North American cover art Director(s) Connie Booth Donovan Soto Grady Hunt Ryan Beveridge Series Release •: October 24, 2000 Mode(s) Spyro: Year of the Dragon is a developed by and published by for the in 2000. Year of the Dragon is the third installment in the series and the last Spyro game to be released for the first generation PlayStation. The game was also the last Spyro game Insomniac developed; their next title would be for the. It was released in North America and for PAL regions, but unlike the other two games, it was not given a Japanese release. Named after the animal of the, which was the symbol at the time of the game's release, Year of the Dragon follows the titular purple dragon as he travels to the 'Forgotten Worlds' after 150 magical dragon eggs are stolen from the land of the dragons by an evil sorceress. Players travel across thirty different worlds gathering gems and eggs. Year of the Dragon introduced new characters and to the series, as well as offering improved graphics and music.

Upon release, the game sold more than two million units in the United States and received critical acclaim. Reviewers noted the game built on the successful formula of its predecessors by adding more games and expansive environments. It was followed by the title. It was later re-released under the label, fixing numerous bugs as well as adding additional music. Spyro attacks various Rhynocs (pictured in the level Cloud Spires) throughout the game Year of the Dragon is set primarily in the third-person; its gameplay makes few deviations from that of its predecessors.

The main objective of the game is to collect special dragon eggs which are scattered across 37 worlds. These eggs are hidden, or are given as rewards for completing certain tasks and levels. The worlds of Spyro are linked together by 'homeworlds' or 'hubs', large worlds which contain gateways to many other levels. To proceed to the next hub, the character must complete five worlds, gather a certain number of eggs, and defeat a boss. Players do not need to gather every egg to complete the main portion of the game or gain access to new levels; in fact, certain eggs can only be found by returning to the world at a later time.

Welcome to the Insomniac Games Community. I downloaded Spyro: Year of the Dragon last night from the Playstation. You most probably had the greatest hits. CoolROM.com's game information and ROM (ISO) download page for Spyro - Year of the Dragon (v1.1) (Sony Playstation).

Gems are scattered across the worlds, hidden in crates and jars. These gems are used to bribe a bear named Moneybags to release captured 'critters' and activate things which help Spyro progress through levels (Such as bridges). Gems, along with the number of eggs collected, count to the total completion percentage of the game. The player controls the dragon Spyro for most of the game. Spyro's health is measured by his companion Sparx, a dragonfly who changes color and then disappears after taking progressively more damage. If the player does not have Sparx, then the next hit would cause the player to lose a life and restart at the last saved checkpoint.

Consuming small wildlife known as 'fodder' regenerates Sparx. Spyro has several abilities, including breathing fire, swimming and diving, gliding, and headbutting, which he can use to explore and combat a variety of enemies, most of which are rhinoceros-like creatures called Rhynocs. Some foes are only vulnerable to certain moves.

Spyro can run into 'Powerup Gates', which give him special abilities for a limited period. Year of the Dragon introduced playable characters other than Spyro, known as 'critters', which are gradually unlocked as the player proceeds through the game. Critters can be found blocking the level they are played in until released from Moneybags. Subsequently, the player plays as the character in specially marked sections of levels.

Each homeworld features one world which is played through entirely by a non-Spyro character. There are a total of seven playable characters, which all have their own special moves and abilities. Sheila the Kangaroo, for example, can, while Sgt. Byrd is armed with rocket launchers and can fly indefinitely. Besides the primary quest to find dragon eggs, Year of the Dragon features an extensive set of, which are split off from the levels into smaller zones. Some of the minigames were featured in and were subsequently expanded for Year of the Dragon, while others are entirely new to the series. These minigames are played by Spyro or the other playable characters.

Plot [ ] Setting and characters [ ]. Main article: is assisted by many characters during the course of Year of the Dragon.

Spyro is the game's protagonist, and Sparx is his dragonfly sidekick. Sparx functions as the player's health meter and assists the player in gathering gems; Sparx is a playable character in certain levels. Also aiding Spyro is Hunter the, who teaches the player game mechanics and is a playable character at special racing levels. Four other playable characters are freed from Moneybags during the game; Sheila the, Sergeant Byrd the, Bentley the, and Agent 9 the.

The main enemy is the Sorceress, an iron-fisted queen of the Forgotten Worlds with her forces. Aiding her is Bianca the Rabbit, her apprentice and who attempts to hinder Spyro on his mission until she changes sides after learning of the Sorceress's real goal. Story [ ] The game opens with a celebration in the land of the dragons, where Spyro and his kin are celebrating the 'Year of the Dragon', an event that occurs every twelve years when new dragon eggs are brought to the realm. During the celebration however, a cloaked rabbit girl named Bianca invades the Dragon Realms with an army of rhino-based creatures called Rhynocs and steals all of the Dragon eggs, bringing them back to the Sorceress, who spreads the eggs throughout several worlds.

