Fifteen years after Fallout: New Vegas launched, a pair of preservationists just uncovered something remarkable. Two Xbox 360 development kits sat on the shelves of a mom-and-pop game store in Utah for nearly a year before MrPinball64 and Ventura from the newly formed Games’ Past channel bought them. Inside those dev kits were early prototype builds of New Vegas dating back to July 2010, filled with cut content, alternate designs, and debug tools that modders have never had access to before.
The recovered files are already making waves in the modding community. The prototypes include PDB files containing debug information that’s invaluable for reverse-engineering efforts. There are over 800 voice lines from Ulysses that were cut from the base game. An alternate Mr. House design that’s genuinely unsettling. Locations with extra NPCs, props, and details that were stripped out for console performance. The July 2010 build alone is 6GB, two gigabytes larger than the final retail version, and almost every file is bigger than what shipped.
How They Found the Dev Kits
Games’ Past bought three Xbox 360 development consoles from a game store in Utah after being tipped off by Kuriatsu. These development kits had been sitting on store shelves for nearly an entire year, and the team was able to negotiate the price down to something reasonable. One kit was from Atlas USA and contained prototypes for several Xbox Live Arcade games that they’re still recovering. The other two kits came from Obsidian Entertainment.
Once they saw what was on the Obsidian dev kits, they dropped everything and immediately started recovery work. The contents were too important to wait. After hundreds of hours and weeks of effort, they’ve now recovered and released the prototype builds along with crash dumps and debug files to the preservation community through Hidden Palace.
The July 2010 Build
The most complete prototype is dated July 21, 2010, exactly one month and one day before the game went gold for its October 2010 release. This build represents a critical point in development when Obsidian realized they needed to cut content to optimize performance for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.
The size difference tells the story. This prototype version is 6GB compared to the final game’s 4GB. Almost every asset is larger. More textures, more models, and most significantly, tons of temporary and cut audio that didn’t make it to retail. The build is filled to the brim with changes and content that never saw the light of day until now.
Major differences in the July prototype include:
- Original Mr. House design on terminal monitors that looks far more unsettling than the final version
- The Strip containing significantly more NPCs and Securitrons than retail
- Vulpes Inculta with white hair instead of dark hair
- Prospector Saloon sign in Goodsprings using a completely different design
- Extra props, foliage, and debris throughout locations that were removed for performance
- Cut NPCs like the Wasteland Adventurer who warns about deathclaws to the north
- All 800-plus Ulysses voice lines present in game files with his textures and models
- Multiple test rooms accessible via debug console that were removed from retail
- Adjusted lighting in numerous scenes compared to final version
The prototype is fully playable and can be emulated using Xenia or Xenia-Canary as of November 25, 2025, though there are occasional graphical glitches and crashes. For preservation and modding purposes, this build provides an unprecedented look at what New Vegas could have been without console hardware limitations.
The April 2010 Build
Games’ Past also recovered a second, earlier build dated April 17, 2010. Unfortunately, this one proved much more challenging. A large portion of the data had been overwritten over time, including all meshes and 80 percent of textures. While they can’t make it fully playable, they recovered everything that remained intact.
What survived from this earlier build still has value for researchers and modders. Scripts, partial textures, and data files provide context about development decisions made between April and July. Combined with the crash dumps dating back to December 2009, these fragments paint a picture of how the game evolved during its incredibly compressed 18-month development cycle.
The Crash Dumps
Beyond the working prototype builds, the team recovered and dissected over 50 crash dumps. These contain textures, scripts, and models dating all the way back to December 2009, months before the April build. They’ve sorted everything by build dates, making them easily accessible for modders and researchers who want to dig deeper into specific aspects of development.
Fallout: New Vegas was notoriously buggy throughout active development, which turned out to be a blessing for preservation. Every time the game crashed during development, it created memory dumps that preserved whatever was loaded at that moment. Those crashes became time capsules containing assets and code that might otherwise have been lost forever.
The PDB Files
Perhaps the most valuable discovery for the modding community is that all three builds came with intact PDB files. These Program Database files contain debug information that’s never been leaked before for any version of Fallout: New Vegas, or for any game before Fallout 4 for that matter.
PDBs are crucial for reverse-engineering work. They contain symbol information, function names, variable names, and other data that makes understanding and modifying compiled code exponentially easier. Without them, modders have to rely on educated guesses and painstaking analysis. With them, they can see exactly what developers intended and make much more sophisticated modifications.
The months ahead should prove exciting for the New Vegas modding scene as talented creators dig into these files and use the information to create new tools, fix long-standing bugs, and restore cut content in ways that weren’t possible before.
DLC Content
The prototype builds also contain early versions of the DLC expansions. Dead Money and Honest Hearts are either final or very close to final versions. Old World Blues and Lonesome Road, however, are still early in development and contain mountains of changes and cut content.
