Proto:Clock Tower (SNES)

This page details one or more prototype versions of Clock Tower (SNES).

This prototype was acquired by Mike Banks of NintendoPlayer and made available with documentation here. Content-wise it is very close to final, with assets being identical but some code differences being present. Do note that the various bugs showcased in the aforementioned article appear in the final version as well.

Miscellaneous Details

Missing Variable

This version lacks a variable added in the final release that gets set to 1 if Lotte was found dead in the caves specifically. The final game checks this variable when calculating how many dead friends have been found and when deciding whether the player should die when entering the elevator. This wasn't really necessary though, as other variables can already be used to tell where Lotte died and whether or not Jennifer knows about the switches in the machine room.

Potential Close-Up Bug

The routine at $C018A5 lacks a return instruction at the end in this version, meaning it continues into the routine after that copies the current background tiles from VRAM to work RAM (usually done when it's time to draw the text box). This all results in one of the background layers disappearing after any close-up when this is run. Luckily, the routine is never actually called in this version (perhaps disabled as a temporary fix). It would usually run while starting a close-up cutscene.

Ending Music Preparation

The elevator is missing a routine that loads the default music archive when the room is loaded. Adding this in the final version ensured you wouldn't get to the endings with the wrong audio samples loaded or with certain tracks missing.

Remnants Found in the Final Version

In both the final game and this prototype, there are banks with leftover space which contains leftover data from earlier builds of the game. As things were moved around or deleted to make more space during development, layers of data from other builds would accumulate in these sections. The first layer of old data in the final version turns out to match this very build. For example, where the wall data for the west bathroom ends at file address $2FFCDB in the final version, the data from there on is the exact same as in this build, including the latter half of this version's wall data.