July 11th, 1998 build

This is a sub-page of Proto:Spyro the Dragon (PlayStation).

ArtisansDifferences in the first homeworld. Peace KeepersDifferences in the second homeworld. Magic CraftersDifferences in the third homeworld. Beast MakersDifferences in the fourth homeworld. Dream WeaversDifferences in the fifth homeworld. MachinistsYou've guessed it - differences in the final homeworld. Soundtrack DifferencesThey pay me for this!

Build Date#

Like the June 15th build before it, the build dates in this version all seem to suggest a date of June 15th. Evidently this is not accurate, so the primary volume dates suggest a more reliable figure:

General Differences#

• Game has dongle protection, which causes a crash during start up if no dongle is detected. This can be circumvented using either an appropriate dongle or a patch, both of which are provided on the Hidden Palace page.
• Game starts up with a "temporary boot menu" instead of a title screen or any of the copyright screens.
• Attempting to delete files from a full memory card will bring up a file delete screen. Progressing into this screen will show the message "Delete Screen Is Not. Ready Yet. You Got The Shemp.".
• There are no story cutscenes, nor any credits sequences.
• Some aspects of the inventory and pause menu are incomplete:
  • There's no option to quit the game in the pause menu.
  • There is no option for speaker setup in the options menu.
  • Pressing circle or square in the pause menu or inventory functions the same as pressing X.
  • Pressing triangle in the inventory doesn't switch it to the pause menu, as it would in the final.
  • Dragon eggs in the inventory do not display next to the level they correspond to.
• When saving the game, no memory card slot number is listed.
• Regardless of the number of lives the player had at the time of saving the game, it defaults to four lives each time the game is reloaded.
• When all of the gems in a level have been collected, the counter at the top does not indicate this to the player. In the final game, if the player were to collect all (for example) 100 gems in a level, upon collecting the final gem the counter will read "100/100".
• The soundtrack is in a completely different order compared to the final release, and only 10 tracks are present, instead of nearly every level getting an exclusive theme.
  • These tracks are seemingly almost randomly assigned. The tracklist matches other builds from May through July.
  • These tracks are all in stereo quality, whereas many of them were changed to mono in the final release.
  • The silence between the soundtrack loops is significantly longer than in the final version, likely due to longer silence at the end of the tracks.
  • None of the secret bonus tracks are present, and the bonus track functionality isn't implemented yet.
  • In the Beast Makers worlds the tracks are incorrectly given track lengths corresponding with the theme used in Stone Hill. This means that many of the tracks in these levels will loop at unusual times, for example before the track is finished.
• Many sound effects are missing throughout the game. Many of the sounds that are present are different, too.
  • There is no sound when moving through pages in the inventory.
  • Crystal dragons do not make their signature "rumbling" sound, though they are animated to rumble.
  • Many of the smaller Gnorcs make a different sound when they're killed.
  • Sparx does not make his usual chime sound when picking up a gem.
  • Thieves don't make any sounds when taunting the player.
  • When travelling between levels, the gem sound effects may not play.
• When pressing triangle while gliding, Spyro reacts and falls much slower. There's also no thud animation when Spyro hits the ground.
• Dragon functionality is generally incomplete:
  • Many dragons do not feature their release cutscenes at this point in development. Instead, most dragons display a full-screen text prompt containing written dialogue. This functionality is totally absent from the final game, but it resembles the sign functionality from the Japanese version.
  • Of those that have animations, a handful of them have unfinished audio - missing or changed background music, different lines, early dialogue takes, and a couple of them have incredibly slow, low pitched audio, indicating they were exported with an incorrect sample rate. Some of the dragons also have different animations to go with their different dialogue takes, and a lot of the dragons are different in appearance to their final versions too.
  • For all dragons from Beast Makers onwards, and one dragon in Alpine Ridge, instead of showing text dialogue or a cutscene, the dragon instantly disappears.
  • Looping sounds will continue playing in the dialogue screen. For example, charging into a dragon can make the charging sound continue playing whilst the dialogue is on screen.
• There's a strange effect that happens when a cutscene dragon is collected after a non-cutscene dragon in the same level - if the counter has not been displayed on screen between the two, at the end of the cutscene it will appear to go up for each non-cutscene dragon collected as well as the cutscene one, due to the counter having not updated yet.
  • This is usually not possible in other builds, but this build allows it due to there being levels that have a mix of both dragon types.
• Gem placement differs in quite a few places across the game.
• The extra life statues are gold instead of silver.
• The animation that plays upon collecting a dragon egg cannot be skipped. The same is true for key animations - locked chests and the doors in Gnasty Gnorc and Gnasty's Loot.
• The end of level vortex platform has no low-poly LOD model, so it will appear to pop into view when Spyro is a short distance away from it.
• Some level portals - such as the Toasty portal - seem to be slightly more difficult to enter, as Spyro gets caught on the collision instead of going straight through.
• The question mark doesn't appear to be in the 3D font yet, so any question marks (e.g. in the balloonists' "Are You Ready To Go?" dialogue) appear as an apostrophe instead.
• All balloonists look the same, sporting a blue outfit with a red scarf, rather than each being different as in the final.
• A number of levels have different names. Unless otherwise stated, levels will be described by their final names.
  • All boss levels are called "BOSS" instead of their respective names.
  • All flight levels are called "FLYING" instead of their respective names.
  • Alpine Ridge is called "ALPINE CLIFFS"
  • Gnasty's World is called the "MACHINISTS WORLD".
  • Gnorc Cove and Twilight Harbor have switched names in this version. Considering Gnorc Cove was given its final name in builds both earlier and later than this one, it seems more likely that this level being called Twilight Harbor here is a mistake rather than the original intent.
  • The level "GNASTY GNORC" is called "GNASTY PLACE".
  • Gnasty's Loot is called "BOSS", just as other levels with a level ID ending in 4 do in this build.
• When entering a boss level, the loading screen reads "ENTERING BOSS" instead of "CONFRONTING BOSS".
• The requirements to travel between worlds is different in a couple places:
  • Going from Magic Crafters to Beast Makers requires 7 eggs instead of 5.
  • Going from Beast Makers to Dream Weavers requires 42 dragons instead of 50.
• There are a few places where the number of dragons or gems in a level differs from the final.
  • The second dragon in Gnorc Gnexus isn't present yet.
  • There's an extra dragon in Gnorc Cove.
  • Only 381 of the 400 gems in Twilight Harbour are present. As a result, Gnasty's Loot is inaccessible under normal means.
• The maximum dragon counts in the inventory also differ from the in-game dragon counts in a few places:
  • Gnorc Gnexus has 2 in the inventory, matching the final's dragon count instead of this build's 1 dragon.
  • Gnorc Cove has 4 in the inventory, instead of the 3 in-game.
  • Twilight Harbor claims to have 0 dragons, instead of the level's 2.
• The smoke Spyro emits when the superflame powerup is active is absent in this build.
• In the final's flight levels, once the timer is below 10 seconds, it will begin making a noise once every second to warn the player. In this prototype, it makes this noise every second regardless of time remaining. Later flight levels seem to erroneously play a totally different sound instead.

