A Sonic Adventure Tournament Disk has been found and archived on a Sega Dreamcast preservation site 27 years after the tournament it was made for ended. While some Dreamcast fans might know what this disk was made for, some younger gamers might not know as the event isn't exactly talked about compared to the rise and fall of Sega's last console. Back in 1999, an event known as the Sega Dreamcast Mobile Assault Tour took the console across North America for 22 weeks, giving fans a chance to try the device and its games for themselves before launch.During the Sega Dreamcast Mobile Assault Tour, fans were allowed to try out the first Sonic Adventure game for themselves with a bit of a catch. This version of Adventure players experienced only had one stage, Emerald Coast, and would only last for 2 minutes exactly. In this version, fans were challenged to get the highest score by collecting the most rings, defeating the most enemies, and getting as far as they could in the stage. The gamers who managed to reach the highest scores were taken to the championships in Las Vegas.While this tournament is only a footnote in Sega and Sonic Adventure history now, the tournament was no small scale affair. The four best players in North America raced against the clock for cash prizes, with first place taking home $15,000 dollars. These championships took place at Sega's own Gameworks arcade, and were even hosted by actor and comedian Jimmy Kimmel. Now, one of these Sonic Adventure Tournament Disks was found by Sega Dreamcast Info, a preservation site dedicated to the retro console. Thanks to a team of dedicated fans, the disk was uploaded online for curious gamers to play.
Surprisingly, it's difficult to really call the Tournament Disks a "prototype" as it holds many similarities to the final version of the game. The disks were even made on August 10, 1999, predating the final build of the game by only two days. While the Dreamcast preservation team looked to see exactly what was different, it seems that some localization files weren't finished, and some DLC song files were missing. Otherwise, the Tournament Disk seemed exactly the same.
Despite the fact that the Tournament Disk might not shed too much light into Sonic Adventure's development, it's still a great find for those wishing to preserve the history of the Dreamcast and its games. It helps make sure that these pre-launch events won't be forgotten again, and it helps shed some light on what Sega was willing to do to try and make Sonic Adventure and the Dreamcast a success before the console was unable to keep up.