World Series Baseball 2K2 and Its Prototypes: The Technical Art of Hitting a Baseball on Dreamcast
World Series Baseball 2K2 Dreamcast was released in stores on August 14, 2001, with the promise of turning around a franchise that had fallen behind after a disappointing first installment. Indeed, the previous year SEGA had commissioned Wow Entertainment, the studio behind the Dreamcast game SEGA GT, to develop World Series Baseball 2K1, a title that was widely criticized for its limited gameplay and lack of realism. From this point of view, WSB 2K2 positioned itself as a symbol of redemption for Dreamcast fans and baseball sports simulation enthusiasts.
A Render from a Press Kit
Aware of the collapse of the series that began on the Game Gear in 1993, SEGA listened to feedback from players and journalists to improve the formula and erase the failure of WSB 2K1. There was no question of merely tweaking the previous engine; it had to be rebuilt from scratch, with reworked animations, careful attention to visual details, more advanced management modes, and a strong focus on player behavior on the field. The goal was to deliver a completely new game rather than a simple extension of World Series Baseball 2K1.
The Japanese company therefore entrusted the heavy task of handling World Series Baseball 2K2 to Visual Concepts, one of SEGA’s rising stars. However, VC only supervised the project, as Blue Shift, Inc. (BSI) was responsible for its actual development. Far from perfect but sincere in its efforts, the development of WSB 2K2 lasted around 15 months.
Blue Shift, Inc., founded in 1995 by John Brooks, Doug Snyder, John Salwitz, Will Noble, Bob Flanagan and Dave Ralston, primarily acted as a technical or co-development studio rather than a fully autonomous one. BSI built its reputation on the technical expertise of its staff, particularly in graphics-related areas (rendering, animation compression, etc.), which was especially important for sports games of that era. Blue Shift still exists today under the name Take-Two Interactive Software Vancouver ULC, suggesting that the studio was absorbed by Take-Two at an unknown date.
During the development of WSB 2K2, the Blue Shift team encountered a multiplayer bug. The limited memory of the Dreamcast development kits (Katana) in their possession prevented the developers from tracking down and fixing the issue. SEGA Japan then provided them with a custom development kit containing more memory.
The Splash Screen with the Blue Shift Logo
With 28 teams and 700 licensed players, WSB 2K2 offers five game modes: Exhibition, Season, Playoffs, online multiplayer matches, and a Home Run Derby, along with a 162-game season format (including Playoffs). Plenty to keep virtual baseball fans entertained for hours!
Who will pitch the perfect game? Who will have the skill on the controller to retire every batter from the opposing team in order, without letting a single one reach first base?
The May 17, 2001 Prototype
Important:
I am experiencing difficulties properly emulating the prototypes of World Series Baseball 2K2 as well as its final version. I am unable to navigate the Menus correctly, nor select the desired options or Sub-Menus. The analysis of the build highlighted on this page—the oldest version of the title in my possession—is limited to my interactions with the game and an overview only.
The contents of the beta files indicate that it was created on May 17, 2000, at 00:12:32. It predates the American final release by roughly three months. This version of World Series Baseball 2K2 for Dreamcast has its share of drawbacks, which is normal for a game still in development. Compared to other Visual Concepts prototype games—often as far from their final versions as this WSB 2K2—the milestone represented by this build from Blue Shift is the closest to what the game would eventually look like upon release.
When the prototype starts the title screen appears immediately, without displaying the usual Splash Screens showing the publisher, developer, etc., or the live-action video highlighting the baseball players of the 2001/2002 season.
The title screen shows differences compared to the final version, notably a smaller visual logo for World Series Baseball 2K2 and a different arrangement of the contributing brand logos (SEGA, MLB Players Choice, MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL). The background also lacks the copyright notice “© SEGA Corporation, 2001” and the “MPEG Sofdec Copyright © 1998 CRI” text along with its logo. Additionally, this prototype does not trigger an automatic demo if no human input occurs after a set period.
Title Screen Differences (prototype on the left, final version on the right)
The game’s audio suffers from numerous shortcomings: unusual navigation sound effects with a strange echo when played, no music on the Title Screen or in the Menus, and crowd noise that continues even after exiting a match and returning to the main menu.
