Proto:Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg (GameCube)

This page details one or more prototype versions of Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg (GameCube).

On the Nintendo GameCube Preview Disc from May 2003 is a playable demo of Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg. The demo is an earlier build of the game with one playable level, taking place on Pirate's Island. The demo's build date is September 5, 2002.

To do: Holding A+Start at the title screen loads a 2nd mission that takes place during the day, look into this.

Title Screen

Prototype	Final

The demo's title screen uses a static image, while the final's takes place in a dynamic scene. The "Press Start" text is slightly different, and the demo has text indicating it's a demo version.

The demo's logo has a few differences:

• The logo is overall slightly larger.
• The egg and crescent-shaped egg trail are larger, closer to the text, have thicker outlines, and curve more.
• The trademark symbol is slightly higher up and more to the right.

Interestingly, the demo's title screen shows Pirate's Island at day, but the only playable level seems to take place at night.

Technologies Screen

Prototype	Final

The ADX logo's colors were inverted, and the logo itself was moved up to make room for crediting Dolby. The prototype is missing the note about the game being compatible with the Game Boy Advance Cable since it doesn't use it.

HUD Differences

Prototype	Final

• The health and lives icons have a different art style.
• The lives icon and counter is on the left underneath the health.
• The lives counter text is in white.
• There is no timer.
• The egg meter looks crude, has a shadow, and is missing the chicken emblem.
• There is no empty egg icon for the egg meter. If Billy isn't holding an egg, the egg meter moves off-screen.

Pause Menu

Prototype	Final

• The red and white in the "Pause" text are inverted.
• The outline around the "Pause" text is less distinct.
• The "Pause" text is closer to the top of the box.
• The menu items are slightly lower.
• The border for the pause menu is a simple yellow rounded rectangle, which is shorter than the final's orange box.
• The lives and Chick Coin icons are missing, and the health and egg meter are underneath the black overlay.
• The "Select" option is missing, as there is only one level in the demo.

Coming This Fall Screen

Regardless if you lose all your lives or complete the level, a screen indicating the relative release date (at the time) shows up.

Other Visual Differences

Prototype	Final

Egg Rings look simpler and don't have spheres or connectors around them.

Prototype	Final

Textboxes are simpler in the prototype. The indicator to move onto the next box is a double arrow instead of a B button icon.

Prototype	Final

The B button prompt for talking to characters is simpler and less stylized in the prototype.

Prototype	Final

Instead of defeating enemies to unlock Uri-Uri's cage like in the final, the prototype has you simply touch an egg pad.

Prototype	Final

In the prototype, performing an Egg Driver on some eggs has a squish effect that is not present in the final.

Prototype	Final

The mission cleared phrase is "Mission is cleared" in the prototype. The final removed the "is" and made "mission" larger.

• The icon for targeting enemies looks different.
• There are simpler visual effects when throwing and dunking the egg.
• There are different visual effects when hatching an egg animal. Additionally, there is no text when they come out; instead, the camera rotates around them slightly and smoothly pans back to the player when regaining control.
• The visual egg meter on the HUD doesn't indicate the egg's health.

Music Differences

All music in the demo is different than the corresponding songs in the final.

select.adx

Prototype	Final

Quite a few differences here. The "la la" vocals are in a different tone.

pirates1.adx

Prototype	Final

This song doesn't play at all in the demo. It sounds like an incomplete version of the night theme for Pirate's Island, which is likely why the demo opted for one of the day variants.

pirates2.adx

Prototype	Final

Some of the instruments are different, and some instruments in the demo are less prominent.

pirates3.adx

Prototype	Final

A similar situation with this one as well.

If looping on the music playback is disabled, some normally unheard outros for these songs can be heard, for the level themes it's just instrument release, but in the main theme there is a proper outro left unused!

Other Audio Differences

• Billy's voice is completely different. The audio for his voice is very low, making it hard to hear over the music. He also says fewer phrases overall, such as no sound when dashing or dying, or variants for Egg Drive.

Comparison to final:

Voice Clip Description:	Proto Voice Clip:	Final Voice Clip:
Rooster Call
Rooster Call B		Doesn't Exist (see below)
Short Hop
Hop
Charging Call
Short Hop B
Falling
Summoning Animal
Yahoo!
Yay!
Breaking To Halt
Getting Hit

• It seems the devs intended for charging the rooster call to affect hatching, based on how long the button was held. However even in the 2002 proto this feature seems scrapped, as charging time doesn't affect how the eggs hatch.

Interestingly, voice clips for Rolly also exist in the proto, unused and different to final.

