After over 20 years, a pre-release version of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City just leaked online, featuring a debug menu, old beta designs, and even a different intro.
As reported by Time Extension, this build was shared by GTA Forums user IAmNotToniCipriani, who said that it was first dumped online by "johndoe2". The build is dated October 2, 2002, but as pointed out by Hidden Palace, the pause menu shows the real compile date of October 1, 2002, ie 28 days before the game launched on PS2.
Fans also just launched a Vice City remaster.
In such a short timeframe, you wouldn't expect much to have been changed, but fans speculate that this pre-release build is actually a press preview copy, possibly for GameSpot, and not one intended for the public. That could explain the laundry list of differences, such as beta car models, different Swat team designs, an earlier version of the theme song, alternate cutscene angles, and white police cars.
That's just scratching the surface of what's different between the newly found pre-release build and the release version. On a GTA Forums post dedicated to the Vice City beta, user BS_BlackScout continues to share...
