Jet Grind Radio
Image: Smilebit / Sega

The video game preservation website Sega Dreamcast Info has released an early localization build of Jet Set Radio (otherwise known in the North America as Jet Grind Radio), in order to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Dreamcast title's Japanese release.

The build, which is dated July 31st, 2001, is one of four pre-release prototypes of the US version that have been made available over the years, and appears to bridge the gap between the E3 build (dated April 28th, 2000) and another version of the game (from August 2000) that was released back in 2021 as part of Project Deluge.

According to CombyLaurent, the preservationist responsible for releasing the prototype, the build launches immediately into "a Debug Menu", similar to the E3 version, but removes the TGS Sibuya, TGS Kogane, and TGS Benten options from the menu (a holdover from when the game was displayed at TGS) as well as introducing the ability to access early versions of Bantam Street and Grind Square".

They're also a bunch of exclusive developer dheats, which would have been used to make the testing process more convenient, and a rough English translation with occasional placeholder text like "This is Dummy Text. We're creating this part now, so wait a moment."

You can read more about the prototype here, which is also where you'll find a download link.

[source sega-dreamcast-info-games-preservation.com]