The legend

Since 2014 a "Metin2 2004 Beta Client" has been circulating. We showed it is the Chinese client from September 2005 (metin2-cn-2005-exe) F, and we had drawn a broader conclusion from it: a 2004 Metin2 client does not exist. I The conclusion was wrong.

A CD on the newsstand

In China the game was called 《倚天II》. The first closed beta (内测1) runs six days in late August 2004; the second (内测2) runs from October 8 to 15. F The monthly kids' magazine 少年电脑世界 masters its disc in the middle of the month before the issue date: the November 2004 issue thus ends up putting the second beta's complete installer on newsstands. I Of the six labels from August 2004 to January 2005, only the November one carries the game's branding. F

The disc was kept for twenty years by a period-CD collector. The client was opened with 7-Zip and read, never run. F

What the bytes say

The internal dates all fall within the week before the beta: PC.epk on 10/3/2004, the patcher on 10/7, root.epk at 00:02 on 10/8. F It is the oldest complete Metin2 client preserved, four and a half months before the oldest pack in the 2005 client (yitian2-client-2004-10). F

The same patcher, with the same build timestamp down to the second, sits inside the October 2004 Chinese launcher we already held (yt2-pack-exe-2004). F The two pieces of evidence confirm each other.

Inside is a different game: different cities, 310 monsters in mob_proto instead of 397, fishing, guild buildings, the YMIR GM logo. The warrior wears a teal-green gem around his neck; in 2005 it becomes red. F

The September magazine

The September disc contains no client. Page 51 of the magazine, however, presents 《倚天II》 and its "meteor system" (陨石系统): these are the Metin stones, told before the game had its Western name (sdnsj-2004-09-rivista-p51). I The caption speaks of "公测", public beta: in September the beta was still closed. F

The exhibition

3D models of the 2004 and 2005 warrior side by side, pack stratigraphy, armor, developer signatures, proto fingerprints and the beta server layout: all in the dedicated exhibition.