US Demo Disc

This is a sub-page of Proto:Crash Nitro Kart (PlayStation 2, GameCube, Xbox).

Early Voice ClipsEarly/scrapped character voice clips.

Menu Differences#

Demo	Final

• The startup sequences use splash screens. There is no music, narration or animated screens.
• The game's logo is a static image on a dull background. It says Press Start Button to Begin! using the game's font, instead of Press Start Button in a white font.
• Three options are available in the main menu: 1 Player Race, 2 Player Race, and Control Setup. The CNK's logo is missing from the left side, and there are no other game modes.
• The background is much lighter than the final game.
• A meteor would orbit Velo's Coliseum in the background of the selection menus.
• The planet on the left has an orange tone in the demo, as opposed to the purple color from the final.
• The "Accept" and "Back" button prompts (including Vicarious Visions's logo) are always on-screen.

Control Setup#

Demo	Final

• All miscellaneous options are not present.
• There are no multiple button layouts to choose.
• Select and Start buttons are assigned in the layout.
• Rear View is called "Look Back" and is set to R2 instead of L2.
• Toggle View is called "Camera" and is set to L2 instead of Select.
• L1 and R1 buttons are called "Jump".
• Steer is called "Steer/Reverse".
• Gas is called "Throttle".
• Brake/Rev. is called "Brake".
• Toggle HUD is called "Toggle Map/Speeodmeter".
• The dark background box is missing.

Character Select#

Demo	Final

• The characters are static and have no animations.
• Cortex's menu model uses an older revision, where his body is smaller and features a bigger head.
• The shadow icons of the locked characters are not present.
• There is a 1 number in the highlighted P1 icon outline. In the final game, it's used only in multiplayer modes.

Level Select#

Demo	Final

• Two levels can be selected. There is no preview thumbnail, track minimaps, or even the number of laps.
• Out of Time is called "Out of Mime."

Loading Screen#

• There are no unique loading screens for each track. Instead, the letters in "LOADING" fly from the right, just like in Crash Team Racing, but in front of a plain, black background.

Gameplay Differences#

• Controls feel more loose, and it's much more complicated to skid karts and perform a powerslide.
• The lighting is much simpler.
• The character models are not affected by the ambient lighting, always retaining the same color shading, regardless of where they are.
• The characters are static and lack all animations, except the idle ones.
• The characters' models have very blurry, low poly textures.
• Car exhaustion looks a bit different. Small particles of smoke come out of the exhaust pipes when the kart is not accelerating.
  • The smoke also suddenly changes to black, rather than fading smoothly to gray.
• Idle animations activate much more quickly.
  • There is no cooldown, so most characters will repeat it immediately after the last frame.
• Skid marks remain in the ground and will not disappear unless the player moves too far away from the marks.
• The characters in the start line are placed farther apart from each other.
• X crates are completely absent from the tracks (despite already existing in the files).
• The demo features Crash with a deeper voice. All of his voice effects were sped up for the final game, but the original ones were still kept for the handheld versions.
• Some falling voice clips are much longer, causing it to continue playing even after the character respawns.
  • Most of them also have longer voice clips for other actions, which were shortened in the final game.
• The Velo Mask wasn't implemented yet. Instead, all characters who are protected by it in the final game are protected by Aku Aku, but using Uka Uka's voice and music as a placeholder.
• The camera view is always reset to the default when quitting any level.
• There is no cooldown for filling the boost bar during the countdown or mask respawn.
• A hang time meter pops up every time the kart is lifted from the ground.
• The powerslide bar has the colors inverted, going from red to green.
  • The gauge is colored black instead of gray.
  • The arrow is smaller.
• There are no rear markers when an opponent is close behind the player.
• The boost counter is placed on the right corner of the screen and appears from the right, similar to Crash Team Racing.
• The item roulette gives an item too early.
  • The item icon does not flash before disappearing after being used.
  • The juiced up glow size is set to 70x70 instead of 100x100.
• Minimaps are in a lower resolution, and feature a larger display size: 250x250 instead of 128x128.
  • Specifically in Arcade Mode (which is the default mode in this demo), the minimap is placed higher on the HUD, causing it to be overlapped by the boost counter.
  • The minimap dot representing the player is not bigger and does not flash.
  • The color green is used for Team Oxide characters instead of yellow, while pink is used for Team Trance characters instead of green.
• The speedometer does not glow when the player is juiced up. Its display size is also 510x380 instead of 523x375.
• During the race countdown, most of the CPU characters will be turning their heads in a particular direction.
• The CPU's navigation path is less polished, so racers are more prone to get stuck in random parts of the scenery or crash into walls.
• CPU racers are more talkative, as they can play all kinds of voice clips like the player, such as spinning out, catching a big air, or falling off the track. In the final game, each voice event has a variable that defines whether the voice can only be used by the player or not.
  • CPU racers will start receiving Wumpa fruit after 20 seconds, rather than 1 second after the race starts.
  • CPU racers are able to obtain a wider variety of items such as Turbos, TNT/Nitro crates and Ice Mines. In the final game, they are hardcoded to only receive Bowling Bombs and Tracking Missiles.
• Masks are completely silent throughout gameplay, such as when respawning or attacking a teammate.
• The fall stretch animation is different: the player falls very quickly and the mask appears immediately after the fall - the mask sound effect is heard and the invincibility theme starts playing until the player respawns.
  • When the mask appears to rescue the player, they start out tiny but grow to normal size as they emerge, just like in Crash Team Racing.
  • There is no black screen fade transition.
• When the player is hit by a shock hazard, the kart doesn't spin out of control and the screen doesn't flash.
• You do not lose Wumpa fruit when spinning out or getting squashed.
• Wumpa crates will provide fewer Wumpa fruit, with a minimum of 2 fruit and a maximum of 5. However, players will usually receive only 2 fruit, making it much slower to achieve juiced up items.
  • Collecting Wumpa fruit from crates only plays the sound effect twice.
• Wumpa fruit dropped by the players only stay on the track for 10 seconds before despawning, as opposed to 30.
• The pause menu box covers the entire screen and the options are placed in the top of the screen.
  • There is no "Accept" button prompt.
  • Pressing X to resume the game will reset the track's theme.
• There is no final lap jingle and the music doesn't speed up on the last lap.
• There are no result fanfares, and the screen doesn't flash white when crossing the finish line.
• Masks won't automatically rescue a CPU racer if they get stuck in the same place for too long.

