Just days after a prototype for the long thought to be lost Sega Dreamcast title Castlevania Resurrection was discovered, the disk containing the only known prototype of the game has been listed for sale on eBay. The listing, brought to the attention of GBAtemp via Sega Saturn Shiro, started bidding for the disk at a mere $1 plus shipping, but as of the writing of this article it has already climbed to $1605 with nine days left to go in the auction. The demo disk is currently the only known copy of the prototype for the cancelled game, and it's unknown if the seller has plans to back up the contents of the demo disk before the sale.

So I have had this for 20 years and completely forgot about it despite being a HUGE Castlevania fan. This is probably the only playable disc of this game in existence and, as far as I am concerned, is priceless for any Dreamcast or Castlevania fan. That said I am downsizing and recently uncovered it again, and it’s time to let this one go. I have no idea what it’s worth to the rest of the world other than to get it ripped and archived, but to own a one of a kind in all the world piece of Dreamcast and Castlevania history would be the real treasure here. I hope it goes to as big a fan as I am.

Source

 

[coffinbirth]

my 2 or 3 cents...
1. The (main) reason this game was cancelled was because the dev team had never worked on anything other than sports titles, spent over two years developing this game, and the E3 demo they showed off behind closed doors was generally regarded as terrible. Still want to play it though, lol!
2. It was quite common for press preview/review copies, trade show demos and regular build submissions to be on GD-R discs that could be played on retail DC units with a boot disc.
3. Most trade publications, magazines, websites and the like had debug units for preview/review discs, hell some still do. Dreamcast was different in that they simply sent out a boot disc that allowed for the burned GD-R discs to work as opposed to debug/and or dev units.
4. You can't bid on anything on ebay without personal bank/paypal info.
5. Whomever said this game isn't worth anything....LOL. Wrong in ALL the ways.
6. Can't wait to fiddle around with this, and here's to hoping there is more data on the disc that can be salvaged and hopefully the corridor bug gets fixed. I just can't freaking believe that 20 or whatever years later this damn game finally surfaced! I remember reading about this waaaaaay back in NextGen magazine and ODCM. Crazy.

 

[BitMasterPlus]

If this does ever get released online, I wonder if people would try to make this into a full game? It'll take a lot of time and effort to do so, so it's 50-50 on that actually happening.

 

[Chary]

You could buy 423 Ring Fit yoga mats for the current price of this!

 

[banjo2]

You could buy 423 Ring Fit yoga mats for the current price of this!

Now that's what I call a deal

 

[gamesquest1]

If I were the seller, I'd dump it, but sit on the dump until after the sale to maximize the final sale price, then release the dump publically to hopefully reduce the future resale value of the disk. That said, if it really is one of a kind it will always retain a premium value.
A friend of mine has one of the Sonic prototypes (can't remember it it's Sonic Saturn or one of the Dreamcast ones, but it's little more than a tech demo); he paid about £400 when he bought it well over a decade ago (and it had already been dumped at that point)... he could probably get around 10x what he paid for it now if he chose to sell it.

I would argue thats a shitty move, if you're going to rip it and release it publicly you should clearly state that before selling it otherwise your effectively defrauding the buyer, as much as I hate the private collector bs that happens you cant have your cake and eat it, sure, I love seeing and playing long lost hidden prototypes and beta's I don't think the buyer should be misled to pay more for something on the understanding that its a unique and non public item that is later severely devalued by the original owner

but hopefully its bought up by a site like hidden palace who don't care and are happy to buy it at the higher price and publicly dump it themselves

ok just saw the update he added saying he is going to release a dump, glad he has added that note, but now its absurd to see people bidding up so high for something that will be publicly released, sure there is some value in owning the original, but as with most things the exclusivity of the thing in question is what give it the bulk of its value, glad to hear it will be public regardless and glad the seller revealed that fact, best of luck with his sale at this point, personally I think knowing said info I would greatly reduce the value I would ever being willing to pay (and its already way above that anyway )

 

[wurstpistole]

Aaand the auction was terminated (by the seller). I guess he sold it outside ebay in the meantime.

 

[Kurems]

The item was sold outside of eBay to a private collector last night.

The seller was fed up by attitudes from some people arguing and attacking him with false reports (copyright claims on parts of the code and music).

Just to give you an idea.
The disc was expertised and estimated some weeks ago by 'proto dealers' and Castlevania collectors at around $47,000 to $50,000.

 

[duwen]

...but as with most things the exclusivity of the thing in question is what give it the bulk of its value...

