February 23, 2008 Proto Release
From Sonic Retro
On the 23rd of February 2008, at 6PM EST, drx released over 1,000 various Sega and third party prototypes for several consoles. To build the suspense, an announcement was posted across various websites and forums, and a special IRC channel named #sonicprotos (and later renamed to #protos) was opened on Sonic Cult's website. An hour before the release, a special community Skypecast was broadcast live over shoutcast. It was supposed to end shortly after the release, but ended up continuing for the remainder of the day. Recordings of the pre-release and post-release segments of the show are available for download here and here, respectively.
Most of the prototypes came from one place: they were obtained from Sega of America's QA archives from 1994-1995. The archives were taken from Sega's QA BBS (BBS is similar to today's FTPs) and eventually backed up onto the CDs pictured. The files all had passwords which needed to be cracked before being extracted. The exact price of these prototypes wasn't disclosed but was stated to be in the five digit number range. The disc prototypes (GameCube and Saturn) were obtained at an earlier date.
Of the 1024 prototypes that were released, there were 2 Master System prototypes, 300 Game Gear prototypes, 464 Mega Drive prototypes, 94 Pico prototypes, 1 Mega-CD prototype, 155 Sega 32X prototypes, 2 Saturn prototypes, and 6 Nintendo GameCube prototypes. Many of the smaller files have been archived at drx's website, Hidden Palace.
Contents
Prototype List
Master System
- Aladdin (2 prototypes)
Game Gear
- Adventures of Batman & Robin (8 prototypes)
- Aladdin (6 prototypes)
- Asterix and the Great Rescue (5 prototypes, the 6th build was the final US version)
- Berenstain Bears (18 prototypes)
- Bonkers Wax Up! (14 prototypes)
- Chicago Syndicate (25 prototypes)
- Dynamite Headdy (4 prototypes)
- GP Rider (1 prototype)
- Legend of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse (6 prototypes)
- Lion King (11 prototypes)
- Mighty Morphin Power Rangers - The Movie (1 prototype)
- Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (2 prototypes)
- NBA Action Starring David Robinson (31 prototypes)
- NFL' 95 (14 prototypes)
- NHL All-Star Hockey (18 prototypes)
- Ristar (5 prototypes)
- Shining Force II: The Sword of Hajya (4 prototypes, a 5th build was the final US version.)
- Sonic Blast (74, 94, 611, 806, 821, 827, 910)
- Sonic Spinball (0307, 0328, 0329, 0330, 0405, 0412, 0413, 0415, 0421, 0427, 0429, 0430, 503B, 0505, 0506, 0525, 0530, 0531, 031094, 031194, 032194)
- Sonic The Hedgehog - Triple Trouble (0808, 0816)
- Speedy Gonzales Cheese Catastrophe (2 prototypes)
- Sports Trivia (37 prototypes)
- Super Columns (8 prototypes)
- Taz in Escape from Mars (17 prototypes)
- Tempo Jr. (9 prototypes)
- World Series Baseball '95 (8 prototypes)
- X-men - Gamemaster's Legacy (6 prototypes)
- X-men - Mojo World (8 prototypes)
Mega Drive
- Adventures of Batman and Robin (13 prototypes)
- Art of Fighting (2 prototypes)
- ATP Tour Championship Tennis (9 prototypes)
- Baby Boom (3 prototypes)
- Berenstain Bears - Camping Adventure (20 prototypes)
- Beyond Oasis (2 prototypes)
- Body Count (7 prototypes)
- Bonkers (5 prototypes)
- College Football's National Championship (19 prototypes)
- Comix Zone (16 prototypes)
- Crystal's Pony Tale (16 prototypes)
- Desert Demolition (9 prototypes)
- Dinosaurs for Hire (3 prototypes)
- Dynamite Headdy (6 prototypes)
- Escape From Mars Starring Taz (13 prototypes)
- Eternal Champions (2 prototypes)
- Jurassic Park - Rampage Edition (11 prototypes)
- Knuckles in Sonic 2 (0524, 0606, 0608, 0610, 0612, 0618)
- Light Crusader (2 prototypes)
- Magic School Bus (12 prototypes)
- Mighty Morphin Power Rangers - The Movie (5 prototypes)
- Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (8 prototypes)
- NBA Action '95 (25 prototypes)
- NBA Action (3 prototypes)
- NFL '95 (21 prototypes)
- NHL All-Star Hockey '95 (16 prototypes)
- Ooze, The (9 prototypes)
- Phantasy Star IV (5 prototypes)
- Richard Scarry's Busytown (7 prototypes)
- Ristar (4 prototypes)
- Shadowrun (4 prototypes)
- Shining Force II (3 prototypes)
- Sonic 3C (0408, 0517)
- Sonic 3D Blast (73, 814, 819, 825, 830, 831, 94)
- Sonic & Knuckles (0525, 0606, 0608, 0610, 0612, 0618, 0619)
- Sonic & Knuckles (S2k chip) (0524, 0606, 0608, 0610, 0612, 0618)
- Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (Beta 4, Beta 5, Beta 6, Beta 7, Beta 8, Final, Final 2)
- Star Trek - The Next Generation (8 prototypes)
- Story of Thor (4 prototypes)
- Streets of Rage 3 (18 prototypes)
- Sub-Terrania (3 prototypes)
- Vectorman (2 prototypes)
- Vectorman 2 (6 prototypes)
- Virtua Fighter 2 (5 prototypes)
- Wacky Worlds (3 prototypes)
- World Championship Soccer II (21 prototypes)
- World Heroes (20 prototypes)
- World Series Baseball '95 (34 prototypes)
- X-Men 2 - Clone Wars (20 prototypes)
- Young Indiana Jones - Instrument of Chaos (9 prototypes)
Pico
- 101 Dalmations (10 prototypes)
- Berenstain Bears' A School Day (8 prototypes)
- Crayola Crayons Create a World (7 prototypes)
- Huckle and Lowly's Busiest Day Ever (22 prototypes)
- Lion King Adventure at Pride Rock (8 prototypes)
- Mickey's Blast into the Past (6 prototypes)
- Musical Zoo (7 prototypes)
- Pepe's Puzzles (4 prototypes)
- Pico Sampler (3 prototypes)
- Sonic the Hedgehog's Gameworld (4 prototypes)
- Tails and the Music Maker (8 prototypes)
- Year at Pooh Corner (7 prototypes)
Mega CD
- The Adventures of Batman and Robin CD (1 prototype)
32X
- 36 Great Holes starring Fred Couples (34 prototypes)
- Cosmic Carnage (9 prototypes)
- Doom (16 prototypes)
- Chaotix (1207, 1227, 1229, 0111, 0119, 0202, 0208, 0209, 0210, 0213, 0214, 0216)
- Metal Head (10 prototypes)
- Motocross Championship (15 prototypes)
- Shadow Squadron (8 prototypes)
- Space Harrier (1 prototype)
- Star Wars Arcade (21 prototypes)
- Tempo (8 prototypes)
- Virtua Fighter (4 prototypes)
- Zaxon's Motherbase 2000 (8 prototypes)
Saturn
GameCube
- Sonic Adventure 2 Battle (review)
- Sonic Adventure DX (preview and review)
- Sonic Heroes (10.8 and 11.18)
- Sonic Mega Collection (prototype)
External Links
- Archive of ROMs [NOTE: Limited to 30 KB/s per user.]
- Release announcement on the Sonic Retro forums
- Proto FAQ on Sonic Retro forums
- Release thread on Sonic Retro forums