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Posts Tagged ‘prototype’

11 Builds of Unreleased PS2 Vectorman Game Dumped

Saturday, December 30th, 2023

The wonderful people at SEGA Dreamcast Info have managed to source and dump 11 different builds of the unreleased PS2 Vectorman game that was infamously revealed at E3 2003.

This 3D take on Vectorman would see the game transition into a 3rd person shooter. The project was being lead by a new development studio called Pseudo Interactive. You can watch footage of the prototype builds in action via the embed below:

A detailed article along with concept artwork, game design documentation and screenshots can be read on the SEGA Dreamcast Info website by clicking here.

[Source: SEGA Dreamcast Info on X]

Lost Zones from Sonic 2 Discovered in Ex-STI Artist Portfolios

Wednesday, December 13th, 2023

The development of Sonic the Hedgehog 2 continues to be one of the most well documented stories in gaming history. The Video Game History Foundation have now preserved artwork from 2 ex-SEGA Technical Institute artists and discover a whole host of content from the game’s early development that we’ve never seen before. See below for a full list of the discoveries that they’ve made:

– Dark Empire was a cancelled STI Mega Drive game that was shelved due to Sonic 2 getting green-lit
– Maps of the concept stage Genocide/Cyber City by Tom Payne have been scanned that give us a better understanding of what this stage might have looked like
– A working demo of Genocide/Cyber City has been produced with Hez of Sonic the Hedgehog Classic fame, who has also been working on his own preservation of Wood/Secret Jungle Zone
– All of Tom Payne’s artwork has been made available to browse on Archive.org by clicking here
– The Sand Shower mock-up screen is actually animated and viewable on Brenda Cook’s VHS portfolio alongside a Wood/Secret Jungle Zone mock-up
– Brenda Cook’s VHS portfolio also reveals a completely unseen Winter-themed zone which is a palette swap of Sand Shower that now features snow and Christmas trees
– Brenda Cook’s VHS portfolio has been entirely preserved on YouTube and is available to watch by clicking here. It also contains artwork for a deleted Sonic Spinball stage

You can watch the entire video on all of these discoveries from The Video Game History Foundation via the embed below:

New Saturn Prototype of Burning Rangers Now Archived by Hidden Palace

Monday, January 9th, 2023

Hidden Palace continue their incredible digital archiving work with a brand new SEGA Saturn prototype release of Burning Rangers from January 3rd 1998.

This latest prototype dump showcases a near complete version of Burning Rangers that features all the game’s missions, but they are missing certain features and tend to be a little bit on the buggy side. It’s a fascinating look at the later stages of the game’s development and can be downloaded direct from Hidden Palace by clicking here.

An extensive article by Bo Bayles is also available to read that details every interesting feature in that latest prototype dump. You can read that by clicking here.

Thanks once again to the incredible work of these dedicated digital archivists for continuing to preserve these amazing insights into SEGA Saturn game development.

Shenmue 2 Prototype Discovered, Ryo Hazuki Becomes Yu Suzuki!

Saturday, May 21st, 2022

The wonderful people at SEGA Dreamcast Info have managed to acquire and archive an early build of Shenmue II from April 11th 2001 that features a multitude of differences when compared to the final game. The most interesting discovery is that art assets of the game’s director Yu Suzuki are included in this build, and SEGA Dreamcast Info have also released a version of the prototype that changes Ryo’s character model so that you can play as Yu Suzuki instead. You can see him in action via the embed below:

A full article about every difference in this prototype can be accessed by clicking here. A download link for this prototype and the Yu Suzuki version are also included at the end of the article. Once again we have to say a huge, “thank you” to the team at SEGA Dreamcast Info for preserving this amazing piece of SEGA development history.

[Source: SEGA Dreamcast Info Preservation Games]

44 New Dreamcast Prototypes Dumped Thanks to ‘Duffy’s Dreamcast Collection’ & SEGA Dreamcast Info

Monday, March 14th, 2022

The wonderful people over at SEGA Dreamcast Info have released an astounding collection of 44 Dreamcast prototypes that are sourced from an ex-Acclaim beta tester.

Dubbed ‘Duffy’s Dreamcast Collection’, this collection features prototypes of games like Shadow Man, Vanishing Point, Re-Volt, F355 Challenge, Fur Fighters, Dead or Alive 2 and the infamously terrible/amazing Spirit of Speed 1937.

Click here to browse ‘Duffy’s Dreamcast Collection’.

In addition to the Dreamcast releases, there are a few PC and PS1 prototypes alongside an Xbox prototype of cancelled title The Red Star.

Once again we’d like to send a huge ‘thank you!’ to the team at SEGA Dreamcast Info for preserving a fantastic selection of Dreamcast prototypes.

