Toejam and Earl 3 Dreamcast prototype found

[TL]

The Xbox had a ToeJam and Earl III. Apparently, the Dreamcast did, too. We just never saw it. Someone found it, though, and put some beta gameplay online. They're also planning a fundraising campaign to publicly release the game, which allegedly plays smoothly through the first ten or so levels before its incompletion becomes more evident. Bugs, that is.

Aside from the novelty of unreleased software, the footage is worth crawling through for those funky beats alone.

Thread at ASSEMbler forum

[align=center:tr92ix4w]ToeJam & Earl 3 Dreamcast Beta gameplay[/align:tr92ix4w]

[Shadowrunner]

Amazing these games keep showing up after all these years. This looks and sounds like it was almost complete, hopefully they release it in some form.

[zapiy]

Thats awesome..

I bet there are loads out there in peoples lofts and garages that the owners think no one cares about.

[Minerals]

Looks great, basically a 3D version of the original but thats not a bad thing. Would love to get the Xbox version of this if it was actually compatible with the 360   

[TL]

Hopefully this version will get released, I would love to give it a play.

[triverse]

There are groups out there that pool money together and purchase these prototypes, when possible, then release them to the Internet.  Hopefully someone that owns one of these prototypes is willing to sell it and there is a group willing to buy it/release it.

[HomerRamone2084]

I bought my original XBOX to play TJ & E 3 - and remember being very disappointed.
I still play the original - albeit on the 360 these days

[TL]

This prototype has now been released for free, you can download it HERE!

[tomwaits]

Excellent! Downloaded.

[Minerals]

Just grabbed it aswell, nice to see the guy that uploaded it is asking for charitable donations to a school 

[onthinice]

Thanks!!!! I agree with Minerals, a great way to release an old title.

[TL]

There is a big article about this in the new issue of Retro Gamer that includes interviews with the developers and tells you what the finished game would have ended up like.

[Bobinator]

So, does anybody know how different the final XBOX version and this ended up being? I've played the XBOX version once, and I really, really wasn't fond of it, for a lot of reasons. This looks pretty similar when it comes to the characters and enviroments, but maybe they had different plans back in the Dreamcast days?

For reference, here's the final version. That's a very... unique... character selection screen.

ToeJam & Earl III: Earl in the Urban Zone (Xbox)

According to the developers they actually made quite a lot of changes, although the basic gameplay was the same and it shared the same plot.

They said that they didn't like the changes they made to the Xbox version.

That actually explains a lot to me. The third game always felt really... off, to me, somehow. Like they had a bunch of old white men in suits trying to make the whole thing feel more "urban" and it just came off REALLY AWKWARD. Like, there was the stuff you knew was probably there from the start, like the evil country signers, but then there was the stuff that just never... fit. I'd even forgive the T rating and all the jokes they make about Toejam's third legs if they didn't have a bunch of gospel singers sing your level objectives to you. Also, you can't skip it.

[TL]

According to the developers they actually made quite a lot of changes, although the basic gameplay was the same and it shared the same plot.

They said that they didn't like the changes they made to the Xbox version.