Unused Maps

This is a sub-page of Spyro: A Hero's Tail (GameCube, Xbox, PlayStation 2).

General#

Spyro: A Hero's Tail has a whopping 27 unused maps within its files. Many of them are labelled "Test_" followed by the initials of the developer who used the map for testing. There'll be a note for each map if it can be reasonably assumed who the map is attributed to based on the game's credits.

A few maps re-use a common testing room used by Eurocom in their port of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, which appears to be an early version of the Entrance Hall map from the game. See the test maps here.

The Map List#

The game has a hardcoded list of maps which can be accessed and loaded by the game. Not all files containing maps are referenced in this list, making them inaccessible unless you force the game to load a different file.

For each map in the list below, various properties are described:

• Map Index: The map's index into the game's map list. Will be N/A if the map is not referenced in said list. It is also 2 spots lower on PS2 than on GameCube, because two maps were removed from the top of the list.
• Class Name: If the map is referenced in the code, this is the name of the C++ class that represents the map.
• Map Name: A map's name in the code is usually just its class name, but if the map overrides this with a unique name, it's shown here.
• File Name: The name of the file containing the map's data.
• File Hashcode: The hashcode of the file containing the map's data.
• Map Hashcode: The hashcode of the map itself. This will only be shown if it has a global (labelled) hashcode.

This page lists the maps in order of their map index (if applicable), and then alphabetically.

Accessing Maps#

There are a few methods to accessing these maps:

You can replace the map index of Dragon Village, making the game start a new save file with that map instead. This usually gives the best results.

If the map has no entry in the map list, you can instead replace Dragon Village's file hashcode with that of another map. (Beware that this will cause the game to believe the map list is invalid, and thus wipe your savefile before starting a new game immediately.)

Note regarding the videos below: Some hacks have been used to show the maps off better, most notably to re-enable a dormant noclipping debug feature.

Hogwarts (Map_Example)#

Yes, you read that correctly. This map of the Hogwarts castle from Harry Potter appears to be the taken from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, which Eurocom had worked on prior. Much of the map's geometry is broken and fails to render, such as the skybox.

There's a huge barrel and couldron on top of Hagrid's house, for whatever reason.

Watch on YouTube

Test_DP#

This map was likely used by game programmer Dave Pridmore.

A small area with walls and buildings using assets from Dragon Village. There is a floating round object with another rotating round object being projected onto its surface.

Watch on YouTube

Test_SC (Map_MorphEnv)#

This map was likely used by engine programmer Shane Clark.

A small area very similar to Test_DP. None of the geometry is solid. There is a big wooden block near the starting point.

Playroom#

A big white dev-textured room with few gems and chickens strewn around. There are two models on display; one of Hunter (who looks a lot like his iteration from Spyro: Enter the Dragonfly), and one of Spyro.

Model Viewer#

An early iteration of the starting area of Dragon Village, notably with the teleporter in the middle with paths branching out from it, and with Moneybags' shop on the other end of where it sits in the final game.

Test Level (Map_ModelViewer)	Dragon Village (Map_DragonVillage)

A bunch of models are dotted around the map. Amusingly, they're all just baskets using a different model, so they can be broken by the player. There is also a blue sphere floating at the map's origin point.
This map had the purpose of letting Eurocom show off models to the publisher for feedback, as they could simply play the level and look at the models from all angles.

Watch on YouTube

Test_TL#

This map was likely used by game designer Terry Lloyd.

This fairly large level appears to be testing grounds for Blink, and the player spawns as Blink when the level loads.

The main area consists of a bunch of rooms with climbing and monkeybar sections leading to collectables. There are Eskimoles, Critters and swinging logs to avoid. Some monkeybar sections seem to not fit Blink's final climbing mechanics, as he can get stuck on them.

Outside the Blink testing area, there's a copy of the map Playroom (though without any objects), and a massive collection of abstract shapes and simplistic non-solid environments.

Watch on YouTube

Test_PB#

This map was likely used by game designer Phill Bennett.

A collection of big round platforms strewn around in a void. On the starting platform there is a Sparx sign, and a Moneybags hologram NPC who is scripted to repeat the same animation and dialogue over and over again.

The blocks spanning the gaps between the platforms seem designed for Blink, as he can swing on them and cling to them to navigate the level.

Watch on YouTube

Shop#

A small map that uses a very shrunken-down version of the common test room from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. There are a few gems strewn around. Funnily enough, a non-functioning Moneybags object is placed in the middle, and it has scripting code attached with invalid data.

Test_JS#

This map was likely used by game programmer John Stephens.

A small set of platforms with aesthetics similar to Dragon Village and with gems strewn around.