Not really true. If that were the case a loose Stadium Events cart would never be worth +$30k - they're (comparatively) far more common than this and have also been dumped long before the value of the physical release hit its peak. A complete copy of Earthbound will now set you back at least $800 - a price that has quadrupled since Nintendo began rereleasing it on every Virtual Console of the past decade.
There will always be a premium value attached to original media like this, regardless of it's public availability digitally.

 

[korbinian]

The seller was fed up by attitudes from some people arguing and attacking him with false reports (copyright claims on parts of the code and music).

absolutely not surprised. makes me think of the title of this one very specific title by slipknot about... lets say mankind in general.

 

[MetoMeto]

i don't see the point of these when only few can afford and/or buy those overpriced games.
people selling this high are dumb, but those buying are even dumber in my humble opinion.

 

[gamesquest1]

Not really true. If that were the case a loose Stadium Events cart would never be worth +$30k - they're (comparatively) far more common than this and have also been dumped long before the value of the physical release hit its peak. A complete copy of Earthbound will now set you back at least $800 - a price that has quadrupled since Nintendo began rereleasing it on every Virtual Console of the past decade.
There will always be a premium value attached to original media like this, regardless of it's public availability digitally.

yeah I can understand the motivation for people to gather a full set of NES games, as such any officially released game is on the list of required games hence the stadium events prices, as far as beta/demo collectors, there are so many one off unique builds that getting a "full set" of E3 demo's or beta builds is pretty much impossible

but yeah I guess I was just looking at it from my point of view, I wanted to build a full SNES set, so I understand the logic behind paying a figuratively insane amount for 2 or 3 carts to finish a collection, I guess for the bidders on this item they have much bigger pockets and just want to collect as many unique items as possible, although I guess this would act as the crowning jewel in anyone dreamcast collection or castlvania collection so you have 2 groups of collectors pitted against each other, probably the best explanation than a "beta collector" XD although those do exist

 

[eyeliner]

Wrong, there are a lot of press copies that, from the state of the media itself are far from finished and look like CD-Rs.
Press discs that are finished are mostly when the game is ready and sent to reviewers, but on events, it doesnt matter if the disc looks like a CD-R because any people attending to these events wont even touch the physical disc anyway and before downloads, it was quicker to make these "cheap looking" discs to place on multiple machines used on stage than waiting for them to be properly pressed. Preview Xbox discs for example are just green with some writing that says "Do not insert on a non Preview console or Xbox Live is disabled". It looks like someone used lightscribe on a 360 disc or the 'famous" Wii support disc that is just a pink DVD (this case is not a preview disc, but still, it doesnt matter for the technicians to have a good looking disc, it just have to work).

You do realize that I posted a clarification of how those disks were made, correct?

IT DOESN'T MATTER THE CONTENT, LOOK OR FEEL OF THE DISK EXCEPT THE WAY THEY WERE MASTERED

As long as some bits were set, no chance of playing the disks except in very specific equipment, like the case in point.

Reviewers had perfectly playable disks in consumer machines. There is all there is to it. This "thing" making people stupid for some reason, is an example of how even a legitimate disk can't be used in your Dreamcast. It was mastered that way. And you side with me by giving an example of XBOX and Wii disks.

Again, this shouldn't be allowed to be sold.

 

[Mollycule]

Imagine, buyer smashed the disc live on stream and then proceeds to burn the remnants

 

[Deleted member 323844]

Imagine, buyer smashed the disc live on stream and then proceeds to burn the remnants

That kinda happened with Superman PS. The guy that leaked it deleted the image from his HDD and recovered it years later using a recovery software.

 

[2DSGamerdude]

a demo of this would be nice to try out, kinda like how we got the demo for dinosaur planet on n64, lol.
yeah, this would have been rather cool, castlevaina on dreamcast, yeah, too bad it got canceled tho.

well at least "victor belmont" from this game survived by adding him into Lords ofshadow 2 on ps3, at least,
it keeps this game kinda alive that way, well it was never a full game anwys.

this and the "battle of 1999" need to happen, they are the only things missing from the orginal castlevanina timeline.
Batttle of 1999, being the year dracula was finally defated for good.
real shame that never got made, it was referenced in dawn of sorrow, but was never a real game, it should have been tho.

 

[piratesephiroth]

The item was sold outside of eBay to a private collector last night.

The seller was fed up by attitudes from some people arguing and attacking him with false reports (copyright claims on parts of the code and music).

