Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg (GameCube)

Prototype Info Prerelease Info European DemoA European demo based off the final version. USA DemoA US demo based off the final version. Debug MenuA debug menu letting you access various parts of the game.

Unused Video#

There's an unused video in the game's files titled mv_boss_clear7.sfd. It's identical to the first part of the ending, except it doesn't have any audio. This may have been used after defeating Dark Raven, but the ending plays automatically after doing so in the final game. The actual ending movie, mv_ending.sfd has this part baked into it with audio.

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Unused Sounds#

tosakaget.adx#

An unused fanfare. Considering the name "tosaka" in the filename, it's likely an early version of the fanfare for collecting an Emblem of Courage. The fanfare used is eb_get.adx.

Unused Object Settings#

Kidnapped Player#

For the 3 Bomb Rescue missions, the player can save either Rolly, Chick, or Bantam depending on the level. Setting the Object's ID to 0 switches the kidnapped character to Billy. This likely was just for testing before Rolly's model was made.

Big Dora Rocks#

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The Big Dora enemy has a behavior unused that can be enabled if Int_30 in its object properties is set to 1. It'll throw rocks at the player every couple of seconds

Notably the eggs do not interact with it all all despite hurting Billy. This may have been scrapped early given poor UV mapping and lack of interaction with eggs.

Unused Objects#

Untextured Flag#

Object (ID 267) shows an unused flag that drapes slightly, non-interactive unlike the used ones. This potentially was an earlier version of the ones used in the final Pirate Island stages

Oddly in the PC version the flag applies a random texture of the skybox or metal plate depending on angle

Bowling Ball and Ball Shooter#

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Object ID 23 and 24 feature a bowling ball and ball shooter that summons a set of pins that can be knocked down and locks the player in a timed rotation event. To free oneself, press the B Button to perform a kick. If the player knocks over the pins, they win fruit. The shooter oddly needs to be placed about 2.5 units below the ground, else you get raised too high alongside the pins. The pins position is dependent on where the player faces when they bring the ball to the shooter.

There's an issue with the ball on its own if it's kicked yet isn't caught by the player and collides with a wall. It will no longer be able to be grabbed after this action.

Unseen Textures#

In the stage select menu, the underside of the book that leads to the Egg Gallery cannot be seen normally due to the camera angle. Moving the camera reveals that it is fully modeled and has a unique texture for the cover.

For Circus Park 3's mission, the game features a cutout of the generator needing to be charged for the UI. There's interestingly a purple variant hidden in the texture

Unseen Level Details#

An area of mission 1 in Blizzard Castle contains a stack of crates on top of ice shards. The upper-middle crate is not properly aligned with the others. Since you cannot get to this area in mission 1 and there are no crates at this location in any other mission, it's possible that this level underwent several changes during development.

Unused Spline Data#

Pirates Island has some path splines that don't seem to correlate to anything in the final game. Spline 0 and spline 8 in the list correlate to the only egg rail and King Clippen's race respectively, but the object path marked splines don't appear to do anything ingame. They do correlate well with some of the shark objects, however, and may have been used for them before they were made to actively attack the player.

Unused Graphics#

An icon for a tornado is stored in the same texture as the icons for the egg and foot pads. This may have originally been used in Mission 2 of Sand Ruin to deactivate the fog trap, but the game has a standard switch that must be pushed down with an Egg Driver instead.

Unused Models#

Circus Park Objects#

Unused in the geobj_orange.arc file for Circus Park are copies of the rooms (pictured above is Room A) for the Saltim Funhouse area, having sections A-C. Some NPC chick text note the layout changing despite this not being the case in the game, instead using a preset layout embedded in the level lnd file, and false mirrors. There are notably openings padded with unopenable doors in the final level as well.

Unseen Behavior#

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If hacked into boss battles, Egg Animals are capable of hurting bosses and deal a very large amount of damage to them. To see this behavior for yourself, use the following PAL Action Replay code to replace all standard eggs with Cipher eggs, then hatch Cipher in any boss battle that has fruit:

04003E30 2C030000
04003E34 40820008
04003E38 38600014
04003E3C 2C030063
04003E40 4813F344
04143180 4BEC0CB0

Incorrect Text#

In Mission 5 of Forest Village, there is a trio of chicks sitting on the riverbank. While normally impossible to talk to them, if one uses hacks to walk on the slippery bank the chicks oddly repeat what is stated in the beginning of Mission 1 when the Chicken Elder introduces himself to Billy. Looking in mes_green_hiyoko_e.bin and set_obj_green5.bin, the object properties are accidentally set to use the 2nd message (ID: 1) in the message file. This is due to chick objects requiring a message ID by default.

In the same Mission there also is an unused corrupted conversion of a Japanese line for the English version, likely meant to be removed in localizing and object editing.

|7730|ƒJƒ‰ƒX’B‚ð“|‚·‚±‚Æ‚Å|Linebreak|ŠJ‚­ƒhƒA‚à‚ ‚é‚ñ‚¾‚æ!|TextboxBreak|¢‚Á‚½‚Æ‚«‚̓Jƒ‰ƒX‚ð“|‚µ‚Ă݂ĂˁI

In the Japanese version the message instead is talking about opening doors, likely a leftover from earlier in development when the mission's door near the Beens is actually able to open.

|7730|カラス達を倒すことで|Linebreak|開くドアもあるんだよ！|TextboxBreak|困ったときはカラスを倒してみてね！

In the Spanish, German, and French versions, the line is simply blank.

|7730|

In the Italian version the line is removed completely, making the overall Forest Village message count go from 65 to 64.

Collision Oddity#

Visual	Collision

While there are various canyon pillars in the background inaccessible to the player in Circus Park, one oddly has collision with slide properties.

Lighting Errors#

Error	"Correction"

While Topo's Arena has its own light trigger, the game doesn't load it due to it being overridden by the default(0) scene data. Setting ByteProperty4 for the trigger to 1 enables it to override the base lighting. Though it should be noted that the lava is unfortunately affected for light direction as well, and as such, dims.

Error	Correction

Dark Corvo's Arena similarly has its own light trigger that the game fails to load it due to it being overridden by the default(0) scene data. Setting ByteProperty4 for the trigger to 1 again enables it to override the base lighting.

Debug Information#

The game has a feature to display a few pieces of debugging information at runtime.

• Heap free size - How much memory remains in the heap.
• Heap Max size - The current size of the heap.
• Exec Time - Indicates how long it took to run a full game loop.
• Disp Time - Indicates how long it took to render a frame.

To show this information, activate the following PAL Action Replay code.

0400C380 60000000
0400C390 3C600011
0400C3A8 3C600011
0400C3C4 3CC00011
0400C3E4 3CC00011

Memory Leak Check#

To do: Find if there's a way to make this screen do anything significant. Also check if there's a way to enable this in the prototype.

There's a memory leak check hidden in the game. On the right side shows the same list of files featured in the debug menu.

Pressing B toggles rendering the text, and pressing Start exits the screen. It seems to be non-functional in the final build: no additional information is displayed, and no other buttons do anything.

To enter this screen, activate the following PAL Action Replay code, then enter the Egg Gallery from the level select screen.

04032788 381F000A
04183274 38800016

Regional Differences#

• The egg is tilted slightly in the international logo.

JP	International

• The middleware screen in the Japanese version lacks the Dolby logo and the Game Boy Advance connectivity notice.

JP	International

• The Japanese and European versions have a language select menu, with the Japanese version having language options for Japanese and English.

References#