Comparison to final:

Voice Clip Description:	Proto Voice Clip:	Final Voice Clip:
Rooster Call
Rooster Call B		Doesn't Exist (stated above)
Short Hop
Hop
Charging Call
Short Hop B
Falling
Summoning Animal
Yahoo!	Same as "Yay!"
Yay!
Breaking To Halt
Getting Hit

• Billy uses "Yay!" when starting an Egg Drive or when preparing for an Egg Toss instead of "Yahoo!" like the final. Similarly, situations were "Yay!" would be used in the final are "Yahoo!" in the proto.
• A lot of sound effects are missing. The crows don't make sounds after coming out of defeated enemies for instance.
• The sound for eggs growing to full size is slightly different.

Proto Egg Maxed Clip:	Final Egg Maxed Clip:

• There is no sound when Menie-Funie talks to Billy at the start of the level.
• The sound played when the Emblem of Courage appears is different, being deeper for pitch in the proto.

Proto Emblem Sound:	Final Emblem Sound:

• Bridges are extremely glitchy when it comes to audio. They will play a sound many times in succession when you step on them, and rolling an egg over them sounds as if you broke a rock or other piece of scenery. However, you can't normally get to any bridges in the demo level (see below).

Unseen Details

The demo doesn't let you explore most of the upper areas due to the second gate remaining closed and there being an invisible wall (as well as no way up) past it. However, using exploits and memory editing, you can reach normally inaccessible areas and explore more of the level.

Interestingly, there's an enemy and egg spawn above where the second gate is. It's also right by a bridge.

There's oddly an invisible rail in the ocean that loops around the level. Once you get on it, there's no way off, since you can't jump off rails and the rail never ends.

There's an enemy spawn in Skull Cave, but there are no eggs.

There's another enemy spawn on the island that leads to the Dark Gate in the final. No eggs are here either.

Perhaps the most interesting detail: a pink Egg Ring! It's found on the faraway skull island, and these don't exist at all in the final. It acts just like the static orange ones in that it doesn't move at all. When you jump with it, it doesn't even give you enough height to get on the platform above (there's nothing up there anyway). Also on this island are eggs that spawn without nests, which act identical to the ones in Mission 2 of Sand Ruin in the final.

Prototype	Final

The exit to Skull Cave is slightly larger and has no wooden frame in the prototype. The lanterns are also further apart.

When you enter through here in the prototype and look back into the cave, there's a wall instead of an entrance on the other side. You can still walk through it, indicating that the exit to the cave wasn't complete yet.

Text Differences

To do: There's a 2nd mission in the demo, see if there's any differences there.

All text will be compared with the first mission in Pirate's Island in the final, as that's the only level available in the prototype.

Prototype	Final
Listen to me, young Billy Hatcher.	You must listen to me Billy.

Prototype	Final
Elder Chicken Uri-uri has been changed into a golden egg by the Crows and their strange powers.	The Crows turned Chicken Elder Uri-Uri into a golden egg too, using some sort of strange power.

Prototype	Final
Uri-uri is one of the elders who makes the sun rise here on Pirate Island.	Uri-Uri is the Elder of Pirates Island. He is the one who calls the morning to this island!

Prototype	Final
If somebody doesn't save Uri-uri, morning will never come to Pirate Island again!	Find the golden egg, and free the Elder! You must bring morning back to Pirates Island!

Prototype	Final
You must find the golden egg, save Uri-uri as quickly as possible, and bring the morning back to Pirate Island!

Menie-Funie's text at the start of the level is a lot different in the prototype. The red font color is different, and there's an additional textbox in the prototype.

Prototype	Final
This is Pirate Island. It used to be a hideout for an infamous pirate.	This is Pirates Island. Many famous pirates once lived here.

Prototype	Final
Even though that pirate doesn' t live here anymore,the whole island has been taken over by evil Crows!!	Well, the pirates aren't here anymore, but now there's a bunch of scary Crow Monsters haunting the island!

Said by the chick in the red cap. There are several grammatical errors in the prototype, and the prototype mentions only a single pirate instead of multiple.

Prototype	Final
While jumping, press and hold the A Button to perform an Egg Driver!

Prototype	Final
Press the A Button lightly, and you will perform a Bounce Jump!

Prototype	Final
You can continue bouncing multiple times by using the Bounce Jump!

Said by the chick with the white egg shell over its head, who exists in this level only in the prototype.

Prototype	Final
Do you know how to hatch an egg?

Prototype	Final
First, you need to feed your egg any food that you find lying around!

