller while hanging on meshes, like in Crash 2.
• Death routes always return to outline form if you die in bonus rounds, time trials, or even after Crash has already accessed them.
• Crash can display idle animations while invincible or standing on any surface, such as buttons, lifting and moving platforms.
• The angel death animation reuses the wing flapping sound from Crash 2.
• The disintegrating and balloon deflating death animations lack sound effects.
• Descriptions for the Super Powers do not exist yet, and the life sound effect plays when grabbed.
  • They will also go offscreen after a second just like all other collectibles, whereas in the final it stays onscreen until the screen fades out.
• The exit portal does not appear after a boss fight is over - Crash will normally be teleported out of the boss arena, although his warping animation will always face towards the knocked out boss.
• The Fruit Bazooka controls feel rather clunky at this point, not working properly in many areas of the levels throughout the game:
  • The vertical axis is inverted. Notably, this matches the final game in earlier and later builds, suggesting that this change was made mid-development and quickly reverted afterwards.
  • You have to wait until the animation of Crash putting the bazooka away ends before you can move again.
  • Crash does not pull the bazooka in the direction he is currently facing, and tends to pull it forward in most areas. This is particularly annoying in side-scrolling sections, as he usually aims it as if he were in 3D sections.
  • The shooting range is unlimited, allowing you to destroy objects and enemies from a greater distance.
  • Crash can pull the bazooka while invincible, although the invincibility will immediately be cancelled.
  • Crash's torso is not affected by ambient lighting when holding the bazooka.
  • Wumpa shots will despawn as soon as Crash puts the bazooka away.
  • The Wumpa explosion visual effect shares the same one as the TNT explosion.
  • Checkpoint and iron arrow crates are detected as a target when you aim at them.
  • Crash cannot bring the bazooka while inside bonus rounds.
• A number of textures across the game have different lighting or UV mapping.
• Many objects can be seen through scenery, objects, or walls. For example, Crash's body can be seen through lifting platforms.
• Counting down TNT crates will instantly explode upon stepping on a gem platform.
• Jumping from a certain height and then performing a tornado spin while standing over reflective surfaces will make Crash's reflection incorrectly appear below him in mid-air.
• The game over screen matches the one seen in Crash 2.
• Quitting the game will return to the startup intros instead of the title screen.
  • Music and FX volumes also retain their current values, rather than resetting to default.
• The gem stats in the pause menu indicate a total of 40 gems in the game instead of 42.
  • The Relics tab displays the totals of all relic types at the same time, rather than only Sapphire by default when nothing is collected, and displaying the rest if you have at least one of them. The displayed relic is also always a Platinum.
    • Relics are sorted from the lowest tier to the highest (Silver, Gold, Platinum), whereas in the final game it is from the highest to the lowest (Platinum, Gold, Sapphire).
  • Vibration (labeled "Shock" instead) and calibration options (from Crash 2) are available at all times, regardless of the controller used.
• N. Gin and Neo Cortex boss fights are completely absent and thus neither of their buttons will do anything when stood on. Cortex's button is also not normally accessible as only up to 24 crystals can be obtained without glitches.
  • The Fruit Bazooka is automatically awarded as you step on one of the level buttons of the fifth chamber. This behavior also works in the final game, although it is not normally noticeable as the player receives the Super Power before the following chambers are opened.
• "Hot Coco" as a secret level and Eggipus Rex did not exist yet.
• Fake Crash's cameos after completing the game did not exist at this point.
• There is a dongle protection in this version which can stop the game from running on real hardware and emulators.

Time Trial#

Time Trial mode is overall in a primitive state at this point. The most noticeable change is how the time crates work here, where instead of freezing the clock for said time, it will subtract the amount of time from the box (this mechanic was also described on the game's official website). Despite this, they still cannot get the chronometer to go below 0 seconds.