The worlds are split up into four realms: Sunrise Spring, Midday Gardens, Evening Lake, and Midnight Mountain. Spyro, Sparx, and Hunter are sent down a hole to find the thieves and recover the dragon eggs. While pursuing the thief, Spyro discovers a world once inhabited by the dragons, but long abandoned and forgotten. This world is under the iron-fisted reign of the Sorceress and her Rhynoc army.

Spyro meets with Shiela the Kangaroo, Sergeant Byrd the Penguin, Bentley the Yeti, and Agent 9 the Monkey who help him on his quest. Shiela tells Spyro how when the dragons left the realm, the world's magic began to dry up. Spyro travels through each world in the forgotten realm, acquiring aid from the local inhabitants and rescuing the dragon eggs. It is revealed that the Sorceress is seeking not the baby dragons themselves, but merely their wings to concoct a spell that can grant her. Once Bianca learns about this, she turns against the Sorceress and decides to help Spyro defeat her.

Spyro fights and defeats the Sorceress, but she survives the battle and waits for him. After he defeats her again and retrieves the last dragon egg, Spyro returns all of the baby dragons to the Dragon Realms. Development [ ] Development of Spyro: Year of the Dragon spanned about ten and a half months, from November 1999 to September 2000; the development team was influenced by a host of other games, including and. Among the new features touted before the game's release was 'Auto Challenge Tuning', which Insomniac CEO described as 'invented to even out the gameplay difficulty curve for players of different abilities'. The levels were made much larger than those in Spyro 2, so that more areas for minigames could be added; to prevent player confusion on where to go next, these areas were designed to load separately from the main hubs. Price stated that the addition of critters was a way to make the game more enjoyable and varied, instead of just adding more moves for Spyro. The game was named 'Year of the Dragon' simply because it was released during 2000, in the Chinese zodiac.

In previews, publications such as IGN and GameSpot noted that the graphics had been improved, and that there were many new characters and locations. The new minigames were previewed, and IGN pointed out that they offered enough complexity to back up the simple gameplay. In an interview with GameSpot, Ted Price stated that the emphasis for the title was on the new critters, but that Spyro would not be left behind in the story.

Year of the Dragon also implemented protection, in addition to the previous games had contained. This helped prevent hackers from cracking the game until two months after release. Despite the positive response the game would go on to receive, Year of the Dragon was developer ' last Spyro title. In an interview, CEO said that the company stopped producing the games because they could not do anything new with the character, and that after five years of development on a single series, the team wanted to do something different. Future Spyro games were produced by, among other developers,,,,,, and. A segment of the track 'Fireworks Factory' Stewart Copeland composed for Year of the Dragon.

Reviewers applauded the high fidelity music, which brought added atmosphere to the game's levels. Problems playing this file? The music for Year of the Dragon was composed and produced by, former for the rock band, with additional contributions by Ryan Beveridge. During the band's hiatus, Copeland composed several movie soundtracks, and composed the scores for the previous Spyro titles; Price stated that Copeland's offering for the third installment was his best work to date. In an interview, Copeland stated his creative process for writing the music for the Spyro series always began by playing through the levels, trying to get a feel for each world's 'atmosphere'. Copeland noted the challenge of writing for games was to create music that would both be interesting to listen to and complemented the gameplay; his approach was to incorporate more complicated harmonies and so that the music could seem fresh for players, even after repeated listening. He complimented the format of the PlayStation and its support for high quality audio; there were no technical constraints that stopped him from producing the sound he wanted.

Copeland recorded entire orchestral scores for extra flourish when the visuals called for an expansive sound, but used more percussive and beat-driven melodies for 'high-energy' moments in the game. Release and reception [ ] Reception Aggregate scores Aggregator Score 91% 91/100 Review scores Publication Score A- 8.1/10 9.1/10 Year of the Dragon was released on October 24, 2000.

It was critically acclaimed, with the game receiving an average ranking of 91% at, and a similar score based on fifteen reviews. According to GameRankings, Year of the Dragon is the fourteenth highest rated PlayStation game of all time. The game sold more than two million units in the United States. The game received a 'Platinum' sales award from the (ELSPA), indicating sales of at least 300,000 copies in the United Kingdom. Noted that while Year of the Dragon made no significant changes to the formula of its predecessors, the combination of new playable characters, more detailed graphics, and the variety of minigames made the game worth buying.

