September 29, 1999 Build

This is a sub-page of Proto:Twisted Metal 4.

This prototype is documented on Hidden Palace.

Twisted Metal 4 is the fourth entry in the Twisted Metal series, made by 989 Studios and released in 1999 for the PlayStation.

Dated a month before release, the game is rather similar to the final build gameplay-wise. It's missing polish in some aspects, notably, the game's many boss vehicles are not unlockable yet - no 8 Minion games for you.

Memory Card Icon difference#

The prototype versions use a different icon animation than the green T M 4 seen in the final.

To do: Put the animation here. Not sure how to extract memory card icons, though - might have to create a GIF by hand from screenshots?

Intro#

The Calypso carnival story is visually the same.

• The dialogue voiceovers are less refined and polished.
• There is no music during the classical scenes.
• The third, modern-day music uses a mix of Dragula by Rob Zombie here (in the final, it uses an instrumental of "South Central" by One Minute Silence).
• There is no loading screen/copyright text before the main menu.

Menu#

The menu is overall less polished, but usable.

• There is no loading screen when first loading up the game (legal screen) loading up the menu, however they exist in the files.
  • Note: the original images are transparent, they have been edited using imgcolor for visibility. Click the file to view the original transparent version.

Prototype Legal	Final Legal

Prototype Loading	Final Loading

• The main screen is different:
• it's zoomed out.
• Load Game is "Memory Card" here.
• The letters on the board are more spaced out compared to the rest of the menus.
• There is also traces of a faint "Garage" under Memory Card (see PlayStation Museum video) and "Credits" option under Options.

Prototype Menu Screen	Final Menu Screen

• "Players" was verbosely written as "No. of Players".

Prototype New Game	Final New Game

• All menus show that X is for Accept.
• Save & Load screens are different:
  • smaller display
  • no name plate
  • the pedestals are higher
  • For Save, the wooden panels have extra bevels.

Note that games cannot be saved in this version, so this is from the files.

Prototype	Final

Prototype	Final

• The Options menu has an Accept Changes button, instead of Triangle automatically accepting changes like in the final game.

Prototype	Final

• The Credits are entirely the same as TM3's credits.

Prototype Credits example	Final Credits example

• The save prompt defaults to No in this version. It also has bad contrast by having red text on darker yellow background, does not pause the car rotation and has no metal borders.

Prototype Credits example	Final Credits example

• The Password screen does not play any correct/wrong password sound, and passwords like the ones mentioned in the non-prototype article don't work (they do in the October build).
• Tournament Options menu does not have its graphics in this build, so you only see the light indicators.

Prototype	Final

• Difficulty levels are called by their TM3 names here - Easy is Cream Puff, Medium is Twisted Metal, and Hard is Pure Lunacy.
• The default difficulty is Medium here, while it is Easy in the final.

Prototype	Final

• Deathmatch allows you to pick 7 CPU enemies! (Some crashes can occur when using it in heavier levels, such as Amazonia & Oil Rig.)

Prototype	Final

• The Deathmatch level select globe does not update when changing maps, instead displaying Amazonia's globe.
• Controller Options has a white background and acts very much like TM3.

Prototype	Final

• Assigning Triangle to a function backs you out of the menu.
• Some control differences such as Reverse being Down instead of Triangle.

Car Select#

Note: When entering Car Select or Create Car, the game will stutter for about 10 seconds. It is unknown what it does here, but trying to do things without waiting eventually crashes the game.

• There is no "Select Car" name board, revealing that the Car Select is a crane machine.

Prototype	Final

• In the car select menu, Character info is Square, and the Controller menu is Circle (inverted in the final version).
• Microblast is called Wind-Up in this menu and in-game, but Micro Blast (sic) is in his driver info. Interestingly, the driver info discrepancy remains in the final game.

Prototype	Final

• Sweet Tooth is... bald!? (Note: an unstable hack was made by Pedro for selectable bosses, who also made Childhood Mod)

Prototype	Final

• Super Thumper is much smaller, just like in-game.