• The character stats were changed in the final game.

Race#

• Single Race is called Arcade.
• The races are based on Team Mode. However, it works very differently from the final game, since the Team Frenzy feature didn't exist at the time. If the player uses a Invincibility Mask, Shield or Voodoo Doll, the teammate will also receive it if the player is close to that character.
• You can keep the powerslide bar at maximum during the countdown.

Demo	Final

• The characters spawn much further ahead of the start line.
• Start lights have a different texture than the final game.
• Start banners weren't implemented yet.
• The position number is placed too close to the character icons.

Demo	Final

• The results screen was very simple at this time and there wasn't any commemoration for achieving first place.
• The CPU racers have a high difficulty in the demo and throw a variety of items such as TNTs and Ice Mines, which doesn't happen in the final game.
• Some power-up explosions, such as the bowling bombs, are purple.
• The characters have an extra voice clip for when they are hit.

Multiplayer#

It isn't possible to access 3 or 4 player modes, as the demo only grants access for one and two players.

Demo	Final

• There are no sound effects for Player 2's actions.
• The players' kart emit smoke from exhaust pipes. This was disabled for splitscreen in the final game.
• The camera view distance in 2-player splitscreen is the same ones as 1-player modes.
• The screen division line is thicker due to the team color outlines.
• Letter suffixes will not appear in the HUD until the players switch positions when the track is loaded for the first time.
• The entire HUD got an overhaul for 2 and 4-player splitscreen.
  • Overall, every UI element is the same size as the single player HUDs, including fonts, character icons, position numbers, Wumpa counter, and item roulette.
  • The Wumpa counter is on the right side of the screen, while the item roulette is on the left side. This layout is borrowed from Crash Team Racing.
  • The lap counter features the "LAP" text.
  • There are no "FINAL LAP!" or "WRONG WAY!" notices.
  • The height meter was also present.
• Despite not accessible normally, the 4-player HUD composition also has some differences:
  • The Wumpa counter is towards the middle of the screen, while the item roulette is in the corners. This layout is also borrowed from Crash Team Racing.

Power-Ups#

Voodoo Doll#

The Voodoo Doll is an item that was removed from the final game which surrounds the player in a bright aura (complete with a heavenly choir) while supplying a short Team Frenzy-like effect with unlimited power-ups for a short time - although it just cycles between Triple Bombs/Missiles, and Invincibility Masks.

It also shrinks down whoever is in first place, generates a rain cloud over their head (similar to what happens in Crash Team Racing with the Red Beakers), slows them down, and makes their kart slippery.

Additionally, when activating the Invincibility Mask while close enough to your teammate, it will cause an explosion once the invincibility ends, causing nearby opponents to be hit by the blast.

The icon for the Voodoo Doll is still present in the final game, and you can see it flashing among the other power-ups when you break a crate.

