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Proto:Crash Team Racing/Later Demos

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This is a sub-page of Proto:Crash Team Racing.

The Later Demos are related to the four other demos available, although there are only two actual versions that contain small differences between them. The PAL demo released to European and Australian audiences - the earliest one from this batch, the secret demos hidden within Spyro 2 - two variants according to the region, and the NTSC-J demo released to Japanese audience - which is identical to the Spyro 2 demos. Just like the Test Drive demo, these demos also feature the same three race tracks, each one playable according to the number of players.

The first PAL demo suggests a build date around June 17th, 1999, about three months before the final NTSC-U release version. The subsequent demos, however, do not have an updated timestamp, thus also sharing the exact same date - although they are most likely just a few days apart.

Gameplay-wise, there are no differences compared to the Test Drive demo, but there are notable changes when it comes to the unused content, such as hidden menus, sound effects, and game modes.

General Differences

  • The demo will display a message warning that time is running out and the game is resetting itself if leaving the game idle for around a minute.
  • Disconnecting a controller will display "Please insert a controller" onscreen, but won't tell which one is unplugged.

Unused Content

Early Menu

The boot screens are incredibly basic, featuring simple text in the center and a plain background. All of the company logos are instead presented in this manner, too. It starts with Sony Computer Entertainment, Naughty Dog Inc., and Universal Interactive Studios. After the company screens, more screens that appears to be placeholders for the intro cutscene called "Title Loops" are displayed, which loops from one screen to the other and again featuring a sample text in the center. It cicles through Track1, Coco, Track2, Cortex, Track3, Tiny, Track4, Polar, Track5, Crash, and NOxide. You must press X to skip to the main menu, otherwise the screens will keep looping forever.

A very primitive version of the game's menus is present in the files, featuring simple text and no background.

  • The menus are incredibly basic, and there is neither sound effects, music, game's logo, nor transitions.
  • A string with the internal name of each menu is displayed at the bottom left corner. It always starts with "SCR_", which is an acronym for "screen".
  • Arcade mode was originally called "Gran Prix", and High Scores is pluralized.
  • Only X and Square buttons are used to select and go back in menus, respectively. In the final game, Circle and Triangle can also be used for the same actions.
  • Going back to the previous screen will make the highlighted option return to the default selection.
  • Selecting 2P Vs. mode will erroneously load the default races with CPU racers enabled.
  • There is no cup mode in Arcade and Vs. modes.
  • 2, 3, and 4 player options are always available regardless of how many controllers are plugged in.

Adventure

  • Normally, after choosing a character in New Game, the game will display the CHECKING CARD screen afterwards, but since there is no memory card functionality in the demo version, it softlocks the game. Bypassing the memory card detection will proceed to the slot select screen.
  • The slot select screen features four uncentered options called "Slot 1", "Slot 2", Slot 3" and "Slot 4".
    • Selecting a slot will lead back to the main menu, most likely because Adventure mode wasn't implemented at that point yet.
  • The Load Game menu is empty and will softlock the game upon entering it.

SCR_StandardUnlimited

  • There is a scrapped sub-menu featuring two options: "Standard" and "Unlimited". Selecting Unlimited will lead to another menu titled Load Your Car - there are no available options, softlocking the game. It always shows up when entering Time Trial, Gran Prix and Vs. modes.

Character Select

  • The character select screen features a basic list containing 13 characters, sorted by their internal ID values. Unlockable characters are always available (including in Adventure mode's list), and it lacks Penta Penguin and Fake Crash. The character names also have short abbreviations used as placeholders.
  • The player's cursor is present on the left side of the list.
  • When a character is chosen, the cursor will change to the right side of the list, with the player's number on the top, and the character's name below in a red color as confirmation.

Level Select

  • The level select screen also features a basic list of nine options on each side, and tracks are sorted by their internal ID values and referred to by their internal names. Slide Coliseum and Turbo Track are always available by default.
Demo Final
Proto8 Dingo Canyon
Proto9 Dragon Mines
Desert2 Blizzard Bluff
Island1 Crash Cove
Temple1 Tiger Temple
Temple2 Papu's Pyramid
Tube1 Roo's Tubes
Blimp1 Hot Air Skyway
Sewer1 Sewer Speedway
Cave1 Mystery Caves
Castle1 Cortex Castle
Labs1 N. Gin Labs
Ice1 Polar Pass
SpacE Oxide Station
Asphalt1 Coco Park
Asphalt2 Tiny Arena
Secret1 Slide Coliseum
Secret2 Turbo Track
  • A separate screen for lap selection will appear after selecting the level. The available number of laps are 3, 4, 5, 10, and 20. It was reduced to 3, 5, and 7 in the final game.