Prototype	Final

• You can "view" the driver info for boss characters and see the images Punk7890 posted on the mainpage in action (a bunch of TM3 Mr. Grimm clones).
• Music does not mute when viewing driver info, so the driver's voices are drowned out.

Character Info & Bio Differences#

There are many character info & voice bio differences:

Orbital

Prototype	Final

Orbital's special mentions "teleporting the opponent away" (see In-game car differences). Also, the car has less Handling and Armor stats.

Pizza Boy

Prototype	Final

Pizza Boy's special weapon is rated 3 here.

Captain Grimm

Prototype	Final

Captain Grimm has 1 additional point of armor here.

Calypso

Prototype	Final

Calypso has a rating of only 3 for Armor and Special Weapon.

Quatro

Prototype	Final

Quatro's Special Weapon rating is... five!? Also, The Speed stat is only 4 here.

Meter Maid

Prototype	Final

Meter Maid has an unrealistically high handling stat for a 3-wheeler.

General Warthog

Prototype	Final

General Warthog's technical Special is rated 3 instead of 4 here.

Goggle Eyes

Goggle Eyes' bio has an extra line telling why he wishes to destroy the "nuisances".

Microblast

Prototype	Final

Microblast has a generous Armor rating of 3 here, in exchange for being less wieldy (less Speed and Handling).

Trash Man

Prototype	Final

Trash Man is rated more realistically to a real garbage truck.

The Joneses

Prototype	Final

The Joneses are more generously rated as average Joes rather than the underdog ratings it eventually would get.

Drag Queen

Prototype	Final

Drag Queen only has a single flamethrower in the final game. In this prototype, the car spits out a triangular flame reminiscent of TM3's flamethrowers instead.

Rob Zombie

Rob Zombie's bio used to be an entire verse riffing on the hit song “I Write the Songs”, cut down to just the last line in the final game. There's also two duplicates in the final version for some reason.

It's worth noting that these ratings are manually made, and so may be inaccurate to how the cars actually are in-game. (ex: Quatro's special deals rather minor damage)

Also, the bio voices are quieter compared to final and same as the 25th October prototype.

Create Car menu#

• The menu is called "Design Car", and the font is slightly narrower.
• Most text have a white color & black shadow, like TM3.

Prototype	Final

• Saved cars are only visible in Load Car when the game is first loaded.

Some cars are different:

• Small 2 is a lot bigger than in the final version.
• It also didn't have stripes yet.

Prototype	Final

• Adding a spoiler changes its center offset for whatever reason (the vehicle moves forwards).

Prototype	Prototype, but cooler

• Large 1 (monster truck) seems to have a stray rectangle at the front (like a bull bar/plate number).
• It appears to be much bigger than final version (untested in gameplay yet)

Prototype	Final

• Large 2 (SUV) does not have the green "police" design or the gray camouflage paintwork - instead, a dark grey and purple paint.

Prototype	Final

Prototype	Final

• Large 3 (RV) does not have flames on the paint job.

Prototype	Final

Prototype	Final

Prototype	Final

The specials are different: Funnybomb is Funnymine, Laser is Taser, and Detnoball is Deathball (8 Ball in-game).

• Funnymine sounds more like General Warthog's special - but with a sensor? Would have been far more useful.

Prototype	Final

• Taser seems like Meter Maid (Outlaw in previous games)'s special (this prototype doesn't actually have this ingame, instead a Laser).

Prototype	Final

• Detnoball adds "Press Fire button again" to the description.

Prototype	Final

• Twintorchers' text was polished.

Prototype	Final

• Different "wrong input" sound when trying to delete no letters or inputting too many letters.
• The name input font is different, looking more like the after-match screen font (see "Prepare For Road Rage" screenshot above).
• Some letters like. and # do not display properly.
• The maximum letters is 14 while it is 11 in the final (can be made 13 by Josh_7774's code 8006F388 0000000D, changing to 14 untested)

Prototype	Final

• The message to save a car is less verbose.

Prototype	Final

• The saving message didn't include the car's name.