The Lonesome Road content is particularly interesting since this was the final DLC that focused heavily on Ulysses, the character whose 800-plus voice lines appear in the base game files of this prototype. Seeing how his story evolved between this early version and the final DLC release provides insight into how Obsidian shaped one of New Vegas’s most enigmatic characters.
What This Means for Preservation
This discovery represents a major win for video game preservation. Fallout: New Vegas had one of the most compressed development cycles for a game of its scope – just 18 months from start to finish. That breakneck pace meant massive amounts of content got cut, and most players assumed that content was lost forever.
The fact that these dev kits sat in a store in Utah for a year before anyone bought them highlights how much gaming history exists in random places, waiting to be discovered. If Games’ Past hadn’t acted when they did, these kits could have been wiped, thrown away, or disappeared into private collections where the data would never see public release.
Hidden Palace, the preservation group hosting these files, has become the de facto archive for prototype builds and unreleased games. Their work ensures that once something is recovered, it’s preserved for future generations of researchers, modders, and players who want to understand how games evolved during development.
Community Reaction
The New Vegas modding community has been ecstatic about these discoveries. Within hours of the release, modders were already dissecting files, comparing differences, and planning restoration projects. The PDB files in particular have generated enormous excitement because they unlock possibilities that simply didn’t exist before.
Some creators are focused on restoring cut content like the original Mr. House design or the additional NPCs that populated the Strip. Others are using the debug information to fix bugs that have existed for 15 years. Still others are studying the early DLC builds to understand how Obsidian’s narrative vision evolved over time.
Josh Sawyer, the game’s director, has commented in the past about what was cut and why. Now the community can see firsthand what those decisions looked like before they were made. The Gomorrah casino labyrinth that was simplified, the extended areas behind Vault 21, the extra roads and explorable spaces – all of it is visible in these prototypes.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I play these prototype builds?
Yes, the July 21, 2010 prototype is fully playable through Xbox 360 emulators like Xenia or Xenia-Canary. You’ll experience occasional graphical glitches and crashes, but the build is functional enough to explore most of the cut content firsthand.
Where can I download the prototypes?
Hidden Palace is hosting the recovered files. You can find them on the Hidden Palace website under Fallout: New Vegas prototypes. The files are available for preservation, research, and modding purposes.
What is a PDB file?
Program Database files contain debug information that helps developers and modders understand compiled code. They include symbol names, function information, and other data that makes reverse-engineering and modification much easier than working with raw compiled binaries.
Why was so much content cut?
Obsidian had to optimize Fallout: New Vegas to run on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 hardware from 2006. The additional NPCs, props, and environmental detail that appear in the July prototype caused performance issues on consoles, so content was removed to maintain acceptable frame rates.
Will modders restore the cut content?
Many modders are already working on restoration projects using these prototypes as reference. Some will focus on PC versions where hardware limitations aren’t as restrictive, allowing them to bring back content that was cut for console performance reasons.
Who are Games’ Past?
Games’ Past is a newly formed YouTube channel dedicated to unearthing prototypes and canceled videogames. Their first major release was these Fallout: New Vegas prototypes, establishing them as serious contributors to the game preservation community.
How did dev kits end up in a game store?
Development hardware often gets sold or disposed of when studios close, downsize, or upgrade to new console generations. Sometimes these items end up in liquidation sales or get sold to retailers who don’t fully understand what they have. That’s likely how these Obsidian dev kits ended up on store shelves in Utah.
What was the original Mr. House design?
The prototype shows an alternate, more unsettling version of Mr. House that appears on terminal monitors. This design was briefly shown in behind-the-scenes development footage but wasn’t publicly accessible until now. The final game used a different, less disturbing visual.
Are there other games on the dev kits?
Yes, one of the three dev kits contained prototypes for several Xbox Live Arcade games from Atlas USA. Games’ Past is still recovering those and plans to release them in the future.
Why This Matters
Fallout: New Vegas remains one of the most beloved RPGs ever made despite its technical issues and rushed development. The game’s reputation has only grown over the 15 years since release, with many considering it the best entry in the modern Fallout series. Discovering prototypes that show what the game could have been without hardware constraints adds new layers to that appreciation.
This story also highlights the precarious state of video game preservation. These dev kits sat in a store for a year. Anyone could have bought them, wiped them to use for homebrew, or simply thrown them away without realizing what was inside. The fact that preservation-minded individuals recognized their value and took immediate action to recover and share the contents publicly is remarkable.
For the modding community, these prototypes represent a treasure trove of possibilities. The PDB files alone change what’s possible in terms of understanding and modifying the game at fundamental levels. Combined with all the cut content, alternate designs, and early DLC builds, modders have years worth of material to work with.
Most importantly, this discovery proves that lost gaming history isn’t always lost forever. With dedication, resources, and a bit of luck, passionate preservationists can recover pieces of development history that provide invaluable insights into how beloved games were made. Fifteen years after Fallout: New Vegas launched, we’re still discovering new things about its creation, and thanks to Games’ Past, that history is now preserved for everyone to explore.