- Back to: Ristar (prototype; 1994-07-01).
General comparisons
Title sequences
The Sega logo sequence is the same as in the final, except the logo is already in full colour and doesn't sparkle as it moves. There is also a harsh sound effect that plays instead of a jingle.
There is no ™ symbol by the Sega logo yet, and the logo itself is off-center.
The title screen has numerous differences:
- Ristar does not say "Hey everybody!".
- The copyright information reads "@ 1994 SEGA" instead of "@ SEGA ENTERPRISES, LTD. 1995", and is displayed in the top-right corner of the screen. When it was moved to the bottom-right corner in the final, the title and "PRESS START BUTTON" text were shifted up slightly.
- The title uses the Chicago typeface instead of a more whimsical and unique typeface.
- The shooting star graphic is upside-down and coloured red instead of pink.
- The dots on the planet are slightly closer together, and one of the dots is miscoloured.
- The subtitle is a brighter shade of white than the final game.
- There is no ™ symbol.
The difficulty settings available in the Option menu are "Easy", "Normal" and "Hard". The only thing these difficulty settings can do is change how many continues the player starts with. There is also a separate setting to determine the player's starting lives from 1, 3, 5 or 7 lives. In the final, the "Easy" setting was replaced with the hidden "Super" difficulty, and the lives setting was merged with the difficulty setting.
Additionally, the copyright string is not hidden, and "PASSWORD" is spelt as "PASS WORD".
Sound Theater
When entering the Sound Theater, the jingle heard before the start of a performance in Round 4 is played instead of an applause. Round 1-2's theme, "Dancing Leaves", is misspelled as "Dacing Leaves".
Round 3-1's theme has a completely different name, "Blowing Up".
"Ebony Force" is misspelled as "Evony Force".
Both of the ending themes can be played in the Sound Theater without having to enable the Onchi system, and are listed before "SOUND OFF". They are also named "OWARIOWARI" and "OWAREOWARE" respectively.
Round select
The Round select screen displays full level names for every level, including the first areas of each Round and each area in Round 7. These names were removed to make way for the Time Attack and Boss Rush strings.
Additionally, the bottom of the screen does not ripple.
Ending
The animations on the top and bottom of the screen during the first half of the credits are not fully functional. The top of the screen has four Ristars walk in from the right, then continuously walk left on the spot, while the bottom of the screen remains empty.
Takumi Miyake is promoted to Chief Designer and moved from the Planet Designer list in the final, and is placed before the Character Designer credit in the sequence. The Planet Designers were also pluralised and put onto a single screen together.
"SOUND PROGRAMMER" isn't pluralised.
The Aurora Borealis and snow are incorrectly coloured. They were made lighter in the final Japanese version, and fixed even further in the Western versions. Additionally, "RISTAR PROGRAMMER" was changed to the more specific "PLAYER PROGRAMMER".
A bug causes part of the word "EFFECT" to blink here. This was fixed in the final.
The romanisation in the art director's name was changed to remove the H at the end.
"TEST PLAYER" isn't pluralised, and "YOUKAICHIYA" was changed to "YOKAICHIYA".
In the Special Thanks, Naofumi Hataya's name is misspelled as "NAOHUMI HATAYA", and Rica Terajima was later added.
"PRODUCER" isn't pluralised, Hiroshi Aso's name was altered to remove the H, and Minoru Kanari's name was corrected from "MINORI KANARI".
This build asserts that it is a beta version here.
The message from P.J. Ristar is written in Engrish. The final would not only correct this, but also shift it down to account for the player's final score being displayed.
On the final ending screen, Greedy scrolls in from the right separately from Inonis and Uranim, rather than from the right with them. A rock in the parallax scrolling has half of it cut off.
The "THE END" text is missing in the final ending screen. Greedy also doesn't blink, and there is no sound effect when Ristar appears in the sky.
Gameplay comparisons
No matter what difficulty the game has been set to, Ristar cannot change directions during a Meteor Strike. In the final, he is able to do so on the Normal difficulty.
The Meteor Strike cannot defeat enemies yet. Ristar instead passes through them.
Ristar does not strike a pose after defeating a boss. He is free to roam around.
Graphical comparisons
Audio comparisons
Level comparisons
References
