DemoBeta1

This is a sub-page of Proto:TrackMania (2003).

To do: Menu differences 2Player mode lets you choose 1-4 players, in retail its 2-4 internal camera shows the car model (which is hidden in retail) you can't change your key binds the base air road model being different (which also does not generate pylons) from the final version editor differences

This prototype is documented on Hidden Palace.

The first public build of TrackMania. Released sometime after October 21st, 2003 via email for people who registered for the beta test on the main website.¹
This demo features only a single environment (Desert) and a unique campaign of 8 challenge (puzzle) tracks and 10 race tracks.

Tracks#

List of race tracks in TrackMania DemoBeta1:

Time Bonus#

This is a unique mechanic that was completely removed in the retail game. The game would give the player a copper bonus based on the race finish time.
It is currently unknown what's the formula for the time copper bonus.

Nadeo Medal Copper Bonus#

In the retail game, the player can receive coppers for beating bronze, silver and gold medals. This demo normally has this feature disabled, but it can be toggled by modifying the TrackManiaDemoBeta1.TrackMania.Gbx file.
This build also has a 500 coppers reward for beating the author medal, which is not a thing in the retail game. The message box also displays "Nadeo Team" instead of the actual track author name.

Slow Motion Mode#

(insert riolu joke here)
During the race, the player can press the P key to toggle a debug mode that will run the physics calculations in slow motion. It was most likely used to find bugs in the physics algorithm.

Upload/Download challenge#

This feature partially existed in this beta version of the game, where it would check for new challenges upon connecting to the master server.
It would be removed in the next demo, DemoMag2.

Graphics#

Early Terrain Icons#

The terrain building mode is not normally accessible in this demo, so these graphics are unseen. These icons can be seen in the trailer for the game.

Block	DemoBeta1	Final
SpeedBase
Desert2
Desert3
Canyon

UIButtons.dds#

DemoBeta1	Final

Same differences can be seen on UIButtonsFocus.dds, UIButtonsSelected.dds and UIButtonsSelectedFocus.dds.

Check Mark Graphics#

DemoBeta1	Final

Unused Race Interfaces#

This build contains interface files for the two unused race game modes, 2P-Retro and CaptureCheckpoints. These are very similar to the one seen on early pre-release screenshots of the game.
Here are the screenshots of how these look like: (Note: this is the retail game that has been modified during runtime to change the interface manually, it is not possible to load these files alone)

UiCourse2P_Retro.Scene2d.Gbx#

UiCourseNetCapture.Scene2d.Gbx#

Unused sounds#

There is an unused sound for a camera transition from race to editor.
In game, there is only transition for switching from editor to race, which has a unique sound for each environment in the final game. The sound is a short version of the Desert transition.

Unused "Zoom Race To Editor" (zoom_racetoeditor.wav)

The original file has additional metadata about the date and software used. The sound was made on 2003-07-08 with Sonic Foundry Sound Forge 5.0.

References#