As modern games continue to implement restrictive online requirements and DRM, an urgent effort is growing within the video game community to preserve and archive classic game releases.Project Delugeis one such effort, an endeavor to collect video game development material of all kinds run by The Hidden Palace organization.Project Delugeis back once again with another wave of hundreds of prototype games, this time from the original Xbox and Sega Dreamcast.
Released on Saturday, the most recent update to Project Deluge includes 349 Xbox prototypes and 135Sega Dreamcastprototypes. By “prototype,” these files could be fully unreleased games, early versions of games, ports, tech demos, unfinished localizations, and similar projects. Each individual prototype has been individually vetted by the Project Deluge team for playability, to ensure its value as part of the overall collection. Acknowledging that, all 484 prototypes are now available online.
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The listed of games included in the new wave of Project Deluge releases is exciting. On Sega Dreamcast, the list starts with a version of4 Wheel Thunder, only at four months prior to release it was namedOffroad Thunder. Beyond that, there are prototypes forDeep Fighterthat’s near-finished, as well asIllbleed, andJet Grind Radiois described as featuring “decent debugging features.” The list goes on withReady 2 Rumble Boxing Round 2,San Francisco Rush 2049,Shadow Man,Test Drive Cycles,Vigilante 8: Second Offense,WWF Attitude, and evenTony Hawk’s Pro Skater.
Included Xbox prototypes are even more diverse and exciting. Project Deluge lists an unreleased Xbox port ofAmerican Idol,Hail to the Chimp,He-Man: Defender of Grayskull, andPac-Man World Rallyfirst. There’s also an unreleased, canceled localization ofDinosaur Hunting: Ushinawareta Daichi. Other unreleased games includeThe Red Star,US Open 2003, andThe Vatz. Other prototypes that include the earliest prototype ofPsychonautsyet discovered,Rogue Ops, andRoom Zoom: Race for Impact.
Hopefully, the list of games that Project Deluge calls attention to makes clear the effort’s intent. This is a project devoted to archival. It’s looking for curiosities and rarities, such as prototypes that have never seen the light of day but are important to game development history. Project Deluge notes that developers had cold feet on releasinggames for the Xboxout of fear it wouldn’t be successful, so there’s a treasure trove of unreleased prototypes that may have otherwise been lost to time.
This drop is just the latest inProject Deluge’s plans. It has no intention of slowing down or stopping, so fans can expect another collection ofgame prototypes for the archivesin the “next couple of months.”
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