Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage! (Sep 15, 1999 prototype)

A PAL review build of Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage! for the Sony PlayStation, dated around fifteen days before the earliest final build.
==Notes==
A SCEE PAL review build of Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage! for the Sony PlayStation, dated around fifteen days before the earliest final build. This game would be released as Spyro 2: Gateway to Glimmer in this region. Spyro 2 is unique amongst the Spyro games in that the PAL final was build before the NTSC-U final. As such, many of the comparisons made here will be against the final PAL build, as it's the closest available reference point.
* The build has the usual dongle protection used in early builds. It matches the protection used in the August 11th Prototype, meaning that a single dongle can be used on both of these builds.
** If the dongle check fails, the game will freeze during the opening screens.
* The game does not have its usual Libcrypt anti-piracy protection, unlike the final PAL version.
* The save file header information differs from the final game, and in fact more closely resembles an early version of the final NTSC-U version's save information than the final PAL version.
* The pre-title opening screens look a bit different.
* The title screen uses a short audio clip from the Skelos Badlands outro cutscene, and then the music cuts out entirely. The Glimmer theme does not play here, as it usually would.
* The title screen intro cutscene can be skipped in this version, whereas it cannot in the final.
* Most of the sound effects used on the title screen are different. Perhaps most notable is a gulping sound playing when each menu loads.
* The logo that is used is the "Ripto's Rage" logo, rather than Gateway to Glimmer's.
* The language select uses the same graphics used in the Spyro 1 language select - or, at least, one very similar in style to it. The final instead opts in favour of purple Comic Sans text.
* The typeface used in the title screen menus is different, and arguably a lot more "unfinished" in appearance.
* The demo mode only includes one autodemo, of Hurricos. The final game includes several autodemos, and none of them are in Hurricos.
** There is no on-screen "DEMO MODE" text during the demo, in any language.
* During gameplay, the player's coordinates can be found at all times on the pause menu. The coordinates that are shown are his actual position variables divided by 1024, to 2 decimal places.
* Sparx uses his Spyro 1 model during gameplay, but in cutscenes he is seen with a model akin to his final gameplay model.
* Many levels have slight differences to their moby (object) layout.
* The text on the Game Over screen is visually quite different, as is the "Press Start" text that flashes at the bottom of the screen.
* Getting a Game Over in a fresh save file before completing Glimmer causes an unusual glitch where the player will respawn in Summer Forest without Summer Forest's overlay loaded. This causes some bizarre effects, such as the player's movement locking and the mobys (objects) around the level not functioning. In the final, getting a Game Over before finishing Glimmer will respawn the player in Glimmer.
* All of the loading screen skyboxes differ from their final variants, though for the majority of them the differences are too minor to notice.
** The most notable difference is Shady Oasis's skybox - in both the level itself and the loading screen transition, the skybox features a tan coloured desert under a blue sky, rather than the cloudy skybox used in the final game. This early skybox can also be seen in the final game's credits model for Shady Oasis.
* The HUD icons showing Crush and Gulp's faces in each of their respective levels are not present.
* Several of the icebuilders at the start of Crystal Glacier do not play audio dialogue, despite it being present in the STR. This is due to a quirk of this particular group of NPCs.
** In the final game, all three of these NPCs are duplicates of eachother and play the same dialogue lines, but have their name strings switched out on the fly using extra name strings in the executable (although in-game they appear as Kludgie, Mankie and Widgie (and their respective translations in other languages), all of them are named "Kludgie" prior to being spoken to). Usually, characters with different names are separated by being given different type IDs, but doing so also means each of these NPCs would have access to a different set of audio dialogue messages - presumably, this implementation was done to avoid needing to duplicate audio dialogue.
** By contrast, in the review build, each of the NPCs are assigned a different dialogue type ID (which is usually done to define different dialogue sets for each NPC of a given class), and as a result two of them point at type IDs with no associated audio dialogue, resulting in them being completely silent. Each of the NPCs simply use the names defined in their dialogue tags too - two of the characters are called Kludgie and Mankie just as they appear in the final game, but the third NPC incorrect uses the name Kludgie, too, instead of Widgie.
** None of the name strings are in the executable in this version, as it's all handled via the level data (nor are there any unused name strings).
