I've a big question that never found an answer.... How PS1 betas came to the light ? in the 90s there wasn't the internet that exist today...so how can we find them on internet ? Especially for Russian sites. Example: i've found an Abe's Exoddus beta from a russian forum (this was one of my videos the first video about it : ) , it was translated in russian (illegally of course) because maybe they thought that it was the final version , then i shared it better on internet and in fact i found it here too (thanks to someone that shared again). But how russians people from their country had got this prototype versions from America ? It's a situation that it's not so clear on internet....i would like to understand this interesting matter! thanks
One way i found it is from devdrives DTL-H2010 from japan. Voltage and data goes over a special cable. So when you not have the cable and a running h2000 setup, you cant open the drive. Only when you disassambling it. So the chance is very high that still a disc inside this drives.
I'd guess the three main ways PS1 betas get out on to the web are: Videogame magazine reviewers: Sometimes sent early copies, probably not much pressure to return the discs. Coders: Someone worked on the game and kept a copy for themselves, eventually leaking it on to the web. Devkits: Like Jackhead posted above, you can still find discs or code on the machines. How did someone in Russia got hold of a beta copy of Abe's Exodus? My guess is it was probably a review copy for a magazine, but you'll never really know unless you find the person who initially leaked it.
Interesting .... I've also another information : there is an english beta of abe's exoddus , earlier than the russian one (the game have 2 CDs, in the early version there was only 1) that was uploaded on internet by a russian guy that i know. According to him , when he was a child , he went into a videogame shop in Russia that now doesn't exist anymore. into it there were many videogames , and he found Abe's Exoddus. it was only 1 CD instead 2. he bought it , then he played it. Next some years , watching Youtube Guides of the game , he discovered that his version was very different from the normal one (incomplete to be accurate). so , for the oddworld fandom , he uploaded on internet 2/3 years ago. everyone happy ! So , that beta that he bought in a videogame shop , could be a review copy that somehow was "stolen" and sold illegally ? Main differences :
Pirates will get their warez from just about anywhere. The fact that it turned up in Russia doesn't mean very much at this point. Perhaps a Russian developer went to a trade fair in the USA and was given an early copy by someone there? As I said before, there's really no way of knowing unless you find the person who leaked it (probably impossible now) - the rest is pure speculation.
It also happens that sometimes they get leaked because of the lack of security. The Unreal 1998 beta was leaked at the time because someone actually made a copy at the ECTS computers, no one got whoever did this. I could have done something similar back at the BGS 2013, Dying Light was playable for the public and the game crashed in one of the PCs, and the people at the Nvidia Stand didn't give a fuck over what people could do, in fact, the guy who was playing was trying to run the game again, i've even said to my friend that I should get an pen drive and copy it. Manhunt 2 uncensored version was leaked by an SCEE employee an month before the edited release. And, about the Oddworld, here is another story: The Resident Evil 2 Beta 2 was leaked because someone bought in a Italy beach back in 2002, according to the story, it was a man that was selling pirate games. IIRC there was an thread here about pirated ps1 games that appearently were not the retail versions, but earlier versions.
I have some of that pirate PSX discs. They all silver discs. Back in the days loading such a iso over internet was to much here. Never checked if they final or not. Here a shot: Hm i played the FF7 discs over 100hours, its the japanese version ^^ (waiting for PAL or NTSC/US was to long). I see now its marked with TGS/97. And when i remember back, i got they before release. Have to check if they maybe not final. Well was great time first time booting with CD Switch ff7.. Great times. i check them all, maybe found something
Need some help to compare my version of FF7. The dump version i made looks like a build from 11-27-96 till 01-06-97 SLPS_007.00 . The System.cnf say 11-27-96 . Can someone look on the NTSC/JP disc1 ? Only have the NTSC/US retail. Also found a version of Bloddy Roar from 08-22-97
http://redump.org/disc/60/ SLPS_007.00 = EXE date, which seems to match. Maybe you can compare checksum also. Bloody Roar EXE date also matches: http://redump.org/disc/10177/
I've been curious about some of these things as well, especially the origin discs (or if they were obtained from other storage media) of the early versions of Biohazard released online a few years back.
