Speciale Demo

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

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The Spyro the Dragon Speciale Demo is a European demo which featured on multiple different demo discs, notably including a standalone disc which released in France (as per the name of the associated demo).

If the modification date of the WAD is to be believed (as this remains consistent across different demo discs featuring this demo), this demo is dated 5th July 1998, just over a month before the final build of the game (though several files have modification dates as far back as May 25th). Being a demo version, it's possible that this date was simply the date that the demo modifications finished, and that the development snapshot that this version represents was from slightly earlier.

Variants#

Multiple variants of this demo exist, due to the fact that at least one disc this demo released on (specifically the aforementioned standalone disc) has a corrupted STR file. The rest of the contents of the demo are identical, however, so this difference is assumed to have been an error in the production of the disc.

General Differences#

• Some differences, such as level restrictions, are not due to this build being a prototype, but due to it being a demo. It's natural that certain changes would be made to confine the player to only the areas that were meant to be shown.
  • Several of the demos and prototype builds seen throughout the series feature music that didn't match the intended theme for the level, and once again this was a choice that was made because the builds shown were demos and not necessarily because the levels actually used this music at this point in development. As such, it's possible that any music mismatches in this build might have not reflected the music actually used by those levels at this point in development.
• The only levels accessible to the player are the Artisans home, Stone Hill, and Dark Hollow.
• When all gems in a level are displayed, 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".
• There is no option to quit the game in the pause menu.
• Dragon eggs in the inventory do not display next to the level they correspond to.
• Many dragons do not feature cutscenes at this point in development. Most of these dragons instead display a full-screen text prompt containing dialogue.
• Dragon egg and key cutscenes cannot be skipped.
• Many sound effects are missing or different.
  • Dragons do not make their signature "rumbling" sound, nor do they rumble at all.
  • 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.
  • The sound effect for the gem count when travelling between levels is incomplete.
• Extra life statues are gold instead of silver.
• The home vortex's low-poly model is not yet present and thus this object does not appear until the player is relatively close to it. Additionally, in some levels a gem can be found floating inside the vortex.

Level Differences#

Artisans Home#

This page or section needs more images. There's a whole lotta words here, but not enough pictures. Please fix this. Specifically: Pictures of the blocked off portals in this demo would be nice.

• This world uses the title theme music instead of its usual theme.
• Town Square and Toasty's portals have been completely blocked off for the sake of restricting where the player can go in the demo.
• Sunny Flight also cannot be accessed. Specifically, stepping on the stones in the water does not reveal the area with the portal. If you do manage to get into the area containing the portal, the portal archway is seen to be entirely empty. Walking through causes Spyro to jump as though he was entering a portal, but no level is loaded.
  • The stones are a bit different from how they appear in the final game.
• The gem placement is somewhat different.
• The Artisans dragons seem to use different voice actors (or, at the very least, different vocal characterisation) and different cinematography and animations when compared to the final game. The dialogue between Spyro and these dragons also differs from the final game. For more information, see the Dialogue sub-page from the previous demo.
• When speaking to Nestor, if the player attempts to skip the cutscene it will instead display "...THIS IS IMPORTANT..." at the bottom of the screen.
• Tomas is called Silvus in this version.
• Argus is absent from the homeworld, though his cutscene data is still present (see the Dialogue sub-page).
• The balloonist uses a different color scheme from his final design, instead being light blue with a red scarf in the Artisans homeworld.
• An invisible wall is behind the balloonist, blocking Spyro from moving towards the balloon.

Stone Hill#

• Uses the end credits music instead of its usual theme.
• All dragons display screens with written dialogue instead of cutscenes with audio dialogue. The dialogue matches that of the first demo.
• One of the platforms, where the dragon "Gildas" is located, was made slightly bigger in the final game. This change was probably made to make the glide from there easier.

Dark Hollow#

• Like Stone Hill, all dragons display screens with written dialogue instead of cutscenes with audio dialogue. The dialogue matches that of the first demo.
• The big-bellied Gnorcs don't make a sound when hitting or roaring at the player.

Dialogue#

The dragon dialogue shown in this demo is identical to what is seen in the first demo, including the unused dialogue strings.

However, where this demo diverges from the previous version is the balloonist dialogue. In the earlier demo, balloonist dialogue strings were stored alongside dragon dialogue and interacting with the balloonist would display the dialogue in the same manner as a dragon's dialogue - full screen with no "text boxes".

This demo contains several more of these text strings than the previous build - the balloonist now seems able to acknowledge the existence of worlds after the Magic Crafters:

Despite the fact that there are new "dragon-text" balloonist strings in this version of the game, the demo actually uses the final text-box style of dialogue when interacting with the balloonist, instead. The dialogue that is used is different from the final version of the game:

The first two strings listed here are used for the purposes of the demo and thus do not naturally arise in the final game.

Due to a text mapping error, "ARE YOU READY TO GO?" is displayed with an apostrophe in the place of a question mark, despite it being a question mark in the game's text files. This would be fixed in the final game.

Level Names#

All level names appear in the game's code, despite most of them going unused. Several level and world names were different in this version, including a less-than-flattering placeholder level name.

Due to shifting level IDs, interpretations of these levels names were incorrect until the June 15th prototype was released and the actual correspondence was revealed. As such, the level IDs these levels correspond to do not always match the level IDs of the final game - specifically, Gnorc Cove was moved from 60 to 61 and Twilight Harbor from 61 to 62.

All flight levels simply use the name "FLYING" and all boss levels are called "BOSS". In some later prototypes, Gnasty's Loot is labelled as "BOSS" by default due to its level ID, so it's not clear whether, in this version of the game, it would have existed but used this "BOSS" label, or if it still did not exist just as in the June 15th prototype.

Inventory Data#

Even though only the first page of the Inventory can be viewed under normal means in this demo, the gem and dragon totals for the remaining pages are still present in the game's data. As it turns out, they're identical to the June 15th prototype's Inventory data, with the minor exception that the number of dragons listed for the Artisans home is 3, to match Argus' temporary removal.

It should be noted that as the data only reflects what is seen in the Inventory - the true number of gems or dragons per level at this point in development may have diverged from the Inventory values, or even from the June 15th prototype's collectable counts.