As video game consoles have become less reliant on physical media, the chances of finding an early build of a modern game have become somewhat rare. Around the turn of the century, however, developers would regularly showcase early or incomplete copies of their games at events and tradeshows all over the world, and the discs that they used to do so would occasionally make their way out into the wild.
These early builds are often highly sought after by fans, not only for their sentimental value but also for some of the elements that they feature, many of which don’t end up making it into the final release. This was very much the case with aShenmue 2Dreamcast prototype that was used at the 2001 Game Jam event, which boasts several unique features, including a rather unusual one connected to the series’legendary Japanese game creator, Yu Suzuki.
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By changing a single line of code using a piece of software called Cheat Engine, the prototype allows players to swap out the game’s main protagonist, Ryo Hazuki, with a fully-rigged model of Yu Suzuki. Players will then be able to play through the entirety ofShenmue 2while controlling theveteran developer, which can lead to some incredibly amusing results.
The prototype in question was purchased for ¥301,000 from Yahoo Auctions back in March, which worked out to be a little under $2,500 at the time. The winning bid actually came from three people: Swiss collector Laurent Comby who runs Sega Dreamcast Info and Shenmue Dojo members LemonHaze and SkillJim, the latter of whom is one of the popular fan site’s current co-owners. Together with other members of theShenmuecommunity, the trio has spent the past few months exploring and unlocking the secrets hidden throughout the prototype’s four discs and revealed their findings in a special Twitch livestream late on Wednesday night.
As well as being able to play as Yu Suzuki, the team also found a way to spawn in bicycles using the game’s debug menu. This is somewhat significant, as although bothShenmueandShenmue 2were planned to include rideable bicyclesat one point or another, the feature was cut from both games prior to their release. Whether there are any more secrets still waiting to be uncovered remains to be seen, though with the GD-ROMs now publicly available, fans of the series shouldn’t have to wait too long to find out.
As for who owned the prototype before it found its way into the trio’s hands and why they waited more than two decades to reveal its existence to the public, fans will likely never know. This kind of thing is fairly common, though, even if the differences here are a little more noticeable than in other examples. Just last week,a very early build ofDuke Nukem Foreverleaked online, while the prototype for an unreleased N64 game calledCarnivale Cenzo’s Adventurewas made available to the public back in March.