Praised the game's appeal to all ages and the polished levels, as well as the successful multi-character focus. Thought that while the game's premise itself was simply a rehash of previous titles, 'the story that unfolds as you actually play the game is flawlessly interwoven and quite entertaining'. Noted that the ability of the game to automatically drop the difficulty if players get stuck was an excellent feature.

's Kevin Rice provided one of the most positive reviews in which he stated the top-notch level design, intuitive controls and excellent graphics made the title the best Spyro game to date, and arguably the best PlayStation game overall. Copeland's score was generally well-received, though several critics sharply disagreed with the general consensus. Publications like PSXExtreme thought the music helped bring atmosphere to the varied worlds, and Allgame enthused that 'Insomniac should be commended for realizing the importance of music in games; it seems to enhance the whole experience.' Others, such as Joseph Parazen of Game Revolution, thought the background music sounded 'identical to every other 3D, cartoony, action platformer I've ever played'.

Other points of praise were the voice acting and character development. Among complaints aside from the story included the game camera, which could be difficult to control and led to unjustified enemy attacks. Some publications warned that the game might feel too much like its predecessors, with a similar plot and objectives. References [ ] Wikiquote has quotations related to.

Retrieved January 14, 2017. • ^ Insomniac, ed. Spyro: Year of the Dragon Instruction Manual: Game Mechanics.. • Insomniac, ed. Spyro: Year of the Dragon Instruction Manual: Tips.. • ^ Insomniac, ed. Spyro: Year of the Dragon Instruction Manual..

• ^ Bordelon, Phil.. PlayStation Illustrated. Archived from on December 30, 2010.

Retrieved March 30, 2008. • ^ Staff (November 24, 2000)... Archived from on December 30, 2010. Retrieved March 18, 2008. • ^ Insomniac, ed. Spyro: Year of the Dragon Instruction Manual: Story.. • ' Dragon Elder: Find the eggs, and bring them back, Spyro.

You're our only chance.' — Insomniac Games. Spyro: Year of the Dragon. Sony Computer Entertainment America. Level/area: A Desperate Rescue Begins. • ' Sheila the Kangaroo: You dragons used to rule this entire world, you know.

Then all of a sudden, you left. / Spyro the Dragon: Dragons used to live here!? / Sheila the Kangaroo: Didn't you know? They say it was over a thousand years ago, I think. / Spyro the Dragon: And they just left?

/ Sheila the Kangaroo: Yes, and the weird thing is after they left, all the magic in the world just sorta went with them.' — Insomniac Games. Spyro: Year of the Dragon. Sony Computer Entertainment America. Level/area: No Hard Feelings. • ' Bianca: What? All this time you've only wanted them for their wings!?

/ Sorceress: Of course, you ignorant girl. I need them for a spell, so I can live forever!' — Insomniac Games. Spyro: Year of the Dragon.

Sony Computer Entertainment America. Level/area: A Monster To End All Monsters. • ' Bianca: You're terrible; I can't believe I ever listened to you!' — Insomniac Games. Spyro: Year of the Dragon. Sony Computer Entertainment America. Level/area: A Monster To End All Monsters.

• ' Bianca: Spyro, I know you don't trust me, but I want to help you stop the Sorceress.' — Insomniac Games. Spyro: Year of the Dragon.

Sony Computer Entertainment America. Level/area: Midnight Mountain. • ' Bianca: I don't know how she did it, Spyro, but the Sorceress must have survived that last battle! She's been waiting here all this time, saving up her magic to destroy you!' — Insomniac Games. Spyro: Year of the Dragon. Sony Computer Entertainment America.

Level/area: Super Bonus Round. • Insomniac Games. Spyro: Year of the Dragon. Sony Computer Entertainment America. Level/area: The End. • Stahl, Ben (June 23, 2000)... Archived from on December 30, 2010.

Retrieved March 1, 2008. • Staff (June 23, 2000).. Bishop David Oyedepo Sermons Mp3 Free Download. Archived from on December 30, 2010. Retrieved March 20, 2008. • ^ Ahmed, Shahed (October 10, 2000)... Archived from on December 30, 2010. Retrieved March 7, 2008.

• Dodd, Gavin (October 17, 2001)... Archived from on December 30, 2010. Retrieved March 28, 2008. • MyGEN (February 25, 2008)..

Archived from on December 30, 2010. Retrieved February 29, 2008. • ^ Coa, Anton (October 29, 2000).. Archived from on December 30, 2010. Retrieved March 18, 2008.