Just to give you an idea.
The disc was expertised and estimated some weeks ago by 'proto dealers' and Castlevania collectors at around $47,000 to $50,000.

I'd understand those prices if it was an early SotN proto, or even the mythical Bloodletting.
This one is rare but it isn't even a japanese game, plus it was clearly going to be an awful title.

 

[FAST6191]

Yeah looks like I am going to have to go ponder the nature of costings for prototype games.

I do fairly well with general games for the masses (granted "special editions and low run copies of hidden gems, popular franchises, exotic hardware and things slapped by recalls of some form all for machines capable of being a nostalgia hit" being expensive is not a hard equation with the only great variable being said hidden gems or popular franchises getting popular after the fact because someone released/translated a good game) but this whole prototype lark is rather more variable than I had thought.

Though I suppose it is just going to be the usual rarity, quality up to a point, provenance maybe (including "seen at trade show/in magazine"), level of completion (possibly with a bonus for any interesting aspects beyond final release), interest in the franchise/developer and hardware it is aimed for with maybe a further premium if the would be collector can be all smug having something everybody else can't just download a ROM for.

 

[coffinbirth]

You do realize that I posted a clarification of how those disks were made, correct?

IT DOESN'T MATTER THE CONTENT, LOOK OR FEEL OF THE DISK EXCEPT THE WAY THEY WERE MASTERED

As long as some bits were set, no chance of playing the disks except in very specific equipment, like the case in point.

Reviewers had perfectly playable disks in consumer machines. There is all there is to it. This "thing" making people stupid for some reason, is an example of how even a legitimate disk can't be used in your Dreamcast. It was mastered that way. And you side with me by giving an example of XBOX and Wii disks.

Again, this shouldn't be allowed to be sold.

This is completely wrong.
Reviewers almost NEVER "had perfectly playable disks in consumer machines" LOL. Gamepro, NextGen, Game Informer, IGN, Kotaku, Polygon, etc, etc.
In the 8-bit and 16 bit (and n64) days of carts, they(the magazines) were usually sent reflashable eeprom carts that they would then send back to the respective publishers after review. This is because the lead time needed to go to print as usually MONTHS before the game hit retail, often before the game had even gone "gold". These carts typically worked in consumer hardware, though some required jumper bridges.
Once optical media was introduced, media outlets had to have debug units aka test units aka review units or boot discs for consumer units where applicable for burned media, i.e. the review code, as same with carts, the lead time needed for these outlets to review, print, and publish was usually far ahead of the publisher physically being capable of offering code that is capable of running on consumer hardware.
From PS1 on through to PS3 era, media outlets required debug units, and in some instances boot discs, for review. You needed a debug Xbox to boot review code, not a consumer unit....not sure where you got that info.

THIS IS NOT THAT ANYWAYS.
This is a developer demo for a trade show...and yet, you don't need "very specific equipment".
This disc is perfectly playable on a retail Dreamcast, provided you use a boot disc...it wasn't "mastered" this is a GD-R of incomplete code, lol.

The legality of the sale of this disc, however, I, nor you, cannot comment on with ANY amount of accuracy as we don't know how this disc was acquired, or who this guy even is in relation to it.
AFAIK it would be a first for a publisher/rights holder to prevent the sale of a proto online though, if that tells you how inaccurate your claims are regarding precedent, haha.

 

[eyeliner]

...you don't need "very specific equipment".
This disc is perfectly playable on a retail Dreamcast, provided you use a boot disc...it wasn't "mastered" this is a GD-R of incomplete code, lol.

Am I right or what? Did you happen to get a boot disk when purchasing your Dreamcast? Because I never found anyone having one of those at home.

Regarding the sale, it never came to the discussion the legality of it. The point of it, yes. How it doesn't warrant the absurd value it had reached, as well. My personal take is that someone told him to stop the listing. And he did.

And you ended up repeating most of what I posted before, so.. thanks, I guess?

 

[duwen]

Am I right or what? Did you happen to get a boot disk when purchasing your Dreamcast? Because I never found anyone having one of those at home.

Regarding the sale, it never came to the discussion the legality of it. The point of it, yes. How it doesn't warrant the absurd value it had reached, as well. My personal take is that someone told him to stop the listing. And he did.

And you ended up repeating most of what I posted before, so.. thanks, I guess?

It's clear that you have no understanding of any of the video game collecting communities, or collectors of anything for that matter, and how COLLECTABLES can reach such prices.