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

 

[Viri]

Yup, that's what I would do too.

 

[Silent_Gunner]

This is not good.

IDK what the situation is, but depending on the agreement of the guy who owns the prototype and the one who it was sent out to, this could be a Colvin 2.0.

For those not in the know, the only reason we got the Resident Evil 1.5 MZD build from Team IGAS was because of the aforementioned individual getting his hands on a copy that I think someone from within the team loaned him, and the whole project was to be a secret, not only for the sake of surprising the community, but also to keep contact with someone who apparently had the most final build of the game. Be it the guy who uploaded the pics to Bioflames.net (I think that's the site, I'm speed typing here as fast as possible) or someone with access to a different build, I don't know if it was ever clarified.

While I doubt something as serious as that is at stake here, this situation is giving me deja vu to that unless if they've clearly stated what's actually going on in the auction itself.

 

[the_randomizer]

Someone needs to dump it before some dumbass buys it

 

[banjo2]

This one will make a fine addition to my (private) collection!

 

[BitMasterPlus]

I'm more curious about the gameplay and stuff of Castlevania Reurrection itself, but not that curious to pay god knows how much it'll go up in price.

 

[AkiraKurusu]

I wonder if this will finally live up to its name...

 

[Silent_Gunner]

I wonder if this will finally live up to its name...

Considering from the short snippet of gameplay and the screenshots I've seen of the game on sites like the Castlevania Dungeon (man, that takes me back to the days when I discovered the existence of the Inverted Castle and how different the Saturn version of SOTN was and how much better the TG16 of Dracula X looked compared to the SNES one) that it looks like it doesn't play all that much better than the N64 Castlevanias, I doubt it.

 

[Impossible_Igntiz]

How you had it for 20 years and NEVER bothered to share your finding all this time to communities?! this dude must've needed some extra cash or probably just started becoming broke to pull this shitty stunt.

 

[Julie_Pilgrim]

Hope the guy who buys it dumps it

 

[Silent_Gunner]

How you had it for 20 years and NEVER bothered to share your finding all this time to communities?! this dude must've needed some extra cash or probably just started becoming broke to pull this shitty stunt.

He said he needed to downsize. People don't always downsize for the sake of costs becoming too much to live. Sometimes, they just get sick of storing everything and having to maintain it all, especially if he has something as rare and in demand as what might be the only available build of a game that got cancelled.

 

[Impossible_Igntiz]

He said he needed to downsize. People don't always downsize for the sake of costs becoming too much to live. Sometimes, they just get sick of storing everything and having to maintain it all, especially if he has something as rare and in demand as what might be the only available build of a game that got cancelled.

I see, my fault

 

[MikaDubbz]

Someone needs to dump it before some dumbass buys it

Ya never know, the person who ends up buying it may want to share it with all gamers at no cost, that's what happened recently with the Dinosaur Planet N64 prototype.

 

[Reploid]

Let's hope they'll rip it

 

[Silent_Gunner]

Let's hope they'll rip it

I think it's more like whip it, amirite?

 

[Jayro]

Hope the guy who buys it dumps it

Be the preservationist you want to see in the world.

 

[duwen]

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.

 

[Silent_Gunner]

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.

It's possible the owner just doesn't know how to dump DC discs. Doesn't one need to have some hardware that connects to the GD-ROM drive itself if they don't want to go hunting for some obscure firmware for that one CD/DVD drive from the early 2000's? Because my older brother told me that was the only way to rip GD-ROMs back in the day, and I think we still have that drive laying around the house around here.

 

[duwen]

It's possible the owner just doesn't know how to dump DC discs. Doesn't one need to have some hardware that connects to the GD-ROM drive itself if they don't want to go hunting for some obscure firmware for that one CD/DVD drive from the early 2000's? Because my older brother told me that was the only way to rip GD-ROMs back in the day, and I think we still have that drive laying around the house around here.

AFAIK, there are 3 ways to rip GD-R's; the one you mention using a modified cd-rom drive in a PC, and the other two are via outputting from either the DC's serial port or broadband adaptor hooked up to a PC.

 

[slaphappygamer]

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.