• ^ Copeland, Stewart; Drummer, Alan. Composing Music With a Rockstar ().. Archived from on December 30, 2010. Retrieved March 8, 2008. Archived from on December 30, 2010. Retrieved December 30, 2010. • ^ Simpson, Chris (October 20, 2000)...

Retrieved March 18, 2008. • ^ Parazen, Joseph (October 1, 2000)... Archived from on December 30, 2010. Retrieved January 2, 2008. • ^ Shoemaker, Brad (October 24, 2000)... Archived from on December 30, 2010. Retrieved March 19, 2008.

• ^ Smith, David (October 12, 2000).. Archived from on December 30, 2010. Retrieved March 21, 2008. The Magic Box. December 27, 2007.

Archived from on December 30, 2010. Retrieved March 30, 2008. Archived from on May 15, 2009.

• Caoili, Eric (November 26, 2008)... Archived from on September 18, 2017. • Staff (November 24, 2000)... Archived from on December 30, 2010. Retrieved March 18, 2008. • Rice, Kevin (January 2001).

'Spyro 3: Even cute purple dragons can kick a little ass'..

Spyro: Year of the Dragon Developer: Publishers: (US), (EU) Platform: Released in US: November 1, 2000 Released in EU: November 10, 2000 This game has unused areas. This game has a hidden developer message. This game has unused enemies. This game has unused sounds. This game has a hidden sound test. This game has revisional differences. This game has anti-piracy features.

Spyro: Year of the Dragon is the third game of the Spyro series and the last for PlayStation. It was also the last Spyro game developed by Insomniac Games.

Contents • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Anti-Piracy Message This game is unique in that it has a lot of anti-crack 'booby traps', checking for alterations to the game alongside the existing copy-protection. One wrong bit and the trap is triggered. This deliberately made cracking the game a real pain!

Once the trap has been triggered, all sorts of weird things will happen. Zoe will politely inform you that your game is hacked early on in the game. Random eggs and gems in levels other than the one you're in are removed to render the game unwinnable. The game deliberately crashes in odd and confusing ways. The language in the European version changes randomly.

All sorts of 'fun' things to make pirates pull their hair out! To do: Clean this section up; remove redundant information and headings; improve the inconsistent sentence structure, grammar and punctuation to make it more easily readable. General Effects • PAL copies will have language changes. • All gems and eggs are still globally tracked as obtained in the Atlas as if nothing is wrong. • Zoe says its a hacked copy.

• Ability to pause entirely gone. • Some enemies don't drop gems (observed this with ninja generators at Fireworks Factory). • Last boss fight will commence but will send you to the first stage with no progress and your save data wiped. Sparx • Sparx stays green (Affects Sparx's levels and health bar within the levels). • Pickups in Sparx's level gain hp but he stays green.

• Eating butterflies while measures are active bring sparx down 1 hit point from current until he hits green. • Green Sparx can go away if eating a butterfly. A new butterfly will bring him back. • If you have no Sparx and destroy a 1-up butterfly jar you get a gold Sparx instead of green (this might be a bug in the effects of a triggered copy?). Stages that can be completed Note: This is only counting those that can get the 'Level Complete' message even if eggs reset later in time. You might lose access to some stages but they CAN be completed. • Sunrise Spring Home • Sunny Villa • Cloud Spires • Molten Crater • Seashell Shores • Mushroom Speedway • Sheila's Alps • Buzz's Dungeon • Icy Peak • Country Speedway • Spike's Arena • Lost Fleet • Honey Speedway • Scorch's Pit • Haunted Tomb • Dino Mines • Harbor Speedway • Agent 9's Lab • All of Sparx's stage Stages of unknown completion • Fireworks Factory • Agent 9's segment locked; getting back to this is not possible at some point due to measures.

Unbeatable stages • Sorceress Boss Fight • During the battle, the game will reset your progress, send you back to the opening homeworld, and clear your save data. Eggs • Last egg in all friend stages gets reset periodically (early effect). • Collecting the above egg(s) adds to total each time. It will be reset at some point in the session or after a reset of the game (sometimes it stays). • Spooky Swamp off by 2 eggs. • Sheila's segment of this stage is closed off and will not open. This also affects missing gem count.

