It's amazing to see this resurface 20 years later, but I would appreciate if DevEd2 would provide more context.

Like the title says, I am glad to hear that this cancelled plug-and-play game has somehow re-surfaced all these years later. However, I wish DevEd2 would tell more of the story as to how this game resurfaced. I assume that they either found a physical prototype (perhaps even the one that was on display at the 2003 Toy Fair) or received the files from a developer. I understand that with this being a new dump, it isn't in a state to be emulated yet. It sounds like they working on that. They have quite a few GitHub projects related to videogame emulation. https://github.com/DevEd2

If they did find a physical prototype TV Game unit, or even just a circuit board, it would be really cool to see pictures. I haven't come across any pictures from the 2003 Toy Fair that show the unit that Wayforward was presenting at the time.

I did look at the Shantae.bin in a Hex Editor, and there is text is there that talks about this being the SunPlus demo.

��W�E�L�C�O�M�E� �T�O� �T�H�E� �S�U�N�P�L�U�S��S�H�A�N�T�A�E� �A�D�V�A�N�C�E� �D�E�M�O�!��P�L�E�A�S�E� �L�O�O�K� �A�R�O�U�N�D�!��P�R�E�S�S� �S�E�L�E�C�T� �A�N�D� �S�T�A�R�T��T�O� �S�E�E� �T�H�E� �S�C�E�N�E� �M�E�N�U�.��

00 00 57 00 45 00 4C 00 43 00 4F 00 4D 00 45 00 20 00 54 00 4F 00 20 00 54 00 48 00 45 00 20 00 53 00 55 00 4E 00 50 00 4C 00 55 00 53 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 53 00 48 00 41 00 4E 00 54 00 41 00 45 00 20 00 41 00 44 00 56 00 41 00 4E 00 43 00 45 00 20 00 44 00 45 00 4D 00 4F 00 21 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 50 00 4C 00 45 00 41 00 53 00 45 00 20 00 4C 00 4F 00 4F 00 4B 00 20 00 41 00 52 00 4F 00 55 00 4E 00 44 00 21 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 50 00 52 00 45 00 53 00 53 00 20 00 53 00 45 00 4C 00 45 00 43 00 54 00 20 00 41 00 4E 00 44 00 20 00 53 00 54 00 41 00 52 00 54 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 54 00 4F 00 20 00 53 00 45 00 45 00 20 00 54 00 48 00 45 00 20 00 53 00 43 00 45 00 4E 00 45 00 20 00 4D 00 45 00 4E 00 55 00 2E 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00

There are also some developer credits for Wayfoward Technologies.

��*�D�E�V�E�L�O�P�E�D� �B�Y��*�W�A�Y�F�O�R�W�A�R�D� �T�E�C�H�N�O�L�O�G�I�E�S��

00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 2A 00 44 00 45 00 56 00 45 00 4C 00 4F 00 50 00 45 00 44 00 20 00 42 00 59 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 2A 00 57 00 41 00 59 00 46 00 4F 00 52 00 57 00 41 00 52 00 44 00 20 00 54 00 45 00 43 00 48 00 4E 00 4F 00 4C 00 4F 00 47 00 49 00 45 00 53 00 00 00 00 00

��*�C�H�A�R�A�C�T�E�R� �A�N�I�M�A�T�I�O�N�:��R�O�B� �B�U�C�H�A�N�A�N��L�U�K�E� �B�R�O�O�K�S�H�I�E�R��

00 00 2A 00 43 00 48 00 41 00 52 00 41 00 43 00 54 00 45 00 52 00 20 00 41 00 4E 00 49 00 4D 00 41 00 54 00 49 00 4F 00 4E 00 3A 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 52 00 4F 00 42 00 20 00 42 00 55 00 43 00 48 00 41 00 4E 00 41 00 4E 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 4C 00 55 00 4B 00 45 00 20 00 42 00 52 00 4F 00 4F 00 4B 00 53 00 48 00 49 00 45 00 52 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00

Without additional context, I guess there will be a part of me that questions whether this was real, even if the file contents look convincing. If it is a hoax, then DevEd2 put a lot of effort into it. I don't expect to see this emulated anytime soon, though that would be amazing. I would like to hear more of the story of how it was found though.