Prototype	Final
Doing that will make your egg grow bigger and bigger!

Prototype	Final
Once the egg has reached its maximum size, press the R Button and use your Egg Echo on the egg!

Prototype	Final
If you do everything right, a cute little Egg Animal will hatch out of the egg!

Prototype	Final
And remember, you may get different types of egg animals from different types of eggs,

Prototype	Final
types of egg animals from different types of eggs, so be sure to hatch as many as possible!

The chick in the red shirt, who exists in this level only in the prototype, says how to hatch an egg. There's a slip-up in the last text box, as it repeats most of what was just said.

Prototype	Final
Well done, Billy.	Well done, Billy.

Prototype	Final
This is the egg that the Elder was sealed within. But, it' s still too early to celebrate!	You must hurry and undo the Elder's curse! Be careful not to let the egg break!

Prototype	Final
To break the seal, you must hatch the egg!

Prototype	Final
You must feed the egg until it reaches its maximum size.

Prototype	Final
Then, give it an Egg Echo. If you do that, the Elder should be able to break free.

Said by Menie-Funie when touching the Elder's egg. Since this is the second world in the final game, the text is much shorter. Uri-Uri is referenced in a blue font color, which doesn't happen in the final. Funnily enough, the prototype assumes you will read this text in time and will still trigger the cutscene for the first gate opening if you wait long enough, which allows you to move around while the text is still up.

Prototype	Final
Thank you for helping me!!	Thank you for helping me!!

Prototype	Final
I am Uri-uri. I am one of the 6 Elders of Pirate Island whose voice makes the sun rise!	I am Uri-Uri, one of the 6 Elders whose voice makes the sun rise!

Prototype	Final
I was caught unawares by the Crows. Before I knew it, they were attacking me and they turned me into an egg!	One of the Crow bosses named Captain Glur caught me off guard, and before I could fight back, he captured me...

Prototype	Final
Billy, my boy... The Crows have extraordinary powers! Don't let your guard down!	And then he turned me into a golden egg!

Prototype	Final
Oh, before I forget... I should reward you for saving me. Here! Take this Emblem of Courage!	Billy, my boy... The Crows have extraordinary powers! You must keep your wits about you!

Prototype	Final
These Emblems of Courage are given to true heroes by us Chickens, as a sign of their courage!	Oh, and before I forget... Here! Take this Emblem of Courage! It's my gift to you for helping me!

Prototype	Final
I know that one day, it will prove to be very useful to you! Take good care of it!

Said by Chicken Elder Uri-Uri when speaking to him after hatching his egg. The prototype mentions he's one of the six elders in Pirate Island, rather than Morning Land as a whole.

General Differences

• There is no animation for Billy starting out the level; he's just there.
• Billy's idle animation is slightly different. His hands start open, and he closes them into fists over time.
• When hanging from a ledge, the only action Billy can do is jump from it. In the final, this is the only action Billy can do when grabbing hand bars, but for ledges he can choose to drop or pull himself up; however, he can't actually jump from a ledge.
• Billy's animation for commanding an animal friend is different. He simply raises his arm up, similar to his animation when befriending animals.
• Egg movement is buggy. Sometimes, you'll accelerate very slowly upon grabbing an egg, and other times it won't reset certain action states, such as performing a dash.
• Billy's position while grabbing the egg is extremely buggy. If Billy hits collision that the egg can go through, he'll be visibly separated from the egg but still be rolling it. This is easily noticeable if you slowly stop your egg while it's falling off a ledge.
• Billy can freely walk on steep slopes as if they weren't steep. This includes the slope at the start.
• Level geometry, such as trees, disappears when the camera is far away from it instead of smoothly fading out of view like in the final.
• You can sometimes clip through objects if you perform a Bounce Jump and hold towards the object.
• You can't roll with R after doing a Bounce Jump.
• You can't throw your egg with B after doing a Bounce Jump.
• The visual egg meter on the HUD fills up extremely slowly.
• The entire phrase "Let's Go!" is displayed when starting a level instead of them being separate.
• Chicken Elder Uri-Uri is called Patriarch Chicken Uli-Uli in the mission briefing, but Uri-uri everywhere else.
• The Rooster Call is called the Egg Echo.
• Animal friends make a high-pitched "squeaky" sound whenever they walk and make no sound when you run them over with an egg.
• There is no cutscene for the Chicken Elder's egg breaking if it gets destroyed. Instead, it just plays Billy's generic failure animation.
• On boot, the Sega logo shows up, followed then the technologies screen, followed by the Sonic Team logo. In the final, the Sonic Team logo shows up right after the Sega logo.
• The playable Pirate's Island level takes place at night, but it's playing music the final uses for day.
• Some egg spawns are mistakenly slightly above their nests.