Prototype	Final

In-game car differences#

This page or section needs more images. There's a whole lotta words here, but not enough pictures. Please fix this.

• Many cars' machine gun models are rotated 45 degrees compared to the final, giving them a slightly sharper look.
• Calypso & Goggle Eyes' specials do not work.
• Drag Queen's special appears to spit out three flames but doesn't do damage yet.
• Orbital's special is different: first it pulls you into a blue light-looking thing, then creates a teleporter to a random part of the stage. It doesn't seem to do very much damage, either.
• The Joneses' special are called Destroyers (ironic, as they deal less damage than a Fire missile combined, and have no knockback). It also uses the MIRV missile sound.
• Pizza Boy is slightly faster when using Turbo, able to reach 200 instead of just 190.
• Captain Grimm's special is lacking its iconic recoil.
• Microblast and any custom car have no voice taunt.
• Mr. Zombie doesn't have his red 3D skull yet - the special looks very similar to Orbital's (blue light) and does not have a burning explosion.

Custom cars:

• Funnymine doesn't work.
• Taser is actually a Laser, which does not burn, has a longer cooldown, only explodes if it misses, and shoots forward even if used by Rear Attack. Worth noting this you more or less get Thumper's special from TM2 if stacked using Rear Attack.
• Detnoball has homing properties and the premature explosion doesn't work, so it's used much like a Fire missile.
• Custom car specials recharge once every 5 seconds!
• Large 1 (monster truck) has ridiculous speed easily doing above 200, a stark difference from its sub-150 in the final game.

General gameplay differences#

To summarize, just about everything in this version has more homing and does more damage.

• Tournament gives you passwords, but they don't seem to work (in TM3, entering a level password gets to the car select screen immediately).
• Driving mechanics are less polished:
  • You can get stuck in the ground/walls more often.
  • The game has trouble flipping upside-down cars (instead it teleports you a few Y coordinates above).

Some Energy commands are different from the final release:

• Freeze: Left, Right, Up
• Rear Freeze: Right, Left, Up
• Rear Attack: Left, Right, Down
• Massive Attack: Right, Left, Down
• Invisibility: Up, Down, Left, Right
• Shield: Down, Up, Right, Left

For reference, the identical ones are :

• Hyperspace: Up, Up, Down, Down
• Jump: Left, Left, Up

Others (Rear Massive Attack) are unknown so far.

• Shield is also colored white instead of orange/black.

Prototype	Final

• Freeze has a different appearance.

Prototype	Final

This page or section needs more images. There's a whole lotta words here, but not enough pictures. Please fix this.

• The "No energy for " messages only appear for Jump, Hyperspace and Shield.
• Jump uses 20 energy instead of 10, lacks the visual & sound effects, and uses energy even if the jump was not successfully performed.
• Freeze uses only 1/3 of the energy bar.
• Shield uses a whopping (but reasonable) 60 energy.
• You get 4 of each weapon when starting a level other than Auto Lob (it doesn't seem to be accessible in this version)
• Massive Attack shoots the sequence of weapons faster (nearly one shot per frame instead of ~200ms in the final), making them likely to miss.
  • It does have better homing though (since most weapons have better homing in this version).
• The energy bar is bluer like in TM3.
• Health bars simply flash in transparency like in TM3, while in the final game anything below 33% flashes red.
• Some vehicle and weapon names use their full form, thus going past the name box: General Warthog, Captain Grimm; Twin Torchers, Freeze Remote, ...
• The Pause menu uses the blue gradient seen in other 989 Studios games, like TM3 and 3xtreme.
• The camera Mode has an In-Car option from TM3. The retail version also has its code, the option is simply dummied out from the menus and the Select button. It can be accessed by memory editing the camera mode to 0 instead of 1,2, or 3.
• When selected, the Sound and Music show the Left direction button instead of the both directions, with a different arrow.

