the cutting room mirror

November 2009

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This is a sub-page of Proto:VVVVVV (Windows, Mac OS X, Linux).

The November 141, 2009 prototype can be played fully here. This prototype2 was available to donors until December 73, when word of it getting leaked had reached the developer. This prototype is almost the exact same to the final with more than a couple of differences.

General Differences#

  • The WASD keys cannot be used to move the player.
  • You can only navigate the main menu with the left and right arrow keys.
  • No fake Commodore 64 loading screen before the "Press V to Start" screen.
  • Pressing R, which would normally kill the player, does nothing.
  • You cannot pause the game with ESC.
  • The Gravity Lines are still green, but upon touch, turn gray like the final instead of yellow like in the June 27, 2009 prototype.
  • Teleports teleport much faster.
  • The "Passion for Exploring" and "Presenting VVVVVV" tracks are incomplete.
  • The Warp Zone and The Lab use "Predestined Fate" as the track, as "Potential for Anything" and "Pressure Cooker" weren't implemented yet nor created yet.
  • It is possible to end up back in some areas but with the last area's music still playing as opposed to the usual music that plays in the area.
  • Most of the monitors inside the ship do nothing.
  • The map "you are here" marker pulsates as opposed to disappearing and reappearing rapidly.
  • "Pushing Onwards" plays while the credits are viewed from the main menu.
  • Viridian has no dialogue when entering the "Trench Warfare" room after or before entering the "It's a Secret to Nobody" room and acquiring its trinket, there is also no dialogue from Viridian hoping Victoria's okay, when entering Victoria's room in the ship without having rescued her, either.
  • The minimap still shows up as it would outside the final level, in the final level, but without the map marker or rooms that get revealed.
  • There is no "-= WARNING =- DIMENSION STABILISER OFFLINE" textbox, so Viridian just says "Uh oh..." upon disabling the dimension stability generator, and isn't sad. Also, "Positive Force" starts to play during the line, and continues to do so until reaching outer space; unlike in the final, where it only starts to play after the textboxes are off the screen.
  • Teleporter saves on the final area only start back at the teleporter from where Viridian takes the last crewmate with them through the teleporter.
  • All known prototypes only have 1 frame of coyote time, rather than the final game's 2 frames.

Screens#

Prototype

Final

This prototype still refers to the V key instead of the ACTION keys.

Prototype

Final

The title screen has much less menus/options available.

Prototype

Final

The save file screen looks much simpler and has yet to be fully implemented.

Prototype

Final

None of the game's settings and play modes have been implemented yet, and some of the unlock condition descriptions differ from final, of note is a epilogue button which wasn't in the final game.

Mode

Prototype (Unimplemented) Mode Unlock Conditions

Final (Implemented) Mode Unlock Conditions

Time Trials

Rescue that level's lost crewmate.

Note: Each time trial in the final requires you to rescue that crewmate (or in the case of the final level, completing the game) and having a certain number of trinkets.

No Death Mode

Complete the game.

Achieve an S-rank or above in at least 4 time trials.

Flip Mode

Find all 20 trinkets.

Complete the game.

Epilogue

Complete the game,
and find all 20 trinkets.

N/A (Not Implemented)

Intermissions

N/A

Complete the intermission levels in-game.

Prototype

Final

After the "Game Complete!" screen, the prototype will go straight to the screen above, without displaying an ending sequence or the credits. This screen does not accept any input.

Music#

  • "Presenting VVVVVV" (v_titleloop), "Path Complete" (Main_music_1), "Plenary" (Main_music_2), and "Pause" (souleye_intermission) are the only music tracks to have a sampling rate of 44100Hz.
  • The other tracks, including "Pushing Onwards" (v_maintheme), "Positive Force" (v_tempo), and "Predestined Fate" (v_configmegamix) only have a sampling rate of 22050Hz.

Prototype

Final

Prototype

Final

"Presenting VVVVVV" (v_titleloop) and "Passion for Exploring" (v_brothers) are shorter loops compared to the final game.

Misc.#

Prototype

Final

The minimap lacks the secret lab and blocks that would be taken up by the secret lab, as well as what would be the pink room are instead blank.

Prototype

Final

...now you don't!

In the CREW tab in the menu, Viridian is not marked as "Missing..." in "The Final Level".

Prototype

Final

The horizontally-looping background doesn't loop correctly.

Prototype

Final

VVVVVV_Proto_Nov9_Violet_help_Message.PNG VVVVVV_Final_Proto_CompareViolet_help_Message2.PNG

VVVVVV-final-commsrelay-Violet-message-3.PNG VVVVVV-final-commsrelay-Violet-message-5.PNG

The dialog with Violet at the beginning of the game is slightly different, and Viridian had two extra lines that were omitted:

Prototype

Final

Help! Can anyone hear this message?
Violet! Is that you?
Captain! You're ok!
I'm on the ship - it's damaged badly, but it's still intact!
Oh! Well, at least you're alright!
Is the rest of the crew with you?
No! Something has gone horribly wrong with the ship's teleporter!
I think everyone has been teleported away randomly! They could be anywhere!
Oh no!
Where are you, Captain?
I'm on some sort of space station... It seems pretty modern...
There seems to be some sort of interference in this dimension...

