July 17th, 1998 build

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

Level DifferencesLayout changes, missing areas, and unique enemy designs.

Cheat Features#

Some debug mode features are enabled by default in this version:

• Press Triangle in the warp room to open all areas.
• Press L2 in the pause menu to get all colored gems and unlock all abilities for Crash.

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

8006A6E8 0100

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.

General Differences#

• A dongle protection is present in this build, which is a memory card containing specific data that needs to be read in order to boot the game. The game will reach the Universal logo screen before halting if the dongle is not inserted in memory card slot 1. The dongle protection is bypassed if debug mode is enabled.

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.

July 17	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	July 17	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.

July 17	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%.
• Aku Aku has a red nose in his default state. Due to an oversight, his nose is miscolored gray in the final game.

July 17	Test Drive Demo	Final

• Stopwatches were originally iron crates with a clock graphic on them, taking the form of an outline crate before retrieving the level's crystal. The crate was later updated one final time (as seen in the Test Drive demo) before being replaced with the golden stopwatch model.
• 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.
• Aku Aku floats on the right side of the character when they are facing away from the camera, rather than on the left.
  • He also does not float alongside the character when riding a vehicle or animal or when you start running with the Speed Shoes, causing him to fall behind offscreen most of the time or even obstructing the player's visibility at certain times.
• Bounce crates can be bounced up to six times, and you get one Wumpa fruit on the sixth bounce.
  • The sixth bounce will always give you the fruit, regardless of how long you leave it be.
  • In some levels, the sixth bounce counts towards the main tally even when the player is in a bonus round.
  • Body slamming on the crate or breaking it while invincible will provide one Wumpa fruit instead of two.
• Slot crates drop their contents instead of being picked up automatically if there is no crate on top of them.
  • Fruit slots give 9 Wumpa fruit instead of 20.
  • Blank slots give one Wumpa fruit instead of nothing.
    • The fruit counts towards the main tally even when the player is in a bonus round.
• The box tally does not show the total in bonus rounds.
• Gem platforms do not have the correct textures applied, and may commonly miss their solid outer edge.
• The spinning crate hologram on the box counter has a lighter shade and is always transparent.
  • 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.
• The warp sphere graphic does not swivel on its axis to face the camera, so the image is displayed at a fixed angle, causing it to look off depending on the level. This is particularly noticeable in levels with open environments.
• 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.
• 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.
  • The mask is also awarded for respawning at iron checkpoint crates after repeatedly dying.
• Super Powers as collectibles do not exist yet. They are not awarded after defeating a boss, but automatically for every 5 crystals retrieved (i.e. you receive the Super Charged Body Slam after retrieving 5 crystals, the Double Jump after 10 crystals, etc.).
• Extra lives will not turn into a single Wumpa fruit once collected.
• 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.
• Crash does not display his usual goofy expression when performing the Super Body Slam. Instead, he retains whatever facial expression he was displaying beforehand.
• 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 will usually return to outline form whenever you die - whether in bonus rounds or time trials. However, once you've stepped on the platform, it will remain permanently active no matter how or where you die, even after you re-enter the level.
• 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.
• When spawning in a level, the character's facing direction upon landing is different, even for spawn positions that are the same as the final game.
• The Fruit Bazooka controls feel rather clunky at this point. The most notable change is the unlocked movement, allowing the player to aim with a full 360° rotation.
  • It often does not register when hitting a target.
  • You can pull out the bazooka anywhere - warp room, boss fight, etc.
  • Crash will always aim the bazooka straight ahead when pulling it out, regardless of which direction he is facing. This is particularly annoying in side-scrolling sections, as he usually aims it as if he were in 3D sections.
  • The animation of Crash pulling out and putting away the bazooka was drastically sped up in the final game.
  • You have to wait until the animation of Crash putting the bazooka away ends before you can move again.
  • 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.
  • Crystals, gems, checkpoints, iron crates, and lifting platforms are detected as a target when you aim at them.
• Getting hit by something while holding the bazooka causes an unusual glitch where Crash's torso pose holding the weapon will remain alongside his regular animations - and pressing Circle will both shoot Wumpa fruit and crouch at the same time. This also applies during all death animations.
  • If Crash has a mask, certain enemies will play the kill animation as if Crash was defeated (goats, frogs, knights, lions, genies, and pot-carrying monkeys).
• If you hold the bazooka while standing on a moving platform that will travel between loading zones (e.g. the moving columns in Sphynxinator and the elevators in Future Frenzy), Crash's torso will disappear and you will remain softlock with Crash's bottom half.
• A number of textures across the game have different lighting or UV mapping.
• Occasional lag spikes may occur in some parts of the game.
• 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 lifting 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 Powers tab is entirely absent from the pause menu.
  • The gem stats 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.
• Fake Crash's cameos after completing the game did not exist at this point.
• With the exception of Mad Bombers, all levels from the fifth chamber onwards are entirely missing from the disc.
• Dingodile, N. Tropy, N. Gin and Neo Cortex boss fights are completely absent and thus neither of their buttons will do anything when stood on. N. Gin and Cortex's button is also not normally accessible as only up to 19 crystals can be obtained without glitches.
• If debug mode is enabled, pressing Triangle as soon as the level starts makes the character skip the cinematic entrance sequence and spawn immediately, allowing you to take control earlier.

