As you can see, these were all taken by someone called TARA200, who owns the demo. Some notes from the sender: "This was a beta version of the game. It was the preview version made for gaming magazines (so that they could review the game early), and one such reviewer apparently took screenshots and a photo of the cart."

The enemies all look slightly different, and it seems that there were going to be other, newer stages and areas. This would explain why, from my perspective, the game seems so short. It looks as though the final version was just another truncated effort due to those horrible deadlines--this I can only guess.

It was won on an eBay auction, to which the sender has the text: "THIS IS A SEGA MEGADRIVE CASTLEVANIA BLOODLINES PROTOTYPE. THIS IS AN ORIGINAL AND NOT A HOAX. I GOT THIS WHEN I WAS WORKING FOR A VIDEO GAMES MAGAZINE. GAME CONTAINS UNSEEN LEVELS - BOSSES AND SPRITES NEVER USED IN ANY OF THE KONAMI CASTLEVANIA GAMES. EXTREMELY RARE - PLEASE EMAIL ME FOR FULL INFORMATION AND SCANS -- ON -- (e-mail address deleted) INTERNATIONAL BIDDERS ARE WELCOME BUT I CAN ONLY ACCEPT US DOLLARS CASH AS PAYMENT. NO MONEY ORDERS OR INTERNATIONAL CHEQUES ACCEPTED. HAPPY BIDDING!"

The auction was apparently never won, so the owner, TARA200, just kept it for personal use.

(Contributed by "The Gargoyle")

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