Arena Select

  • The battle arena select screen is similar to the track select one, and all arenas are also using placeholder names. Parking Lot, The North Bowl and Lab Basement are always available.
Demo Final
Battle1 Nitro Court
Battle2 Rampage Ruins
Battle3 Parking Lot
Battle4 Skull Rock
Battle5 The North Bowl
Battle6 Rocky Road
Battle7 Lab Basement

Battle

The Setup Battle screen is very messy, and the options strings overlap each other. Three game types are available: Frag Mode, Timed Mode, and Hit Point Mode. Instead of a Length option, Time and Points options are separate and always present, regardless of the game type.

  • "Frag Mode" is a reference to Quake. The mode itself works as the default Point Limit Mode in the final game.
  • The available point options are 10, 20, and 30. It was reduced to 5, 10, and 15 in the final game.
  • There are no life options.
  • The weapons use placeholder names: TRBO (Turbo), BOMB (Bowling Bomb), BOMT (Missile), NTRO (Explosive Crates), POSN (Beaker), SHLD (Power Shield), DCTR (Invincibility Mask), BMB3 (Triple Bowling Bombs), BMT3 (Triple Missiles), INVS (Invisibility), ENGN (Super Engine).
  • Teams are separated by a simple naming instead of unique colors, and the available teams to choose are limited according to the number of players.
  • The warning messages go offscreen.

High Score

  • The menu is empty and will softlock the game upon entering it.

Memory Card Messages

  • The memory card messages were completely rewritten in the final game.
Menu Demo Final
SCR_SlotSelectNoCard
SCR_SlotSaveNoCard
WARNING: There is no card
in slot 0. Insert a card
or press TRI to continue
without saving.

If you continue without
saving you will not be able
save later during the game.
WARNING:
THERE IS NO MEMORY CARD
IN MEMORY CARD SLOT 1.
PLEASE INSERT A MEMORY CARD.

PRESS * TO CONTINUE
WITHOUT SAVING.
SCR_SlotSaveUnformatted The card in slot 0
is UNFORMATTED.

Press X to format or
Press TRI to continue
without saving.

If you continue without
saving you will not be able
save later during the game.
WARNING:
THE MEMORY CARD IN
MEMORY CARD SLOT 1
IS UNFORMATTED
PRESS @ TO FORMAT.
OR ^ TO RETURN.
SCR_SlotSelectCardFull
SCR_SlotSaveCardFull
WARNING: The card in slot 0
is full. Please insert a
card that is not full
Or press TRI to continue
without saving.

If you continue without
saving you will not be able
save later during the game.
WARNING:
THE MEMORY CARD IN
MEMORY CARD SLOT 1 IS FULL.
PLEASE INSERT A MEMORY CARD THAT
HAS AT LEAST 2 BLOCKS FREE OR
USE THE CONSOLE'S INTERNAL
MEMORY CARD MANAGER TO DELETE
SOME BLOCKS ON THIS MEMORY CARD.
SCR_SlotSelectCardError
SCR_SlotSaveCardError
ERROR: Something is wrong
with the card in slot 0
Please insert another card
or press TRI to continue
without saving.

If you continue without
saving you will not be able
save later during the game.
ERROR:
AN ERROR HAS OCCURED WHILE READING
THE MEMORY CARD.

PRESS * TO CONTINUE
PRESS ^ TO RETURN.
SCR_SlotSaveReally Saving Game... SAVING TO MEMORY CARD...
DO NOT REMOVE
THE MEMORY CARD!
SCR_SlotSaveFormatCard Formatting Card.. FORMATTING...
SCR_SlotSaveBad ERROR: Couldn't save
the game to the card
in slot 0
Press X
to try again or Press
TRI to continue without
saving.

If you continue without
saving you will not be able
save later during the game.
N/A
  • The messages don't fit on the screen as they are placed in the middle of the screen.
  • All warning instances call the memory card as just "card".
  • Messages are written with lowercase letters, while in the final game all letters are capitalized. This doesn't affect how the strings are displayed in-game, though.
  • In order to format the memory card, you have to press X instead of Circle.
  • The format and read error messages don't inform you about using Triangle to go back - which in this case, you have to press Square.
  • The messages use the letter X and "TRI" to represent the button instead of the actual icon.
  • According to the last sentence that is present in all messages, the player isn't able to create an Adventure save file once they continue without saving. In the final game, you can create a save file mid-game.

