Hey;

I've been collecting betas for about 2 years and have been here for about 2 months.
There has been a question I have had for a while now.
How are all these betas leaked from the manufacturers? I guess some of them are released on the website of the company but some others aren't.

Best regards,
~ Elliot

*facehoof*

Some betas are released by the maker, like through MSDN or equivalent developer programs. The majority of what you see on BetaArchive are leaks, where the maker may give out a build to a select few testers. Once that build leaves those select few testers and into the public, it is considered leaked.

*facepalm*? What's with all the facepalmimg? I don't get it, if you have nothing decent to post, DON'T POST IT!?!?
We were all noobs once, and we all had these sort of questions, so don't be so harsh on him -.-

Some builds are publically released from the manufacturer as part of say, a public beta, or community testing. Other builds are simply released as a semi-private beta, where select people from both inside the manufacture and invited people from outside are testing it (like CS:GO). Other builds are private; only testers within the manufacturer can test it.

If a public build is released, it is not considered a 'leak', rather it's considered a release*.
If a semi-private or private build is released (that was previously not available to the general public), it's considered a leak.

Leaks can get out in various ways. Naughty testers can sneak it onto a flash drive / CD-ROM and upload it to a FTP server. Corporations can be hacked and have data leaked.

You may notice the * next to release. Some releases can be considered leaks if the release was, for example, on a developer CD distributed to developers. Although this is a public release, it can be considered rare, and if it makes its way to the general public, it's considered a leak.

I hope this has helped you (surely the immature facepalming didn't)...

A subset of betas have interesting stories, our wiki doesnt tell them.
Many were given out at developer events.Several were later sold to collectors.
Guess the games/programs!
One was leaked by a video card company that tested it.
One was compiled from sourcecode after a hack of a quiet game company.
A few were compiled from source developers had around.
A few were rescued from devkit hardware.
One was stolen at a game show from S*** and a dump apeared later online.
One was sold as final by MS (not Windows 95)
One appeared at a russian market.

I will now attempt to guess these products.


Windows NT 1991


Half-Life 2


XBox protos? I'm unsure on this one.


One of the Sonic games, but I don't remember which one.


Don't know this one but I'm curious.

Also, sometimes if someone was searching for betas, he may got a link to private server from someone, or has found it in a reference or from searching about another subject not-related to betas (It happens with me several times). Then he upload it to public website.

Another situation is warez CDs. Some warez CDs had betas even they aren't on BA yet (e.g. Memphis builds)

This is because a warez group originally leaked the beta, which has been lost to time, but a third party included it on a warez CD they made, so a reference is included in the list of contents of that warez CD.

Doom 3 0.02 in E3 2002.

Anyway back in 2010 many Windows 7 TAP builds were leaked.

IIRC he would be talking about Dreamcast betas. The main question when someone gets a Katana devkit is "IZ TEH HARD (lol) DRIV WHIPED?"

The Flintstones: Viva Las Vegas was found on a devkit which was in a dumpster IIRC.

LocoRoco 2?

Thanks, it helped me

@linuxlove
Pointless facehoof. Locked.

No. One of Sonic 2 prototypes, but I don't know which one.

Sonic 2 "Simon Wai" prototype.

Someone opened the wardrobe to Narnia.

Actually it was the Nick Arcade prototype.

HL2 i guess.




Also, some betas go this way: A developer lends a beta to a friend, who gets hacked/lends it to other friends and the beta leaks. Or a developer gets angry and releases it anonimously.

The "Nick Arcade" prototype was sold in eBay, and then dumped by the Hidden Palace site owner. The "Simon Wai" was stolen from a SEGA event, dumped and then sold into pirate carts.

I was thinking of the Age of Empires II Alpha

Yeah, like that leak of Deus Ex: Human Revolution.



But the cart is initially from Nick Arcade, which is a show, so.

Ok, so both prototypes came from SEGA shows...