Do protos for modern game systems exist?

[BetaWolf47]

I'm curious as to whether prototype games exist for Gamecube, PS2, Xbox, GBA, or Dreamcast. I haven't heard of anything for systems newer than N64.

[jcalder8]

I'm sure that I have seen some for the PS2/Xbox/GC/DC but I can't remember seeing any for the GBA. I'm guessing that they exist but it's just that I haven't seen any.

[dao2]

yah they do, they're just cdrs-dvdrs though I believe. I've seen a few sold here actually.

[Shadow Kisuragi]

We have "prototypes" of all of those platforms here at work. They do indeed exist, but the GBA cartridges were often reused and overwritten because they were expensive (if I remember correctly). It's the same with most expensive media, including Blu-Rays currently.

[PapaStu]

Of course stuff exists. PS2 protos are fairly common (in the grand scheme of things), i've got a couple at home myself. There are only a handfull of true 'proto' DC games, and most all of those are all on GD-Rom blanks. The white label DC stuff (PAL) are what we'd call review copies for the most part. There are proto Cube and Xbox games on discs as well. We've got numerous DP'rs with Cube/Xbox/PS2 and DC protos. Hit up the Proto forum to see some more info on them.

Now its a little more fuzzy (though not by alot) if you're talking unreleased protos vs proto/beta builds that were sent for magazine reviews or were just early WIP versions. Though in both cases, there is a good amount of stuff out there for all your mentioned systems in both forms.

[Juganawt]

It tends to be more difficult to source protos for last gen systems, with the notable exception of PS2.

I have about 17 protos and builds for various games on PS2 in my collection (and that's without even trying to look for them. They appear quite often on their own), and I think basically it's down to the fact that PS2 used regular CD-R and DVD-Rs for their protos, with no signature or "flags" encoded on the disc, enabling you to run the stuff on any modded PS2/PS3/PS-X.

For some reason, even though Xbox protos *should* be as common as PS2 protos, they are much harder to source, and I've only ever managed to get hold of 2.

DC, GC, and GBA all required special discs and hardware to write and use protos on. Therefore, seeing those kinda protos in the wild is much rarer. While I do have a handful of DC builds, I don't have any for GC or GBA