Early Modes

Other game modes are hidden in the demo, but inaccessible. CTR Challenge, Crystal Challenge, and Gem Cup didn't exist at this point.

Relic Race

Relic Race is in a very primitive state. It features CPU racers, weapons are available, and there are no time crates.

  • Breaking any item box will display a "-2" score going to the timer. It doesn't freeze the clock, though.
  • The weapon icons are missing.
  • The requirements for all relic records are placeholder times, which have become Gold relic times in the August 5th, 1999 build.
  • The relic times are actually based on the internal level ID list. The first track has the highest relic times, while the last track has the lowest times. Each level discounts one second of each relic requirement compared to its previous track.
Level Demo Times Relic
Dingo Canyon 2:25:00 Platinum
Dragon Mines 2:24:00 Sapphire
Blizzard Bluff 2:23:00 Gold
Crash Cove 2:22:00 Sapphire
Tiger Temple 2:21:00 Sapphire
Papu's Pyramid 2:20:00 Sapphire
Roo's Tubes 2:19:00 Sapphire
Hot Air Skyway 2:18:00 Sapphire
Sewer Speedway 2:17:00 Sapphire
Mystery Caves 2:16:00 Sapphire
Cortex Castle 2:15:00 Sapphire
N. Gin Labs 2:14:00 Sapphire
Polar Pass 2:13:00 Sapphire
Oxide Station 2:12:00 Sapphire
Coco Park 2:11:00 Sapphire
Tiny Arena 2:10:00 Sapphire
Slide Coliseum 2:09:00 Sapphire
Turbo Track 2:08:00 Sapphire
  • For some reason, Blizzard Bluff displays by default the Gold relic HUD, while Dingo Canyon displays the Platinum relic HUD.
  • The Platinum color font in the HUD is white.

Battle

  • The "Point" text is displayed instead of the usual skull icon.
  • The "Hitpts" text is displayed instead of the usual red cross icon.
  • The "Finished!" text appears when the battle ends or a player is knocked out. There are no end of race comments.
  • The powerslide bar is present.
  • There are no team colors. The arrows above the players are based on each character's minimap colors.
    • Because of this, there are no colored outlines for each player's screen representing the team color.
  • There is no animation of the score going to the counter.
  • There is no invincibility frame after hit.
  • Restarting the game won't reset the players' points.
  • Team mode doesn't work at all, as the points aren't shared and attacking the teammate won't decrease the score.
Point Limit
  • Players can still move around and score even after the battle ends.
Time Limit
  • The time limit isn't set properly - selecting 3 minutes will set to 10 milliseconds, 6 minutes to 20 milliseconds and 9 minutes to 30 milliseconds, making the battle end just after the green light.
  • All characters instantly freeze in place when the time is up.
Life Limit
  • The default lives are always set to 5.
  • Going out of bounds restores all lives.
  • When a player is killed, the character will instantly freeze in place instead of disappearing. Touching them will also give knockback.

Unused Items

Power Shield

It doesn't work on any mode. Activating it will play the sound effect, but won't generate the bubble.

N. Tropy Clock

The activation sound effect is already present in the audio files but hasn't been programmed to play in-game yet. Otherwise it behaves identically to the previous demo.

Invisibility

  • It makes the player's model transparent.
  • There is no sound effect for invisible in and out.
  • The arrow above the player won't disappear while invisible.

Super Engine

Instead of providing a constant turbo boost for a short period of time, it makes your kart permanently faster for the rest of the match. Each time the power-up is used, the top speed gets slightly increased - you can upgrade it up to five times if you have less than 10 Wumpas, otherwise you can get up to three times.

Unused Text

Retry
Change Character
Change Level
Change Cart
Save Time
Save Ghost
Change Setup
Exit To MAp
Options

These menu options were new at that point. There is no code for most of them yet, though.

Unused Graphics

Small Player Icons

CTR-LaterDemos CrashSmall.png CTR-LaterDemos CortexSmall.png CTR-LaterDemos CocoSmall.png

There are unused tiny versions of Crash, Cortex, and Coco icons planned for the minimap, which are not found in any other version of the game. However, this concept had just been started, as the remaining characters did not yet feature their own tiny versions, and instead used a duplicate of the default icon as a placeholder file.

This feature was going to replace the ball icons, but was scrapped probably due to lack of texture space.

Sound Effects

Compared to the Test Drive demo, these demos now contain more sound effects for other maps that are not included on the disc. The first PAL demo has slightly less sound effects, though. The following samples are present in the later demos.

