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The Hidden Palace is a community dedicated to the preservation of video game development media (such as prototypes, hardware, source code, artwork, and more). This website can be utilized as a catalog for the items that we and others are able to collect and share.

If you are interested in contributing, please see our How to Contribute page.

Past news

Jul 6, 2024: Vanished without a Trace - Out of the Vortex for the Sega Mega Drive

Apr 9, 2024: Crash Tag Team Racing (Xbox Prototype)

Jan 21, 2024: Crash Bash and Spyro 3

Jan 1, 2024: New Years 2024 - Sonic Heroes

Dec 25, 2023: A Very Bandicoot Christmas - Crash Bandicoot: Warped Prototype

Nov 24, 2023: 6GUN: BattleBourne's Unreleased PlayStation 2 Game

Oct 31, 2023: Daredevil: The Man Without Fear - Unreleased PlayStation 2 Game

Feb 28, 2023: Phantasy Star Online Prototype

Feb 15, 2023: PSP Release Candidates

Dec 25, 2022: Project Deluge: Xbox 360 and Wii

Dec 9, 2022: Semradical!

Nov 24, 2022: Sega Technical Institute’s Cancelled Segapede

Nov 23, 2022: Sonic 3 and Feel Preproduction VHS Tapes!

Oct 31, 2022: Happy Halloween 2022! Castlevania: Symphony of the Night for the Tiger Game.com!

Jan 1, 2022: New Years 2022!

Nov 13, 2021: Go Go Goemon! Mystical Ninja Goemon Zero

Oct 10, 2021: Mortal Kombat prototype for the Sega Mega Drive

Sep 18, 2021: Project Deluge: Xbox and Dreamcast

Jul 24, 2021: Angels with Burning Hearts: Burning Rangers Prototype

May 1, 2021: Crash Landing

Apr 17, 2021: Project Deluge: PlayStation 1, Saturn, and CD-I (Part 2)

Mar 20, 2021: Project Deluge: PlayStation 2

Jan 1, 2021: Dreams Come True: Sonic 1 (MD) Prototype

(earlier news)

Latest contributed articles

• Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune Press Disk by Funtimeandrefoxy
• Left 4 Dead Assets for Media by Funtimeandrefoxy
• Fable Anniversary (Jan 9, 2014 prototype) by Funtimeandrefoxy
• Pro Evolution Soccer 5 (Sep 3, 2005 prototype) by Dink
• Guardic Gaiden (Dec 9, 1987 prototype) by Ndiddy
• Mashed: Drive to Survive (May 7, 2004 prototype) by Dink
• New Super Mario Bros. U (DLC New Super Luigi U prototype) by Funtimeandrefoxy
• Noah's Ark (Aug 18, 1995 prototype) by Funtimeandrefoxy
• WTA Tour Tennis (Jan 8, 2002 prototype) by Dink
• TrackMania: Power Up! (Mar 18, 2004 prototype) by GreffMASTER
(more)

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Latest news

Ecco the Dolphin (Apr 21, 1993 prototype)
Ecco the Dolphin (Jun 14, 1993 prototype)
Ecco the Dolphin (EPROM 20 prototype)
Discuss this release on our Discord server!

Time for another round of prototypes. Today we have various prototypes of Ecco for the Sega Mega Drive and Game Gear. Our good friends at The Cutting Room Floor and arkonviox helped acquire some of these earlier this year. :)

First we have a weird "in-between" build of the Japanese localization of the original game for the Mega Drive. The Japanese release of the first Ecco the Dolphin for the Mega Drive is an especially weird case where the regional differences went beyond bug fixes to going as far as to completely changes certain elements of the gameplay. The difficulty of the game was adjusted in various ways, unused songs from the original game have been repurposed, save points have been added in "Welcome to the Machine", and even a new level called "The Stomach" that comes after the Vortex Queen eats you. This prototype is a "link" between the original US/EU releases and the eventual final Japanese release. What changes can you find?

We also have two prototypes of Ecco the Dolphin for the Sega Game Gear, one early one and one late one. The Jun 14th prototype contains a large number of differences in comparison to the final. The EPROM 20 prototype (named after the label specified in the debug menu) is a near final prototype with only a few changes in comparison to the final. Note, the final version of the game was given an EPROM version of 24.

Until next time, see you tomorrow!