Test_KA#

This map was likely used by game programmer Kristoffer Adcock.

A massive map consisting of multiple scaled-up copies of the common test room from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, chock-full of various things to see, including:

• A sparx sign, which makes Sparx fly up next to the sign, and then display an empty text box. The text box is meant to show "Shall I take on the flying challenge?" and the "Yes" and "No" options below, but those pieces of text are never loaded in this map.
• Two baby mammoths. They're simply playing their idle animations and are completely intangible.
• A Spyro NPC and a snow boulder that take turns being visible and invisible in a loop.
• A Hunter NPC that says "You accepted the challenge!" followed by crashing the game. (Note: The footage here bypasses the crash to show that both the player and the NPC just disappear and the game softlocks.)
• A Lily NPC which, when interacted with, makes Sparx follow a path to fly around some icicles.
• A switch which makes the intro cutscene play, which has buggy results from playing in this map, followed by the game soft locking.
• An extremely far away snippet of an early version of Gloomy Glacier.

Watch on YouTube

Test_NB#

A giant map consisting of several chunks of existing levels placed next to each other. These chunks are early versions with stripped down assets and interesting differences. There are many things to see, including:

• An early version of the Sgt. Byrd area of Dragon Village.
  • The spinning platforms are placed differently.
  • There is no doorway into the hut with the dragon egg.
  • There's no Sgt. Byrd portal.
  • There's no hole in the wall leading to the Professor's lab secret entrance area.
  • There are skeletons and fire imp enemies, as well as a bunch of gems and a weird dark shard poking out of the ground occasionally, which hurts the player.
• A very long segment of Molten Mount, specifically the last stretch with the spiralling tunnel leading to the volcano top. There is basically nothing here, except for a few obstacles and some collectables.
  • The lava acts like water, for some reason.
  • The light gem and dragon egg behind the breakable walls are out in the open, instead of being in chests.
  • The boulders rolling down the stairs use a placeholder model.
  • The dark gem at the end is in a different spot.
  • There is no platform with the Magma Falls elevator.
• A section which copies geometry from the test map "Testbed".
  • The collision is offset from the visual geometry, for some reason.
  • There is an egg thief and a gem thief, as well as some bat fodder. Interestingly, on GameCube, the gem thief doesn't spawn, and the egg thief disappears as soon as it starts running.
• A big flat dev-textured floor with tons of collectables.
  • There are Sparx level collectables that immediately fly into the player.
  • There are ice missile pickups, which normally never appear in the game.
  • There are configurations of chests which are not normally seen in the game, like a locked chest giving 4 lock picks.
• Some targets and a spinning platform in the middle of the void.
• A segment of Dragonfly Falls, specifically the light gem cave in the secret area. There are no collectables, only the bat enemies.
• The Tropical Cove buoyant platforms from Dragonfly Falls, found far away from the secret area snippet. They use different models compared to final.

Watch on YouTube

Extra PS2 footage to cover the thief enemies that don't function on GameCube: Watch on YouTube

Test_NB2#

For some reason, this entry actually references Test_NB's file, so attempting to load Test_NB2 by changing the starting map index results in Test_NB instead, unless the file reference is patched to point to test_nb2.edb.

This is a very simple map, a big dev-textured floor. Standing on one half of it triggers a snowfall weather effect.

Test_SJ#

This map was likely used by game programmer Stuart Johnson.

Very similar to the test map "Shop", except with a few weird moving platforms strewn around.

Test_WTS (Platform Area)#

This map is only present on the Xbox version of the game.
It is also the only map to have an outdated .edb version number (221, compared to the final game's version 240). Thus, the game will simply crash when trying to load it.

This is a small landscape with trees and a bridge over a dry river. There are triggers in the map data for spawning the player, gems and enemies, though it's obvious that this is from very early development.

TestBeach#

A map set on a small beach area with bodies of water on either end and a few huts strewn around. There are many enemies and other objects placed around the level.

In one body of water, an unused shark enemy can be triggered. It will shoot up from the water and eat Spyro whole, though the enemy also has some faulty rendering.
Another unused enemy, the "Sky Critter", is found outside the map. They don't do much, other than float in place and snap at the player.

Watch on YouTube

There's a floating platform extremely far away from the map. The game crashes instantly when it tries to draw it.

TestBall#

This is treated like a map in the game's code, but there isn't any map data present in the file testball.edb, so the game will crash when attempting to load it.

Maptest#

A simplistically modelled non-solid wrestling arena with the World Wildlife Fund for Nature logo placed on the arena floor. This is likely a cheeky reference to the dispute the organization had with the World Wrestling Federation in 2000 due to the identical WWF acronym.