As part of WSB 2K2 reaching GOLD status, the Blue Shift developers renamed certain Menus and their accompanying options. In some places there are less options than in the final. Just to note, the Menus do not yet display the distinctive World Series Baseball 2K2 emblem in the upper-left corner of the screen, showing only the abbreviation WSB 2K2 in a standard font. Some of the name changes include:
Prototype
Menu « H R DERBY »
Menu « TOURNAMENT »
Menu « SELECT TEAM »
Menu « TOURNAMENT MODE »
« options » from the Main Menu
Final Version
Menu « DERBY RULES »
Menu « PLAYOFFS »
Menu « TEAM SELECT »
Menu « PLAYOFFS MODE »
« custom » from the Main Menu
The user interface that explains to the player how to interact with the Menus, or to make them look more visually appealing, is incomplete. There is no highlighting of buttons to initiate actions such as “Y (help)”, “B (back)”, and “START (advance)”, nor aesthetic elements like the “SEGA SPORTS” logo.
A Placeholder
The message “Default Dialog Help dialog for this screen is not in yet”, which resembles a Placeholder, occasionally appears when opening help with the “Y” button in the Menus of World Series Baseball 2K2, instead of showing the controller commands for navigation. In the same vein, some Menus contain textual reminders describing what is missing to complete a given area. An example of this can be seen in the “PARTICIPANTS” Sub-Menu of the Home Run Derby: “description of the players goes here”.
Menus related to players and their teams (for example, “bullpen” and “substitutions” under “team options” in the Pause Menu) rarely display an image of the selected baseball player. Other times, as in the “PARTICIPANTS” Sub-Menu of the Home Run Derby, the athlete’s portrait glitches by drawing outside of its frame and repeating the face three times.
The “Game Options” Menu (“options”) in the Pause Menu contains fewer game settings than the final version, and the way to configure them changes from one version to another.
Baseball teams do not yet have their records displayed under the cap-style model that identifies them in the team selector.
The “Replay” mode (Pause Menu) does not yet have its usage instructions when pressing “Y”. However, the buttons associated with its operation do work. The camera’s movable cursor is yellow rather than white. The “START” button to go back is temporarily labeled “exit” in the prototype, instead of “back” as in the final version.
The SEGA SPORTS Watermark
A “WORK IN PROGRESS” watermark with the SEGA SPORTS logo appears in the upper-left corner of the screen once in the Pause Menu.
The prototype lacks a Loading Screen. Loading times, which are slower than normal, occur on a black screen.
This prototype of WSB 2K2 deserves a closer examination of the integration of the baseball players’ AI and the game modes, which for some appear in an unfinished but functional form.
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You can download this build of World Serie Baseball 2K2 Dreamcast below
World Series Baseball 2K2 (May 17, 2001 Dreamcast Prototype)
The Other Prototypes of World Series Baseball 2K2
No in-depth research has been conducted on the prototypes listed below. They are available for direct download.
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This article is dedicated to the beta versions of World Series Baseball 2K2 for Dreamcast. It serves as a supplement to the article focused on the work of Visual Concepts, covering the making-of of their iconic titles, with exclusive testimonies that put them into perspective, as well as the Dreamcast prototypes of: Floigan Bros.: Episode 1 - NFL 2K1 - NCAA College Football 2K2 - NBA 2K - NBA 2K1 - NBA 2K2 - Fantasy Prototype (Proof of Concept) - NHL 2K - NHL 2K2 - World Series Baseball 2K2 - Over The Top Soccer (Unreleased) - ToeJam & Earl III Mission to Earth (Unreleased) - Ooga Booga. Discover the entire preservation project dedicated to this talented SEGA-affiliated studio on following page: [The Rise of Visual Concepts in the SEGA Era: Prototypes and Behind the Scenes of the Making of Their Dreamcast Classics]
Special thanks to:
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Sadako Playerone.tv for proofreading and correcting the French text
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woofmute for the English translation of the article
Really special prototypes (big differences, early Builds, weird ones, etc.): Guilty Gear X (DC) - Dead or Alive 2 (DC) - Samba De Amigo (DC) - Virtual-On Oratorio Tangram (DC) - Spirit of Speed 1937 (DC) - Re-Volt (DC) - Phantasy Star Online (DC) - San Francisco Rush 2049 (DC) - Evil Twin: Cyprien's Chronicles (DC) - Toy Racer (DC) - Space Channel 5 (DC) - Sega Smash Pack Vol.1 (DC) - Red Dog (DC) - Propeller Arena (DC) - Half-Life (DC) - Jet Set Radio (DC) - Daytona USA 2001 (DC) - Floigan Bros. Episode 1 (DC) - NBA 2K1 (DC) - NFL 2K1 (DC) - NHL 2K (DC) - World Serie Baseball 2K2 (DC)
More than 300 prototypes have been digitized. You will find them available for free download in the section: [Dreamcast prototypes (and more) available for download]