• All levels have placeholder relic requirements of 2:00:00 for Silver, 1:40:00 for Gold, and 1:15:00 for Platinum.
• Time crates are absent from the majority of the levels in the game, aside from Makin' Waves, Gee Wiz, High Time, Double Header, Future Frenzy, Tomb Wader, Flaming Passion, and Hot Coco.
• There is no "Entering Time Trial" onscreen notice the first time you start the time trial.
  • The ticking sound effect does not play when touching the stopwatch.
• Starting the time trial with Aku Aku does not remove any Aku Aku masks in possession.
• Some ? and life crates never become basic ones.
• Basic crates always provide a single Wumpa fruit which is picked up instantly, while ? crates make varying amounts of Wumpas to appear.
  • They are immediately counted when a basic crate is broken, rather than moving to the HUD.
• When hitting the time crate, there is no visual effect of the subtracted second moving to the chronometer.
• Bonus platforms will still be present in the levels, although not accessible.
• Gem paths and death routes are disabled.
• Extra lives are not removed.
• Iron checkpoint crates do not turn into regular iron crates, thus they can still be activated.
• Crash will leap up when becoming invincible. The animation was disabled for this mode in the final game.
• Time crates do not count when destroyed by nearby explosions.
• If the player dies or manually restarts a level too many times, the game will still adjust the level's difficulty (like providing free Aku Aku masks) even though no lives have been lost.
• The end-of-level screen when finishing the time trial is more barebones.
  • The time trial leaderboard is missing.
  • When a relic is received, the relic will go offscreen after a second just like all other collectibles, whereas in the final game, it stays onscreen until the screen fades out.
  • The game will always give you the option to either retry the time trial or return to the warp room. The final game always forces you back to the warp room when the first level relic is obtained.
    • The retry option reads "Restart Level" instead of "Restart Trial".
• On the Enter Name screen, there are no sound effects when navigating or selecting an option. The screen also takes a little longer to show up.
  • There is a "Cancel" button to ignore the saving of a new record. Selecting it will discard the current time, making it possible to get a relic without any recorded times.
  • Inserting the last initial does not bring the player to the "Done" button automatically.
• The music volume will decrease during the Enter Name screen just like in the final game, but it will not reset to normal when restarting a level. This effect is cumulative, and one can make the volume go down to 0% by repeating the time trial multiple times.
• After manually resetting a level from the pause menu, the camera will pan to the first frame of the level's cinematic entrance for a split second.
• If you restart the level after receiving a relic and then return to the warp room afterwards, the relic you received will not count.

Levels#

Medieval Levels#

• There are no swallows or butterflies at all.
• Chickens do not scream or drop feathers when shot by the Fruit Bazooka.
• There are no invisible boundaries preventing the player from standing on top of the stone bridge fences.
• Spinning the magic orbs from the wizards will simply make them go through Crash and leave him unharmed, whereas in the final game they also get destroyed.
• Lily pads are arranged differently in the moat background at the start of the bonus rounds.
  • The water lacks transparency and the reflection of the castle wall is missing.

Atlantis Levels#

• The background lacks the city details, and is more of a navy-blue color.
• Respawning at the starting point will cause Crash to spawn facing towards the camera.

Aug 14	Final

• The pufferfish are purple instead of red.
• In Time Trial, the chronometer visually freezes for a few seconds when Crash loses a mask while being electrocuted.
• The icons for the Super Powers in the pause menu erroneously have the underwater color filter applied.

China Levels#

• You cannot sprint by holding R2.
• Coco retains her default facial expression during her jump animation.
• Coco does not close her eyes during her landing animation.
• You can stand on the sides of the scenery, as invisible boundaries are less restrictive.
• Hanging life crates are ? crates but with extra lives. They also do not automatically give you the contents within.
• The tick made when breaking crates while you are sprinting gets higher and higher, as if you were racking up combos.
• Invincibility frames do not protect you against enemies and hazards.
• It is not possible to use the player debug cheat to obtain Aku Aku masks for Coco.

Prehistoric Levels#

• Some minor differences can be seen in the scenery of the levels:
  • Dinosaur skulls in the scenery have an extra hole in front of the eye sockets.
  • Ground textures are different, featuring a different grass shape, with small rings inside.
    • They also lack a proper transition to the swamp floor around chase sections.

