Alright before I begin, the 0630 beta came from drx's February 23rd, 2008 release. Although it is quite different from the final in terms of features missing, stuff not working or features that were removed from the final, it is not the oldest of the JPRE prototypes. The 0620 and 0622 betas are also on drx's site. However, when you boot them up in an emulator (both Gens and Fusion) you only get a black screen. At first I thought it might have been an incorrect rom header so I changed the header name from "JAPAN GAME NAME" to "JURASSIC PARK RAMPAGE EDITION" but to no avail. I found out a short while later that the 0630 beta has the "JAPAN GAME NAME" header as well but it works just fine on an emulator so that actually wasn't it either. I also tried fixing the checksums on both of them but that didn't work either. My only theory as to why the 0620 and 0622 beta would do this is that like the earlier Chaotix prototypes, the checksum is being read incorrectly by the emulators. However, I have no proof to back this up and the fact that Knuckles Chaotix and its betas (minus Crackers of course. =P) are 32X games contradicts this theory. There is also a possibility that the programmers fucked up when compiling these two builds and spent nearly ten days trying to fix it. The only problem with this theory is while its very plausible, its just a really dumb theory and highly unlikely due to the fact that no one in there right mind would spend two builds -let alone ten days with those prototype builds being compiled on the first and third days of this time span- trying to fix a fuck up. (Besides me anyways but that's just because I'm that terrible at fixing things. I do a better job at destroying things apparently....) Anyways I've been trying to contact drx (true I could have went onto his forums since I have an account there but I was afraid he wouldn't answer me as I had already PM'd him and brought it up to him before. Now onto the 0630 build. First off, I want to start out with a little video of basic differences I made recently and uploaded onto youtube. I would have recorded more but time was limited and I didn't want to upload another video only to waste my time with it. I basically do a run through one of Grant's levels and one of the Raptor's levels: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ea81VQ-jq90 I annotated things worth mentioning probably one of the biggest changes in the game that I've seen is the death animations for the Dinosaurs and enemy people when you blow them up with Grenades or Rockets. My favorite one of these death animations is the Triceratops. It literally busts into pieces with those said pieces flying everywhere. Depending upon your distance from the Triceratops as well as what direction your attack comes from (From above with Grenades or from the sides with the rockets.) the direction and distance that the Triceratops pieces fly will vary! Why were these exploding death animations removed? Well my theory is that Blue Sky didn't want SOA to give JPRE a MA-17 rating because they wanted a larger array of audiences to see it. (Abeit they obviously had no idea that a majority of underaged people and stupid parents would still buy it for themselves/ their kids) So to get the game down to a MA-13 rating they simply just made the dinosaurs and people die the way they do with all other weapons besides the Flamethrower and Cattle prod on steroids. The people got blasted backwards flying across screen though when hit with explosive weapons so that it looked cooler. When the human enemies land after an attack from an explosive weapon, their dead bodies flash for a few seconds before disappearing in a style similar to how Beat em' up genre games worked at this time. Most of the dinosaurs don't fly across screen when hit but still do the flashing and disappearing thing though. Even the Triceratops suffered this. Its a shame too as it was probably the most visually stunning of the exploding deaths. The exploding death animations are present in the the 0630, 0708, and 0713 prototypes. They were removed as of the 0714 build. Amazing what can be done in one day isn't it? Also I'd imagine that these exploding Death animations are present in the 0620 and 0622 builds but I can't be certain as they don't actually work. Most of the level ending flags are not working in the 0630 build. I thought you couldn't access the other two levels that Grant and the Raptor get upon beating their first three default levels, but I was wrong. On the Stage Select map, if you have 6-button gamepad configuration active you can press buttons on the controller to toggle which stage you want to go to. Pressing the C button will change the slot occupied by Grant's version of the Cargo Ship level to the Raptor's version of the Hidden Ruins. (you still can only play as the character intended for this level however regardless who you chose on the "Player" menu on the game's main menu.) Pressing A will revert the Raptor's Hidden Ruins Level back to Grant's Cargo Ship level. Pressing these buttons on the slots with the Savanna and Avairy levels will do the same thing but due to the fact that both character's versions of these two levels occupy this spot, you can't see it happening. On the previously mentioned one you could because both levels have different portraits and names where as I already mentioned, the Savanna and Aviary levels for Grant and The Raptor, occupy this spot as well as both the Raptor's and Grant's versions of these levels possessing the same portrait. Pressing the X button will move you to the the top left level slot on the Stage select map (the Raptor's Cargo ship and Grant's Hidden Ruins level slot. Using A and C like above you can toggle The Raptor's Cargo Ship or Grants Hidden Ruins in the same way mentioned previously. However this time you will only see the text for these two levels since they are going off the screen (which is the same in the final btw.) Pressing the Y button takes you to the top right slot on the Stage Select map screen which is always the River Run stage. Once again you won't be able to see the change but you can toggle it to be the Raptor's version of River Run or Grant's version of the level by pressing the A and C buttons. Pressing Z one the Stage Select Map screen will take you to the T-Rex stage, however you won't be able to see its location on the screen and only Grant can access this stage as always. (it would have been nice if the Raptor actually fought the T-Rex in this game but it never happened sadly.... even in the final version you can't.) Pressing the Mode button on the stage select map screen will take you back to the Sega logo screen. As for in game, you can use Debug mode with the player 2 controller just like in the First Sega Genesis Jurassic Park game. However, you have more control over where you want to move across the screen where as in the original's debug you didn't have as much and often went out of bounds which caused the game to fuck up or crash. However, unlike the first game's debug you can't replenish your ammos supply or health by pressing a button. All you can do here is move Grant around and exit the level with The mode button (which can be done with either controller's mode button by the way.) You can also use the second controller alternatively on the Stage Select Map screen for the controls listed above (including the mode button.) More info on the later prototypes to come. I hope I didn't bore you, waste your time, or anything like that.
