Hidden Palace, working alongside Last Minute Continue, has released a significant new batch of preserved prototypes, with the spotlight firmly on Shadow the Hedgehog for Nintendo GameCube.
The highlight of the drop is the long-awaited E3 prototype of Shadow the Hedgehog, joined by several late development builds dated May 27, September 15, and September 22, 2005. Together, these versions offer a fascinating look at how the game changed during its final stretch of development, featuring differences in level layouts, visuals, progression systems, and unfinished elements that never made it into the retail release.
According to Hidden Palace, this release was one of their most technically challenging recoveries to date. Several of the discs were badly damaged, requiring hundreds of read attempts across dozens of optical drives. To overcome this, the team created a brand-new recovery tool called DiscImageMender, or DIM. The tool reconstructs full disc images by combining verified data from multiple partial dumps and repairing damaged sectors using built-in error correction data.
That effort paid off in a big way. Using DIM, the team successfully restored a clean and fully verified copy of the Shadow the Hedgehog Beta 4 prototype, a build that had previously been considered only partially recoverable. The restoration was later validated when an identical copy of the same prototype surfaced independently and matched the reconstructed image byte for byte.
The holiday preservation drop did not stop with Shadow. Additional prototypes included in the release cover a wide range of SEGA titles such as Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg, Sonic Gems Collection, Sonic Mega Collection Plus, Sonic Riders, Sonic Riders Zero Gravity, Sega Classics Collection, and even Sonic’s Schoolhouse.
Hidden Palace described the release as both a technical breakthrough and a reminder of how fragile early 2000s development media has become. Many of the recordable discs involved were on the verge of becoming permanently unreadable, making this recovery effort especially time-sensitive.
A full technical breakdown of the recovery process, along with detailed notes and download links, is now available on Hidden Palace’s website. Archived livestreams showing the prototypes in action have also been preserved for fans who want a closer look.
Stay tuned to Sonic City for more preservation reports, prototype discoveries, and deep dives into Sonic history.
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