• Tracking all egg resets is not possible without resetting. Resetting makes more eggs reset. Might not be possible to track all resets. • Some eggs reset consistently (Last egg before stage exit appears). Gems Stage Gems Missing Midday Garden 1 Gem Enchanted Towers 3 Gems Sgt Byrd's Base 6 Gems Spooky Swamp 215 Gems Bamboo Terrace 5 Gems Evening Lake off by 7 Gems Frozen Alters 10 Gems Firework Factory Unknown Charmed Ridge 6 Gems Bently's Outpost 10 Gems Crystal Islands 3 Gems Desert Ruins 1 Gem Transportation • Transportation between worlds will not work unless uncollected eggs from friends are collected (Sheila, Byrd, Bently and Agent 9). • Occasionally player will be lifted then returned to where they just came from.

• Rocket can bring you to virtually anywhere, even already defeated bosses. • Once the rocket is available it change 'Midnight Mountain' to 'Sorceress' Lair' and instead send you to 'Buzz's Dungeon'. • Exiting Buzz's Dungeon after the above happens you will be placed in the closed doors to the Sorceress' Lair, forcing you to go back to the dungeon (cheeky joke there devs).

• After time in Midnight Mountain, returning to the rocket will only leave Sunrise Spring available. • If you took the above transport, it will have the rocket and hot air balloon colliding on land (and you'll hop out twice). • At this point you can only ride the hot air balloon. • If jumping into the hot air balloon at this point you can go back to Midnight Mountain in the hot air balloon (not supposed to happen).

• If you want to go to the other stages, you must 'complete' each stage again to get each option back sequentially (Cannot confirm but might be possible. Doublechecking Needed). Moneybags • Freeing Sheila cost comes up a second time.

• Payment is optional. • Freeing Bentley doesn't penalize your gem count. • Agent 9 is already unlocked; Moneybags can still be paid.

• Payment is optional. • Moneybags 'payback' in Midnight Mountains will not return the amount you are supposed to.

Aggressive Measures • All stages in Midnight Mountain replaced with Sunrise Spring stages. • Will occasionally return you to the wrong home or stage upon exit of level. • Will randomly remove you from a stage without warning with the above effect included. Misc Measures • Will lock in a way requiring resetting of the game.

Below are common examples. • Transportation locks (cannot ride your vehicles to travel to worlds). • Pause menu cannot be accessed. • Every few resets it will remove some eggs based on RNG or progress on all previously collected eggs (even loses track on some currently being collected). Sequence Breaking • Traveling to Sorceress' Lair as described in Transportation, the Atlas will show all stages in Midnight Mountain are fully cleared except Midnight Mountain itself.

• Sorceress door opening cutscene will try to play if you get close to the doors (doors will not open once done). • Resetting the system at this point will take you to the proper location in Midnight Mountain but skip Scorch's Pit.

• Returning to Evening Lake and back will proceed as normal (cutscenes included). Music • Music in Sorceress' Bossfight is not the correct track. Unused Text Located in the main directory of the disc is a file called 'SPYRO3.TRD'. It contains the following text: Now is the winter of our discontent. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. Call me Ishmael.

Stately, plump Buck Mulligan. Call me Jonah. My parents did. Gaily bedight a gallant knight.

Beware the ides of March. Tyger tyger burning bright. I always get the Shemp. This text is also present in the files for.

(in the 'DRAGON.TRD' and 'SPYRO2.TRD' files respectably) 'Shemp' is referenced multiple times in the Spyro series, starting with the boss in the first game called 'Dr Shemp'. It's thought to be an in-joke by the developers whenever an unexpected error occurred or when one of the developers messed up, and in either case, they would 'get the Shemp'.

It was likely added to reduce any leftover space on the disc, a conclusion further supported by its inclusion in the files of the playable Crash Bandicoot demos accessible in the series. Brian Allgeier, we love you.

Grouped in with the epilogue text within the Atlas is this sneaky message by Insomniac Designer Head Brian Allgeier, who at the time of Spyro 3's development was a level designer at the company. The very last egg, no really it is. Where do you think you're going with that egg. You just put that back this minute. You can't trust anyone these days.

A (rather long) string of text which appears to have been inserted purely for humour and doesn't occur at all in the game (because it's far too long to fit into an Atlas description for a start) Stop, thief. Possibly tied to the above string, again rendering it as part of the developers' quirky sense of humour. Fuckety fuck fuck A slightly ruder text string. A similar string is used in an earlier prototype of the game as an error handler, so it's possible that this was either used for debugging or error handling, too. Hunter's Dialogue Oddity If the player completes both of the Sunny Villa skateboarding egg challenges and talks to Hunter, he says the following: You can go for the course record now, if you want.

