Shenmue was released to the world, firstly in Japan on December 29th 1999, then to the rest of the world during the course of 2000. Bringing breathtaking visuals, soundtrack and more it changed the face of gaming. Also, over the years a number of Beta releases have emerged which are all documented here.
Beta Version v0.400 (Aug. 18th, 2000)
This version comes with a debug menu with a large amount of entry points allowing users to explore the areas and find differences between this and the final release.
Old Dojo Topic Thread: https://www.shenmuedojo.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=43133
Beta Version v0.100 (June 21st 2000)
(VIA SEGA DREAMCAST INFO GAMES PRESERVATION)
“This early American beta of Shenmue Dreamcast (ver. 0.100) was burned some 3 months before the final version (ver. 1.003) dated September 18, 2000. Its main interests lie in its impressive Debug Menus, its haphazard English translation and, above all, its historical aspect.”
This version of the game is close to final PAL release, so the differences are extremely minimal. There are some slight English subtitle differences, text of which would have been corrected or improved for the released game. You can read all the details by clicking the button above which will lead to the release page.
Screenshots below are from using the debug menu to access these “beta areas”.