Ice Mine#

• It features a different icon, which is an ice cube, that is still used in the handheld versions.
• The old model is a small crystal surrounded by a blue fog.
• The ice cube is transparent when the player is hit in Single Player modes.
• The screen does not flash white when frozen by the mine.
• The dropped Wumpa fruit lands near the player's kart, causing it to be picked up again almost immediately.
• The normal freeze time is 900 instead of 3000.
• A few parameters are not programmed such as Throw Distance, Throw Speed Factor, Blast Radiuses and Explosion Scales.

Explosive Crate#

• The "JUMP!" notice when a TNT is on the player's head is missing.
• Missing Explosion Scales.

Bowling Bomb#

• Blast Radius is 3 instead of 5 (normal) and 6 instead of 8 (juiced up).
• Air Gravity is 8 instead of 12.
• Ground Gravity is 1.25 instead of 4.
• Turn Speed is 0.25 instead of 0.9 (normal) and 0.25 instead of 0.9 (juiced up).
• View Range is 0.6 instead of 0.993.
• Range in Front is 130 instead of 150.
• Explosion Blast Radius is 3 instead of 5 (normal) and 6 instead of 8 (juiced up).
• Hard Lat Friction is 50 instead of 30.
• The Explosion Scales parameters are not programmed.
• There is no Back Speed parameter (when the bomb is shot backwards). It uses the default speed instead.

Tracking Missile#

• Acceleration is 40 instead of 45 (normal) and 50 instead of 55 (juiced up).
• Turn Speed is 4 instead of 5.
• Explosion Blast Radius is 0.5 instead of 1 (normal) and 0.5 instead of 1 (juiced up).
• The Explosion Scales parameters are not programmed.
• There are no decay parameters.

Static Orb#

• A thunder bolt is the Static Orb's original form. It was only different in appearance and icon.
• It doesn't make the kart spin out of control when touching it.
• When juiced up, it uses the default missile tracking sound effect when following the player.
• It drains 3 Wumpa fruit instead of 2.
• The crosshair graphic uses the default missile tracking color.
• The shock time when juiced up is 3000 instead of 6000.

Power Shield#

• It reuses the same icon from Crash Team Racing.
• Approaching your teammate while active will cause the teammate to use one as well, acting as a sort of sharing feature.
  • If your teammate activates it, small spheres of energy will appear and emerge from the bubble and automatically zap to the nearest racers, causing a shock to the opponents.
• The shield has a different appearance, with electrical effects around the edge.
• When the effect ends, the shield will flash inside, then disappear. In the final game, it disappears instantly.

Invincibility Mask#

• The mask invincibility themes are short drumbeats that last about a second before looping.
  • Velo Mask reuses Uka Uka's theme as a placeholder instead.
• Hitting someone with the invincibility will make them spin out of control.
• Aku Aku and Uka Uka give off sparkles around their models.
• Activating it while you are close enough to your teammate will cause the mask to travel from your kart to the teammate's kart, acting as a sort of sharing feature.
• The player can receive this item multiple times at once, rather than being limited to one at a time in the final game.

Tornado Top#

• The tornado has dust particles on the bottom.
• It drains 2 Wumpa fruit instead of 5.
• Some parameters were changed:
  • Max Speed Missile is 38 instead of 55 (normal) and 45 instead of 55 (juiced up)
  • Time Limit is 2000 instead of 3000
  • Acceleration (juiced up) is 55 instead of 50
  • Turn Speed is 6 instead of 8 (normal) and 11 instead of 8 (juiced up)
  • Radius is 0.75 instead of 2.5
  • Lift Time is 1500 instead of 3000
  • Target Distance is 15 instead of 18
  • Range of Target is 0.15 instead of 0.707

Red Eye Missile#

• It reuses the same icon as the Tracking Missile.
• You do not automatically enter chase mode when launching it - rather, you need to press Circle to manually enter it.
  • Hitting the opponents does nothing.
  • It cannot pick up crates.
  • There is no fade when switching modes, or white screen flash after hitting something.
• Some parameters were changed:
  • Acceleration is 45 instead of 50
  • Maximum Speed is 80 instead of 60
  • Minimum Speed is 40 instead of 28
  • Turn Speed is 20 instead of 10
• A few parameters are not programmed such as Explosion Radiuses, Turn Speed (juiced up), Explosion Scales, and Full Speed Turn Slowdown.

Super Engine#

• It reuses the same icon from Crash Team Racing.
• You cannot drive in reverse while the boost is active.

Track Differences#

Jungle Boogie#

• Jungle Boogie uses Tiny Temple's theme.
• Some crates have a different placement.