Balloonist Dialogue Differences#

A number of balloonist lines are absent:

• WOW! I SEE YOU HAVE BEEN BUSY RESCUING DRAGONS, SPYRO.
• I CAN'T BELIEVE HOW FAST YOU FOUND SO MUCH STOLEN TREASURE.
• THANK YOU, SPYRO, FOR RECOVERING SO MANY OF OUR DRAGON EGGS.
• I FEEL MUCH BETTER NOW THAT SO MANY DRAGONS HAVE BEEN RESCUED.
• NICE JOB COLLECTING SO MUCH STOLEN TREASURE. BUT BEWARE, SPYRO.
• All lines relating to the dragon egg finding function are absent, too.

This build also still has a bunch of leftover dialogue for dragons and balloonists used in earlier builds. This includes old balloonist text with different dragon, gem, and egg requirements.

Cheat Codes#

The cheat codes present in this build seem to be in place mostly for testing purposes. They can be used at any time during gameplay by holding down the buttons for a few seconds at the same time. Aside from the XA playback code, the activation of which is obviously signaled by the music turning off, the successful entry of the other combinations are indicated by Spyro doing a light jump into the air whilst in a frozen idle state.

Level Select#

This code activates a level select mode. After this, you can either press Up to skip to the next level or input a two-button combination to warp to a specific level. Once the code is entered, the current level will disappear and Spyro will fly in the void for a bit until the level loads in, similar to the world transition animation seen in earlier prototypes.

• Worlds (First button):
  • Artisans - X
  • Peace Keepers - Square
  • Magic Crafters - Triangle
  • Beast Makers - Right
  • Dream Weavers - Down
  • Gnasty's World - Left
• Levels (Second button):
  • Home - Circle
  • First level - X
  • Second level - Square
  • Third level (or Gnasty Gnorc) - Triangle
  • Boss (or Gnasty's Loot) - Right
  • Flight - Down

If the first button pressed doesn't correspond to a world, it'll be ignored. However, if the second button doesn't correspond to a level, it will cause the level select to deactivate. Inputting an invalid combination (for example, entering Left + Down would correspond to a nonexistent Gnasty World's flight level) will also deactivate the level select.

When skipping through the levels with Up, the levels go in order that they appear in the inventory. For example, using it in a flight level will take the player to the next world's home. Using it on Gnasty Booty (Gnasty's Loot) will warp you back to the Artisans home.

Toggle active/passive camera#

Does exactly the same as the option found in the pause menu.

No Damage#

Entering this code prevents Sparx from losing health whenever Spyro takes damage. Sparx is still able to increase his health while the code is active.

Toggle XA playback#

Hold down all four geometry buttons for three seconds to deactivate the music. Re-entering the code re-enables playback. However, the first track of the STR file in use is played instead. Pausing and unpausing the game reverts to the intended music.

Save Information#

The information stored on a memory card when saving the game differs in this version compared to the final release.

Info	Prototype	Final
Save icon
Title	SPYRO TEMPORARY SAVES	SPYRO THE DRAGON
Product Code	SLUS-00001	SCUS-94228
Identifier	SPYROSAV	SPYRO

Most of the data appears to be identical to what is seen in the June 15th and July 18th prototypes. However, the product code is "SLUS-00001" here, sitting nicely between the former's "SLUS-00000" and the latter's "SLUS-00002". The icon is animated like the one in the July 18th build.

Dongle Protection#

As this build has a level of dongle protection on it to prevent it being played on a standard console, the game checks for the existence of a save file with the following product code:

BASLUS-99999SPYRODNG

DNG is likely short for "DONGLE".