“CK 2.6 US Prototype” is a late localization prototype of the US build of Clockwork Knight for the Sega Saturn. While that might not seem like the most exciting thing ever, there are a few fun things to note about this build, so here we are!

Action Game — Source: CK 2.6 US Prototype - Title Screen

The Basics
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Released as part of Hidden Palace.org’s “Project Deulge” release^[1] (Part 2)^[2], this disc at first sight is quite interesting.

The build date of this localization prototype is February 6th, 1995, meaning it was compiled 50 days before the US retail build of the game (March 28th, 1995). The build was burned to a Sega Saturn branded CD-R (Common at the time for proto builds), with “2.6.95 ③ CK” and “Clockwork Knight U.S. Version” written on the CD.

Despite originally thinking there was only a single difference in this build, I’ve discovered there are actually a few more!

Differences
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The first difference is very small/subtle, but take a look at the copyright date on both title screens. It may escape you at first, but the CK 2.6 US Prototype’s copyright text is written as “© SEGA ENTERPRISES,LTD. 1995”, while in the NTSC-U/PAL retail version it is written as “© SEGA ENTERPRISES, LTD., 1995”. So, a space and an extra comma were added.

As previously noted in the Regional Differences page^[3], Dandy Bob’s colour was changed from pink/peach with blonde hair to blue with blue hair in the NTSC-U/PAL retail versions of the game. We won’t go into the reasons again here, but this leads us onto our next difference. As can be seen below, while Dandy Bob’s hair and skin have been changed to blue at this point of localization, his hands/neck remain pink/peach coloured, meaning this change was still being worked on.

Another difference noted is in the “Soltian Roulette” mini game. Nothing too exciting, but in the 2.6 US Proto we can see that some grammar/puncuation wasn’t quite right when it came to the localized character dialogue. This was of course fixed for the final NTSC-U/PAL version of the game, but it is interesting to see that even little things like this have to be looked at again. I actually missed these myself the first time I played this build, so it’s always worth taking a second look!