These promo discs almost invariably contain just the retail game. However, is there a possibility that there may be differences or more game-relevant data on them? One example is the PAL promo version of Contra Shattered Soldier I bought, apparently released about a month before the retail one. What's interesting is that this promotional version comes on a DVD disc, rather than a CD as in retail. Even more interesting is that it totals about 1 GB of actual data. I don't know how to analyze the contents further to find out. If anybody has limited edition discs like these, could maybe shed some light on this.
The PAL version was a DVD release in contrast to the Japanese and American/Canadian release. If you used Isobuster to make a raw copy of the disc, you could check the size and CRC of it against the Redump.org Page which also lists the mastering code which is on the underside of the disc near the spindle hole. If it looks similar in style to this PAL Haunting Ground PS2 promotional version and the sizing, CRC matches up to the Redump.org page then it'll be the exact same as the PAL retail one. It is possible to get some promo copies with differences (Drakengard 2's PAL promo had some extra Japanese footage in it (example of what I fished off the PAL-UK promo disc) and audio whereas this was removed in the actual retail copy and I had it MONTHS before Drakengard 2's actual retail release) but most of the time it's a pre-release promotional copy. It seems that retail stores often get copies of these given to the manager for the most part to play the product and be able to talk about it leading up to it's release but what typically happened was that they never got played and interested staff members would take the promo copies home as they were typically just chucked into a box of inventory items (or you got them palmed off to you during meetings or press events) and were never actually marked down OR they occasionally got used as Frisbees or coasters in-store. (Or at least, that was how it had gone down in my store when I was there).
That's some pretty interesting information and I'll need to make those checks for the disc I have. Thanks, Lamont.
No worries. Just figured it would be the easiest way to do a quick check without having to manually go digging through files and archives on the disc. ^^;
