Hidden Palace took to the internet this morning to announce the first part of Project Deluge. The post explains that Project Deluge attempts to evaluate and preserve thousands of game assets, prototypes, and other production materials. The post explores the team’s efforts at Hidden Palace, along with Jason Scott from the Internet Archive, took to assess and verify these prototype builds. The post offers a fantastic look into the process of video game preservation.
However, the more exciting part of this reveal was the release of over 700 game prototypes for the PlayStation 2 system. Prototypes of beloved PlayStation 2 classics such as Final Fantasy X, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3, Shadow of the Colossus, and more are now available for gamers to try out. Assets for more obscure games are also available now as well. You can view the list of titles here.
This release from the Hidden Palace is an important step forward for game preservation. It offers archivists an opportunity to help save the production assets it contains for generations to come while also making the prototypes available to the public, offering an exciting look into some beloved games’ development process. Hidden Palace hosted a live stream this past weekend highlighting some of the stand-out titles for those who are not interested in testing the software for themselves. For fans of the PlayStation 2, this file dump provides an exciting look into what the development process might have been like on the console.
