LEGO Island Versions
Several versions of LEGO Island are known to exist, either officially released or discovered.
Beta 9.0
A beta dated July 25th 1997 is claimed to exist, according to a post on Rock Raiders United. Not much is known publicly about this build, however a changelog was found on the disc detailing all the beta releases leading up to it.
August Build
Sometimes known as "Version 1.0", its files date to August 8th 1997 making this is the earliest build known to have had a retail release. Both this build and the September build predate LEGO Island's official release date (September 26, 1997), making it unclear why this circulated in retail at all (considering a newer build was already produced before release). It's theorized that perhaps Mindscape had already manufactured copies of this build, and the changes introduced in the September were considered too insignificant to discard the already manufactured copies.
This version is only known to have been released in English.
September Build
Sometimes known as "Version 1.1", its files date to September 8th 1997. This is by far the most common version of LEGO Island and the most likely version that any copy will be since it existed before the official release date and it's the latest official version to be made.
Differences compared to August build
- Key files have been modified and recompiled: This is relevant for any hex editing as the locations of most variables will be different between them. Any specific byte changes will need to accommodate both versions to work correctly for all people.
- Different dialogue: After entering a name in the August build, the Infomaniac says "Good job! Welcome to Lego Island!" before saying "Okay, let's get started!". In the September build, this line is cut and the Infomaniac starts at "Okay, let's get started!".
- Changes in functionality: During a building sequence, Bill Ding instructs you to hit the triangle when you are finished. In the August build, this is correct as the sequence does not end until you hit the triangle. In the September build, the sequence will auto-complete when you place the last necessary brick. This makes Bill Ding's dialog inaccurate in the September build.
Future
No later versions of LEGO Island are known to exist. Even when the game was re-released in 2001, the September build was still shipped.
Through interviews with the game's original developers, it's claimed that a patch was written to fix the infamous turn speed bug but it never made it into any release or patch. If the source code hasn't been lost, it could be possible to produce another version with this (and any other patches that could have been made later on) implemented. But this is only speculation for the time being.
Identifying Your Version
To identify which version you have, you can check the "last modified date" of the files for whether the files were last modified in August or in September. Additionally, below are MD5 hashes of all relevant files to determine which version you have:
August Build
Files are dated: 08/08/1997 (MM/DD/YYYY)
764e23e8a713e1b66f146da8d9c49576 *CONFIG.EXE d3dc01ad31d5392be7660c1a08de2400 *ISLE.EXE 0b4cb9e080dbab1f1fac7c5b8593080d *LEGO1.DLL 764e23e8a713e1b66f146da8d9c49576 *LEGOISLE.EXE
September Build
Files are dated: 09/08/1997 (MM/DD/YYYY)
92d958a64a273662c591c88b09100f4a *CONFIG.EXE f6da12249e03eed1c74810cd23beb9f5 *ISLE.EXE 4e2f6d969ea2ef8655ba3fc221a0c8fe *LEGO1.DLL 92d958a64a273662c591c88b09100f4a *LEGOIsle.exe