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As some of you may know, I've recently been teasing over social media the acquisition of the new "crown jewel" of my classic LEGO game collection. I believe the time has now come to reveal just what it is that I've managed to acquire: nothing less than an original Beta version of LEGO Island. As background, the specific version I've recovered is LEGO Island Beta 9.0, dating to July 25th, 1997, just over two weeks before the earliest known copies of LEGO Island were manufactured (August 8th, 1997). (Subsequently, the game was patched up further, with an updated batch dating to September 8th, 1997.) Most likely, this would have been the build that was tested by a number of schools (listed in the credits) and previewed by certain press outlets, such as Pause Magazine. Despite such a short timespan between the final beta and earliest release builds, there are still a number of changes that were made. Some of the more notable changes included: Numerous decals being sampled at a lower resolution Model optimizations and changes to the organization of model LODs (Most notable with the shark, car, and window models) Removal of the helicopter landing pad texture by the Jail Changes to model UVs and associated textures (See windows of the Police Station) The addition of various sound effects accompanying animations and cutscenes In the final game, Bill Ding summarizes his building speech, rather than delivering it in its entirety when you click on static objects One of the most interesting inclusions with the beta copy of the game is a carefully maintained change log for the game going back to Version Beta 1.0 from June of 1997. As I'm sure this is something of interest, I have included a reformatted version below. Now, for reasons it's probably best I don't go into, it's looking unlikely that I will be be able to publicly share a copy of the Beta. I have, however, taken the liberty of recording a play-through of most of the game, to show off the state it was in, and some of the changes that were made. There's the possibility I may be able to share certain, non-critical files from the disc, but that remains to be seen.

He who exposed my inattention.

Remembered to use five words