Prototype	Final

• The freeze effect is less pronounced.
• The range to catch fire from another vehicle is larger.
• The thawing effect looks like an explosion of smoke.
• Picking up items doesn't have a fadeout light effect, like TM3.
• All weapons have 20 max capacity, and most pickups give 2.
• Many weapons have greater knockback - for example, a Homing will always knock a car airborne.
• Rapid firing weapons by switching doesn't work in this version. However, the spamming rear attack works just like in TM3.
• Napalm on direct hit deals massive damage, better homing, and visible knockback, a bit like TM3.
• Rain 2 (called N_Rain here) is like a lesser-range MIRV that deals Rain-amount damage.
• Proximity has a different model, does less damage, and doesn't always trigger correctly. Worth noting you can stack more than 4 by spamming Rear Attack.
• Freeze Remote doesn't actually freeze yet, it simply deals tiny damage without knocking cars back.
• Ricochet uses the MIRV missile sound.
• Lightning is given at each level, but doesn't work.
• Picking up Auto-Lob gives nothing.
• Speed has half the fire rate.
• You can't use the Turbo button while holding down Gas.
  • You can reverse and then use the Turbo button, though, to do a reverse turbo (which isn't possible otherwise).
  • Alternatively the turbo can be "continued" by holding down Gas then releasing Turbo.
• Boss announcements/after-match text use a cleaner green font with a bright green outline (the same in the Create Car name menu above).
• Attempting to save the tournament accesses illegal addresses and opcodes (according to epsxe, anyway) and thus crashes the game.
• Tournament crashes when reaching Stage 5 Amazonia on most emulators, making the endings unreachable.

Loading Screen Differences#

Load screens in this version are an overview shot of the level, rather than the poems seen in the final. Some show the stage from even earlier stages of development.

Prototype	Final

Prototype	Final

Prototype	Final

Prototype	Final

The Bedroom uses a different shot - bigger FOV, slightly different position, and the camera's rotation is different.

Prototype	Final

Amazonia shows a vastly different level's loading screen here. The pit areas are colored green, and you can get out of them easily with the ramp. The stone monument's base is also not orange here.

Prototype	Final

Oil Rig lacks the fences, some caution lines, and the hole is instead a double ramp. It's also worth noting the drill is missing from both the prototype and the final shots. Also, there may be a yellow Medium Style 2 (supercar) near the ramp. Finally, the Loading... text is aligned to the right, unlike the other prototype loading screens.

Prototype	Final

Minion's Maze shows an overview of the maze from the sky, while the retail version shows one of the four cloth effigies in the level.

Notably, the monster face floor has red eyes instead of white like the level itself.

Prototype	Final

The Carnival shows a rather dull shot of the level - however, the ground is brown soil instead of blue-grey tarmac. The Carnival also has more symbols on the side, presumably simplified to save on memory. The final version instead gives a menacing shot of Sweet Tooth's clown face, with the carnival door open.

• Glimpses of Amazonia and Oil Rig can be seen in the PlayStation Museum video.

• The bonus levels simply show the first image (Construction Yard) instead although they each use different files.

Game levels#

All levels have differing item placements; particularly notable ones such as Health placements are mentioned.

Construction Yard:

• Is called Junkyard in the deathmatch menu.
• Conveyor belts mostly prevent you from moving when you are on it unless you jump and turbo.
• In the area with the green acid, the ramps use the ground/mud texture instead.

Prototype	Final

The crane is different:

• No button prompt instructions are given for the crane.
• The crane moves far, far faster.
• No flames on the crane killing areas, but...
• Dropping an enemy into the crane killing area is an instant death!

Prototype	Final

• The skydome for the secret area near the Super Health does not have its backface polygons yet, and is a little brighter.

Prototype	Final

Neon City:

Prototype	Final
	TBA - just imagine the collision is at the fence

• One of the dead-ends has a slightly longer alleyway collision, allowing you to go a bit into the fenced area.
• The collision inside the railway tracks are narrower, so you're likely to be rammed by the ground train.
• The ground train is indestructible by weapons, making it the real threat of the level until the boss.
• The teleporter near the air train takes you to the far corner of the level, instead of the street directly below.

