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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 10 ก.พ. 2025
- This is a comparison of various differences in a prototype build of Turok: Dinosaur Hunter.
Found among the source code files archived online. The build itself is actually from January 2, 1997 which is two weeks prior to the initial retail build. The assets are dated December 23, 1996 and aren't part of a rom. It's possible the assets are even earlier since the date on several other files are incorrect, but it's definitely from late 1996.
The asset bank in the rom can be overwritten with a different one, as long as the file size is smaller than the original. This is how the prototype assets were loaded, by injecting them into an existing prototype. The misaligned models during the intro and other quirks aren't due to this and will happen even with a build compiled specifically with the assets.
The Jan 2 build isn't really noteworthy and is nearly identical to the final build. But the asset bank from Dec 23 has several differences. Mipmapping hasn't been implemented, a few textures are missing, trees don't fall over from explosions, and slight layout differences in a few levels.
For those curious to try it you can get it here: www.mediafire.com/file/tvkkztc7fvcuux4
Big Cheat: MSTRBGSHTPRGRMMR (MiSTeR BiG SHoT PRoGRaMMeR)
Fly Mode: CRTRGBRBNSMTH
I should’ve made it more obvious in the video but in the Treetop Village level the music doesn’t fade back in when emerging from water, only once you set foot on land. Not sure if that was an intentional design choice that was later changed or a mistake that got corrected.
The Longhunter boss area is also extremely glitchy and constantly crashes. Looking at the source code it seems at one point in development you had to hit switches in order for the gates to lift. The final version removed that entirely and just simplified it so it raises as soon as you defeat him.
17:45 I'm glad that they add possibility to take the trees down in final build. Because I was blown away in 1997 when I accidentally shoot to the tree with grenade launcher. I knew that the trees are static object with no interaction, so I didn't shoot it in the first place, but suddenly I saw perfect animation of falling tree. Just imagine it- I was standing and thinking - what I just seen? What just happen? And it was a time, when that kind of things were impossible in games.
Man, this game is just perfect. I played it in 1997 on n64 without memory card (no saves).
Each time when I run it on PC accidentally or for test/fun - I can't stop playing it.
For me this is one of the few, best games on all platforms.
(on PC I'm using remaster 2.0 from steam, but with video settings and soudtrack matched to n64)
Awesome find. I've had the source for a few years but never thought to do something like this. I wish we had tools to extract the actual assets, I'd love to get the brontosaurus into the remaster, but for now, I'll just rip it with an emulator plugin, even if that loses the animations.
Thank you for sharing this and hosting a download link. Great work with this and all the other videos I've seen you upload.
The assets can be extracted, but I've never been able to rebuild the resource bank afterwards.
I'll see if I can find the brontosaurus. At the very least I should be able to locate the models and textures but I have no idea how to convert them into a format compatible with the remaster.
Man that Brontosaurus/Brachiosaurus should have remained in the final build. It would have absolutely blown away my 8 year old mind just making my way up the treetops and then all of a sudden I look to the right and there's a freakin sauropod walking right next to us.
Both Dinosaur Hunter and Seeds of Evil, as much as I love them, were woefully devoid of actual dinosaurs in the background and it's kinda sad that more of them were supposed to be in the game.
Despite the proto being less than a month away from the final build. It is quite surprising to see the amount of changes were made in such a short amount of time. I had no idea there were more cut enemies like the crabs and I am Turok being a last minute addition. Are there earlier builds of the game that are hidden anywhere else in the source code?
The crab enemies were in the Campaigner's Fortress during the sewer part. So they are used but it would appear at one point they would appear in the ruins level as well. As for earlier builds, just the very early demo build that's already online.
12:18 why they cut that huge dinosaur off? I don't see a good reason. What a shame. Maybe they did it to improve FPS, or they had to delete it to save cartridge free space for other data, or it was "political" reason.
It was do to Cartridge space since they didn’t have enough at the time to even leave them in. And this was even before the expansion pack was even released.