Whenever you hop on a skateboard, a timer will start. Score as many points as you can until the timer expires or you wipe out. While this is mostly true, wiping out doesn't end your run; the run is only over when you run out of time. This is simply a leftover from an earlier version of the game - in two different demos of the game, wiping out causes the timer to stop and your points to reset to zero, meaning if you had broken the course record during the run, it isn't counted unless you can survive until the time is up. The difficulty of this may have been what motivated the change. Most notably, while Hunter still says exactly the same dialogue, the audio file for the dialogue is missing.

Given how late in development the demo was, it's possible that they changed the challenge after the dialogue had been added, and due to time constraints they couldn't fix it. Sparx's Dialogue Oddity Sparx has dialogue left over from an earlier version of the game, too. In Honey Speedway, Sparx says the following: Honeycomb Speedway is home to the fastest racing bees in the world. It's also one of the only speedways that operates at night! 'Honeycomb Speedway' is the early name for Honey Speedway, and it can be found in unused text strings in the earliest demo of the game.

Scorch's Pit Unused Content. To do: Get a graphic rip or screenshot of the ammunition and enemy. Unused Animation 2 unused variations of the bullets Bentley provides you with in the Scorch's Pit boss level can be triggered if one hacks the game. The first, symbolised by a spiked snowball rather similar to the Crystal Glacier Talisman from the previous game, acts as a 'smart bomb', killing all other entities on the battlefield (both enemies and chickens, but there is no effect on the boss). The second is a temporary invincibility function, which acts like the power-up usable in Evening Lake and is represented by the same small shield icon which has represented invincibility since Spyro 2.

The latter may have been scrapped for a number of reasons, whether due to Scorch's lack of challenge or due to how the invincibility isn't an offensive powerup and as a result may slow the player down, while the former was probably scrapped because it was too damaging and thus is overpowered. Unused Enemy There's an unused re-colouration of the fire trolls that doesn't give off a 'steam' effect and is green instead of orange. It doesn't seem to have any sort of attack and it just runs at the player. Sergeant Byrd's Texture Oddity. To do: Which versions of the game is he seen with his early texture? In early versions of the game, Sergeant Byrd uses a texture which more closely matches his official artwork - instead of wearing a green hat and a belt, he wears a silver studded hat. The colours of the inside of his mouth and his chest seem to be different, too.

This texture is actually seen in-game - in the 'Bianca Strikes Back' cutscene, Sergeant Byrd is briefly seen in a cage with his early texture (and what appears to be a much larger model than his playable one) alongside some rhynocs which were also seen in, but didn't make it into any of the levels. Later on in the game, when he is is locked in his cage next to Moneybags, in certain versions of the game he sports his older model, while in other versions he uses his newer one.

It's possible to perform a glitch through hacking which causes all the models in a level to appear - using this glitch allows us to see both the early and late model side by side. In later versions of the game, two models are still present despite looking identical. This indicates that the older model wasn't removed in later versions, but rather that it had its texture changed to match that of the later model. The game has a hidden mode for testing dialogue voices from the current level.

It can be accessed by pressing Square, Square, Circle, Circle, Square, Square, Circle, Circle in the pause menu. Text indicating the chosen NPC and sound clip will appear below the pause menu. Use Up and Down to select the voice you want to hear.

You can exit the dialogue test by inputting the cheat a second time. Due to the way audio streams are stored in this game, the voice clips override the music track. Once you play a voice clip and leave the menu, it will loop infinitely in place of the music track for that level until you leave the area. Unused Dialogue By using the dialogue test cheat in Evening Lake, two unused dialogue strings of The Professor can be heard.

In Fireworks Factory, Greta does mention that the blueprints for the Professor's 'wocket' have been stolen (these are used to build a rocket seen at the end of the level), and a rocket does take you from Evening Lake to Midnight Mountain, but the Professor himself is only seen in Agent 9's Lab (and makes an appearance with Elora during the ending sequence). Oh dear, I've been trying to build a rocket to take you to Midnight Mountain, but I appear to have misplaced my plans! Now I can't even remember where I was working. Sorry, your browser either has JavaScript disabled or does not have any supported player.

You can or to play the clip in your browser. Using the dialogue cheat in Sunny Villa reveals two dialogue strings which would have been said by Hunter. This time, the text strings are still present in the code, and have even been translated in the PAL version, but they are never seen or heard in-game: Now that you've mastered the basics, let's see you do some stunts!

Try using the X or Triangle button to jump off ramps and turn in the air. This is the most fun I've had since we chased King Flippy on the manta ray. Most notably, these strings are present and used in the earliest demo of the game. In this prototype, Hunter's 'course record' dialogue isn't present at all, and he alternates between saying each of the above strings instead. The following string is seen a number of times in the code but appears to be unused: Thanks for freeing me. Why don't you come visit me in my home world? Furthermore, each of the playable characters (aside Sparx) can be heard saying this when using the dialogue cheat in each homeworld.

