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

 

[Foxi4]

Totally acceptable. Ripping the game and uploading it could conceivably constitute copyright infringement, selling old office inventory on the other hand... Plausible deniability, now now it's pre-owned software.

 

[K3N1]

Well I smell another modernvintagegamer in the works. Buy it, rip it then collect ad revenue.

 

[Silent_Gunner]

Wow. It’s up to $3500 now. I see the note that it “cannot load corridor”. What’s that mean? I see the video, that the game seems to run fine.

One of the levels you can warp to in the menu doesn't seem to load. Be it that it's because the level is broken or if the warp is the problem is something that, in the right hands, could be investigated, as well as other contents of this disc, if there's much of anything beyond what's already on there. I can't say I have my fingers crossed we'll be seeing anything mindblowing tho.

Here's another fun fact for those of you who played Castlevania Lords of Shadow 2: remember Victor Belmont? You know, the guy who you fight, he accompanies you for a little bit, he helps fight off a bunch of monsters, yells in Latin at a statue, lets it stab him, and that's all she wrote?

Yeah, it's stupid like Lords of Shadow is for the most part (it might be the best playing 3D-vania to be fair, but when God of War and Devil May Cry do what your game is doing better, you might want to stick to the dimensions you're dominant in. Just saying), but the name was taken from the other Belmont one would apparently play as in this game. Sonia was apparently intended to show up in this game via time travel, with Victor basically being a sort of "prodigal son" Belmont who's forced into living up to his family's name. That's the most that's known about him, though.

 

[Vila_]

We should start a gofundme page and buy it as a community, it would be aweosome to know that some GBAtemp user or admin owns the game thanks to the community

 

[duwen]

We should start a gofundme page and buy it as a community, it would be aweosome to know that some GBAtemp user or admin owns the game thanks to the community

That's generally what happens with these rarities... however, you end up with several "communities" bidding against one another rather than joining forces to secure the "win" at a lower cost.

 

[Deleted member 534570]

- Is this game (demo?) canon to the series?

Also, why's the person selling it for 3K? It sounds pretty fucked up.

 

[Silent_Gunner]

- Is this game (demo?) canon to the series?

Also, why's the person selling it for 3K? It sounds pretty fucked up.

Considering Castlevania Legends' canonicity and the fact that no other game references this...I'm gonna go with no.

The real canonicity discussion should be taking place about Circle of the Moon.

 

[eyeliner]

Now, this is something that boggled my tiny brain.

Forget the preservation aspect. This is a broken prototype. A bootleg, horribly glorified demo that people loose their minds about for no discernible reason.

The intelligent individual that had this crap stashed played his cards very well with the morons that are willing to spend money is a useless piece of software.

He loaned it to a site with strict indications to not make copy just because, made people freak about loosing the, again, broken glorified demo, and then put it up for sale.

And look at the result.

This is trash, even the company responsible for it killed it because it was bound to be crap. Probably it was stolen, going against corporate rules.

Gamers are indeed weird...

 

[Silent_Gunner]

Now, this is something that boggled my tiny brain.

Forget the preservation aspect. This is a broken prototype. A bootleg, horribly glorified demo that people loose their minds about for no discernible reason.

The intelligent individual that had this crap stashed played his cards very well with the morons that are willing to spend money is a useless piece of software.

He loaned it to a site with strict indications to not make copy just because, made people freak about loosing the, again, broken glorified demo, and then put it up for sale.

And look at the result.

This is trash, even the company responsible for it killed it because it was bound to be crap. Probably it was stolen, going against corporate rules.

Gamers are indeed weird...

Companies send press copies of games to take screenshots and to cover it in magazines of the day. Him having a copy of the game to do that with isn't too out of the ordinary, all things considered.

And yeah, this game looks like it was being made by the same team that made the N64 games, with a similar run cycle and similar looking movements and everything.

 

[eyeliner]

Companies send press copies of games to take screenshots and to cover it in magazines of the day. Him having a copy of the game to do that with isn't too out of the ordinary, all things considered.

