Spyro: A Hero's Tail (GameCube, Xbox, PlayStation 2)

Spyro: A Hero's Tail is the fifth main-line entry in the Spyro franchise, and Spyro is yet again tasked with saving the world. Throughout the game, you can also take control of other beloved characters, such as Hunter, Sgt. Byrd and Sparx. Blink, a newcomer to the series, is there too.

Prototype Info Prerelease Info Bugs Unused MapsLots and lots of test levels. And Hogwarts. Unused Character AudioLots of dialogue that never gets spoken. Unused ModelsMammoths, Enter the Dragonfly leftovers and... a car? Unused StartPointsSpawn in the ocean!

Debug Symbols#

Exclusively on the GameCube version, a file called game.dmp can be found on the disc, which is a custom symbol map format compressed with Eurocom's own compression method called EuroPack2. This zip contains the compressed and uncompressed files, as well as cleaned up map files, for both the NTSC and PAL GameCube release.

Download Spyro: A Hero's Tail - GameCube Symbols File: SpyroAHerosTail_GC_Symbols.7z (924 KB) (info)

These are used by the game for the hidden crash handler.

Leftover Text Files#

publisherlevellist.txt#

This file lists the files to load in a publisher-only build of the game. Publisher builds are usually meant to show the publisher current progress on the game and to see if various milestones on the game's development have been hit.

//
//
//
// Level list - files included on a publisher build..
//
//

Test_TL.edb,START,"Blinky Test 1"
Test_PB.edb,START,"Blinky Test 2"
model.edb,START,"Model Viewer"

The level files listed are test levels. The level names in quotes are not seen anywhere else, however. The unlockable model viewer in the game is unrelated to the test map.

Cheats.txt#

Found on the GameCube version only, this file seems to contain commands for quickly loading up certain levels for testing purposes.

StartLevel="test_ka"
// StartLevel="test_md"
// StartLevel="test_dp"
// StartLevel="test_pb"

// StartLevel="Realm1A"
// StartLevel="Realm1B"
// StartLevel="Realm1C"
// StartLevel="Sunken City (Realm2B)"

// StartLevel="Realm3A"
// StartLevel="Realm3B"
// StartLevel="Realm3C"

// StartMap="MR3_blk"
// StartMap="test_md"

// StartPoint="HT_StartPoint_test1"
StartPoint="HT_StartPoint_test2"
// StartPoint="HT_StartPoint_test3"
// StartPoint="HT_StartPoint_test4"
// StartPoint="HT_StartPoint_test5"
// StartPoint="HT_StartPoint_test6"
// StartPoint="HT_StartPoint_test7"
// StartPoint="HT_StartPoint_test9"
// StartPoint="HT_StartPoint_restart1"
// StartPoint="HT_StartPoint_Restart1"
// StartPoint="HT_StartPoint_Restart2"
// StartPoint="HT_StartPoint_Restart3"
// StartPoint="HT_StartPoint_Restart4"
// StartPoint="HT_StartPoint_Restart5"
// StartPoint="HT_StartPoint_Restart6"
// StartPoint="HT_StartPoint_Restart7"
// StartPoint="HT_StartPoint_Restart8"
// StartPoint="HT_StartPoint_Restart9"

// StartPoint="HT_StartPoint_Cheat1"

SetPlayerStateFlag="DoubleJump"
// AllAbilities
//GemCount=500

SKIPSTART

// FORCEINTROMOVIES

Filelist Debug Output Files#

The game stores most of its data in the engine's custom file system called the "Filelist". It consists of "Filelist.000" (which contains the actual data) and "Filelist.bin" (a descriptor file for indexing into the binary data). On the Xbox and GameCube versions, extra .cfi and .txt files are located next to the other Filelist files, but are never used. They appear to be debug outputs from when the Filelist was generated. Filelist.txt is not present on Xbox PAL.

Filelist.cfi is a custom file format, while Filelist.txt is a simple text file. They contain a variety of information regarding the files in the Filelist:

Short excerpt from Filelist.txt from the GameCube NTSC version:

x:\spyro\binary\_bin_gc\albatros.edb                                    : Len      52000 : Ver  240 : Hash 0x01000076 : Ts 0x00000000 :  Loc           0:000
x:\spyro\binary\_bin_gc\archer_s.edb                                    : Len     156192 : Ver  240 : Hash 0x01000078 : Ts 0x00000000 :  Loc        f800:000
x:\spyro\binary\_bin_gc\asm4lrg.edb                                     : Len     228000 : Ver  240 : Hash 0x010000e6 : Ts 0x00000000 :  Loc       4f000:000
x:\spyro\binary\_bin_gc\asm4med.edb                                     : Len     129600 : Ver  240 : Hash 0x010000e7 : Ts 0x00000000 :  Loc       97000:000
x:\spyro\binary\_bin_gc\asm4sml.edb                                     : Len     168640 : Ver  240 : Hash 0x010000e3 : Ts 0x00000000 :  Loc       d0000:000
x:\spyro\binary\_bin_gc\ballgdgt.edb                                    : Len     340256 : Ver  240 : Hash 0x010000a8 : Ts 0x00000000 :  Loc      10b800:000
x:\spyro\binary\_bin_gc\batfodde.edb                                    : Len      68704 : Ver  240 : Hash 0x010000e2 : Ts 0x00000000 :  Loc      160800:000
x:\spyro\binary\_bin_gc\bentley.edb                                     : Len     169056 : Ver  240 : Hash 0x010000b1 : Ts 0x00000000 :  Loc      173800:000
x:\spyro\binary\_bin_gc\blinknpc.edb                                    : Len     226496 : Ver  240 : Hash 0x01000089 : Ts 0x00000000 :  Loc      1bb800:000
x:\spyro\binary\_bin_gc\blinky.edb                                      : Len     563680 : Ver  240 : Hash 0x01000088 : Ts 0x00000000 :  Loc      216000:000
...

