Demo

This is a sub-page of Proto:La-Mulana (2006).

The Demo of La-Mulana was its first public release, appearing on GR3Project's website in 2002.
Its download page there clarifies that if the game's folder has Japanese text on it, the music will not play, so the folder's name must be changed to have alphabetical characters.

Sub-Pages#

Text DifferencesHoo boy, there's a lot. Level DifferencesYou even get new puzzles!

General Differences#

• The window is titled "La.Mu.LANA" instead of the final game's "La.MuLANA".
• The Escape key closes the game instead of bringing up a prompt to do so, like in the Sample prototype still.
• The Hand Scanner is already in your inventory instead of needing to be acquired, and a tune plays when you solve a puzzle without needing an item for it.

Prototype	Final

• The first sub-weapon you get is an arrow, not a shuriken like in the final. Mechanically, it still functions exactly like the latter and seems to be based
  on Maze of Galious' own arrow.
• Togs and Kodama Rats need to be hit more than once to be killed.
• There are no gateways to other areas yet.
• Unlike the final version, the game over screen doesn't go back to the Kobami logo, instead going straight to the title screen.

Code Differences#

Being 4 years older than the final game, it was bound to have some.

Flags#

To do: Document more flag differences.

The functions of the flags used here are different than the final version's flags.

Text Encryption#

The text in script.dat, used for tablet text etc., is structured differently; unlike later versions which put the WORLD chunk after the TALK chunk, here it's put before the TALK chunk. This makes the La-Mulana Editor tool unable to extract the latter, indicating that it stops reading files after the WORLD chunk.

Text Glitch#

Watch on YouTubeIf you scan a skeleton, minimize the game and maximize it back, the skeleton's text will be written in Mulanese glyphs instead of Japanese. This doesn't happen in the final game. The video to the right shows a comparison between most skeletons' texts in their original forms and when corrupted by the bug.

Game Over Glitch#

If you die, you can still press any of the F keys during the death animation, and the game will be halted from going to the game over screen.

Graphical Differences#

Prototype	Final

The MSX splash screen contains a question mark instead of ｶﾓｼﾚﾅｲ ("maybe"). This can also be seen in their earlier game GR3, though it's not a leftover as it matches the white color used by La-Mulana's bootup screens (0xFFFFFF as opposed to GR3's 0xE0E0E0).

Prototype	Final

Lemeza still doesn't eat curry while the game is paused, but at least the PAUSE text isn't flashing anymore.

Prototype	Final

Oddly enough, he appears on top of the text in the final, unlike in the demo where it appears on top of him.

Unused Graphics#

Even though title.bmp already has the Kobami logo, logo.bmp includes a full-size image with it. However, it's not used before the title screen and no references to said file can be found in the game's executable, unlike every other image.

This early version of the opening cutscene is in the files as stdemo1.bmp, but appears unused given its sketch-like nature and because the demo does not have such a cutscene.

item.bmp#

To do: Properly check which frames here are unused and add what's left.

A lot of icons wound up unused in that file.

Although they don't appear in-game (nor are the areas containing them present), the icons for all weapons that you can obtain in the final game other than the default one are already present to the right.

Brackets aptly named "No Use" after the icons for main weapons and cartridges respectively. Thanks, GR3Project!

These numbers in the bottom rows are likely IDs of items that were yet to be included.

Menus#

Title Screen#

Prototype	Final

Since it was still a demo, the title has 体験版 (taikenban, "demo") appended to the bottom. It also doesn't save your progress, so there are no options to choose and all there is left is the game asking you to "Push Space" to start.

Weapons Menu#

Prototype	Final

"WEAPON" is misspelled and the hyphen in "SUB-WEAPON" is missing.

MSX Screen Menu#

Prototype	Final

The final version added text mimicking MSX options and removed additional lines containing a newline and 'BLOAD＂MAPSYS.BIN＂, &hC000'. The menu also remains static there with a simple Ok instead of, like in the demo, waiting a moment to print:

Out of memory
Ok

The copyright is also dated 2002 instead of 1987.

Audio Differences#

Compared to Sample, the Demo is the first prototype to start to use MSX-like audio, using .wav files for sound effects and .sgt ones for music like all later versions already; there are still some interesting differences however.

Sound Effects#

se17.wav, playing when items are picked up, sounds much louder and distinct. This version later made it into the final game as se30.wav.

se1E.wav, the tune that plays when a puzzle is solved, has an echo not existent in the final version.

Music#

Please elaborate. Having more detail is always a good thing. Specifically: Are there any instruments missing from this prototype's SanbikiSCC file?

Thankfully, the music files have more recognizable names unlike the final game's pattern of m[number].sgt. The SanbikiSCC driver used is also an older version of it.

Opening.sgt has a differently composed version of the title screen theme "LA-MULANA", being more somber and having less impact. It was renamed in the final as m17.sgt.

The game over theme in GAMEOVER.sgt has the same impact as the title screen one and fades out instantly, unlike the final version (m19.sgt)'s gradual fadeout.