the cutting room mirror

Yoshi Sample

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This game was never completed and/or given a public release.
As a result of this, keep in mind that the developers might have used or deleted some of the content featured here, had the game actually been released.

This prototype is documented on Hidden Palace.

Download Yoshi Sample (source code included)

File: YoshiSample.7z (1.51 MB) (info)

Yoshi Sample is a scaled-down one-level port of Yoshi's Story that Nintendo supplied with each Game Boy Advance development kit as they started to dole them out shortly after the system was first revealed in April 2000. The sample was created to show off the capabilities of the GBA, featuring colorful pre-rendered sprites and a 2.5D environment.

The game itself is rather similar to the Nintendo 64 original, even including a few new enemies, though the gameplay is greatly simplified and there's no ending. Still, what's here is pretty impressive, especially since this was made very early in the GBA's existence.

To do:
In order of importance:

  • Install SDK 2.0.
  • Build source code, check diffs with included build (how?).
  • Build dates.
  • Sound code/file differences.
  • Look into Version 1's origin.
  • Unused Killer bmp?
  • Unused code and/or files?

Video#

Watch on YouTube

Debug Features#

Button

Function

Start

CPU Speed Check with egg graphics on left and right of screen.

Select

Causes Yoshi to lose 1 petal of health.

Source Code#

BIN and ELF#

The ELF file appears to contain more names from the source code, though this does not affect the gameplay.

Enemies#

The unique enemies that don't appear in Yoshi's Story are internally named:

Yoshi_Sample-bomb.gif
"bomb". Has longer legs than most Bob-ombs.

Yoshi_Sample-killer.png
"killer" (Bullet Bill's Japanese name). Although Bullet Bills do make an appearance in the original game, they didn't quite look like this. Notably, this design has bigger fangs.

Yoshi_Sample-omori5t.png
"omori5t", a 5-ton weight that works similarly to Thwomps but it falls always, instead of when Yoshi is near it.

Version Differences#

This needs some investigation.
Discuss ideas and findings on the talk page.

Build 1 Mute#

Has no sound, but nonetheless contains sound-related code and files. Its origin is currently unknown.

Build 2 Sound#

Aside from having sound, the sound-related code and files are different than those in the above build. It was bundled with the third version of the GBA's SDK.

References#


  1. TMK | The Games | Tech Demos. "Nintendo supplied 'Yoshi Demo' with each GBA development kit as they started to dole them out shortly after it was first shown in April 2000."↩︎