Beta 9.0
In May 2020, LEGO Island Beta 9.0 alongside some LEGO Island source code was released on 4chan.
Beta 9.0 was the last beta version before LEGO Island reached RTM. Its files are dated July 24, 1997, only two weeks before v1.0's August 8, 1997 date.
History
Beta 9.0 was the first widely known pre-release LEGO Island material, having first been discussed in a Rock Raiders United thread in October 2018.[1] However, it had been kept private by a select few members of the community until finally being leaked in May 2020.
As of November 2023, Beta 9.0 remains the only beta currently publicly available.
Changes
Being so close to the final release of the game, Beta 9.0 plays largely similarly. However there are some notable differences, the following is a list of all known changes:
Gameplay
- Players can knock over Nick and Laura Brick while they are riding their bikes on the Island
- The player starts in first place and ahead of the other contestants when the jet ski race begins, rather than starting in last like in retail
Visual
- A helipad texture can be found by Brickster’s cell where the helicopter rests, which is nowhere to be found in retail
Sound
- The Infomaniac’s welcome speech includes slightly more sound effects than in retail
- The Information Center music does not play if the room loads with the Infomaniac speaking, the music instead waits for the Infomaniac to finish talking
- The tow truck mission does not play Brick by Brick like it does in retail, it is instead completely silent
Misc
- You cannot click to skip the logos when you start the game, you must hit space
- NPC turning animations are much stiffer and jittery compared to retail, this can also cause some NPCs to walk directly through the grass in specific instances
- NPC path/movement system reeks of unpolish, creating moments of occasional slowdowns and speed ups in walking speed for seemingly no reason, with no adjustment to the animation speed to compensate either
- You cannot click on the LEGO sets in the score cube room to build them like in the retail version
- Clicking the triangle to finish rebuilding the helicopter after the brick hunt sequence will cause Bill Ding to speak his normal “excellent job” dialogue. This does not occur in retail, as clicking the triangle will immediately send you to Act 3
- The credits are completely silent, the Infomaniac does not even say his speech at the end
- Debug mode is always active in the beta, and as such there is no need to type “ogel”
Bugs
- The Infomaniac awkwardly floats in mid-air after finishing his speech after you sign into the book. In this sequence of events, the music does not play and does not even start playing after the Infomaniac finishes speaking
- After getting the bad ending, hitting the “i” symbol after returning to the Information Center soft-locks the game
- After getting the good ending, the Information Center still appears to be on lock-down, mistakenly using the red bitmaps, but the full functionality of the Information Center is present. This bitmap mismatch is fixed by simply reloading the Information Center
- The pizza delivery music mistakenly gets louder while the Brickster is talking when delivering to him without building the helicopter first
- During the hospital missions, the game fails to clear out certain assets for some animations (such as the NPC who chokes at the pizzeria) during the transition process. This leaves NPCs who appear for the hospital missions to be left on the island completely dormant until the island is fully reloaded by entering a building
- The score cube is completely wiped when the game is restarted
- If you go to the Information Center during the Brickster chase and then press the “i” to return to where you left off, the game will crash
- If you select the blue book while the Information Center is in its lock-down state, the normal book opening animation without the red recolor will play
- When entering the Information Center while in a vehicle, returning to the island by hitting the “i” symbol will significantly lower the player’s FOV