And yeah, this game looks like it was being made by the same team that made the N64 games, with a similar run cycle and similar looking movements and everything.

Press copies are legitimate disks, not bottleg ones. Newsagents don't own, or at least shouldn't own, sdk devices that allow copies to be booted.

Again, this was probably stolen. This kind of thing should be frowned upon and not be alowed to be sold.

The preservatives aren't preservating anything more than a pirate copy of a stolen tech demo.

 

[Silent_Gunner]

Press copies are legitimate disks, not bottleg ones. Newsagents don't own, or at least shouldn't own, sdk devices that allow copies to be booted.

Again, this was probably stolen. This kind of thing should be frowned upon and not be alowed to be sold.

The preservatives aren't preservating anything more than a pirate copy of a stolen tech demo.

Do DC press discs have a specific design? Or do they just use a design like what's been pictured? Because I could see Sega and/or Konami using said discs unless Sega or someone else mandated otherwise.

 

[duwen]

Press copies are legitimate disks, not bottleg ones. Newsagents don't own, or at least shouldn't own, sdk devices that allow copies to be booted.

Again, this was probably stolen. This kind of thing should be frowned upon and not be alowed to be sold.

The preservatives aren't preservating anything more than a pirate copy of a stolen tech demo.

The disk being sold was apparently a demo used at E3.

A lot of these 'preserved' demos, prototypes, etc are salvaged from material literally thrown away as trash - look at what happened with xbox dev kits that were sent to landfills in asia.

Preserving gaming history should never be frowned on, regardless of the build state of the item preserved.

Do DC press discs have a specific design? Or do they just use a design like what's been pictured? Because I could see Sega and/or Konami using said discs unless Sega or someone else mandated otherwise.

It's a Sega writable GD-Rom disk. I've seen them before - they're Sega's writable version of their GD-roms, used specifically for prototyping.

 

[eyeliner]

Do DC press discs have a specific design? Or do they just use a design like what's been pictured? Because I could see Sega and/or Konami using said discs unless Sega or someone else mandated otherwise.

This is a legit disk, apparently. For some reason, I had a mental image that the disks were blue. My bad.

But still, the point stands. This was probably stolen, and this shouldn't be sold.

And though it might be interesting to see, this has no value whatsoever, as it never materialized in a DC game.

The disk being sold was apparently a demo used at E3.

A lot of these 'preserved' demos, prototypes, etc are salvaged from material literally thrown away as trash - look at what happened with xbox dev kits that were sent to landfills in asia.

Preserving gaming history should never be frowned on, regardless of the build state of the item preserved.

I'll bite.
What is the point in having a broken tech demo, that can't even be considered a vertical slice of the game?

None. Unless you have the original item.
But for me, playing the dump, is just another frustrating time waster.

This kind of aftermarket is completely messed up.

Again, this has no inherent value. Nothing can be taken from it. It's not even remotely comparable to Dinosaur Planet or the like, where you have a fossil of the finished product. This came to be nothing.

But hey, as I'm getting older I'm also getting even more cynical.

 

[wurstpistole]

Also, why's the person selling it for 3K? It sounds pretty fucked up.

Not really up to him how high bidders go, is it?

 

[Deleted member 534570]

Not really up to him how high bidders go, is it?

Probably my fault for not understanding how eBay works, then...

 

[Silent_Gunner]

Probably my fault for not understanding how eBay works, then...

Oh, you should see the prices for games listed as RARE ***SEALED*** NEVER OPENED MINT CONDITION! *Screams in Snatcher for Sega CD*

 

[eyeliner]

Probably my fault for not understanding how eBay works, then...

I believe you can put 5 million dollars there, killing the bid. And then never paying. That would be comical.

 

[BlazeMasterBM]

I really do hope it gets dumped. But then the guy who bought it will feel like a loser Lol

 

[Drogy]

more test GD Game DISC´s

 

[PatrickD85]

Wow so they just looked at how much interest it generated and then went like ... we smell money $$$.
Well all in all ... worse things have happened.