This dialogue is never seen or heard in-game though, since a cutscene plays immediately after freeing them, in which they thank Spyro and enter the portal. It's possible that this dialogue was used when the cutscenes hadn't been implemented yet.

Unused Music. Multiple areas across the game reuse prior level themes in early builds of the game (and in some cases the final build), such as Enchanted Towers playing the same theme used for Sgt. Whilst this is a common practice frequently employed in platformers and adventure games, Year of the Dragon is notable for level themes differing depending not merely on the build of the game, but on its region, multiple pieces of music remaining exclusive to NTSC builds of the game and not occurring at all in PAL versions. Even more strangely, some of the corresponding themes are present on the PAL disc, and it is unknown as to why they don't play in-game. Sorry, your browser either has JavaScript disabled or does not have any supported player. You can or to play the clip in your browser.

The themes for Evening Lake and the Sorceress' Lair, both used in their intended areas in the Greatest Hits release, are rendered unused in every other variant of the game, including the original US version as well as (unusually) the PAL Platinum release, the latter of which applies the majority of the Greatest Hits edits otherwise. Even more bizarrely, these 2 themes are the only Greatest Hits exclusive themes that can be found on the PAL disc, the others (including the Enchanted Towers Skate Park, Crystal Islands, Haunted Tomb, Lost Fleet and more) not being present at all. Unused Sounds.

To do: Perhaps get direct texture rips of the sprites, or at least screenshots Power-Up Icons Through a little bit of hacking, the power-up sprites can be viewed in the pause menu. Only three power-up gates are featured in the final game - Superflame, superfly and invincibility.

While the ice breath power-up is available in Frozen Altars, it is not activated with a power-up gate, nor does the player only have the power-up for a limited time. As a result, the ice cube sprite (a leftover from Spyro 2) which would normally go atop the power-up meter goes unused. The weird blue ball sprite seems to go totally unused. Icy Peak Rhynoc Head Amongst the graphics used in Icy Peak is a single unused frame of a rhynoc's head.

The rhynoc matches the ones seen in the ice dancing minigame, except without a helmet, just like in. Given the placement of the sprite - where animation sprites usually go, it's likely that this was one of multiple animation sprites meant for a scrapped counter used in that minigame, but only one animation frame was ever created. Bamboo Terrace Counter Icons A of the game indicated that in earlier versions of the game, there was a counter in one of the Bamboo Terrace minigames. A zero is used in place of where the animated icon would go. In the final, no such counter is present, but animation sprites for the an icon matching the minigame do exist.

Spike's Arena Zero An extra '0' is found in the graphics files for Spike's Arena, after the animation files for the sprite of Spike's head. Like in the screenshot previously mentioned, this was probably used as a placeholder when the animated sprite wasn't complete.

Frozen Altars Cat In the cat hockey minigame in Frozen Altars, a single sprite of a cat is placed between the animation sprites for Spyro and the rival rhynoc. Once again, this was probably the first animation frame for some sort of counter - given that the game already has counters tracking both the player's and the AI's score in the final game, it's not exactly clear what this would have been used for, or why it became unused. Unused Areas Spyro: Year of the Dragon has several unused areas in the game. It is likely that these areas were meant to be accessible, but never made it into the game for unknown reasons.

Fireworks Factory Cave In the level 'Fireworks Factory', there's a hidden cave with a life inside, and can only be reached through hacking or glitching. The cave is located near the start of the level, and acts as though it was supposed to have a wall that could be busted when rammed into, but doesn't. Midnight Mountain Island 'Midnight Mountain Home' has a small island that is far out of reach to the player during normal game play that has three lives on it. This island was originally intended to house the Super Bonus Round portal before it was moved. In the words of senior artist Craig Stitt: A long time ago the portal to the Super Bonus Round was on that island.

The only way to get to that island was beat the Sorceress in the final battle. Once you had done that a VERY VERY tall whirl wind would appear in the room just outside the entrance to the final boss round. This whirlwind would take you up high enough that you could glide ALL the way out to that island. If I remember right it was like a 20 or 30 second glide.

It was very cool. I was actually the artist who modeled the level. Unfortunately, the way vacations that year worked out, I needed to take mine right before we shipped the game. When I came back I discovered that the Super Bonus Portal had been moved MUCH closer and that the super-whirl-wind had been removed (for unknown reasons). Unfortunately, the artist who made all the changes (as per the programmer's and designer's request) failed to remove the old island way off in the distance.