Time Trial#

Time Trial mode is in a primitive state at this point. Elements from regular gameplay will remain the same - there are no time crates at this point, fruit and lives are not removed from the path, and none of the original crates are replaced aside from regular checkpoint crates.

• The content of the crates is also unchanged, providing Wumpa fruit and extra lives as usual.
• All levels have placeholder relic requirements of 2:00:00 for Silver, 1:40:00 for Gold, and 1:15:00 for Platinum.
• The clock crate does not disappear from the level when the player moves too far ahead from it.
  • When activated, the crate returns to its outline form.
  • No ticking and cha-ching sound effects play when activating the clock crate.
  • There is no "Entering Time Trial" onscreen notice the first time you start the time trial.
  • The crate cannot be activated with the Fruit Bazooka.
  • After activating it, if the crate despawns by moving far enough away from the it and then coming back, you will be able to break its outline form as if it were a regular crate.
    • The ! switch activation sound effect will be heard when the crate respawns.
• There is no clock icon next to the chronometer.
• Starting the time trial with Aku Aku does not remove any Aku Aku masks in possession.
• Bonus rounds are accessible.
• Lives are normally lost if the player dies in this mode.
• Iron checkpoint crates do not turn into regular iron crates, thus they can still be activated.
• There is no Restart Trial option in the pause menu. The only way to restart the trial is either by dying, or after finishing the level.
• Crash will leap up when becoming invincible. The animation was disabled for this mode in the final game.
• The end-of-level screen when finishing the time trial is very barebones.
  • The chronometer moves slowly to the center of the screen, and it does not become bigger.
  • 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 round tile textures in the menu corners were squashed in the final game.
• 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.
• 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.
• Wizard lab assistants take two hits to defeat. The first hit destroys their wizard costume, exposing their underwear. This still occurs in the final American version if you hit them with the bazooka, but otherwise they go down in one hit. This behavior was reimplemented in the European release to increase the game's difficulty.
  • Spinning the magic orbs will simply make them go through Crash and leave him unharmed, whereas in the final game they also get destroyed.
  • Magic orbs do not emit the purple particles when hitting Crash.
  • Crash is pushed back when spinning on the wizards even on the second hit, which does not happen in any of the final releases.
  • They can still be defeated in one hit if you slide on them, though.
  • The hitbox when they are in underwear does not work properly - you can clip through them without taking damage.
• The goat kick animation does not loop properly.
• There are no invisible boundaries preventing the player from standing on top of the stone bridge fences.
• 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.
• Crates and fruit are placed closer to the edges in bonus rounds.
• The game will softlock if Crash is cut in half by a knight lab assistant while falling into a pit at the same time.

Atlantis Levels#

• The background lacks the city details, and is more of a navy-blue color.
• The jet sub has a longer cooldown between torpedo shots.
  • You cannot fire torpedoes by pressing X.
  • Crates have a delay before breaking when you boost slightly above them. In the final game, they never break in this case.
• Torpedo shots also cannot activate the clock crate.

July 17	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.
• For some reason, one of the warp room texture pages (Wrp4T) is present in the level data for both Atlantis levels.

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.
• Pura has a round shadow when he is not being ridden.
  • His leaping animation plays a bit slower.
• Hanging life crates are ? crates but with extra lives. They also do not automatically give you the contents within.
• Barrel wagons are smaller as the model is not stretched.
• 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.
• Crates have a delay before breaking if you barely touch their edge while jumping. In the final game, they never break in this case.
• In Time Trial, the chronometer does not stop ticking after reaching the end of the level, making it possible to reach the maximum limit of 9:59:96.
• If you move far enough away from the exit portal to close it and then approach it again, some sound effects will stop playing properly until the player loses a life.
  • An audio bug may also occur after the portal reopens: if the player jumps, the landing sound effect will play and loop indefinitely.
• It is not possible to use the player debug cheat to obtain Aku Aku masks for Coco.

Prehistoric Levels#

• The sound the wave lab assistants make when attacking contains an additional segment with bubble noises, which is played in-game when they submerge into the tar and bubbles appear.