Teleporter Location	Prototype	Final

• Riding the air train will magnet you directly onto the ship's bottom, and disorients your car.

Prototype	Final

Road Rage:

• There is a destructible van (Chevrolet Express?) very roughly placed near a garage.

Prototype	Final

• Different pickups, notably in the secret alleyway,
• the glass building not having Super Health (instead near the highway),

Prototype Secret	Final Secret

Prototype RnR	Final RnR

• and a Health pickup near one of the garages.

Prototype	Final

• One of the billboards is placed too close to the secret alleyway, so the pole may appear to be inside it from certain angles due to how the PS1 handled z-buffers.

Prototype	Final

• The highway road circuit lacks barrels.

Prototype	Final

• There is a teleporter near the entrance to the highway.

Prototype	Final

• Moon Buggy is here for some reason in Tournament, so expect instant death (out-of-bounds zones are prominent here).
• Super Thumper is much smaller, looking more like a Medium Style 3 reskin (lowrider custom car).

The Bedroom:

• Crusher, Moon Buggy, or Super Thumper may spawn here in Tournament.
• The ramp's side has a bit more detail.

Prototype	Final

• The lamp is not breakable, making the Lightning impossible to get (not that it works in this version anyway).
• The jump pad on top of the chest is missing.

Prototype	Final

• The teleporter in the secret area near two Gasoline cans and the radio is missing.
• The radio's front is brighter than it should be.

Prototype	Final

• The "Regeneration Activated" mechanic does not display unspawned enemies as it would in the final, making the enemy count suddenly jump when it activates.
• The music "Alien Magnet" by Ghoulspoon plays uncut. In the final release, the low-key breakdown sections are cut. (Specifically, from 1:48 (youtu.be link) to 3:35 of the song.) That's almost half of the song cut!

Amazonia:

• The loading screen shows a different version of the level, containing a dirt ramp into the pit.
• The stone monuments do not have the glowing jump pad.

Prototype	Final

• The big monument accessed through the cliffs' teleporter has normal Health where the Super Health and Lightning normally are.
• The secret area has slightly higher walls.

Prototype	Final

• There is an extra teleporter placed inside a secret tunnel that you can shoot open, making the white pit area somewhat more complex to navigate. It brings you to the statue.

Prototype	Final

Oil Rig:

• The helicopter follows a much rougher path, making sharp turns at many points.
• There is a Health on the left side of the red building, underground entrance.
• The drill is static rather than animated.
• The helicopter is indestructible.
• There are different weapon placements and fewer exploding barrels.

Minion's Maze:

This page or section needs more images. There's a whole lotta words here, but not enough pictures. Please fix this. Specifically: The prototype maze's maze horror would be better described with camera hacks / viewed through an external editor. FamiNES of TMF discord has maps of the game exported though, iirc

• The maze has much less ramps than it does in the final, making getting to the top far harder (atleast, without using Remote Bombs).
• Other minor geographical changes, such as the top which has the jump pad in the very center of the map's peak instead, and a bloody circular X marking where the Lighting pick up would be.

• There is a Super Health pickup on the cliff. The retail version has no Super Health at this level, instead a Health here.
• The Health in the underground area is in the center, instead of being near Sweet Tooth's glass face.
• Ramming into some of the gates causes the camera to behave weirdly. Sometimes, you may even pass straight through them.

The Carnival:

• Is called Sweet Tooth's Carnival in the Deathmatch menu.
• There is a grate above the ring pit of fire.

Prototype	Final

• Below that, there is a pillar full of realistic clown-looking faces (in comparison to Sweet Tooth's cartoony-looking clowns).

Prototype	Final

• The pit of fire does not have flames from the walls yet.
• The entrance of the secret tunnel has slightly incorrect lighting (no gradient).

Prototype	Final

• The castle has blue light shafts and no ghosts.

Prototype	Final

• The sewer uses different wall textures.

Prototype	Final

• The area has no gravestones or ghosts.

Prototype	Final

Prototype	Final

• Walls in the castle require more than just a simple collision to break.
• The roller coaster wall closest to the Sideshow Freaks building has a different texture when viewed from a distance (a bug).