Out of Time#

• The fence shortcut that you can jump over is different. You can drive through it, but there is an invisible wall after that and there is no way past it.
• There are no eagles flying around the stage's background.
• The windmills have a different sound effect.

Demo	Final

• The ramps have a different texture and don't give a dash.
• There is a removed giant hourglass floating up above. It flips constantly in mid-air.
• The ! crate is misplaced on mid-air.

Demo	Final

• There are three worms instead of four.
• The worms have different holes, resembling patches of dirt. They're still visible when hiding.
• If one of the worms eats you, the camera doesn't change angles, neither flashes red.

Unused Content#

Unlockable Characters#

The demo allows you to choose between the eight starter characters. Through hacks, however, it's also possible to access the remaining characters.

Early Speedometer#

Located in .\ps2\gfx\hud\speedo.igb, an earlier horizontal version of the speedometer is still present in the game's files and it's fully functional. Instead of a pointer, it features bars that will increase according to the kart's speed.

This speedometer is displayed by default in the HUD for all game modes aside from Arcade and Time Trial.

Hub Worlds#

Located in .\common\gameprogression\goalstorewardsconverter.csv, this file stores the rewards given for each warp pad.

• Meteor Gorge holds the green token instead of the red one.
• Barin Ruins holds the blue token instead of the green one.
• Deep Sea Driving holds the red token instead of the blue one.
• Clockwork Wumpa and Thunder Struck tokens are switched.
• Android Alley and Electron Avenue tokens are switched.
• There is no reference for the warp pad to Hyper Spaceway's relic race in Velo's Vault.

Relic Times#

Located in .\common\gameprogression\relictimes.csv, the relic times for all tracks are different, though only times for Inferno Island and Jungle Boogie seem to be properly set.

Hub worlds also share the same placeholder time used for the majority of the tracks. In the final game, the time is set to 1666:40:00 / 166:40:00 / 16:40:00.

Crystal Challenge Time Limits#

Located in .\common\gameprogression\crystaltimes.csv, the time limits for all arenas are all set to 60 seconds, which is most likely a placeholder.

Difficulty Level#

Located in .\common\gameprogression\arcadehistory.csv, the difficulty factor for "Easy", "Medium" and "Hard" difficulties on Arcade Mode was lowered to 0, 0.45 and 0.9 respectively on the final game from 0, 0.5 and 1 in the demo.

Gem Cups#

Located in .\common\gameprogression\adventurecup.csv, the tracks for the gem cups are different in the demo, with all three Fenomena tracks missing from them.

Velo's Vault#

Located in .\common\gameprogression\adventuretracksmanager.csv, Velo's Vault requires 3 keys to access as opposed to 4 in the final game, and the warp pad to Hyper Spaceway's relic race is not present.

Yellow Gem/Token Leftovers#

More leftover related to the yellow variants of gem and token prizes can be found in .\common\gameprogression\warppadinfo.csv. Despite this, no warp pads are set to award the player a yellow gem or token.

token_yellow,hubworld/tokens/token_yellow
gem_yellow,hubworld/gems/gem_yellow

This seeks the gem and token model files located in the hubworld directory. It has not been included in the demo data, though.

Unused Text#

AKU/UKA HINTS

A mask hint option including both masks. It's unknown what it was intended for.

Level Names#

The internal list of level names contains a few which were renamed before the final version of the game.

Meteor Gorge, Out of Time, Thunder Struck, and Electron Avenue originally had different names. Frozen Frenzy was later reused on a snowy battle arena.

Notably, there is also no trace of strings related to Hyper Spaceway, although the track is already referenced in some files related to the Galaxy Championship.

Cups#

WUMPA CUP
NITRO CUP
CRASH CUP
CRYSTAL CUP

Originally, all four cups would use the same names from Crash Team Racing's cups, but two of them were eventually renamed to Aku Cup and Uka Cup.

Misc#

VELO CITADEL
LOST EARTH
BARIN
FENOMENA
TEKNEE
GEM

Following the hub world strings and preceding the battle arena strings is text that just says "GEM", which was possibly a name used to refer to Velo's Vault, which is where you access the gem cups.

Terra's original name was "Lost Earth". There is another group of hub world strings where the final name is already being used at this point, meaning this outdated group of strings was most likely still being used on the pause menu.

The Velo's Citadel name is missing the possessive case in both groups.

ARENA 1
ARENA 2
ARENA 3
ARENA 4
ARENA 5
ARENA 6
ARENA 7

All arenas don't have a proper name yet at this point. Arena 7 is also mentioned here, meaning there was still plans for two more arenas, before both were ultimately scrapped.

