Prelude to Panzer Dragoon

Exploring hidden stages on the prerelease demos of Panzer Dragoon

What’s that? You want more¹ demo discs with hidden content on them? OK, I’ve got you covered! In this edition:

• There are two Panzer Dragoon demo discs based on prerelease versions of the game.

• Both of them normally let you play one level…

• But we can persuade them to let us play more than the demo normally allows.

• There are some cool differences with the final version!

Here’s a side-by-side comparison showing Episode 1 in the earlier demo (left) versus the final version (right):

And here’s Episode 3 in the later demo:

You can play these! Get the patches at SegaXtreme:

• Panzer Dragoon Demo-you Hibaihin (Episode 1)

• Panzer Dragoon Taikenban Hibaihin (Episode 3)

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The first sign that there’s more to these preview discs than first meets the eye is the auto demos. If you let the idle timer run out at the title screen on the earlier demo, you’ll see a bit of Episode 1 play with scripted inputs.

The later demo has auto demos of both Episode 1 and Episode 3. As a side note, it also has preview videos of some contemporary Saturn games - I liked this Clockwork Knight trailer².

Since the auto demos run in the game engine, we should be able to play them normally. All we have to do is tell the game to start on a different episode. In the earlier demo, the function at 06026d7e sets the starting episode:

We can patch it to start on Episode 1:

06026dbe e201

That’s all we need to do! The corresponding patch in the second demo disc is:

06029702 e203

This will start us on Episode 3.

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The first demo’s files are dated 1995-01-06. The second demo’s seem to be a few weeks later: 1995-01-30. The final game’s files show 1995-03-09.

There are some differences evident at the title screen. The first demo has a CREDIT counter on the title screen. That’s gone in the second demo, which more or less matches the final version:

Left: the first demo. Right: the final game.

The options screen is simplified in the earlier demo. The second demo once again matches the final version:

Left: the first demo. Right: the final game.

As the comparison video above shows, the first demo has a different health bar. Some of the enemies in Episode 1 also look different (there aren’t any black and red ones in the demo):

Left: the first demo. Right: the final game.

And what’s really cool is that the first demo has a second phase for the boss in Episode 1. After you shoot down the bottom part of the ship, you have to destroy the top as well. The final version just has one phase.

Attacking the Episode 1 boss’s second phase in the first demo.

The second demo is missing the files for the Episode 1 boss, so it crashes if you try to play it. I persuaded the game to proceed past the crash, and was able to see a corrupt version of the boss - it only has one phase.

Episode 1’s boss in the second demo. The textures seem to be missing from the disc.

The second demo’s version of Episode 3 is pretty close to the final version until you get to the boss. It seems to be unfinished: the textures aren’t there, and the stage ends before you can start fighting it.

The unfinished-looking Episode 3 boss in the second demo.

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If you spot other differences between these builds of the game and the final version, do let me know. You have my permission and encouragement to use the information and screenshots on this page to update Hidden Palace, The Cutting Room Floor, Sega Retro, etc.

I’m working on more Saturn demos with extra prerelease content! If you know of one that I haven’t written about, point me at it.

1. Previously: Saturn Bomberman, Silhouette Mirage.

2. See previous Clockwork Knight coverage here.