August 30, 1999 Demo Build

This is a sub-page of Proto:Gran Turismo 2.

This North American demo of Gran Turismo 2 is the game's second earliest publicly available build and the first playable teaser to hit home consoles when it was featured on PlayStation Underground JAMPACK: Winter '99 (SCUS-94475). It is dated nearly three months before the original Japanese retail release and contains a significant amount of work-in-progress material introduced since the July 29 demo.

Curiously, this build uses Metric units of measurement during races, unlike the previous North American demo which uses Imperial units as in the final game.

Sub-Pages#

Cars Courses Arcade Mode

General Menu Differences#

July 29 Demo	August 30 Demo	November 28 Retail

This build adopts another menu typeface that differs from that found in the final game. It includes various big characters that are not used and do not appear in the final sheet.

Menu Audio Differences#

This build features a unique set of menu sound effects that does not resemble those of the final product or any other installment of the series. Like the ones in the previous demo, crackles can be heard in these sound clips.

This sound scheme remains in use in the September 7 demo build.

Top Menu Differences#

July 29 Demo	August 30 Demo	November 28/29 Retail

While not used by this build in particular, assets for the original unlocalised title screen were updated just hours after the previous demo was compiled. Buttons have been downscaled to match the North American version, the simpler Polyphony Digital logo is now used in both versions and other elements were moved/resized a bit as well.

August 30 Demo	November 28 Retail

A partial implementation of the Replay Theater menu appears for the first time in this build and can be accessed by forcing the selected option on the title screen to any value above 1 (except 4, which loads an attract replay instead). Option panels differ marginally in terms of placement, dimensions and artwork editing. Four OKs show up on the top corner of the screen, presumably for debugging purposes.

While text strings exist for three of the four submenus, only Copy Replay is "functional" to a meaningful extent — the other options either outright crash the game or hang it after their title bar is displayed depending on whether Copy Replay was entered first.

August 30 Demo	November 28 Retail

Copy Replay immediately shows a "not enough blocks" error when entered, regardless of whether a Memory Card is even inserted in either slot in the first place. It does not react to the real time insertion or removal of cards either, so it effectively is stuck in this state and pressing "Restart" just brings up the same error as before as a result.

Gran Turismo Mode Differences#

While most GT Mode menu pages remain the same as in the previous demo, three received minor updates.

The home page and lineup screen of the Chevrolet dealership have been altered to replace the brand's logo and text with their final design, but the tune up menu remains untouched at this point.

July 29 Demo	August 30 Demo	November 29 Retail

The West City menu page was modified to replace the icons of unavailable dealerships with unlit versions (as intended and done on the other three city menus) as well as to move the map artwork upwards by five pixels — this is reflected on the placement of button widgets.

In-Game Differences#

July 29 Demo	August 30 Demo	November 28 Retail

The race HUD received minor modifications since the last demo:

• Most elements of the lap timers were shifted one pixel to the right;
• The tachometer was moved closer to the edge of the screen and an early version of the boost gauge was added to it.

July 29 Demo	August 30 Demo	November 28 Retail

The race results screen remains mostly the same as before, with just the finish times being shifted about three pixels to the right.

Demonstration Replays#

The following set of attract replays is featured in this demo:

Unused Content#

Opponent and Event Data#

Like in the previous demo build, the race event data — now stored in carparam/arcade_data.dat — contains several sample races not accessible to the player: six corresponding to attract replays used in this demo and 18 more that might have been used by unknown or unavailable builds. The global opponent list has been remade from scratch, resulting in virtually every opponent ID changing from the July 29 builds, and now covers every car with associated physics/performance part data at this point in development.

Out of a whooping 100 opponents defined in this build's data, 15 are not assigned to any race event:

A set of events labeled DEMO01 through DEMO18 first appears in this build:

Events labeled DEMO1 through DEMO6 are still present too, but their contents have been shuffled around a bit since the July 29 demos:

• The contents of DEMO1 have been transferred to DEMO6;
• DEMO2's Suzuki Alto Works RS/Z (x2a8n) opponent has been replaced by the Alto Works RS/X (x2axn), a model that would not appear in the final product at all and even sports placeholder GT1-style wheels at this stage;
• DEMO3's location has been changed from Special Stage Route 5 (highway) to Seattle Circuit Full Course (seattle);
• DEMO4 now features a 1999 Toyota Corolla Rally Car (t2cxr), while a copy of the old event featuring a race modified Mitsubishi Lancer Evo V RS (m2r5r) is now labeled DEMO1;
• DEMO5 has been deleted, with DEMO6 inheriting its event ID and having its location changed from Seattle Circuit Full Course to Special Stage Route 5.

Replay Data#

The replay directory of GT2.VOL contains two sets of attract replays that are not used by this demo: one for Europe and another for Japan. Four of the Japanese replays are 1:1 copies of files found in the previous demo build, while the other two are unique and do not sync correctly if loaded in this version, suggesting that changes were made to the game's engine and/or car performance data after these replays were recorded.