• The triceratops that chases Crash is ridden by a caveman lab assistant (also seen in concept art), who is completely absent in the final game. The caveman has two poses for riding the triceratops: one on top of its body, and the other clinging to its front horn. When the triceratops stops moving, the caveman is flung forward and ends up hanging onto the horn.
  • In addition to the saddle, the triceratops model also features more textures such as toes on its feet and a tongue, which were later removed.
  • The triceratops shakes its head when it stops moving, as if trying to get the caveman off its horn.
  • It will only make the growling noise when Crash is caught or at the end of the final chase sequence.
  • Oddly, the triceratops cannot destroy any obstacles during the chase, such as crates, fallen logs and grasses, or throw the Wumpa fruit away, unlike earlier builds.
  • Instead of being flattened when Crash is caught by the triceratops, the same animation where Crash gets run over by the boulder in the previous game is used.
    • The triceratops also keeps running after catching Crash, rather than stomping on Crash's flattened body.
  • Crash can still be killed by the triceratops even after it has stopped moving if you get too close.
  • Pulling out the Fruit Bazooka while the triceratops is chasing you will make it instantly despawn.
• In the bonus rounds, Crash does the balancing animation when standing on the edges.
• While riding Baby T, stopping causes him to slide forward slightly.
  • Smashing through stacks of crates briefly prevents the player from moving forward until the lower crates break.
  • Due to a bug, performing the super body slam close enough to Baby T will make him disappear.
    • Performing it on his back also will not destroy any surrounding vegetation or crates, or defeat any enemies.
  • Body slamming on the egg will not hatch it either.
  • Aiming with the Fruit Bazooka at Baby T will detect him as a target.
• Most of crates placed individually on swamp floors have different rotations.
• Grass is not correctly detected as a target by the Fruit Bazooka, but can still be destroyed.

Aug 14	Final

• The bonus platform has a lower quality texture.
• The reflection of Crash's torso when pulling out the bazooka erroneously appears on certain parts of the normal ground.

Jet Ski Levels#

• The controller does not rumble while controlling the jet ski.
  • It does not rumble when the sailor lab assistant whacks Coco into the water with his oar either.
• When entering the exit portal, the wake of the jet ski will not disappear.
  • The directional arrow does not go away either, which results in it being erroneously displayed on the Enter name screen as well.

Arabian Levels#

• You can pass through the bouncy tarps if jumping underneath them.
• You can walk over the bouncy tarps when spinning or sliding on them, or walking from a normal surface to them. In the final game, you will automatically bounce instead.
  • They will be detected as a target when you aim the Fruit Bazooka at them.
  • Bouncy tarps are not programmed to bounce Crash during invincibility.
• The death animation of Crash being knocked off the meshes by a scorpion was sped up in the final game.
• The death animation of Crash bumping into a pot-carrying monkey was also sped up in the final game.
• The low-poly model of the wooden floor is also brown in High Time and Flaming Passion, which makes them suddenly change color when getting closer.
• Cocktails make no sound effects when being thrown or exploding.
• Scorch marks are green instead of red. In the final game, only three of them are green, which can be found in Flaming Passion.
• Pot-carrying monkeys will not be defeated in one hit when Crash loses a mask or while he is invincible.
• No sound effect plays when the blades thrown by sword-throwing lab assistants hit the wall.
• The low-poly model of the towers and domes in the scenery features way less polygons.
• Due to an oversight with the sword-throwing lab assistants, you automatically receive the Speed Shoes once the blade projectile hits the wall. This means that you will always receive this Super Power prematurely in High Time.
  • Furthermore, a visual bug will cause the Death Tornado Spin to also be incorrectly displayed in the menu tab as if the player already had it. Once you legitimately receive it, then the Fruit Bazooka will show up prematurely instead.

Highway Levels#

• There are no swallows at all.

Aug 14	Final

• The traffic lights are completely silent and received subtle tweaks in the final game.
• You can drive backwards with no restraints, though the camera does not follow you.
  • The roadblocks behind the start line are missing, so the player can fall off the map and go out of bounds (aside from Road Crash). This is not normally noticeable in the final game unless you enable debug mode to drive backwards.
• The start boost is automatic.
• One of the engine noises when accelerating is missing.
• Winding signs cannot be taken down.
• Hot rod cars have a wonky collision while in mid-air, causing Crash to be sent flying upwards if you bump into them while jumping off ramps.
• The boost sound effect when running into a turbo pad lacks one of the sound effects.

Aug 14	Final

• Hot rod lab assistants have a pale skin tone in the default model.
  • The license plate texture is larger and is part of the car texture, rather than a separate graphic. The smaller, separate variant is also present, but is only used on police cars.
  • Textures on the back of the lab assistant's head have been slightly altered.
  • The car's grille and headlights geometry are present in the default model, whereas in the final game they are only found in the alternate model without the shadow used for mid-air jumps.
  • The hot rod engine sound is different.
• It is not possible to grab the box gem without touching it when driving nearby.
• The position number in the HUD will flash to 316th in a split second when switching between specific positions - 6th and 5th place in Hog Ride, and 9th, 8th and 7th place in Road Crash and Orange Asphalt.
• Opponents will continue racing endlessly around the map of every level, always respawning on top of the start line after finishing the race. In the final game, they will only continue racing in Road Crash as the map is a complete circuit, and they will only repeat it once.
• In Time Trial, the chronometer visually freezes for a few seconds when Crash goes out of bounds.

Egyptian Levels#

Aug 14	Final

• The black dog hieroglyph texture (a tribute to Naughty Dog's mascot, Morgan) that appears on the walls of the pyramid was redrawn.

• Switches make a different sound effect.
• The fire from the flamethrower lab assistants has a shorter range.
  • They will not be immediately defeated when the player is hit by the fire.
• The stone blocks dropped by the lever pulling lab assistants retain their collision after crushing Crash, meaning he can be carried along by the blocks while in his squashed state.
• Crash still blinks his eyes after being covered in dust by the jar monkeys. In the final game, his eyes are always static.
  • There is no explosion sound effect when Crash is hit by such projectiles.
  • Crash cannot use the Fruit Bazooka to earn additional Wumpa fruit from the helpless monkey.
• You cannot bounce on the pull levers in succession.
• There is no sound effect when Crash is shaking on the roof after being poked by the spear floors.
• Moving platforms only make a sound when moving from right to left.
• Crash cannot use the Fruit Bazooka to hit the switches to open the doors.
  • Wumpa shots can pass through closed doors and hit objects behind them.
• There are no invisible barriers in the column gaps of the pyramid walls.
• In Time Trial, the chronometer visually freezes for a few seconds when Crash loses a mask while being crushed by doors or falling blocks.

Baron Levels#

• During the cinematic entrance, the plane moves at the same speed during the gameplay and you also have full control of the plane.
• The ability to pause is disabled while the sunlight is shining through the screen.
• The blimp/airplane/ring counter uses a darker text color.
• Instead of receiving the crystal automatically, you are required to collect it from a balloon that will be dropped by the last remaining blimp or airplane after being shot down.
• The directional arrow will not reappear once you respawn after restarting the time trial or if you die after destroying all blimps or planes.
• Health balloons can regenerate only 10% of player's health, rather than 50%.

Aug 14	Final

• The sprite version of the stopwatch balloon has a regular crate with a clock icon on it.
  • The balloon holding the stopwatch is also yellow instead of red.
• Crates will vanish if you shoot far enough on them, which does not add to the box counter, making the box gem far more difficult to obtain in these levels.
• The plane can block the numbers in the HUD if going over them.
• All levels use Bye Bye Blimps' theme.

Future Levels#

• The early underwater theme is used as a placeholder. The Future theme is not present in this version.
• The floor and platform textures in the 3D sections feature an orange palette rather than bright chrome, with wooden railroads on the lower scenery and more open.
• Laser fences in the 3D sections play the same sound effect as the orange ones in the side-scrolling sections.
• The invisible wall on the sides is more enclosed, making it more difficult to pass through the fences while the laser is active.
• UFO lab assistants glow red, similarly to the indicator normally used for hot/fire objects that will kill Crash upon contact. They cannot be defeated with a tornado spin, and hitting them will burn Crash's backside and make him bounce once, the same death animation for the lava and closed spiked shells.
• The spherical robots make no sound when activating/deactivating the force field.
  • Running into them while the force field is off will burn Crash's backside, rather than disintegrating him.
• Elevators are buggy, and it's very easy to get stuck on them. They are also colored orange, as are most of the levels.
• Side-scrolling sections have shorter invisible barriers on the sideways, allowing Crash to go out of bounds if jumping towards the camera.
• Spiked shells make only one sound effect, which also is not used in the final game.
• Checkpoint crates feature a proper reflection in the mirrors.
• Crash's torso is not reflected in the mirror when he pulls the Fruit Bazooka.

Warp Room#

• The early underwater theme is used as a placeholder. The warp room theme is not present in this version.

Aug 14	Final

• The load/save screen has a much more minimalist design, lacking the ornamental assets around it, as well as the "LOAD/SAVE" text imprinted on it. The monitor itself is also colored blue instead of yellow and turquoise.
• Coco stands on the right side of the screen, looking to the left, rather than standing on the left side, looking towards the center of the room.
  • Coco displays the idle animation of checking her nails, which does not play in the warp room in the final game.
  • She also has no collision detection and can be walked straight through.