Prototype	Final

• The roller coaster thankfully cannot ram you.

Extra Levels#

• Every level's music is Dragula (Hot Rot Herman Remix), compared to the final's which somewhat mirrors the tournament's music playlist.
• Many levels have less Health pickups in general, often in the center; some levels have 2 in the final.
• The sky has some neon purple things (the sky is pitch black in the final).

Prototype	Final

• Son of a Ditch is named Variety Pack.

The Pits

• The level's pits layout is a mere 2x3 instead of a square 3x3.

Prototype	Final

The Citadel:

• The Tron-like textures don't have the glowing/lighting effects yet.
• The green pit at the center is a normal blue pit.
• Lacks teleporters, leaving the citadels' roofs unused.
• The upper ramp also lacks the pitfall, instead there is a floor and a one-sided wall where you can camp and shoot others outside.

Prototype	Final

• The lower ramp graphically looks like a pitfall, but you can drive around in it until you get bored and use Hyperspace. The AI may get stuck here as the triggers (?) for them to use Hyperspace are not here yet.

Prototype	Final

• Weapon pick-ups are much scarcer than final, so you will run out of weapons rather easily.

Nowhere To Hide

• The level has only one Health pickup in the center, whereas the final has 2 around the corners of the map.

Prototype	Final

Octa-Gone

• The level has only one Health pickup in the center, whereas the final has 2 around the corners of the map.

Prototype	Final

King of the Kill

• The level has only one Health pickup in the center, whereas the final has 2 around the corners of the map.

Prototype	Final

Prototype	Final

Tic-Tac-Toast

• The grid layout is a pitiful 4x5 instead of the 5x5 in the final.
• The floor is a more subdued red & has the gradient effects around the outer area.
• The level has only one Health pickup in the center, whereas the final has 2 around the corners of the map.

Prototype	Final

The Islands

• The level has the Health pickup dangerously close to the inner edge of one of the islands. In the final, again they are spread out across two perpendicular corners.

Prototype	Final

• The Islands' jumper acts like Neon City's - you need to go into the arrow itself to jump. The "Final" pic shows how close you can get without jumping, in comparison.

Prototype	Final

• A chunk of the stage seems to not render correctly (as tested on DuckStation).

Son of a Ditch (Variety Pack in this prototype)

• There are far less bouncy walls, making the ditch somewhat less of the focus.
• The sole Health pick-up is located near one of the side bouncy walls rather than the corner.

Prototype	Final

Endings#

The endings are not finished yet in this version.

Watch on YouTube

• Only 6 endings are featured in the build.
• All endings have only voice-overs, no sound effects (like in the intro).
• Some don't have the wish twisting scene yet.
• Other characters that don't have their endings yet use Mr. Grimm's ending from Twisted Metal III.
• In Captain Grimm's ending, there's no sword fight at the end but Melvin still says "The soul of the first one dead."
• Orbital has the most different ending of the build:
  • When Orbital first talks, they are at front of a reception desk with Melvin on top of the desk and Sweet Tooth sitting on a chair. (very different style - this might be how the rest of the other character's endings would be and Sweet Tooth might have spoken).
  • The wish-twisting scene is entirely different, no shots of his coworkers are presented, instead there is only one man that swivels to face Orbital, and finally Orbital just admits defeat, saying "Oh well". Melvin also does not taunt Orbital.
• In Quatro's ending:
  • There are no subtitles for Quatro, making it hard to understand him.
  • One of the police ship shots have "Scene 12" at the bottom left corner.
  • When the police show up to back up Quatro, the "Your move, Sweet Tooth" scene ends earlier.
• Trash Man's ending does not have the garbage world scene yet, instead there's filler shots of the ending cast and Melvin saying the usual "Your wish has been granted, driver!".
• General Warthog's ending is the most unfinished:
  • He is simply represented by a concept render with two lights on a gray background.
  • No "powerful army" scene is presented here.
• Rob Zombie's ending does not feature the Superbeast music video yet.