Mode Descriptions#

Originally, the menus would feature brief descriptions of each option and game mode. The strings are stored along with the rest of the game's text in the demo files. Since there is no way to confirm which description belongs to which game mode precisely, most of these are assumptions based on which modes seemed to be present at the time.

VIEW THE FASTEST TIMES

Description for the Best Times menu option.

SET GAME OPTIONS

Description for the Options menu.

SAVE EARTH FROM EMPEROR VELO

Description for the Adventure mode.

COMPETE FOR THE FASTEST RACE TIMES

Description for a standalone Time Trial mode. In the final game there's two Time Trial modes in Race Time Trial and Lap Time Trial.

COMPETE AGAINST THE AI CONTROLLED RACERS

Possibly a description for the Single Player menu option in the final game.

RACE AGAINST YOUR FRIENDS

Description for the Race Mode menu option in the final game's Multiplayer menu.

UP TO 4 CREATURES ENTER, 1 CREATURE LEAVES

Description for the Battle Mode menu option in the final game's Multiplayer menu.

FINISH FIRST WITH THE CRYSTAL LIMIT TO WIN THE RACE

Description for the scrapped Crystal Race game mode.

END THE RACE WITH THE MOST CRYSTALS TO WIN

Description for the scrapped Crystal Count game mode.

MODIFY ARENAS WITH MORE STUFF

Description for the Arena Editor mode.

COMPETE IN A SINGLE RACE

Description for the Single Race menu option available from Race Mode in the final game's Multiplayer menu.

COMPETE IN A SERIES OF RACES TO WIN THE CUP

Description for the Cup Tournament mode.

FIRST PLAYER TO REACH THE POINT LIMIT WINS!

Description for the Limit Battle mode available from Battle Mode in the final game's Multiplayer menu.

PLAYER WITH THE MOST POINTS WHEN TIME RUNS OUT WINS!

Description for what appears to be one of the configurations of Limit Battle that can be played in the final game.

PLAYER WITH THE MOST POINTS WHEN TIME RUNS OUT WINS!

A duplicate of the above string. Given how these strings seem to describe menu options separate from Limit Battle, and how they're followed by each other, it's possible that this relates to the "POINT LIMIT" and "TIME LIMIT" strings that went unused along with other game mode text in the final game.

PLAYERS MUST DOMINATE THE PADS

Presumably a description for the scrapped Domination battle game mode.

BECOME KING OF THE REALM TO SCORE POINTS

Presumably a description for the scrapped King of the Realm mode, a variant of the Domination game mode.

CAPTURE THE FLAG TO SCORE POINTS

Description for the Capture the Flag mode.

PRACTICE YOUR SKILLS AT THE HUB WORLD

A description for... hub worlds from the adventure mode? Given how hub worlds are loaded using their own game mode (?), it's possible that the developers unknowingly made a description for something that was not going to be on a menu.

COMPETE IN A SINGLE RACE TO WIN A TROPHY

A description for Trophy Races from the adventure mode. See above.

COLLECT THE C N K LETTERS AND WIN THE RACE TO WIN A TOKEN

Description for Adventure's CNK Challenge mode. One of two Adventure-exclusive game modes that are actually located on a menu in the final game, although it seems unlikely that the menu for choosing those would have had descriptions, so this could have either gone on the main menu or not at all.

FINISH IN RECORD TIME TO WIN A RELIC

Description for Adventure's Relic Race mode. See above.

COLLECT ALL THE CRYSTALS BEFORE TIME RUNS OUT TO WIN A TOKEN

Description for Adventure's Crystal Arena mode. See hub worlds.

PLACE 1st IN A GEM CUP SERIES TO WIN A GEM

Description for Gem Cup Tournaments. See hub worlds.

BEAT THE BOSS TO WIN A KEY

Description for boss races. See hub worlds.

CONNECT UP TO EIGHT GAME CONSOLES FOR A TOTAL OF EIGHT PLAYERS

Description for the scrapped online mode.

PLAY WITH UP TO FOUR PEOPLE ON ONE TV

Possibly a description for the Multiplayer menu option in the final game.

PLAY WITH A FRIEND IN ARCADE MODE

Possibly a description for the scrapped 2 Player Quick Race option found within the text file of this demo.

PLAY THROUGH ADVENTURE MODE TO UNLOCK

Possibly displayed when hovering over a locked option. There are variables for unlocking the Crystal Race mode. No options or game modes can be unlocked in the final game.

Engine Information#

Fri Jul 4 15:11:43 EST 2003
Intrinsic Alchemy v3.0 -0704 (Static/Release)
Built by VVUser on Fri Jul 4 15:11:43 EST 2003