• You can walk on the sides of the crates in side-scrolling sections.
• 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.
  • 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.
  • During the invincibility frames, you cannot pass through the triceratops' body.
  • 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.
  • Body slamming close enough to Baby T or on his back does not make Crash automatically mount on him - rather, he will simply clip through his body.
  • Body slamming on the egg will not hatch it either.
  • Crash is not be able to stand on top of Baby T by landing on him while spinning.
  • Aiming with the Fruit Bazooka at Baby T will detect him as a target.

July 17	Final

• The bonus platform texture is stored as a 32x32 sprite, rather than 64x64.
• The invisible walls in the side-scrolling sections are less narrow. As a result of this, you can get into the side of the crates without breaking them.
• Most of the crates placed on the swamp surfaces are rotated differently.
• 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.
• Crates have a delay before breaking when you drive over them on wave bumps.
• When Coco is killed by cannonballs or swinging anchors, the wake of the jet ski will appear on the surface above her as she is knocked off her jet ski and sinks into the water.
• No sound plays when the sailor lab assistant whacks Coco into the water with his oar.
  • The controller does not rumble either.
• When entering the exit portal, the wake of the jet ski will not disappear and the engine sound will keep revving.
  • The directional arrow does not go away either, which results in it being erroneously displayed on the Enter name screen as well.
  • Restarting the time trial will cause the engine sound to continue playing.

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.
• Scorpions will fly upwards when defeated, rather than going downwards.
• 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.
• Pot-carrying monkeys will not be defeated in one hit when Crash loses a mask or while he is invincible.
• The low-poly model of the towers and domes in the scenery features way less polygons.

Highway Levels#

• Once the crystal is retrieved, the clock crate will only show up if you spend less than 10 seconds in the warp room before entering either of the levels.
• Scenery objects will pop up in the distance, rather than fogging up.
• You can drive backwards with no restraints, though the camera does not follow you.
• The camera angle is turned upwards before Crash spawns.
• The traffic lights countdown is missing.
• You cannot perform a start boost by holding X before the race starts.
• 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.
• Some of the sound effects are different or missing:
  • The engine starting sound is slightly longer.
  • The "ding-ding" sound is slower.

• • The tire screech sound effect is longer.
  • The boost sound effect when running into a turbo pad lacks one of the sound effects.
  • One of the engine noises when accelerating is missing.
  • The hot rod engine sound is different.

July 17	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 and textures are present in the all models, whereas in the final game they are only found in the alternate model without the shadow used for mid-air jumps.
• 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 8th and 7th place in both levels - and also between 9th and 8th in Road Crash.
• The exit portal sparks are not drawn properly.
• As soon as someone crosses the finish line (whether it's the player or an opponent), any hot rod lab assistant that is not being drawn onscreen will immediately despawn.
• In Time Trial, the chronometer visually freezes for a few seconds when Crash goes out of bounds.
  • The clock crate will retain its outline form even when selecting "Restart Level" after completing a Time Trial.
• If you go out of bounds while in the same alignment as a ramp, the game can respawn you inside the ramp, resulting in a glitch where the player will turn into the default Crash object.
  • You can move Crash around, although the game tends to freeze after a few seconds.

Egyptian Levels#

July 17	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 spotlights are brighter.
• 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.
• The jar monkey's laugh plays at a slower rate.
• You cannot bounce on the pull levers in succession.
• The sarcophagus mummy's coffin has a different color scheme.
  • This enemy makes no sound effects at all.
  • No unique death animations exist when dying to this enemy.
  • The mummy lab assistant can walk over pits.
  • It will not be defeated in one hit when Crash loses a mask or while he is invincible.
• Crash does not deflate like a balloon when touching spiked mummies - he turns into an angel instead.
• There are no sound effects when Crash is poked by the spear floors.
• Moving platforms only make a sound when moving from right to left.
• If you get crushed by a door while holding the Fruit Bazooka, Crash will play the death animation of being crushed to his feet instead.
• Crash cannot use the Fruit Bazooka to hit the switches to open the doors.
  • Aiming the bazooka at the spear floors, platforms, and doors will be detected as a target.
  • 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#

• Aku Aku is not banned.
• During the cinematic entrance, the plane moves at the same speed during the gameplay and you also have full control of the plane.