Same with the programmer who overlook removing the goodies that had been placed there. By the time I was back from vacation the game was done and out the door. The very tall whirlwind object still exists in the game and (Ignore the egg on the island at the end, it was added by the hacker.).

An image of the level in a level viewer. There's a completely different area in 'Dino Mines' that may be accessed using a swim-in-the-air glitch. Once executed, the player must swim to a wall past a red building and go behind it, and there will be a portal that is hidden and regularly inaccessible. Once through the portal, the player will be in an empty arena with a platform in the middle.

It was likely going to be used for a boss battle to obtain an egg, much like in Spooky Swamp. To return to the normal level, there is an invisible portal in the middle of the platform. However, simply exiting the level may prove better, seeing as Spyro has nothing to stand upon exiting, and will fall continuously until game over. (occasionally the player may end up on the opposite side of the wall standing on the ground however, indicating where the portal once was located.). The lower-poly version of the level's geometry, showing the room.

Inside of the room where the Balloon/Whirligig/Rocket is, there is a texture of a locked door paved over what used to be a doorway to another room. Using the swim in air glitch, you can swim away from the door and the level begins to lower its polygon count. You can see from a distance a room appear behind the door.

The previous purpose for this unused room is currently unknown. If you get too close to the structure, it will un-draw itself from the level geometry, as if you are far away from it. There is no collision data for it. Given that the incomplete Whirligig sits right in front of this door until you play every level of Midday Gardens and are able to move to the next level, one could assume that each mode of transportation had its own area and that the transportation modes may have varied on a world-by-world basis, the balloon to midday gardens and back, the whirligig to evening lake and back, and the rocket to midnight mountain and back. To do: Maybe clean up this section and put everything into a table.

Perhaps come to a conclusion about the order of the builds of each version (NTSC 1.0, PAL 1.0, PAL 1.1, NTSC 1.1?).. The game had some noticeable changes between the original version (NTSC 1.0 and PAL 1.0) and the Greatest Hits/Platinum versions. The original version was rushed in order for the game to be released before the Year of the Dragon (the year 2000 in this case) ended. Because of this, some music tracks are repeated, since not all tracks were completed in time. The PlayStation Network version is based on the original version.

Here is a brief list of the differences. Keep in mind that this list may still be incomplete: • A serious bug present in the speedways prevents perfect completion of the game; this was fixed in the Greatest Hits version. If one were to quit the level before obtaining the level's egg then that egg would become completely unobtainable, unless the save file is loaded with a Greatest Hits disc.

After saving, the save file is still compatible with the original version of the game. • A similar glitch is present in the Spooky Swamp stage, where defeating an enemy can result in its gem falling into the water if the player doesn't have Sparx at that point, result in that gem being unobtainable. It is currently unknown whether this was fixed in the Greatest Hits version or not. • In the original version, the cutscene 'Spike is Born' goes unused.

It can still be accessed via the cutscene cheat once the game is completed. This was fixed in the Greatest Hits version where it plays directly before the Spike's Arena boss fight. • The music for Lost Fleet was changed from the music used for 'Super Bonus Round' to a remix of Sheila's theme. • The music for Evening Lake was changed to its intended track. In the original, it erroneously plays the theme of Sunrise Spring. • All of the speedways except the Harbor Speedway use different music tracks in the Greatest Hits version. • In the original release, the Sorceress's boss theme goes unused, since it erroneously plays the Sunrise Spring track.

This was fixed in the Greatest Hits. (similar case like Evening Lake) • Dino Mines plays Molten Crater's theme in the original version, and replaced with a remix of Sunny Villa in the Greatest Hits version. • Enchanted Towers' two subgame areas for Spyro (The Lost Wolf and the Stunt Skateboarding areas.) play the music track for Desert Ruins instead. In the Greatest Hits version, they use a different theme not heard anywhere else in the game; an uncut version of the main theme used in the demos. The main area of Enchanted Towers however still plays Sgt. Byrd's theme however, probably because Sgt. Byrd can be used in the main part of the level.

• Haunted Tomb plays Cloud Spires in the original version rather than its own unique theme that it gets in the Greatest Hits version. • Crystal Islands plays Seashell Shore's theme in the original version but gets its own theme in the Greatest Hits version. None of these changes are present in the 'Platinum' release, the European equivalent of Greatest Hits, except for the 'Spike is Born' cutscene being present and the speedway bug being fixed. Unusually, the Sorceress' boss theme in the Platinum release still isn't her original theme, but is in fact Spike's Arena.