Unused Sounds

The Orca, as seen in this early image.

These sound effects are present in all demo versions.

The slot crate sound effect from Crash Bandicoot: Warped is present. Its purpose is unknown.

Possibly the sound effect of the removed Orca hazard from Polar Pass, which can be seen in pre-release screenshots.

Two water splashing sound effects that were removed in the final game, which were most likely from the Orca hazard when it jumped in and out of the water.

An unknown scream, possibly from a track hazard.

Demo Final

Possibly an early sound effect of the temple door opening in Tiger Temple.

Demo Final

An earlier click sound effect when freezing the time in Relic Race, which is the same one used in Crash Bandicoot: Warped.

Demo Final

The gears rotating sound effect from Dragon Mines, but high-pitched.

Demo Final

The barrel rolling sound effect from Sewer Speedway and N. Gin Labs has a lower pitch.

Demo 1

The following sound effect is only present in the first PAL demo, as it was replaced by the final sound effect in the subsequent demos.

Demo Final

A different turtle splash sound effect that went unused in the final game due to a bug in the code. It was later repurposed as the Invisibility power-up when the player becomes visible again.

Demo Final

The Tiny neon signs sound effect in Tiny Arena is different.

Demo Final

The "invalid option" menu sound effect is different.

Demo 2

The following sound effects are only present in the subsequent demos.

A "boing" sound effect, similar to Ripper Roo's jump. Replaced with Armadillo's rolling sound effect.

A wolf howling sound effect, possibly planned for Tiger Temple.

Demo Final

The Ambient Wind from Cortex Castle is different.

Demo Final

The Tiny neon sign has a higher pitch.

Missing Sound Effects

  • Character voices.
  • Ambience sound from Roo's Tubes.
  • Fireball spawn from Mystery Caves.
  • Pipe Hiss from Sewer Speedway.
  • Ambient Wind from Cortex Castle (missing from Demo 1 only).
  • Ambient Space from N. Gin Labs (missing from Demo 1 only).
  • Glide or Wind (missing from Demo 1 only).
  • Stadium Audience from Tiny Arena.
  • Hitting a Spider from Cortex Castle - It reuses the Bounce Turtle from Mystery Caves as a placeholder.
  • Option Cancel/Return.
  • Letter Deletion.
  • All cutscenes sound effects.
  • All Adventure mode-related sound effects, such as hub areas objects, podium sound effects, prizes, etc.

Version Differences

There are a small differences between the earliest PAL demo and the rest of the demo versions. That does not count the usual regional differences - the different aspect ratio and frame rate are the most apparent. PAL versions also contain an extra language menu which translates the hints of the loading splash screen, and lacks the race intro theme.

  • The first PAL demo still uses the old loudy roulette sound effect when flashing through the items.
Demo Final
  • The subsequent demos feature the final item roulette sound effect, however, the sound effect of collecting 10 Wumpa fruits or obtaining a juiced up weapon was changed.
  • The "LAP" string is still present in 3+ player modes.
  • The "Points"/"Hitpts" battle HUD texts are placed higher.
  • Choosing any number of laps higher than 3 laps in 3+ player modes will still display 3 laps as the max number, regardless of how many laps were chosen.
  • The Japanese version features a different artwork in the splash screens.

Japanese Demo Translation

The NTSC-J version of the demo contains a primitive Japanese localization.

Original Demo Final
RESTART やりなおす もういちど はじめる
QUIT やめる タイトルがめんに もどる
Timing Out - Exiting Demo いっていじかん
そうさがないので
ゲ-ムをおわります
いっていじかん にゅうりょくがないので
デモに もどります
WRONG WAY! ぎゃくそう むきが はんたいだよ!
CONTROLLER 1 IS UNPLUGGED!
CONTROLLER 2 IS UNPLUGGED!
CONTROLLER 3 IS UNPLUGGED!
CONTROLLER 4 IS UNPLUGGED!
1Pコントロ-ラが ぬけているよ
コントロ-ラ2が ぬけているよ
コントロ-ラ3が ぬけているよ
コントロ-ラ4が ぬけているよ
コントロ-ラ1が ぬけています
コントロ-ラ2が ぬけています
コントロ-ラ1-Aが ぬけています
コントロ-ラ1-Bが ぬけています
コントロ-ラ1-Cが ぬけています
コントロ-ラ1-Dが ぬけています
PLEASE INSERT A CONTROLLER コントロ-ラをつないでね コントロ-ラを つなげてください