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Offline Nagumo

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Castlevania Resurrection prototype found
« on: April 05, 2021, 06:59:32 AM »
+1
It's unknown if it will be dumped, but here's a short video:


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Re: Castlevania Resurrection prototype found
« Reply #1 on: April 05, 2021, 10:16:49 AM »
+1
It was such a wasted opportunity... So what if it was the sequel to a game that IGA didn't like for multiple reasons? There was no excuse for Konami to shut this down for whatever reason they thought it wouldn't succeed. That demmo looked like it was playing better then the official release of CV64. I would love to see a full-on play-through of this in a newer video. It just looked awkward with the guy holding the camera while doing everything else at the same time.
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Re: Castlevania Resurrection prototype found
« Reply #2 on: April 05, 2021, 10:34:49 AM »
+1
See I thought the game never existed. This is very surprising, and it looks like it plays half-decent too. Shame it was unreleased.
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Re: Castlevania Resurrection prototype found
« Reply #3 on: April 05, 2021, 12:18:35 PM »
+1
That looks like a vertical slice of the game, something put together to show off zones and some of the action, but never meant to be released as a "finished" product. It's far from a true demo, just a working bit to showcase the title.

Honestly, I can kind of see why it was cancelled. The game had been in production for a while and this slice, at least, doesn't exactly present anything drastically new or interesting. If anything, it feels vacant, even less developed than the N64 titles, and those weren't exactly flying off the shelves upon their release.

Offline VladOfWallachia

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Re: Castlevania Resurrection prototype found
« Reply #4 on: April 05, 2021, 01:43:35 PM »
+1
Cool find. The game looks to be in concept / tech demo stage of development. There's barely any noticeable gameplay mechanics but at least the environments look the part... but the video quality is pretty bad, would be cool if the community could get a hold of this and record some solid footage of the environments.

Offline Sindra

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Re: Castlevania Resurrection prototype found
« Reply #5 on: April 05, 2021, 05:29:00 PM »
+1
Here's a translation from the place that first dropped the video: https://www.sega-dreamcast-info-games-preservation.com/castelvania-resurrection-dreamcast

Quote


Over the years, some canceled games have become "holy grails" for collectors and video game archaeologists. Castlevania: Resurrection on Dreamcast is one of them.

It is a title that we thought lost forever, a game that we have been fantasizing about for 20 years. We just knew it was shown to the press, in a tight circle, in a partially playable version.

A few days ago, I was sent a message with the photo of the prototype. I couldn't believe it, he was there in front of my eyes. I thought I had fallen from my chair, I was witnessing his resurrection !!!

This game would have taken place in 3D environments. A time travel would have brought  Sonia Belmont and Victor Belmont to meet.

 

The story was set to take place in 1666. Victor Belmont was an 1800s vampire hunter who had abandoned his lineage and left the region in fear of his fate as a vampire slayer. The player would face a female vampire as the main opponent.

In addition to this, you need to know more about it.

According to art director Greg Orduyan , the game was canceled due to Konami's lack of trust in the Dreamcast.

The content of the prototype:

This prototype is a pre E3 demo.

There are 5 environments and a boss fight that correspond to a stage of the game. Most areas do not connect with each other. They are accessible from the Start menu. One of them does not charge. This beta is an early build.
Castlevania Resurrection dreamcast prototype

Conclusion:

Be careful, I don't know what my acquaintance intends to do with it. I do not wish to harbor false hopes. It may be necessary to be satisfied only with the photo and the video proving its existence.

The discovery of the prototype being major, with the agreement of its owner, I can disclose it and show it to you. We can also thank him!

So it sounds like this acquaintance of this French Sega Dreamcast preservation site either held onto or was passed along a press demo copy of the prototype that was handed out to media outlets prior to E3 1999. It also sounds like this might be a Bloodlines beta situation where the person either doesn't dump the ISO for people to play and to archive, and instead holds onto it as an ultimate "trophy", or just outright sells it on ebay hoping for a big cash-in. Here's hoping I'm wrong and they are a bit more affable to fans.
« Last Edit: April 05, 2021, 05:43:20 PM by Sindra »

Offline Belmontoya

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Re: Castlevania Resurrection prototype found
« Reply #6 on: April 05, 2021, 07:02:44 PM »
+1
From France you say?

Happen to know of some people still involved with dreamcast from france. I'm asking around. This belongs to the fans and it should be preserved and if possible made in a playable state.

I have mixed feelings about what this persons intentions may be, but I was at walmart at midnight with my mom as kid to get dreamcast when it launched just because I expected this game to come out for it. It broke my heart when it was cancelled and whatever we can do to preserve this game and hopefully experience it all as a fanbases in someway must be done.

This game is too important to simply be used as shotty youtube content.

Let's hope he does the right thing.
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Offline LuxKiller65

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Re: Castlevania Resurrection prototype found
« Reply #7 on: April 05, 2021, 07:16:19 PM »
+2
sorry, this belong to the guy with only one arm in the video ;)

Many years ago someone in France claimed to have a playable disc of this game. It was on eBay for a while too. Maybe this disc is from that story.

Either way here's some info:
- E3 1999 was held May 13 to May 15 1999

- The build date of the disc is May 11 1999, clearly not a coincidence. The page says "Pre E3 demo", I'm not even sure what that means. Sounds more like "E3 demo" that was ultimately so crap it wasn't used.

- This video I ripped has the announcer say that only a CG demo was shown at E3 1999
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJaTPTgzQ-M&t=919s

So someone at Konami saw how bad it looked and said "please burn this thing at very high temperatures".

Also, the disc says #20, so they made 19 others at least.