Unused Music

Several tracks lie unused in the game's files. Most of these are leftovers from the game's early soundtrack (see demo Music & Audio Differences).

Unused Sparx State/Controls#

Normally, Sparx can only be controlled through specific on-rails shooter sections. However, using hacks/glitches, it's possible to freely control him and even play as him outside of the mini-games. Watch on YouTube

Upon detaching Sparx from the path, he will be floating in place. From there, the player can move him around in all directions, but he will be unable to shoot. Additionally, pressing the charge button will make him go slightly faster.

If Sparx is injured, he will return to the on-rails state. If he runs out of health and the player leaves the mini-game, they will still be in control of Sparx in the hub level. He can talk to NPCs, but can not interact with teleporters or gadgets, and can not attack. He also doesn't make any noises in this state, which is more noticeable outside of his mini-games. Finally, if Sparx runs out of health in a hub level, the game will softlock on a black screen.

Hidden GameCube Crash Handler#

Exclusively on the GameCube version of the game, a hidden crash handler can be enabled by the player through an input combination. As it was not meant for regular players to find, the inputs are more cumbersome than your average cheat code.
These actions must be done simultaniously to input the code:

• Hold B, Y, D-pad UP and Left Analog Stick LEFT on the controller in port 1.
• Unplug a controller from port 4.

To indicate the code has been successfully inputted, the game will print two dashes to the screen in the upper left corner for two seconds, as seen here:

When a game crash happens after the code has been inputted, it will show the crash handler instead of locking up.
Watch on YouTube

The crash handler starts by cycling through 5 pages with various info about the crash. After it has finished, a controller in port 4 can be used to navigate the handler. Pressing the A button goes to the next page.

• Page 1 shows a stacktrace.
• Page 2/3/4 shows the state of the CPU registers.
• Page 5 shows a disassembly of the crashing function. D-pad up/down lets you scroll through the instructions.

An extra page can be accessed past page 5, where a dump of the system's memory can be scrolled through. Different ways of browsing the dump can be selected with D-pad up/down.

• H0 and H1 lets you scroll through all the allocated blocks in the memory heaps with D-pad left/right (only Heap 0 is used).
• Addr lets you scroll through the addresses freely. D-pad left/right scrolls through memory 0x10 bytes at a time.
  • Holding the X button multiplies the scrolling amount by 10.
  • Holding the Y button multiplies the scrolling amount by 100.
  • Holding the B button multiplies the scrolling amount by 1000.

Symbol names are displayed in the crash handler by unpacking a symbol map file on the disc.

Note: The Dolphin Emulator struggles with the crash handler, as the game essentially ends the VBI cycle and instead "fakes" it (literally called "Fudge_Retrace" in the code). It's therefore normally impossible to properly navigate the menu in Dolphin. A workaround used in the above video is to lower the Emulated CPU Clock Override to around 5%.

Debug Menu#

To do: Codes for other versions of the game

After the game has booted, use AR code 204FC268 00595570 on a PAL PlayStation 2 game and press △ when on the teleporter machine to bring up the debug menu from the Preview Build.

Unfortunately, only one of the options still works - Lots of Gems, which sets the gem counter to 10000. Spyro will continue to walk around in the background with this code, and the game may crash if it's left open at certain points.

Other Debug Remnants#

Text#

Several strings referring to debug options, including some that are part of the above menu, can be found in the game's executable. Many of these would've likely been part of a separate dev menu in internal builds. In the PC version of Sphinx and the Cursed Mummy (built with the same engine), a menu featuring similar options can be accessed with the dev mode.

PerfBars
Sml %2dm
Lrg %2dm
Kill Player Cheat
Restart1
Restart2
Restart3
Restart4
Restart5
Restart6

The Sml and Lrg options are actually functional when switched on, and they display two numbers in the corner of the screen. These are likely measured in megabytes and display amounts of allocated memory arenas/heaps.

DrawMode
Wireframe
WireframeLocal
TriStrip
SolidTriStrip
All Abilities
Full Health
Kill Player
Lots of Gems
All LightGems
All DarkGems
All DragonEggs
ScanMode Enable/Disable
Complete MiniGame
Hide HUD
All Realms
All Restart Pads
All Chests OneOff

Leftover Scanmode Cheat#

To do: Add codes for more versions.

More on Scanmode here.
The code for the Scanmode cheat (which lets you fly freely through level geometry) is present in the final game. The function for checking if it should be enabled is simply stripped out and always returns false. By patching the function to respond to a button press, it can be fully re-enabled.

Watch on YouTube

Unused Text#

To do: Add hashcodes to the text

All the game's text is stored in "text.edb". A lot of this text is unused, and some of it matches unused dialog found in the audio files. Here is a list of the unused strings (note that the text often contains button tags like "~Y" or "~A" to make it compatible between consoles):

Cut Fifth Hub#

One of the game's music files is named _mus_mfx_realm5b_roam.sfx, suggesting that a fifth world was eventually cut while in development. This track, however, corresponds to the Hunter section of Dragonfly Falls.