[Source: SEGA Dreamcast Info]

135 Unreleased Dreamcast Prototypes Released by Hidden Palace

Sunday, September 19th, 2021

Hidden Palace’s amazing archiving efforts with Project Deluge continue! This time we have a brand new set of 135 unreleased Dreamcast prototypes and some SEGA Xbox prototypes as well.

Some notable inclusions on the Dreamcast side of things are an unreleased English localisation of Shanghai Dynasty, an early build of 4 Wheel Thunder called Offroad Thunder, an early prototype of Deep Fighter and a prototype of SEGA GT that features a track called “sonygt2” and features Luigi (see above). This one was clearly not made for public distribution!

On the Xbox side of things we also have prototypes of Crazy Taxi 3: High Roller, ToeJam & Earl III: Mission to Earth and Gunvalkyrie.

You can explore every new prototype released by Hidden Palace by clicking here. These disc images will work under emulation or on real hardware if you have a solution to play backups.

[Source: Hidden Palace]

Cancelled Castlevania: Resurrection Dreamcast Title Finally Dumped and Released Online

Friday, April 30th, 2021

One of the most infamous lost Dreamcast developments is Castlevania: Resurrection. This 3D Castlevania title was being developed by Konami and sadly cancelled in March 2000. Outside some scant screenshots in magazines as well as some reporting from E3 1999, the game was never showcased to the public in a playable or even viewable form until now.

A digital archivist called Comby Laurent has come into ownership of the 1999 E3 demo that was shown behind doors to the press and it has now been released publicly for the first time. The early prototype of Castlevania: Resurrection can be downloaded from Archive.org and played on real Dreamcast hardware or under emulation.

You can check out footage of the game in action via Retro Core and the embed below:

[Source: Games Radar]

80 New SEGA Saturn Game Prototypes Released As a Part of Project Deluge

Sunday, April 18th, 2021

The continuing digital archiving efforts of Hidden Palace and Project Deluge have brought the world 80 new SEGA Saturn prototypes that are available to download and play right now. Included in these recent dumps are prototypes of Bug Too!, Fighting Vipers, SEGA Rally Championship, Virtua Fighter Kids, Magic Knight Rayearth, Dragonforce and many, many more.

You can check out the full list of Saturn releases as a part of Project Deluge by clicking here.

Project Deluge has brought with it a huge swathe of Saturn, Playstation and CD-i prototypes and its revealed some fascinating discoveries. You can find out more about these latest releases by clicking here.

The First ROM Dump of a Sonic 1 Prototype Has Finally Been Released Thanks to Hidden Palace

Friday, January 1st, 2021

Hidden Palace have gifted the community one of the most significant ROM dumps of any SEGA game for their final release of 2020.

The team have released the very first publicly available prototype of the original Sonic the Hedgehog for Mega Drive, and it is downloadable right now and playable in either an emulator or on real hardware.

You may have seen the various unused gameplay elements and alternate artwork from this prototype in pre-release footage or the various magazine coverage from the time. This includes the UFOs in Marble Garden Zone, the different neon signs in Spring Yard Zone, the checkerboard ball that Sonic can run on in Green Hill Zone and the different stage titles for Spring Yard Zone and Scrap Brain Zone. Well, they’re all in this prototype and it makes for a fascinating insight into the game’s development.

Download the Sonic the Hedgehog prototype now by clicking here. Thank you to everyone at Hidden Palace for digitally preserving such an important piece of SEGA history.

[Source: Hidden Palace]

New Sonic Adventure 2, Spinball & Mean Bean Machine Prototypes Released by Hidden Palace

Thursday, December 31st, 2020

Fast becoming one of the most important resources for digital archiving of prototype software, Hidden Palace have released another slew of prototype versions of various Sonic the Hedgehog titles. These new dumps of late development builds of Sonic Adventure 2, Sonic Spinball and Dr. Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine showcase some fascinating insight into their development and feature a slew of differences from their final builds.

Sonic Adventure 2 features many grammatical errors that would be corrected for the final build, Metal Harbor and the final Sonic and Shadow battle are considerably more difficult and the driving stages feature different collision results when driving into other vehicles. The full list of differences can be read on the Hidden Palace entry for this release.

Sonic Spinball features an entirely different menu theme which was infamously changed at the last minute due to STI discovering they didn’t have the license to use the original Sonic the Hedgehog theme. The full list of differences can be read on the Hidden Palace entry for this release.

Dr. Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine features the smallest amount of differences between this dump and its final release, with only the staff credits missing from this build. The full list of differences can be read on the Hidden Palace entry for this release.

All of these dumps can be downloaded and played through emulation or on real hardware from the Hidden Palace entries linked above. Hidden Palace will be streaming and revealing their “last present from under the tree” tonight (31/12/2020) at 10pm GMT on Twitch, so if you’re excited to see more prototypes from their team then be sure to tune in.

[Source: Hidden Palace]

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