The sides of the arena samples part of a very unusual texture. It appears to be a photograph of some arena in a garden behind a building. The origin of the photo is unknown.

R1LinkBC#

This map appears to be an early iteration of the map R1LinkAC, which is the ball gadget course connecting Dragon Village and Dragonfly Falls.
Following the naming scheme for the other maps, this map's name would suggest this is a Link between the second and third levels (BC) in the first realm (R1), which means it connects Crocovile Swamp and Dragonfly Falls. However, there is no such linking map between those levels in the final game.

There is a tube in the wall at the start, instead of the hole in the floor. The cubby with the hole to Dragonfly Falls hasn't been created yet. There are a bunch of decorative objects out of bounds.

Test Level (R1LinkBC)	Ball Gadget Course to Dragonfly Falls (R1LinkAC)

Watch on YouTube

Startup#

As simple a map as it gets, this is just a small rectangular grassy plane.

Test_AB#

This map was likely used by game programmer Andy Brown.

A very early version of Blink's level "Snowed Under". It lacks enemies and collectables, and has very few objects overall. It has interesting layout differences:

• There are spikey turnstiles in the room after the icy slope.
• There's no icy water under the platforms leading to the monkeybars section, though it's unclear if it was meant to be dry or the water hadn't been added yet.
• The platforms along the walls of the monkeybars section are much lower, and there are no branching paths on the bars so the player can reach them.
• Interestingly, there's a huge and entirely cut area after the monkeybars section, with otherwise unused moving ice block objects.
• Instead of a dig-tunnel leading back to the starting area, it simply connects with a tunnel and a one-way drop-down (though you can get back up with a tricky jump).

The cut area explains the huge gap between the first dig-wall entry and exit in the final version. Usually in other Blink levels, these are fairly close together.

Test Level (Test_AB)	Snowed Under (MR3_Blk)

Watch on YouTube

Test_HN#

This map was likely used by artist Henk Nieborg.

This map actually differs between versions of the game.

PlayStation 2/GameCube#

A small platform with assets from Crocovile Swamp.

Xbox#

An early version of Red's Chamber, with a static model of Red on the arena. Most notably, the platform is made of metal instead of ice.

Watch on YouTube

Test_JP#

This map was likely used by artist Jon Parr.

A small platform sectioned off into different segments of floor. There's a primitive-looking strong door, and a static, intangible fire bomb. There's also a ball obstacle from the Cloudy Domain ball gadget course. There are three horn-dive containers, one is a rock from Dragon Village, one is a plate from Cloudy Domain, and the third is an unused variant made of black stone.

Test_MD#

This map was likely used by artist Matt Dixon.

A gray platform with various objects on it.

• A bunch of dragon eggs and a light gem.
• An always-active boiler.
• A small patch of grass with some purple slime on it.
• Various chests.
• A Sgt. Byrd portal.
• A big square of presumably water.
• Various gadget pads, some using colours never seen in the final game.
• A few wicker basket models with a squishing animation.
• A thermal.

Watch on YouTube

Test_MF#

This map was likely used by artist Matt Farrell.

This extremely low-detail and completely non-solid map appears to be the level Dragonfly Falls in its very early stages, as its layout closely matches with an early level sketch by Terry Lloyd.

Watch on YouTube

Test_MT#

This map was likely used by game programmer Mark Topley.

This map consists of two scaled-up copies of the common test room from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.

• The first room contains a bunch of Blink-related objects, like bombs, different spider types, worms, critters and vines.
  • There's an unused spider variant that shoots out poison projectiles that land and persist on the ground, hurting the player if they walk into it.
  • There's an unused armoured variant of the worm. It attacks the player by rolling after them, and can only be defeated by first taking off its armour with a bomb.
• The second room contains various other objects, like locked chests with gems, shop pads, breath ammo pickups, and a big array of every dragon egg in the game.

Watch on YouTube

Test_SG#

This map was likely used by character modeller Steven Gratton.

This map has an invalid hashcode, which makes the game crash when trying to load it, even though the map's data is perfectly readable. Accessing the map requires giving the file a new hashcode before loading it.

A similar map to Playroom, only with grey walls instead of white. Early models of Spyro, Hunter, and the Gnorc Sentry enemy are placed around the room.

Test_SJ2#

This map was likely used by game programmer Stuart Johnson.

This map is the same as Test_JS, except without a skybox or any gems, and with a moving, intangible platform nearby. There are two "Grunt" triggers in the level which spawn nothing due to requiring non-existing files.

TestBed#

A small map with dev-textured simplistic environments. There are unit distance markers, enemies, collectables, cannons and spin poles.

Watch on YouTube