Some friends and I worked together to find the really old Battlefront 2 PC Beta.
First, download and install it:
http://www.mediafire.com/file/fypowtdbm865nwu/battlefrontiiengbeta1_1.exe/file
Once it is installed, browse to the LucasArts folder and to the Battlefront II Beta folder. You need to take common.lvl and shell.lvl from _LVL_PC and bring them into your hex editor app.
Common and Shell both feature two instances of the text string gPCBetaBuild - You need to overwrite something over all instances of gPCBetaBuild, whatever you want. I wrote gPCLegoBuild.
You needed to apply those edits because the beta was originally online-only but in the modern day, GameSpy is dead so that's impossible and the singleplayer menu tab would have been dimmed out.
Making those edits I explained above will allow all of the menu buttons to be available. Now the game still isn't fully playable and may not ever be. Once you're on the main menu you need to create an online session and choose LAN. From here you can pick your maps & settings. The beta only features Utapau, Tantive, and Space Yavin. The map files don't exist for any of the other levels.
You may only play using LAN as a host. Trying to play singleplayer results in the map ending as soon as it begins. You can't play using the internet option either because you'll get knocked offline with the "host register failed" message. I tried to apply the SWBFspy mod to the game exe and still got the same results.
There really isn't much that's different about the Beta compared to the original game. Menu textures are different. Menu items function differently, you need to use the arrow pad on your keyboard to change settings because there is no sliders. During gameplay I noticed that AI are using grenades a lot. I tested some admin commands like /changemap and /restart and they didn't work.
I am posting this just because I think it's cool to have.
Credits for helping find it: Teancum, Eyes Only, Michael.
Awesome! Always nice for me to see these betas being found to see what's in them.
The work of digital archaeologists will always be appreciated.
That's a nice find! I may have to give this a try.