Earlier this week, gameplay footage of an alpha/beta demo of Castlevania Resurrection for the SEGA Dreamcast was posted to YouTube by the appropriately named user, cvr exists.
Konami canceled this game back in March of 2000. Since then, no gameplay footage was shown outside of a few screenshots. This was the first time the general public saw a build of the game in action.
For more info on the footage itself, check out Patrick Traynor’s article from a few days ago.
The gameplay video was posted on April 4th. Just a couple days later on April 6th, an eBay listing for Castlevania Resurrection popped up. Its picture appears to show the same developer disc in the video — with the same writing. Bidding started at one dollar, and quickly grew into the thousands.
When the auction was first posted, no ripped build of the game appeared online. Since the gameplay video, several fans made it extraordinarily clear they wanted the owner to back up files from the disc and make them available for download. This would ensure the historic build is archived and essentially saved from the clutches of disc rot, or other physical wear and tear.
In the description of the eBay post, the seller said, “I have no idea what it’s worth to the rest of the world other than to get it ripped and archived, but to own a one of a kind in all the world piece of Dreamcast and Castlevania history would be the real treasure here. I hope it goes to as big a fan as I am.”
At this point, it was unclear if the seller had any intent to post the build online. The owner seemingly answered this question on April 7th, when the auction description got this update:
“On Apr-07-21 at 10:05:41 PDT, seller added the following information: Hi Everyone! I’m getting a lot of questions about the disc being backed up. Rest assured I wouldn’t let this go without one. It will be released at some point.”
Us writers at SEGA saturn, Shiro! were closely following this auction. When it got this update, bidding was at around $7,000 USD. It was widely speculated that releasing the build, or saying it would be released at all could hurt the value of this item. Bids on the disc quickly soared past $10,000 after this update, and clear into the $20,000 territory a few hours later.
Then on April 8th, the auction was taken down.
Still, no build of the game is available online as of this writing. The seller did not indicate any sort of timeline for when it may come out. It is also unclear why this auction ended roughly seven days early. SEGA saturn, Shiro! cannot independently verify if this disc was sold to a private collector.
The seller clearly expressed they intend to back up the files digitally before parting ways with the disc. They also said this build of Castlevania Resurrection “will be released at some point.”
We hope the build does someday get archived online for the sake of historical preservation. Even though this build is incomplete, it would be great to see what Konami had planned for this highly anticipated instalment, and explore the far reaches of its world. Even though this pertains to the Dreamcast, we will be sure to let you know how this pans out.
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