New Sonic 2 development lore drop - Genocide/Cyber City palette and art!

I had the same thought. We treat some of these people like they're never to be approached under any circumstances. And while I understand this being the case 20 years ago, are we really to refuse basic human interaction for eternity? I think a responsible, mature person who knows how to approach people and ask the right questions could potentially wedge that door open. Unless she has severe psychological torment over her experience (which I doubt), I have to imagine she'd be willing to exchange a few nice words at a minimum.

Just my two cents. We shouldn't be babies about this stuff. Talking to people is normal as long as it's not harassment.

Edit: NOBODY SHOULD DO THIS WITHOUT THE CONSCENT OF FOLKS ON THE FORUMS.

 

Maybe if we show her what we found, she might be willing to give us more info.

 

Perhaps. But I think just having a good sense of how to interact with people would go a long ways.

For the record, I am NOT suggesting just some random person on these forums try their hand at it because they think they can do it. In this particular case, I'd recommend maybe an oldbie or someone who's been around the block a few times try their hand at it. Maybe COORDINATE on the forums first so we don't get ten different people approaching her, or approaching in a truly off-putting or awkward way.

 

I don't think what the community knows is going to have any influence on whether or not she is willing to talk to a stranger about a project from 30 years ago that she might barely remember at all and most likely doesn't even care about anymore. I don't know Brenda Ross, so maybe there is a way to approach her or there is someone here that can do it, but while it might be tempting, I personally think it's better to avoid contacting people unless we're absolutely sure they will comfortable with it

 

For the record, Ross already answered this question over 20 years ago:

I don't know if it's right to track her down just to ask "Are ya sure?"

 

Do we still have access to Stealth or some of the old community members that worked on Sonic Mania?
That might be a good way to go if we can get one of them to contact her.

 

I will stand with DefinitiveDubs here and ask... what exactly are we looking from Brenda Ross?

 

That's fair. I didn't realize that was one of the questions. I haven't read that in years.

She could potentially give us new insights if anyone has interesting questions to pose. Everytime we talk to one of these people, we usually learn at least one or two new things. I stand by my remarks that we shouldn't be afraid of people because of a bad experience 20 years ago. And to be blunt, these former employees aren't immortal. But contacting her without a clear goal in mind probably isn't the best plan of action either.

 

She said she has nothing conclusively there.

These Cyber City assets are a lucky draw. I doubt it was really allowed for them to leave Sega “vaults.”

 

I would rather our efforts focus on trying to uncover info on R2/Dubious Depths when all this settles. Brenda likely doesn't have anything else, as she said, and there are few others who would.

It's also is likely Brenda simply was not treated all that well in her time on the project, which is why she has been more negative about the whole experience. All of her material was cut.

I would love to see "Dust Hill" finally rebuilt, but in truth if that material is anywhere else, it would not be in her hands. We appear to be lucky that Tom kept what he did, and there are few avenues left.

Also, need I remind people, all this material has not been fully released yet. We should wait until we have all the documents before forming any plans about what we do or do not want to pursue next, especially since most of this was handled by an organization outside of our core community.

 

You could do it

(although what happened to the Sonic CD poking that was going to happen - I even wrote questions for that one)


Genuinely though the requirements as I see it are

a) a trusted name. Didn't Scarred Sun put yours on some biscuits once?

b) knowledge of the game's development. Which we should all have, but you've been around long enough to watch the community get that knowledge (so knowledge of knowledge)

c) patience. You keep posting in these topics while I just want to berate people for one-sentence replies, reaction images and nonsensical theories that hurt my head.


It's really just about avoiding leading questions, unless you're not getting a response. Or more specifically, not throwing those damned concept islands at her and say "lol where's your desert zone".


That being said, while Brenda Ross might have found a box of floppy disks in her attic at some point in the last twenty years, I don't think there's much we could extract from her in regards to Sonic 2. I still think the key is sitting with the Japanese devs, particularly Yasushi Yamaguchi who is not only active on Twitter, but probably oversaw all of Brenda's work anyway.


And I wouldn't do anything until we get these scans.

 

I was just about to suggest getting in touch with Yamaguchi. He was the head honcho of the art department after all.

Unfortunately, he has been very tight-lipped lately about things related to Sonic. He was answering some fan questions about Sonic 2's development a few months ago, but eventually stopped and he actively avoids questions related to Sonic 2 now, even those directly related to his art. Either he's afraid of divulging secrets, or someone at SEGA asked him to shut up. While retired video game developers like Tom Payne and Craig Stitt might not care about divulging company secrets without permission, the Japanese developers are a totally different story. Not only are they still working, but there's just an entirely different culture there. These are the people who won't even confirm whether they composed a track for Sonic 3 or not.

I think a better course of action would be for a trusted member of the community, with the right connections, to contact SEGA directly and ask not only for permission for developers to share materials, but contact information for those developers that isn't just their Twitter account.

 

I'm still trying to get comfortable with the idea of interviewing various former sceners in an effort to document a bit of our history. I'm not sure if I'd be any good at it. Although I definitely am actively exploring that if my previous posts on the board are any indication.

But I already spoke with her somewhere around 1999 or 2000. I have that interview archived somewhere on my backup drive, but honestly ICEknight did a better job than I did at interviewing her.

But I concede that without the possibility of tangible materials, there's not a whole lot we are likely to learn from her, at least as far as the questions I can come up with go.

 

Emphasize that it’s for video game history and important for Sega’s legacy if anyone ends up pursuing anything in the future.

 

I think it needs to be said now before it gets out of hand. No one here should take it upon themselves to reach out to any of the former members of Sega. You get a few people who think they'll "pull a fast one" and get the edge by reaching out first without warning the group. This leads to them getting hounded by a ton of unprofessional people and sours the relationship for another 10 years. DO NOT take it upon yourself to reach out. If it's warented, check these threads and insure it's coming from one source.

The Video Game History folks seem to be the best suited for it, as it really sits in their ball field and also can be used to raise funds.

 

I don't think it's a great idea for anyone to prod Brenda, Yamaguchi OR Sega in general about this. As much as I'd like all the answers, it's best to just accept what we have in the present day and let whoever give us what they're willing to give. It's very good that we're eager to preserve video game history, but no need for us to get too overzealous on completing a puzzle.

Best to remember in these moments that our goal is not to "complete" Sonic 2, because we already have that. It's called Sonic 2. Rather, it's just to see and understand the development process and archive as much as we can. And you know, some stories we're never gonna know the whole to, if at all. We're lucky to know as much as we do now.

 

Something to consider is that once we have the new material archived and public (so as to make takedown and overreactions impossible), the right person approaching could invoke some nostalgia if addressed properly. This is stuff they may not have seen for 30 years, and that can bring back memories.

Also, I haven't forgotten about all this, but our efforts shifted a bit when this topic came to light around the same time. It's better to peruse what we have a close connection with that's concrete right now, then we can reorganize and revisit the other materials later.

Also, to reiterate what has been said just above me. Wait before we actively do anything else. Again, we haven't even analyzed what's been recovered yet. No one should poke or prod further until the Tom Payne docs are thoroughly in our hands and appropriate time has been taken to review them. This is stuff that's been teased to us for about 4 years now, if you actually followed the story.

 

I'm already talking to additional former staff as part of this process and I recommend not muddying those waters (and making my job harder) by doing the same.

 

Here's one more potential connection I haven't seen brought up.