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Insomniac Games

Ratchet & Clank 3: Up Your Arsenal is a platform / third person shooter developed by Insomniac Games and published by Sony. It is the third installment in the Ratchet & Clank series and was released in November 2004. [Info from Wikipedia]

Bowsersenemy was able to notice various differences in the early beta screens and in some videos:

The upgraded version of the N60 storm, used the icon from the Lancer from RAC 2. The whole weapon status meter is from RAC 2!
In another beta screen the N60 had the icon of the second form Lancer, with LESS max ammo than before!
A beta screenshot of the multiplayer mode
Some removed enemies
A removed wrench weapon
Holostar studios mission was set in the evening, while the final version is in the day.
Qwark vid comics had beta timer, beta life bar, and beta Q token counter (bottom right corner)

Playstation 3 (PS3), Sony

Ratchet & Clank: A Crack in Time [PS3 – Beta]

monokoma

20-11-2009

No Comments

Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time is a platform / shooter game developed by Insomniac Games and published by Sony in october / november 2009. As in other R&C games, to learn more about A Crack in Time’s development and its beta differences the team added a nice bonus to unlock in the form of the “Insomniac Moon” (unlocked after collecting all the Zoni and fighting a secret boss). As we can read from an article at Press the Buttons:

[…] a 3D recreation of the Insomniac offices in the form of a museum that serves as a tribute to and exhibit of all kinds of interesting objects, enemies, levels, and basic design features that did not actually make it into the main game.
[…] From the moment players guide Ratchet into the museum, it’s apparent that something special is going on here. While the area sports a minimalistic design, the real stars are the deleted and unfinished materials. Wander around the place and it’s not long before you’ll stumble on a guided missile weapon that uses flaming birds as ammo. Then there’s a set of crates that pay out special bonuses depending on how Ratchet whacks them with his Omniwrench. Want to have a look at a flying space monster that involved animation too complex to work into the environment in which he was meant to patrol? The museum can offer that.
[…] The best surprise inside the museum is that several of the cut level elements are playable. There’s a hoverboot race that was originally planned for the Agorian Battleplex, and checking out its exhibit space leads to being able to race through the semi-completed environment. There’s also an additional Great Clock platforming puzzle originally meant for Clank and another dropped Battleplex element that involved a procedurally generated obstacle course.

Huge props to Insomniac! If more studios could share this kind of bonus in their games, it would be easier to preserve the cuts and the changes in the development.

A couple of videos of the Insomniac Moon can be found on Youtube, but if someone could be able to record more footage of the area and take some direct-feed screens of all that beta-stuff, it would be nice!

Thanks to Robert Seddon and Bowserenemy for the contributions!

Videos:

Playstation 2 (PS2), Sony

Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando [PS2 – Beta]

U64 Staff & Contributors

13-11-2009

No Comments

Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando (aka Ratchet & Clank 2: Locked and Loaded in certain PAL regions) is a 3D platformer/shooter developed by Insomniac Games and published by Sony for the PlayStation 2 in 2003. Going Commando was approved for development five months before the first game’s release, after highly positive reviews from the original’s playtesters. In August 2002, Insomniac Games started designing the visual concepts for Going Commando, while still fixing bugs in the original game. [Info from Wikipedia]

In the early screens of the game we can notice some graphic differences, especially for the HUD and the weapon designs. Also, the slot machines that should be in one of the levels are blank in the beta version. The launcher model was used for a sort of flamethrower weapon, but there wasn’t a flamethrower in the final game, just a firey-rock thrower and a gun with a stream of magma. There is also a beta Sniper Rifle and a beta Blitz Gun.

In the image with the glass tubes, the level is at night instead than to be during day like in the final version. Also, something in the background looks like a tree… and an odd one at that. The gladiators in the arena were pink, while in the final they’re green. As we can see from a beta trailer from MegaLamb YT account, all of the MegaCorp crates were still “Gadgetron” crates at that stage of development.

In the first beta video below, one major thing is at about 1:11: that weapon looks like NOTHING in the game. The graphics aren’t the same, but it does have the same general effect as the Zodiac. They both blow EVERYTHING up around them.

In BOTH videos, you can see two different versions of the SAME area. In the first video, it’s at 1:00 and in the second, it’s at 0:49. Also, in the second video the boss life meters are different from the final ones. Also in the final game you can unlock an area called the “Insomniac Museum”, that is full of beta-info and unseen-models! You can check a tour in the Insomniac Museum in the videos below, thanks to Bowserenemy and ScottishDuck17 YT channels. In Bowserenemy first R&C: Going Commando video you can even see the glitch way to reach the Insomniac Musem!

You can check the Ratchet & Clank Beta topic in the U64 Forum for more info!

Thanks to Bowsersenemy for the contribution!

Images:

Video:

Playstation, Sony

Spyro The Dragon [PSX – Beta]

Gh0stBlade

03-06-2008

4 Comments

In the screen below we can see a beta version of Spyro The Dragon: the statue has another appearance in the final game and is not made of gold. The red gem inside the “return home portal” is not in there anymore. In the final game when the player touches a dragon statue, the dragon that is captured inside there will come out: the first dragon that Spyro rescues was called Silvus in the beta.

Also, Dirty Harry found some more differences in this beta demo:

Alternate music before rescuing Nestor.
Vortex looked more like the Dragon Pads.
Alternate dialogue from rescued dragons. Completely different voice from Nestor.
1-ups are gold instead of silver.

Spyro was originally going to be a “traditional” green dragon but the developers chosed purple instead because it was more original. In the artworks, we can even see some different character designs for Spyro.

Thanks a lot to Lord Deathsaur, Dudaw and Dirty Harry for the contributions!

Images:

June 1998 Beta: