Video footage of Sonic 1 prototype from CES 1991

Wonder if they were intended to drop the ball bomb things below them instead of sideways if that's the case.

 

From 8-bit Sonic 2's Gimmick Mt Zone:



Hmmm!!

 

Was that sprite actually used in S2ms? I don't remember it.

 

K, I guess I do owe everyone an apology. Nice find drx, I will never doubt you again.

 

Going by this version of the ballhog, I believe these were later replaced with the crabmeats as both badniks have similar movements. Just a theory though.

 

One possibility as to why we're seeing two different builds in the CES footage is that the first clip (as seen in drx's first video) is footage from a promotional video and not so much footage from the event. There's no background noise like it was at the event in that part of the video, suggesting that the people covering the highlights must have had a copy of the promotional video which was then edited into the rest of the CES footage. In the second clip (as seen in drx's second video), you can see it's someone playing the actual game and it's a different build from the first clip; there are background noises and so on.

 

This is an amazing find, no matter how short. The roulette monitors probably worked like the roulette crates from Crash Bandicoot 3, as some people have said.

 

Or perhaps those were just placeholders before they decided on the final monitor placement.

Awesome find, drx!

 

how about this?

That actually appears in a Green Hill-like level!

 

Is it doing that in the video? Doesn't seem like it but it's hard to tell from the quality.

 

To me, it looks like they're moving in a similar manner to Star Light Zone's bomb enemies, albeit a bit faster.

 

So this is the earliest we have seen of this game in action?!

Sweet! Guess they thought the Ball Hog fit GHZ better at the time.

I'm guessing they moved this enemy to the last zone because of how hard it is to dodge the bouncing balls, and people could have complained about its difficulty at that event, and it was forever moved to SBZ.

Of course it's all up in the air...

 

That's one interesting placeholder to me. I actually like the idea of a roulette monitor. Maybe in Sonic HD?

 

I call dibs on the roulette monitor.
Edit: I just remembered the '?' monitor, which would require less coding to use. So never mind.

 

The bandiks just move left to right like the crabmeat do, I'm not sure if they could do anything besides that. I'm pretty sure since they're up top and are looking towards the screen, they were meant to throw stuff down at Sonic rather than side to side.

Come to think of it, I wonder if crabmeat was even in at this point - or Sparkling Zone for that matter, since the zone is crawling with crabmeat bandiks even since the beginning.

 

Some more stuff, thanks to a slowed-down version of the videos that PACHUKA whipped up. New differences worth noting:

• The first ballhog inches slightly to the right in a backwards position; you can tell based on the amount of bush visible when Sonic first runs past the area and the amount visible just when it goes out of screen.
• The second ballhog appears to face the direction of the player, switching from looking left to looking right. Interestingly, the first one does not do this; perhaps there were several subtypes of the object that did different things? Or was this just a fluke?

I also think the second monitor visible in the first video might switch between different icons as well, but most of all I can see in the video is the static frame. The same applies to the monitor above the loop in the second video, though I'm significantly less sure about this.

 

*ahem* >.> Already called on that years ago when I came up with Slotter Rabbit (which is actually a frog now). Not only was it a monitor roulette, it was put in an enemy too. Though I'm glad to see Sonic Team thought it could be an interesting idea to try.

And yes, great footage drx. I wonder if there are any other possible events which have video of early builds? And hey, people who managed those events may or may not still have carts. Who knows?

 

Then again why ARE we calling dibs on this stuff? Not like we own it. :v:

 

Can we not argue about who owns something for a hack in a Sonic 1 proto topic please?

 

Bah don't take me too seriously =P I don't care if someone makes it or not. Honestly it'd just be cool to see it implemented. Though if they actually did the whole idea with the enemy I'd want some credit for the idea. But we're just talking about roulette monitors.