* Shady Oasis uses a different skybox for its entrance and exit portals as well as its in-level model. In the final PAL version, it uses a purple-grey cloudy design, whereas in this build it uses a tan-coloured desert similar to Scorch's skybox. The skybox used for the level in this build can also be seen in its credits model, in both this build and the final game.
** Additionally, in the final, the level has a foggy theme, which is a result of the level having no low-poly LOD model. In this build, the level still has a low-poly LOD, meaning much more of the level can be seen from a distance.
* Likely due to error, the Magma Cone crystal popcorn theme plays instead of the bagpipe theme when freeing the Satyrs in Fracture Hills.
** As such, the bagpipe theme goes unused.
* For some reason there seems to be some sort of movement boundary in Gulp's Overlook which maintains Spyro's height should he fall into it. This can be put to its full potential should the player manage to get out of bounds, where they can observe that even diving into the boundary will not cause Spyro to fall through it. Even within the arena, the boundary can be observed by gliding over the lava, which Spyro is capable of doing with ease. No such boundary is present in the final, meaning it's perfectly possible to fall into the abyss in that version.
* In Mystic Marsh, the platypus attacks give an extraordinary amount of knockback, appearing to accelerate the player until they hit a wall.
* Parts of Dragon Shores are still visually unfinished. Some of the camera work and cart movement in the coaster is noticeably unfinished.
* Visual glitching occurs when entering the movie theatre. The menu that pops up, like many other Guidebook-based menus in the game, is somewhat visually incomplete.
* Ripto's blue attack gives Spyro much more upward momentum than it usually would, sending him high into the air. Attacks from the bird in the final stage of the Riptos fight also act similarly.
* There are a fair number of dialogue lines which were changed in the final product. Many of these changes were related to the localisation and specifically correspond to minor spelling tweaks or corrections to the non-English lines, but there are a few instances of more significant changes.
** Most of the English language changes correspond with changing "D-Pad" to "directional button".
** Several spelling changes were made to words which differ in spelling between British and American English.
** One of Moneybags' lines in Crystal Glacier is entirely different from the audio dialogue that plays. The text dialogue was changed in the final to fix this.
** Many audio dialogue lines are replaced with their equivalent English lines when playing in other languages.
** In one instance, an important character is missing from a French question prompt dialogue string, causing the selectable "No" response to merge with the question itself, which looks somewhat unusual.
* Oddly, many of the level names outside of the portals render incorrectly when playing in a non-English language. Usually, they appear as though part of the level's name has been cut off. As an example, the French name for Zephyr - Zéphyr - appears simply as "Zéph", with the letters offset to the left as though the "yr" part of the name is invisible. The final game displays all the level names correctly.
* The Guidebook in the pause menu does not have language-specific texture - i.e. it displays as "Guidebook" for all languages, rather than having a different graphic for each language.
* Several menu strings have different capitalisation in the German text.:
* The German and Italian "Entering ..." strings were modified slightly between this build and release.
* The "[Level] Complete!" text has not been translated. Additionally, it does not end with an exclamation mark in this version, meaning the text will read (for example) "Glimmer Complete" rather than "Glimmer Complete!".
* In the final, gem counts on the order of 1,000 separate the digits using a period when the language is set to Spanish. This is not the case in this version.
* In speedway levels, the collectable items do not have translated names in non-English languages, and so they default to using the English names. This is also the case where they are referenced in the Guidebook.
** Many other speedway-related strings are untranslated, too.
* The "Complete!", "Crashed!" and "Time's up" graphics in speedways are replaced with translated strings in non-English languages in the final game. In this version, the English graphics are used in each language and the translated strings do not exist.
* A few of the level names are yet to receive their final localisations:
** Breeze Harbour is spelled the same way as it is in the NTSC-U final - "Breeze Harbor".
** The French name for Skelos Badlands is "P. Maud. Skelos", rather than "Pays Maudit".
** The Spanish name for Skelos Badlands is "T. Árid Skelos", rather than "Páramo Skelos".
** The Spanish name for Gulp's Overlook is "Fallo de Gulp", rather than "Foso de Gulp".
** The Italian name for Sunny Beach is "Spiaggia Sole", rather than "Spiaggia del Sole".
** The Italian name for Scorch is "Scottatu", rather than "Scottatura".
** The Italian name for Gulp's Overlook is "Punto di Gulp", rather than "Casa di Gulp".
* Some of the page turning sounds in the Guidebook are a little bit different to their final equivalents.