Help! Can anyone hear this message?
Violet! Is that you?
Captain! You're ok!
Something has gone horribly wrong with the ship's teleporter!
I think everyone has been teleported away randomly! They could be anywhere!
Oh no!
I'm on the ship - it's damaged badly, but it's still intact!
Where are you, Captain?
I'm on some sort of space station... It seems pretty modern...
There seems to be some sort of interference in this dimension...

VVVVVV_Proto_Nov9_Unimplemented_cutscene.PNG VVVVVV_Proto_Nov9_Unimplemented_cutscene_screen2.PNG
VVVVVV_Proto_Nov9_Unimplemented_cutscene2.PNG VVVVVV_Proto_Nov9_Unimplemented_cutscene_screen2.PNG

The first intermission and second intermission levels after rescuing 2 and 4 crew members respectively are not implemented.

Prototype

Final

The credits on the main menu are much simpler in the prototype, having much fewer names as well.

Map Differences#

There are a lot of added/removed spikes. Yikes.

Space Station (Yellow)#

June 9, 2009 Prototype

November 14, 2009 Prototype

Final

This area is still missing its background grid in this version.

June 9, 2009 Prototype

November 14, 2009 Prototype

Final

The one block tall platform in the middle is striped in the final version, but not here. Instead it's a completely solid color.

Prototype

Final

A grid was added to the room's background.

Prototype

Final

The platforms at the top were extended, likely to make this jump less tricky.

Prototype

Final

An extra checkpoint was added at the top.

Prototype

Final

The "pit" in the middle was removed, likely because it didn't serve any purpose. In both the prototype and final versions, you can't actually stand upside-down on the two moving platforms in the middle and not get hit by the bottom spikes when they move down.

Prototype

Final

There are four enemies here instead of three.

Prototype

Final

An extra bit of floor/ceiling was added next to each coin enemy.

Prototype

Final

The conveyors in the ceiling were moved inward a bit, so the player can wait there before making the next jump. In the prototype version, you have to quickly flip up and then flip down between the enemies to avoid getting hit.

Prototype

Final

Even Veni Vidi Vici had some changes. Your Bitter Tears... Delicious had some spikes adjusted from pointing vertically to pointing horizontally. Vici!'s pit doesn't extend all the way to Easy Mode Unlocked here, and it also had some spikes readjusted in the middle. The last four rooms all gained spikes in their leftmost and rightmost walls.

Prototype

Final

The lowermost spike of each vertical wall was removed.

The Ship (Purple)#

Prototype

Final

Verdigris's room, where the Jukebox resides in the final, only has a couple of non-functioning terminals.

The Warp Zone (Green)#

Prototype

Final

The room "That's Why I Have To Kill You" received quite a few changes, the most noticeable of which is the path on the right, which has an extra block and extra spikes preventing the player from switching between both paths without having to go all the way around the room. The vertical spikes were moved from being on the room's ceiling/floor to being on the middle, and the two rightmost horizontal spikes were removed altogether.

The Tower (Red)#

To do:
This could probably use better screenshots or a ripped image of the map.

Prototype

Final

Added spikes for extra difficulty.

Prototype

Final

More spikes, this time to prevent the player from taking a shortcut by going to the left.

The Laboratory (Indigo)#

June 27, 2009 Prototype

November 14, 2009 Prototype

Final

The two rooms "Topsy Turvyism" and "Standing Wave", to the top-right, have extra spikes in the final in order to prevent the player from glitching back inside the gravity lines; which were there, albeit in a slightly different arrangement in the June 27th prototype iterations of the rooms, but not in this prototype's iteration of those rooms. The room "Anomaly" received a great difficulty decrease by having all of its spikes removed. Conversely, the room to its left, "The Living Dead End", had more spikes added, which makes the player have to clear the room in one go; curiously, there were spikes on the rightmost of the ceiling in the June 27th prototype iteration of the room.

Outer Space#

Prototype

Final

The area immediately below the ship had some layout changes. Previously, players could go either directly left (towards the Space Station) or right, with an slight detour to the path that goes down to the Laboratory. In the final version, the path downwards is more directly accessible, while the path to the left got extra walls. The pink room on the bottom-left only exists in the final version.

Prototype

Final

This area was much more deadly in the prototype due to the spikes. The leftmost room also had some layout changes.

Prototype

Final

The Secret Lab doesn't exist in the prototype, so it has two extra rooms full of spikes here! Due to its inclusion, those two rooms had to be removed and the layout of the remaining four rooms was altered to accommodate the change.

The terminal that would reveal the entirety of The Secret Lab on the map in the final doesn't reveal it here. Instead, Viridian frowns, saying that the rest of the message is corrupted.

Prototype

Final

Parts of the floor/ceiling to the left were changed.

The Final Level#

Prototype

Final

VVVVVV_nov2009proto_enddungeon1.png
VVVVVV_nov2009proto_enddungeon2.png

VVVVVV_final_enddungeon1.png
VVVVVV_final_enddungeon2.png

In the prototype, you can't go to the space inside these two gravity lines here while the stability generator is still on.

Prototype

Final

There are four enemies here instead of three, again.

Prototype

Final

The ground near the top-right corner of the screen was changed so that players could fall from one to the other towards the exit, rather than having to flip back down and hit the gravity line.

References#


  1. 14-Nov-2009 - [swf contents]/others/Metadata↩︎
  2. VVVVVV, Beta One - distractionware, November 15, 2009↩︎
  3. Final Push - distractionware, December 7, 2009↩︎