• The health icon uses a top view sprite of the Orange Baron in place of the usual Crash and Coco's aviator icons.
• The blimp icon is a static sprite, which was later replaced with 2D pre-rendered sprites - it is also used as a placeholder for the airplanes.
• Health balloons can regenerate only 10% of player's health, rather than 50%.
• The box gem will not be granted after breaking all crates.
• 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 clock crate reuses the ? crate sprite as a placeholder when far away.
  • The balloon holding the crate is also yellow instead of red.
  • The crate will not go away when shooting the blimps, meaning you can start the time trial after destroying most of the blimps.
  • Shooting at the balloon will make the crate fall from the sky, and it will break as if it were a regular crate when it hits the ground.
    • The time trial will not start either.
• The directional arrow will not reappear once you respawn after restarting the time trial or if you die after destroying all blimps or planes.
• Planes and objects can block the icons and numbers in the HUD if going over them.
• In Time Trial, the chronometer is placed above the blimp/airplane counter.

Warp Room#

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

July 17	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.
  • Some of Coco's textures are heavily corrupted, such as her eyes, forehead, flower, and laptop.
  • 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.

• The memory card screens re-use the default font for the letters G, V and Y in the header strings, as there is no texture space left in this build to allocate all required letters in the large font.
  • 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, and Sphynxinator (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", the chambers 1-4 have the initials of that world's boss (TNY, DIN, NTY, NGN) holding a default score of 2:00:00 for every level - with the exception of the fifth warp room which normally uses the "1st" initials instead.
• 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 is less visible.
• Some of the textures have different lighting, such as the bricks and the scenery in the first chamber.
• Aside from the levels in the first chamber, the music will only start playing when you return from a level after Crash has dropped the retrieved collectibles.
• 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.
• Since Tiny Tiger is the only available boss fight, later chambers will open immediately once the required number of crystals is retrieved. Despite this, the buttons for subsequent bosses will still appear.
• As most of the fifth chamber levels are missing, all buttons apart from Mad Bombers are not functional.
• There is no platform in the center of the warp room leading to the secret chamber, as it requires a different method of access. See the section below for more details.
• The game may freeze just as Crash is about to finish his dance as an idle animation.

Secret Chamber#

Similar to the sixth warp room in Crash 2, the secret chamber was also going to be accessible only through secret warp exits. In this version, the only secret exit leading to the room is located at the end of the death route in Dino Might!, which was also removed in the final game.

• All level entrances redirect to the levels of the first chamber as a placeholder.
• 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.
• 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 Text#

SPHYNXTER

A later name for Sphynxinator can be found in the pause menu strings of many levels, which can be seen in the August 14th, 1998 prototype.

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, there are two different sets of level strings in this version where the names for Sphynxinator and Future Frenzy levels will differ - an earlier one, where Sphynxinator is called Tomb Too and Future Frenzy is called Future 1, and a newer one where they are referred to as Sphynxter and Fast Forward respectively (the latter can be seen within the level itself).

The majority of the levels feature the newer set of strings, which can be found in the code for the title screen, the game over screen, the warp room (pause menu only), Under Pressure, Orient Express, Makin' Waves, Hog Ride, Dino Might!, Deep Trouble, High Time, Road Crash, Double Header, Tell No Tales, Future Frenzy, and Tomb Wader.

CTX
SVR

Among the boss initials for the time trial leaderboards in the warp room are two unused initials for the fifth and sixth chambers - CTX (Cortex) and SVR (presumably the Silver relic). These strings can be seen in the August 14th, 1998 build as well.

DINGODILE
N. TROPY
N. GIN
N. CORTEX

Although only the Tiny Tiger boss fight is present in this version, the level names for the other bosses can be found among the level strings.

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 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.

Early Audience Sprites#

In the Tiny Tiger boss fight, there are three unused versions of the spectator lab assistants wearing white, purple and green clothes.

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.

Coco's Plane#

Despite Crash's plane being used, a top-down variant of Coco's biplane icon, the Flying Queen, also exists in the texture data of the Baron levels.

Gas Station#

In Road Crash, there is an unused variant of the gas station texture with the lights off, which is only used in Hog Ride. It is also stored as a single texture, rather then being split into smaller tiles.

Unknown Billboard Texture#

Still in Road Crash, there is an unused texture among other billboard textures. Its purpose is unknown, although it is likely that it would have acted as a texture for some shrubbery.

Future Bonus Platform#

Despite not being used in this build, the texture of the Future bonus platform can be found in the texture pages.

Arabian Death Route Platform#

Also not used in this build, the texture of the Arabian death route platform can be found in the texture pages.

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.

"B" Texture#

An unknown texture with a B on it can be found among the warp room textures. Its purpose is unclear, although it may have been a placeholder for boss level buttons at some point (assuming the B stands for "BOSS"), as it shares the same palette as the regular buttons.

"C" Texture#

A texture for the letter C (lifted from the iron checkpoint crate), likely for the same purpose as the lone exclamation mark sprites that pop out of action crates when they are hit, though this one is not used. Interestingly, this behavior can be seen in Crash Bandicoot 2: N-Tranced.

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 both 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.