* For some reason, in all languages, the incorrect graphic is shown on each of the boss pages. Prior to defeating the boss, it says "Defeated!", but after completion it says "Not Defeated!", completely opposite to how it's supposed to be.
* A number of Guidebook graphics remain untranslated in all non-English languages.
* Each non-English language has a number of unfinished orb and talisman names and graphics.
* The "Skill Points" graphic uses an incorrectly spelled English graphic - which says "Scill Points" - in all languages. This graphic is also placed slightly higher up on the guidebook page, and the arrow next to this graphic does not flash as it does in the final.
* The entries on the skill points page are a dull brown colour, rather than alternating browns and oranges.
* In the Faunas Mortas section of the epilogue, the left pages show a screenshot of Autumn Plains, rather than a screenshot of Glimmer like the right pages. The cut enemies on this page are generally placed slightly further to the left than they normally are, too.
* Farmae Robotum is depicted without angel wings in the final game, whereas in this version it does appear to have wings.
* Mister Fistus is depicted with a halo and angel wings like most other cut enemies. Oddly, in the final game, these are both removed from his graphic.
** This may be related to the fact it would be reused in future Insomniac-developed games as an Easter egg character.
** Additionally, its image is flipped in the final compared to how it appears in this build.
* Nervous Tickus is flipped, coloured slightly differently, and had its angel wings removed in the final game. Both graphics feature a halo, however.
* Wuss had its image flipped in the final game.
* The level name graphics in the Guidebook for a few levels are incorrect, seemingly representing earlier localised names, in non-English languages.
* When the language is switched to German, the word "Talisman" incorrectly says "Geschlagen!" instead (which means "Defeated!", and would usually be used on the boss pages).
* Oddly, the German talisman name graphic has an opaque background on Zephyr's page, instead of a transparent one.
* A few of the story cutscenes are incomplete.
** Many of the localised cutscenes are missing lip-syncing.
** Some of the sound effects and music are missing. In one instance, the sound effect for a bomb intended for one cutscene instead plays in another.
** There are a few visually incomplete elements, such as a missing skyboxes, rough-looking orb models and some animation glitching.
** In one cutscene, the character voices start a long time before they're supposed to, resulting in the entire cutscene being out of sync with the audio.
** Some cutscenes end with a harsh high-pitched tone.
* A few levels have visually incomplete intro and outro animations.
* The quality of the streamed XA format music used throughout the game is much lower than it is in the final game. It seems to be the case that the tracks were flattened to mono in PAL versions of the game to make room for the extra dialogue audio, but in this particular build it was done in such a way that greatly reduced the overall quality of the audio, due to the increased volume causing clipping.
** Some levels, such as Skelos Badlands, are especially bad.
** Several levels use slightly earlier mixes of their final tracks, in addition - Skelos Badlands and Crystal Glacier, in particular.
** This also helps to explain why several of the unused themes present in the final game are in a lowered quality - they're mixes that are carried over from this version of the game, but didn't receive updates to their quality due to going unused later in development.
* The minigame section in Hurricos uses a theme that is not used in the final game. It's not known why the theme was cut, but it is present in an unused form in the final PAL version - the unused theme in the final is completely identical to this one.
** This theme is also present in the August 11th build in a higher quality state, but is still unused even in that version.
* The Fracture Hills satyr theme is not used, likely due to an oversight. Instead, the Magma Cone crystal popcorn theme is used instead.
** Additionally, the theme is 9 seconds long in this version, like the NTSC-U final, rather than the slightly slower 11 second version used in the (earlier) PAL version. The reason for this discrepancy is unclear.
* The list of names in the credits is slightly smaller than the final, with SCEA names being included instead of SCEE names. The credits ends with an extremely brief "Next stop, Dragon Shores!", which is not present in the final.
=== Cheat Codes ===
Like the final release, a number of cheats are present in this version, but they differ dramatically from the final game and generally exhibit more debugging and QA features. All of these can be enabled by inputting the following codes in pause menu.
Permanent Invincibility	O, O, O, O, X 	Not present in final.
