No problem and thanks for your input.
I will need an X68000 or at least a 5.25" floppy drive to get the content out of the disk and run it on an emulator. This is in my plans, but might take a while.
A few notes, mostly to myself at this point:
1- The
interview inside the Rondo of Blood guidebook confirms that the MD, PCE and X68000 episodes were being developed at the same time. Maybe not in the same exact building, this I have no way to tell.
2- The label of the X68000 demo disk (let me call it this way for now) matches the label of the MD beta cart that everybody knows. Same grey background, same Konami logo, same "
SAMPLE" strip, same white rounded spot for the "
Title" and for the "
Code/Ver./Date". Same "
Sample Product" written in Japanese inside a red circle too.
(I found a better picture of my disk!)
3- The "
Code/Ver./Date" spot is blank. Nothing has been written there. Yet, the content must be different, as there is at least a screenshot to prove it (the teaser written in Japanese). This could mean the game was finished, or almost, and the disk includes only one or a few levels. If we are to look at the
demo disc of Rondo of Blood, it could follow the same logic indeed, with only a single playable level. Both have a teaser.
Is the PCE teaser screen at the beginning or the end of the demo? (I totally forgot.)
(Pretty accurate: X68000 screen says Summer '93, and the game came out in July (I couldn't find the exact day). PCE screen says Autumn '93, and the game came out on 23 October.
)
4- Alternatively, it could be an auto-demo where the game loops like a video and shows someone playing. Something like this exists for at least one X68000 game (
Undeadline).
5- If I could access the disk files and check their dates, I could tell a lot more about all of this. Right now, I'm stuck with a never-seen-before teaser screen that tells me that the content of the disk is beta and/or demo, which is enough to warrant the purchase of an X68000. Please send me one for free.