Imagine wandering around a flea market and stumbling on a piece of gaming history for just six bucks. That’s exactly what happened in Edinburgh, Scotland, when a guy named Jan picked up an Xbox 360 dev kit with a Rockstar North sticker on it. What’s inside? A treasure trove of early Grand Theft Auto IV content, including a beta build from 2007 and, wait for it, a cut zombie mode that was never released.
From a Car Trunk to the Internet: How This Dev Kit Became a Rockstar Surprise
Jan wasn’t even looking for this. A regular at boot sales (car boot sales, for those who don’t know, are basically flea markets), he spotted a bulky, odd-looking Xbox 360 unit. At first, he thought it was a weird modded console. But a closer look revealed a Sidecar attachment – a telltale sign of a development kit – and a Rockstar North label. Jan bought it for five pounds, or about six dollars, simply because he sensed it was something cool.
What Jan didn’t expect was the massive stash of GTA IV beta files inside. Over 120GB of data, to be exact, packed with early versions of the game, cut missions, unused vehicles, and radio DJ lines that didn’t make the final cut. The dev kit even had a file dated September 2007, roughly seven months before the game’s official launch.
The Zombie Mode Nobody Knew About (Until Now)
Here’s the real kicker: buried in the files are assets for a zombie mini-game. Think pickups, bloody hospital gurneys, and even mangled police bodies. It looks like Rockstar North was experimenting with adding zombies to Liberty City but never took it far enough to include it in the final game.
A former Rockstar developer who worked on GTA IV told us he didn’t remember much about the zombies mode, calling it more of an “experiment” by some artists that didn’t progress very far. Still, given Rockstar’s history of dabbling with zombie themes – like the Undead Nightmare DLC for Red Dead Redemption – it’s not a huge surprise this popped up.
More Than Just Zombies: Ferries, Weapons, and Music Cut From GTA IV
This dev kit isn’t just about zombies. It also holds a model for the Liberty City ferry that was featured in early trailers but cut from the final game. Rockstar’s former technical director confirmed ferries were dropped late in development because of tricky AI and collision issues. So if you ever wondered why you never saw those boats cruising the city’s waterways, here’s your answer.
There are also beta versions of weapons like an early AK-47 and a silenced pistol, plus radio tracks from artists like Run DMC and The Who that didn’t make it into the final soundtrack.
Jan’s Unexpected Rockstar Connection and What’s Next
Despite owning this incredible piece of Rockstar history, Jan admits he wasn’t a huge Rockstar fan before this find. He played some GTA V years ago, but never got fully into the series. Now, with the dev kit uploaded online and the fan community diving deep into the files, Jan’s curiosity has definitely piqued.
He’s already received offers north of 1,000 pounds to sell the dev kit, a massive return compared to his original five-pound purchase. After a quick and somewhat complicated eBay sale (the listing was taken down due to potential misunderstandings over included software), Jan is now considering private offers only.
For GTA fans and developers, this dev kit is like a time capsule. It gives us a rare look at the game’s unfinished ideas and development process nearly two decades ago. And for anyone who’s ever wanted to peek behind the curtain of how one of gaming’s biggest franchises was made, this is as close as it gets.
