PAL Dreamcast promotional variants fall into two main categories...'standard' promotional releases and white label press releases
Each image gallery can be accessed via the drop-down list within the site navigation tab 'PAL (PROMO)':
Standard promotional releases can usually be identified by a small white label stating 'PROMOTIONAL COPY NOT FOR RESALE'. However, as Dreamcast cases are notoriously fragile, these promotional stickers may be missing when broken or damaged cases have subsequently been replaced
In some instances, the promotional sticker was applied directly to the front cover artwork instead of the case front
Regarding standard promotional game discs, most have a promotional statement printed around the centre hole of the disc, although some discs have the statement printed in situ on the disc itself (e.g., Gunbird 2)
The majority of promotional discs also utilise a 'P-' prefix as part of the disc code(s)
A few game titles do not have any promotional reference, statement or disc code prefix to differentiate themselves from standard retail releases. This makes it practically impossible to identify them as promotional versions if the promotional sticker is missing from the case or front cover. Examples of such game titles include Dino Crisis and Resident Evil 3: Nemesis
Also noteworthy is the promotional variant Kao the Kangaroo which was released with no case artwork
Click the image below for a gallery of standard promotional releases within the collection:
The other type of promotional Dreamcast discs are 'white labels'
Additionally referred to as 'press-copies' or 'sample-copies', these variants were predominantly distributed by SEGA EUROPE to press and marketing agencies for game previewing purposes. They may also have been distributed to department stores for use in shop kiosks
A number of variants released by developer Acclaim used characteristic Amaray 'clamshell' cases with each variant including a language-specific manual (e.g. English, French and Dutch, German or Spanish and Italian) aligned to the Country of releaseÂ
Whilst the majority of white label discs featured a full-working version of the game which was aligned to the retail release, there are some noteable exceptions. For example, Half-Life only contained a 'rolling' video demo and The Flinstones (Viva Rock Vegas) never actually made it to the shops as a full-release game
To date (May 2023), there are 163 documented white label titles, with several of these titles also having second versions (e.g., Dead or Alive 2, Giant Killers, Pod 2, Rayman 2, Speed Devils Online Racing and Virtua Tennis)
Click the image for a gallery of white labels currently in the collection
Click the image for a gallery of Acclaim white labels and their clamshell cases
This image gallery also includes the clamshells for the bundle and promotional releases of Dead or Alive 2 and Shadow Man (both non-white label discs)
Click the image for a gallery of (known) white labels still to be procured