Development Text

There's a file called GCAX.conf, which looks to be a config file for the AX sound library. This file is not present in the final version.

Japanese

Translation

;---------------------------------------------------------- ; GCAX(AX SNDLIB)の設定 ;---------------------------------------------------------- ; 書式 ; ; セミコロン以降はコメントになります ; 改行コードは、LF(Unix)、CR(Macintosh)、CR+LF(MS-DOS)いずれも可です ; コメント以外に日本語を入れることはできません ; ; 数値 ; 0 ゼロ ; 0[0-7]* 8進数 ; 0x[0-9A-Fa-f]* 16進数 ; $[0-9A-Fa-f]* 16進数 ; [1-9][0-9] 10進数 ; ; <s> ; ホワイトスペース (スペースまたはタブ) ; ;---------------------------------------------------------- ;AramBank - ARAMバンクサイズの設定 ;AramBank <s> バンク番号 <s> バンクサイズ ;---------------------------------------------------------- ;ARAMのバンクの大きさは、プログラム実行中を通じて固定になっていますが、 ;このファイルで設定することで、実行開始時に変更することができます ; ;なお、ARAMにロードされるのは、波形データのみです ; ;---------------------------------------------------------- ; ARAMバンクサイズの設定 ;---------------------------------------------------------- AramBank 0 670000 AramBank 1 850000 AramBank 2 700000 AramBank 3 800000 AramBank 4 910000 AramBank 5 500000 AramBank 6 500000 AramBank 7 400000 AramBank 8 0 AramBank 9 0 AramBank 10 0 AramBank 11 0 AramBank 12 0 AramBank 13 0 ;---------------------------------------------------------- ; リバーブ設定 ;---------------------------------------------------------- ReverbHTime 1000 ;msec ReverbHPreDelay 10 ;msec ReverbHDamping 80 ;% ReverbHColoration 50 ;% ReverbHCrosstalk 30 ;% ReverbHMix 100 ;%

;---------------------------------------------------------- ; GCAX (AX SNDLIB) Settings ;---------------------------------------------------------- ; Format ; ; Anything after a semicolon will become a comment. ; LF (Unix), CR (Macintosh), and CR+LF (MS-DOS) may all be used as newline characters. ; Do not write in Japanese except in comments. ; ; Numerics ; 0 0 ; 0[0-7]* Base 8 ; 0x[0-9A-Fa-f]* Base 16 ; $[0-9A-Fa-f]* Base 16 ; [1-9][0-9] Base 10 ; ; <s> ; White Space (Space or Tab) ; ;---------------------------------------------------------- ;AramBank - ARAM Bank Size Settings ;AramBank <s> Bank Number <s> Bank Size ;---------------------------------------------------------- ;The ARAM bank's size is fixed during the program's runtime, ;but you can change its size at launch by setting it in this file. ; ;Note that only waveform data will be loaded into ARAM. ; ;---------------------------------------------------------- ; ARAM Bank Size Settings ;---------------------------------------------------------- AramBank 0 670000 AramBank 1 850000 AramBank 2 700000 AramBank 3 800000 AramBank 4 910000 AramBank 5 500000 AramBank 6 500000 AramBank 7 400000 AramBank 8 0 AramBank 9 0 AramBank 10 0 AramBank 11 0 AramBank 12 0 AramBank 13 0 ;---------------------------------------------------------- ; Reverb Settings ;---------------------------------------------------------- ReverbHTime 1000 ;msec ReverbHPreDelay 10 ;msec ReverbHDamping 80 ;% ReverbHColoration 50 ;% ReverbHCrosstalk 30 ;% ReverbHMix 100 ;%

Unused Graphics

Pause Menu

In the pause menu texture is an icon of an egg that doesn't appear anywhere in the prototype or the final. The fact that it's in the pause menu indicates that it could have been a cursor of some sort, as there's no cursor for the pause menu in any version of the game.

Also found in the demo's pause menu is a graphic for a menu option called "Exit." Both the demo and the final versions display the "End Game" option for quitting out of the game, thus rendering this unused. This graphic was removed from the pause menu texture in the final.

To do: Check international versions of the demo for these letters.

In the same texture for the "LET'S GO!" phrase shown at the start of the level are graphics for the 'A' and 'R' letters, which go unused.

Contained in the texture for the "PIRATES ISLAND" level title text is an icon for an egg. This is never displayed in-game and isn't in the final.