Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire Prototype

It wasn't easy and it certainly wasn't cheap, but Micro-64 has gotten a hold of another Nintendo 64 Prototype. It is with great excitement that I announce the public release of the Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire Beta version:

DOWNLOAD NOW (11.27 MB)

Feel free to back it up, share it, and re-upload it somewhere else. The ROM runs perfectly on console, but not so well in emulators. This is an issue that Star Wars Shadows of the Empire has always had.

The big question behind this beta version is probably "what's different?" Well this beta version is actually very close to release. In fact, there may be a difference of as little as only two days of development time between this build and the final version. Differences in game are mostly unnoticeable; the bigger differences lie under the hood and can be seen with a hex editor. Judging by the stickers on the actual prototype cartridge itself, it looks like this cartridge was intended to be used for testing purposes by a beta tester. This makes it a bit different as most Nintendo 64 Prototypes that are found were meant to be loaned out to the media for preview or review purposes.

Differences:

As you can see, we have dates of October 15th 1996 for the beta version and October 17th 1996 for version 1.0 of the finished product. With the final version on store shelves December 3rd 1996, it makes you wonder if October 17th really was the date of the final version, or if they stopped updating the date at that point and development went on for a little longer. After all, do they really need a month and a half to approve, manufacture, and ship the final product? With most Nintendo 64 games, the answer is no, but maybe it did require extra time since the system was only just released.

The biggest differences found in this Prototype so far are with the cheat codes. The final version has a cheat code known as "_Wampa__Stompa" which unlocked the debug mode and did a lot of other neat things. That cheat is gone in the beta version and in its place is a new code "_ej_is_a_Wampa". EJ is probably referring to the game's programmer Eric Johnston. This code is the master code and it unlocks everything, including a debug menu with many extra choices not present in the retail. The Prototype also lacks that incredibly tedious code that's needed to flip the debug mode on. Once you have the cheat code entered and have the game paused, all you have to do is press C-Up.

Here's a list of the debug choices present in each versions

There's also another cheat code difference. "R_Testers_ROCK" is known as "R_Testers_Rock" in the beta version. Yes it's no longer capitalized. In the retail version this code would add Wampa noises whenever the game was in the menus or paused. In the beta version these noises are absent, the code instead unlocks all levels, and might even do more than that.

When looking at the retail versions ROM in a hex editor, you find that at the very bottom it has a massive wall of text. The developers put a hidden message in at the bottom that repeats 11 times. This message is absent in the beta version and is just left blank instead. This is what the message says:

This space is intentionally left blank. If you can read this, you need to get a life. Elf needs food... Badly. If found, drop in any mailbox. Postage is pre-paid. Do not submerge or take internally. No user-serviceable parts inside. Any similarity to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. This end up. Do not stack more than four high. Dry clean only. One size fits all. and (sic) Weena Merkatur as The Hopping Woman. Baby Wampas! Baby Wampas! Baby Wampas! Baby Wampas! Baby Wampas! Baby Wampas! Baby Wampas! Baby Wampas! Baby Wampas! Baby Wampas! Baby Wampas! Baby Wampas! Baby Wampas! Baby Wampas! Baby Wampas! Baby Wampas! Baby Wampas! Baby Wampas! Baby Wampas! Baby Wampas! Baby Wampas! Baby Wampas! Baby Wampas! Baby Wampas! Baby Wampas! Baby Wampas! Baby Wampas! Baby Wampas! Baby Wampas! Baby Wampas! Baby Wampas! Baby Wampas! Baby Wampas! Baby Wampas! Baby Wampas! Baby Wampas! Baby Wampas! Baby Wampas! Baby Wampas! Baby Wampas! Baby Wampas! Baby Wampas! Baby Wampas! Baby Wampas! Baby Wampas! Baby Wampas! Baby Wampas! Baby Wampas! Baby Wampas! Baby Wampas! Baby Wampas! Baby Wampas! Baby Wampas! Baby Wampas! Baby Wampas!

Prototype Cartridge Pictures

Standard Information

Well that just about concludes what we know so far. If you find anything interesting with this Prototype please share it with us! RIP LucasArts, hopefully Star Wars Episode 7 isn't a total bomb. Special Thanks to SubDrag for helping find a lot of information on the cart.

Written by Kevin Ames
February 13 2014