• Levels do not feature proper save file icons yet. Rather, they use Crash 2's level icons as placeholders. These icons are mostly assigned to match their counterparts based on level order - aside from Tiny Tiger (which displays the Totally Bear icon), and Dino Might!, Double Header, Sphynxinator, the subsequent bosses, and all levels from the fifth chamber onwards excluding Mad Bombers (which display the empty slot icon).
  • Save slots display a life counter instead of the relic one, identically to Crash 2.
  • There is an oversight with the save file icons where the bottom right icon shares the same palette values as the top right one, resulting in a visual bug on the bottom right save slot if the player ever saves the game on the top right file.
  • When entering the game via the "Load Game" option, the memory card menu will not open in the slot selection screen by default.
• The Time Trial leaderboard box features a darker text color and reads "Best Times". The requirements for relics are missing, and rather than showing a blank top time as "1st", each chamber has the initials of that world's boss (TNY, DIN, NTY, NGN, CTX) holding a default score of 2:00:00 for every level - with the exception of the secret chamber, which presumably uses the initials of the Silver relic (SVR).
• When Crash enters a portal, his warp sucking animation always points forward instead of toward the center of the portal sphere, causing the animation to point away from it when entering from the edges.
• The animations for Coco entering and exiting a level have not yet been implemented, as Crash enters and exits her levels in exactly the same way he does with his own stages.
• Electric gates feature blue textures and lack a proper sound effect when Crash is pushed back.
  • The controller does not rumble when touching the gate either.

• There are more stars in the sky.
  • The shade of red in the sky has a stronger tone of red between the first and second, and third and fourth chambers.
• Some of the textures have different lighting, such as the bricks.
• Wall collisions are more finicky, meaning that the player can often clip out of the scenery and fall off the warp room, especially in the fourth and fifth chambers.
  • If the player dies while a portal is present, that portal's image will be used on all of the other portals in the warp room until the player either enters a level, or restarts the game.
• In the first chamber, there is a misplaced wall brick texture on the floor next to the portal pad.
  • One of the gears in the scenery is missing its shaft.
  • There is some collision on the floor completely surrounding the portal pad, forcing the player to jump in order to enter the portal.
• The camera angle in the second chamber is much higher up and can even partially hide Crash.
• When returning from the third and fourth chamber levels, the music will start playing only after Crash has dropped the retrieved collectibles and performs his dance.
• Since the N. Gin boss fight is not available, the fifth chamber will open immediately once 20 crystals are retrieved.

Aug 14	Final

• A non-shaded gem is used as a placeholder for the middle platform that leads to the secret chamber.
• Whenever you return from the secret chamber, the textures for each chamber are briefly rendered incorrectly. This is due to the game only updating the VRAM texture set after the platform has fully landed, resulting in temporary texture mismatches.
  • In rare instances, a visual glitch may occur where the Crash and Cortex icons become corrupted and stop rendering, usually if the player steps back onto the platform too quickly while the chambers are still displaying wrong textures.

Secret Chamber#

• The room sign reads "Neodyne Systems" in this version, a pun on "Cyberdyne Systems" from the Terminator series.
• There are no sound effects at all.
• The secret entrances in Hang'em High and Future Frenzy buttons will spawn Crash at the normal entrance of these levels, making it impossible to access the secret routes without hacking.
• If you unlock the secret chamber without having all Super Powers yet, the game will give the remaining ones as you step on one of the level buttons belonging to that particular chamber - for example, stepping on Hang'em High will give the Super Charged Body Slam as it belongs to the second chamber, while Future Frenzy gives the first three Super Powers as it belongs to the fourth chamber. Stepping on the new levels will give all Super Powers.
  • Getting a Super Power by stepping on a level button still works in the final game, although this does not apply to the secret chamber buttons.
• As there is no spawn point set, returning to the warp room from any of the secret levels will put Crash in front of the load/save screen.
• Despite being inaccessible through normal means in the final game, the level 31 button (Hot Coco) is entirely absent from this build, which is unsurprising given that the level itself does not exist. As a result, obtaining 30 or more crystals renders all the level buttons in this chamber permanently unavailable.
• There is a hidden texture behind the tissue generator that depicts the silhouette of a lab assistant android.

Soundtrack Differences#

Most of the tracks are early variants of their respective themes, featuring different melodies or rhythm.

Unused Content#

Unused Graphics#

Mutato Muzika#

The title screen level data contains an unused splash screen (bmutD) of Mutato Muzika - the game's composers - which would be displayed after the Universal logo. Interestingly, the exact same screen originally appeared in the June 15th, 1997 prototype of Crash 2.

