#beta test disc

[demoban]

Release: Final Fantasy XI Online Beta Test Version (SLPM-62135) and PlayOnline Beta 2 Edition (SLPM-62134)

Download Link

As Twitter voted for it, albeit it in a tie, the time has seemingly now come to start dumping beta test discs for online PS2 games. The first game in line is Final Fantasy XI, which I’m sure needs no introduction to most anyone following this blog. So far as I can gather from my own research, this version of the game was used during the Japanese beta tests that Square held from December 17, 2001 to April 26, 2002 across four different servers, Chaos, Zande, Golbez, and Xdeath, although the latter two are said to have lasted only until February 15, 2002, at which point they merged with Zande.

Included in the archive are the beta test disc for Final Fantasy XI itself, a beta version of PlayOnline, which was needed to install the game and get it running online, and scans of all the printed assets that came with my copy, which in this case consists of the cover art, extremely sparse manual, and disc label art. While obviously not remotely playable at this point and not even all that usable in emulation due to a lack of PS2 hard drive emulation, I figure it’s worth archiving for posterity and so that anyone interesting in digging for old pre-launch assets can do so.

There are still more discs like this to come, so make sure to check back now and again as I upload them!

-Pepsi

[demoban]

Release: Homeland Test Disc (DL-DOL-PHEJ-JPN)

Download Link

Ohisashiburi, as we say in Japanland when it’s been a little while since you’ve last seen someone. I’ve been busy with my main job of making Japanese games into English ones so you don’t need my degree to play them, hence the recent silence. But I haven’t left this blog by the wayside! Not by a long shot, especially since I paid for the demoban.net domain and everything.

Anyway! While we still have a few Japanese PS1 demo discs to go through before that backlog is finally clear, I thought I’d make up for lost time with something a little more thrilling than those upcoming leftovers by way of the Homeland Test Disc for the GameCube. Homeland, in a nutshell, is the one online GameCube game that doesn’t have Phantasy Star Online in the name. Developed by Chunsoft, it’s a fairly mechanically simple game, but its main claim to fame is that players’ GameCubes themselves can serve as online hubs to connect to in lieu of the now defunct central matching server right out of the box, meaning the retail game is still playable online in perpetuity, a rarity among online console games.

Although so far as I can tell that direct IP connection functionality unfortunately isn’t included in this beta test disc (the game can seemingly only tries to connect to a now long dead development server when you ask it to go online), the single player content itself remains playable! Given the relatively importance of text in the game in terms of figuring out how to get around and what’s going on overall, I would personally recommend you have at least intermediate reading fluency in Japanese before playing. That being said, if curiosity gets the better of you anyway, there is an English guide here, albeit one that appears to be written by a non-native.

There’s still more to come on both the PS1 and PS2 sides, but in the meantime, hopefully this tides you guys over!

Enjoy!

-Pepsi