Since I’m a sucker for these types of stories, for you long-suffering Silent Hill fans, a prototype version of the original Silent Hill 2 for the PlayStation 2 has recently been uncovered. Even better, it’s currently being hosted on The Hidden Palace, a repository “dedicated to the preservation of video game development media”.

The version of the game in question, build 0.10 VW047-U1, lists its build date of Jul 13, 2001. What’s significant about this build is that from exploring the disc’s contents, it shows that most, if not all, of the game’s data is included in this disc. Meaning, with some modding/hacking, you’d be able to explore early areas of the game.

Other small differences from the final build (which was released in August 2001) include different attack and enemy sounds, camera angles, removal/addition of certain items, dialogue removal and more.

What makes this all even more interesting is that if you remember the infamous Silent Hill HD Collection (who doesn’t?), Konami had lost the source code for the final version of the game. This in turn lead to Hijinx Studios having to work with an unfinished version of Silent Hill 2. It’s not clear yet if this is the version the team had to work with, but you have to wonder.

Definitely check out the prototype’s page on The Hidden Palace, along with other prototypes of games fans have discovered over the years. You can also hit up the Letters From Silent Hill fansite for additional info on the prototype.