When they say the game was cancelled because of "lack of trust in the Dremcast", when it wasn't even on the market in May 1999, it sounds like a way to say "This game that Konami of America (KCEA) is working on is so bad that it needs to be canceled immediately". Since they had reserved some space for it at E3, they let the CG demo roll and then the game went to the trash compactor.

Offline Belmontoya

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Re: Castlevania Resurrection prototype found
« Reply #8 on: April 05, 2021, 08:08:39 PM »
+1
In all fairness, I don't trust Konami's judgement on what is crap and what isn't at this point.


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Offline LuxKiller65

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Re: Castlevania Resurrection prototype found
« Reply #9 on: April 05, 2021, 10:48:05 PM »
+2
Sure, but we can't unsee how bad it looks and plays, and this was Konami in 1999, not 2016. It's like they woke up late and said it would be fun to copy the Nintendo 64 episode but on the Dreamcast, even keeping the 2 characters idea. Frankly no regrets on this game but to everyone his own opinion.

What I'm curious about and maybe Nagumo can speculate on this, is how Legend of Cornell fits in all of this. Did KCEK start working on it AFTER Resurrection was canceled? Or was it a parallel project totally unrelated to how Resurrection was going to end up? It was released end November 1999, that's basically 6 months after this demo.

edit: it's also curious that legend of cornell came out in the US first and then a full month after that. As if it was more urgent to release it in the US, because of the cancellation of Resurrection?

Offline Belmontoya

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Re: Castlevania Resurrection prototype found
« Reply #10 on: April 05, 2021, 11:07:38 PM »
+1
I've never thought it looked bad graphically, this was proceeded by the n64 game. It looked fantastic in it's day and since not one of us here has ever played it, the verdict on gameplay isn't clear. And furthermore, it's obviously incomplete.

It's a piece of the history of the series that certain people out there are holding onto rather than sharing.

It's not about whether it's good or bad. It's about preservation, and it's about sharing it with the community.

You may not be interested in playing it, but the thought of people out there being able to pop it in a dreamcast and play (despite it's incomplete state) while so many of us will never otherwise have that chance really sucks.

And if it was shared with the community perhaps something could be done with it to make it more playable.

With the state Castlevania is currently in we need to be preserving and holding on to every little piece we can. Not hording things away for money or youtube subscribers.


« Last Edit: April 05, 2021, 11:17:12 PM by Belmontoya »
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Offline Sindra

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Re: Castlevania Resurrection prototype found
« Reply #11 on: April 06, 2021, 07:34:35 AM »
+1
It's a piece of the history of the series that certain people out there are holding onto rather than sharing.

It's not about whether it's good or bad. It's about preservation, and it's about sharing it with the community.

You may not be interested in playing it, but the thought of people out there being able to pop it in a dreamcast and play (despite it's incomplete state) while so many of us will never otherwise have that chance really sucks.

And if it was shared with the community perhaps something could be done with it to make it more playable.

With the state Castlevania is currently in we need to be preserving and holding on to every little piece we can. Not hording things away for money or youtube subscribers.

I second this. It doesn't matter if it's a graphically inferior game. The N64 Castlevania were not that great graphically either. The point is that this one of of the only known Castlevania games that was cancelled that was developed enough to actually have a demo trailer and a playable early prototype, and that's worth a lot in terms of the history of the series and to a lot of us fans looking to preserve it. There's been a lot of dumps of game prototypes lately, including Castlevania, and this would be the crown jewel of them regardless of how unpolished it is.

Ideally, it should be ripped into a playable ISO for people to at least have a chance at playing and archiving, since those discs don't last as long as carts and one good scratch could render it unplayable. If it could be ripped, it can also be data mined for assets and, potentially, maybe even completed some day by dedicated fans.

Either way, if it's a matter of wanting notoriety for being one of the few people who own this demo, I'm sure ample credit can be arranged to be given to the owner; just get ahold of Polygon or IGN and offer an exclusive interview about how the prototype was acquired or something similar before dumping the ISO. Guarantee they will want to jump on that.

Offline Kingshango

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Re: Castlevania Resurrection prototype found
« Reply #12 on: April 06, 2021, 07:00:32 PM »
+1
Never thought I’d ever see gameplay of this, looked okay all things considered. Hopefully the demo gets dumped online.

Offline Nagumo

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Re: Castlevania Resurrection prototype found
« Reply #13 on: April 07, 2021, 12:55:17 AM »
+1
It's being bid on on EBay. The current price is $3,000.

Edit: This is probably a naive idea, but since there are still nine days left on the auction, couldn't we do a fundraiser and, if by some miracle it's enough to win, choose someone trustworthy here (Like Jorge, Crisis, Luxkiller) to receive the disc and make sure it gets dumped? It's a longshot, but it would be nice if we could prevent it from becoming part of another hoard.
« Last Edit: April 07, 2021, 02:03:59 AM by Nagumo »

Offline Sindra

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Re: Castlevania Resurrection prototype found
« Reply #14 on: April 07, 2021, 04:45:09 AM »
+1
It's being bid on on EBay. The current price is $3,000.

Edit: This is probably a naive idea, but since there are still nine days left on the auction, couldn't we do a fundraiser and, if by some miracle it's enough to win, choose someone trustworthy here (Like Jorge, Crisis, Luxkiller) to receive the disc and make sure it gets dumped? It's a longshot, but it would be nice if we could prevent it from becoming part of another hoard.

I thought of this too. If it were just a grand or so I'd throw down for it without much thought, just to guarantee it was dumped and archived. As of right now it's up to $4,000 and no promise it'll be dumped for the public.  :-\

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