Lost Portals: Strange Glitch leading into a Stranger Mystery

LoneKnight · Mar 22, 2007 1:01 AM

Okay, I was browsing around on YouTube, and found a good glitch in Spyro Year of the Dragon. It allows the player to swim in the air on the level Dino Mines...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5Y2LMvB … ed&search=

BUT

It leads to a portal that is UNDER the map. Swim into it, and you are brought to an area that is a circular field, an area of some sort. There is nothing else in it.

So, what was it for? It must have been an egg quest of some sort, a battle where you would win an egg, much like the Wizard in Spooky Swamp or the Rhinoc Submarine battle.

Was this the real purpose of it? If it was scrapped by designers, it must have been late into the game, because otherwise it would not have been fully functional. But, it was scrapped, so why is it still in the map? Why go through the trouble of hiding it where no one will ever find it if deleting it will only decrease the loading time of the game and improve stability. Designers usually make sure anything unneeded is deleted for the reasons outlined above. But why was this still there? Are there similiar lost portals in levels in Spyro 3?

Any thoughts?

Spyrorocks · Mar 22, 2007 1:08 AM

Very interesting, actually...

Cynder is cute · Mar 22, 2007 10:46 AM

Woah!Cool glitch!I did that 10-14 times on AHT and ETD.

Zekira Drake · Mar 23, 2007 7:44 AM

Å½ Â· Okay, that was a very unwatched glitch that went WAY too far, heh. Usually glitches can only go as to short extents, but the fact that this was programmed largely means that they were a bit careless on that! Heh, too late to say it now... just hope that there was actually something down that portal... and players should look for a portal with no clue as to it's actually there, and they get surprised to find the final thing to get for the 100%, heh.

DragonspiritPT · Mar 24, 2007 6:04 PM

Nice discovery!

TB · Mar 25, 2007 1:28 PM

This made think of something! I would love to see a beta of any of the first three Spyro games uncovered. Wouldn't that be just awesome! It could as popular as the Sonic 2 Beta (Possibly)!=)

simon · Apr 21, 2007 4:17 AM

The secret sub-level was probably leftover from an idea that never got completed.

LoneKnight · Apr 22, 2007 12:59 AM

I personally think that it was to battle a dinosaur boss of some sort to get an egg. I recall that on the Agent 9 first person sequence, you get an egg for completing it, but I think there is an egg you can get (Sergio I believe) that's in one of the buildings in the Agent 9 area that you are intended to get after beating the FPS part. I believe that this could have been the intended egg, but they didn't want too many mini games and just put the egg in that area instead. OR it was a graphics problem. Maybe something crashed?

The point is, they wouldn't have put it in game unless they were already almost certain of using it, this is way past the design phase of the game. They removed it at some point after the design phase. Who knows. I'll email Insomniac for some answers.

LoneKnight · Apr 23, 2007 8:59 PM

Solved this mystery. I emailed James at Insomniac, and got this answer back:

"Something that was just cut due to time concerns. Getting the game finished and out the door is always a huge challenge, and sometimes little areas don't make the game when you do that! That particular area was planned for a boss battle to win an egg. The boss was never made, so we just hid the egg in Agent 9's arena. Cool that you found it though!"

simon · Apr 27, 2007 10:49 AM

OMG! We now finally know what that secret sub-level is for. smile

TB · May 03, 2007 12:26 AM

I love it when game developers tell you secrets. Some companies refuse to let information out on their betas. The Sonic the Hedgehog 2 beta is a prime example of total secrecy even when the game is 13 years old.

#1 Mar 22, 2007 1:01 AM

Lost Portals: Strange Glitch leading into a Stranger Mystery

#2 Mar 22, 2007 1:08 AM

Re: Lost Portals: Strange Glitch leading into a Stranger Mystery

#3 Mar 22, 2007 10:46 AM

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#4 Mar 23, 2007 7:44 AM

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#5 Mar 24, 2007 6:04 PM

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#6 Mar 25, 2007 1:28 PM

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#7 Apr 21, 2007 4:17 AM

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#8 Apr 22, 2007 12:59 AM

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#9 Apr 23, 2007 8:59 PM

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#10 Apr 27, 2007 10:49 AM

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#11 May 03, 2007 12:26 AM

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