Early N. Tropy's Head Clock#

Despite this build not having any kind of cutscenes, all of the character textures used in the intermission vortex cutscenes (except for Aku Aku's) can be found in the warp room texture data. This texture sheet contains an early, static version of the clock texture used on N. Tropy's hat.

Early Medieval Textures#

In the Medieval levels, there is a set of leftover textures, including a question mark that implies it is from an earlier version of the bonus round that was originally located underground. The texture is different from the one used in prerelease footage, meaning that the trapdoor bonus platform's textures must have been redone atleast once before scrapping the whole idea and using floating platforms.

Older Prehistoric Death Route#

Aug 14	Final

The unused death route texture present in the Prehistoric levels is of lower quality. The death route had already been removed at this point, so efforts to enhance it were pointless.

Alien Sign#

In the Highway levels, an early version of the alien sign is already present in the texture pages, despite not being in the level yet. It has smaller eyes and the coloring is reversed, featuring a black outline filled with yellow instead of a black face with yellow eyes and mouth.

This texture can been seen in the September 26th, 1998 prototype.

Blue Gem Door#

In the Egyptian levels, the textures for the gem path door in Tomb Time can already be found in the texture pages. Interestingly, the gem is colored blue here, suggesting that the blue gem path would initially be located in this level before being assigned to Sphynxinator.

Early Baron Icons#

The early set of HUD icons in the Baron levels seen in earlier builds is still present in the texture pages:

• The health icon of Crash's biplane, the Orange Baron, that was later replaced by Crash and Coco's aviator icons is still present in Bye Bye Blimps and Mad Bombers. A variant of Coco's biplane icon, the Flying Queen, can also be found in Bye Bye Blimps.
• The blimp icon that was replaced with rotating 2D pre-rendered sprites is still present in Bye Bye Blimps and Mad Bombers.

Conveyor Belt Edges#

In the Future levels, there are unused textures of the 2D floor edges that were likely intended to rotate in the conveyor belt segments.

N. Tropy Clock#

Although the N. Tropy boss fight does not have a pre-fight cutscene at this point, the level already contains the textures for the clock and the hour hand. Notably, there is only one hand instead of two, and its graphic is quite similar to the one used in the title screen logo.

Unused Text#

Early Level Names#

The pause menu contains an array of level strings grouped in with the other text, which is intended to display the name of the current level while the game is paused. Since each level file contains its own pause menu code, the menu text is also stored separately in each file and is loaded within the level. However, a couple of these level strings appear to be outdated depending on the level in this build, revealing names from an earlier point in development that cannot normally be seen.

The majority of the levels feature an earlier set of strings that includes leftover names for Future Frenzy, Gone Tomorrow, Bug Lite, Ski Crazed, and Area 51?. With the exception of Ski Crazed, such levels already feature the updated strings in their pause menu code, making their older names to be present only in other levels where these strings would not be displayed.

• Future Frenzy is referred to as Fast Forward.
• Gone Tomorrow is referred to as Future2.
• Bug Lite is referred to as Egypt4.
• Area 51? is referred to as Highway4.
• Ski Crazed is referred to as Ski3.

This particular set of level names can be found in the code for the title screen, the game over screen, Under Pressure, Orient Express, Bone Yard, Makin' Waves, Hog Ride, Tomb Time, Midnight Run, Dino Might!, Deep Trouble, Road Crash, Bye Bye Blimps, Tell No Tales, Tomb Wader, Orange Asphalt, Mad Bombers, Ski Crazed, Tiny Tiger, Dingodile, and N. Tropy.

Boss Levels#

N. GIN
N. CORTEX

Although only the Tiny Tiger, Dingodile and N. Tropy boss fights are present in this version, the level names for the other bosses can be found among the level strings.

Unused Models#

In the Baron levels, there are untextured models of a silo (Si1jV) and barn (Ba1jV), with the latter having a red vertex coloring. Despite being in all three levels, these were likely to be featured in the rural scenery of Bye Bye Blimps.

Unused Animations#

Crash#

Crash's animations for watching the hologram projector and scratching his head remain as a leftover from Crash 2's warp room (Cw32V, Cw42V). These two animations were later updated to become an idle animation of Crash scratching his head before being replaced with a new, unified animation.

Lab Assistant#

In the Prehistoric levels, the caveman lab assistant has an alternate riding animation (LS3cV) where he bounces up and down abruptly, making his legs swing higher.

Crash 2 Startup Logo Leftover#

The Universal logo screen with Crash 2 copyright info can be found in the title screen data.