All Abilities 	O, O, O, O, Square 	Unlike the final game, loading a save file after this cheat has been activated will take a large amount of gems from the player, as if they had paid Moneybags for the abilities. This can result in negative gem counts, which causes strange behaviours and graphical glitching. Can turn abilities on or off, whereas the final can only turn them on.
Max Totals 	Square, Square, Square, Square, O 	Not present in final. Sets all level gem counts to 400, the total collected gems to 10000, the orb count to 64, all orb flags for each level, the Talisman count to 14, and all Talisman flags for levels with Talismans. Does not set gem collection flags, end-of-level flags for Winter Tundra levels, or boss defeat flags.
Credits 	Square, Circle, Square, Circle, Square, Circle 	Code is shorter than the one in the final game.
Permanent Superflame 	R1, R2, L1, L2, R1, R2, L1, L2, O 	Not present in final.
Level Warp 	Up, Down, Up, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, Square, ?, ?	Not present in final. Unlike the Spyro 3 code, does not let the player warp to cutscenes, though under certain conditions it appears to be possible to warp to the cutscene level models in a frozen state, using this cheat code. The last two buttons determine the level ID:
O = 0 | 1 = X | 2 = Square | 3 = Triangle | 4 = Right | 5 = Down | 6 = Left | 7 = Up
Note that the big head mode, flat mode, colour change and extra hitpoint cheat codes present in the final game are not implemented in this version.
=== Miscellaneous Notes ===
* Game is emulatable: Yes (as of September 17, 2022)
* Game contains dongle protection: Yes, Patched
* Game contains debugging symbols: No
==Screenshots==
File:Spyro 2 Ripto's Rage! (Sep 15, 1999 prototype) - 0.png|Title screen
File:Spyro 2 Ripto's Rage! (Sep 15, 1999 prototype) - 27.png
File:Spyro 2 Ripto's Rage! (Sep 15, 1999 prototype) - 1.png
File:Spyro 2 Ripto's Rage! (Sep 15, 1999 prototype) - 2.png
File:Spyro 2 Ripto's Rage! (Sep 15, 1999 prototype) - 3.png
File:Spyro 2 Ripto's Rage! (Sep 15, 1999 prototype) - 4.png
File:Spyro 2 Ripto's Rage! (Sep 15, 1999 prototype) - 5.png
File:Spyro 2 Ripto's Rage! (Sep 15, 1999 prototype) - 6.png
File:Spyro 2 Ripto's Rage! (Sep 15, 1999 prototype) - 7.png
File:Spyro 2 Ripto's Rage! (Sep 15, 1999 prototype) - 8.png
File:Spyro 2 Ripto's Rage! (Sep 15, 1999 prototype) - 9.png
File:Spyro 2 Ripto's Rage! (Sep 15, 1999 prototype) - 10.png
File:Spyro 2 Ripto's Rage! (Sep 15, 1999 prototype) - 11.png
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File:Spyro 2 Ripto's Rage! (Sep 15, 1999 prototype) - 15.png
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File:Spyro 2 Ripto's Rage! (Sep 15, 1999 prototype) - 17.png
File:Spyro 2 Ripto's Rage! (Sep 15, 1999 prototype) - 18.png
File:Spyro 2 Ripto's Rage! (Sep 15, 1999 prototype) - 19.png
File:Spyro 2 Ripto's Rage! (Sep 15, 1999 prototype) - 20.png
File:Spyro 2 Ripto's Rage! (Sep 15, 1999 prototype) - 21.png
File:Spyro 2 Ripto's Rage! (Sep 15, 1999 prototype) - 22.png
File:Spyro 2 Ripto's Rage! (Sep 15, 1999 prototype) - 23.png
File:Spyro 2 Ripto's Rage! (Sep 15, 1999 prototype) - 24.png|Level warp glitches
File:Spyro 2 Ripto's Rage! (Sep 15, 1999 prototype) - 25.png|Level warp glitches
File:Spyro 2 Ripto's Rage! (Sep 15, 1999 prototype) - 26.png|Level warp glitches
==Videos==
<youtube width="320" height="224">ZDuRgueoe7A</youtube>
<youtube width="320" height="224">tldtODfwMXg</youtube>
==Origin==
File:Spyro2-Sep15Disc.png|Disc front