- Back to: Chaotix (prototype 1207).
General comparisons
The Sega logo is displayed over an image of Carnival Island. A higher resolution version appears in the game's manuals, but is never in-game in the final version.
Welcome to the next level in Super 32X world. No characters can be seen on the title screen, and they're not even referenced in text.
Start a new game and you'll be presented with the "data load" screen. It has yet to receive a background, and the controls are reversed. The Amazing Arena, Techno Tower and Marina Madness are ordered differently in the final game. There are one and two player options from the main menu, but both lead to the same place.
The prototype gives you three slots of cleared save data, but can't correctly show this on the data load screen, displaying jumbled tiles instead. Total play time is not logged or shown.
Load a game and your score will read -65536 (and flash red), suggesting an integer overflow has occurred somewhere.
The 1207 prototype has no working combi catcher, so for both the main game and the "Time Attack" option, you're given a simplistic character selection screen. The character select screen scales sprites, but due to the scale values chosen, characters are more likely than not to look pixelated and ugly. There is a gap for ********** (the remants of Tails), but you can't select it.
The "NPC Select" screen (later "Combi Select") is even more bare-bones, consisting of a set of placeholder icons. Mighty and Espio don't get special icons, and while ********** is accounted for again, it is still not selectable.
"Atraction Select", seen in both the main game and time attack in this build. This screen might have been here a while, as the names are different to the other level select screen. This one won't let you select levels from Speed Slider (Amusement Park) or Amazing Arena (Amazing Zone), although the levels do exist.
The "option" screen by default is a basic sound test, represented solely by four hexadecimal digits. You have to hold , or when selecting it from the title screen to access other features.
Hold while selecting "option" and you'll see the colour test screen. Perhaps not surprising that the Mars number is red.
Hold and you get a more detailed sound test. It functions like the final game, but there aren't any graphics to speak of yet.
The notes and volume levels are represented by white lines, but it appears to be accurate.
The "normal" level select is also available from main menu. There are a couple of options here not seen in the final game, such as being able to set it so your partner can't jump. There are also eight different times listed (with "early" and "late" variants of morning, day, sunset and night), though there are still only four palettes per level.
Gameplay comparisons
There are a couple of errors in the title cards. Heavy is called "Heaby" and the game is still referring to itself as Knuckles' Ring Star.
In the final game, the stars connecting the two combi rings change colour depending on distance, being blue if the characters are close, and moving through the spectrum to red when they're at their limits. In the 1207 prototype, the stars are always blue. When standing and fully stretched, the "final" pulling animation frame is not drawn.
Calling your partner with causes the smaller player-controlled sprite to overlap the larger, NPC sprite, rather than the other way around.
When falling off the ceiling, character jumping/spinning animations are drawn upside down, and will remain so until the character touches the floor. While it effects all characters, it is particularly noticeable with Espio.
It is possible to slow down and stand on ceilings after going up a half pipe; a bug also seen in Sonic Crackers. Levels in Chaotix are tailored in such a way that this is rarely possible, but there are a couple of oversights, such as Botanic Base level 2.
The positions of objects often update at a different rate to that of the backgrounds, giving them a jittery appearance. This can happen in any level in the game, but is most prominent in Marina Madness, and is likely due to the 32X drawing code not keeping pace in more demanding scenes with the Mega Drive's. This can (and does) happen in the final game, but is far less noticeable.
Break a monitor and its icon does not float upwards. Icons also do not show up in the HUD for powerups.
Swap and power sneakers monitors don't work at all. There are no change monitors.
The invincibility stars are much more basic. Only two yellow stars are drawn on any given frame and only surround the player - in the final, much like previous Sonic games, there are several stars of different sizes, and the NPC partner gets a set too.
No enemies in the prototype release depleted Rings when destroyed. They just explode.
Giant rings for the Bonus Stage always spawn if in view. The final requires you to have at least 20 rings first.
You're not attacked by Metal Sonic if you don't move for long enough.
There is no time limit in the 1207 prototype. After 9'59"59, you get ' minutes, followed by " minutes, "big 0" minutes, "big 1" minutes, "big 2" minutes and "big 3" minutes, before looping back to 0. This means, if you're prepared to wait for 16 minutes, you can finish a level with no time on the clock.
Similarly there's no limit to how many times you can call your partner. In the final game, having -100 rings or less ends the game, but in this prototype nothing happens. Without the time limit it is possible to get "-'00" rings, but unlike the above, it keeps going after "minus 'big 3'-hundred rings", showing other HUD graphics in its place (including other numbers, "Level" and "Demo" texts, the HOLD graphic, arrows for Amazing Arena and a second negative symbol).
Getting hurt with so many negative rings can cause unexpected results, and more than likely the game will crash.
Chaotix awards a 10,000 point "secret bonus" for every powerup that is active when players finish the level. This hasn't been implemented in the 1207 build, and judging from the "x", may have been planned to be used in a different way (a score multiplier?).
If the player dies or completes the level, the "reverse vignette" effect is completely black, and overlaps the player characters. The "Mecahnical Dance" (i.e. "you lose") track plays if you finish the level, while the normal stage music continues if dying.
While the final tailors its boss cutscenes for different times of day, all existing cutscenes in the 1207 prototype use their daytime palettes. The "Have Some Fun" music track does not play during these sections, with the boss music starting instead.
Level comparisons
Graphics comparisons
The signpost is completely different, being "flatter", less colourful and slightly smaller.
Vector's running animations use fewer colours than the final game. It also animates faster.
References