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The Truth About Dust Hill Zone

Discussion in 'General Sonic Discussion' started by Tweaker, Sep 13, 2008.

  1. NemUK

    NemUK

    Probably lurkin'. Member
    This wins the internets. Awesome stuff :D.
     
  2. evilhamwizard

    evilhamwizard

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    If a prototype was created and given to press/media/magazines/etc, then they would've put pictures all over by now. If you ment in house builds, then maybe that could be true. The art for Dust Hill was definitely finished though, since I guess it was needed to create the mockup.

    thx tweaker
     
  3. MK

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    Brenda Ross stated that the art for Dust Hill was completed, yes.

    ...

    Fuck, it's so surreal being able to use the name Dust Hill.
     
  4. Rob Jinnai

    Rob Jinnai

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    Okay, so you guys aren't going to double back on this like you did with Brenda Ross and later say "YASUHARA JUST DIDN'T REMEMEBER BECAUSE TWEAKER AND SIK SAID 'DUST HILL' AND YASUHARA JUST CALLED IT THAT." Granted, Ross did eventually admit it, but people weren't accepting it beforehand. :P

    The funny thing about all of this is that with software development it can be hard to determine what is ever true. "Dust Hill" can be put in the Level Select with intent of it being there, and it just never got around to it. I mean, you have your Nick Arcade proto with the level select of "MARBLE ZONE" going to what would be Chemical Plant. I've said for years that Level Select names are ultimately irrelevant unless you can definitively tie them to their eventual final selves. As to how this great confusion happened... who really knows? Maybe the missing piece of the puzzle is something to do with Mystic Cave using guts from the very short-lived desert level? I don't know and I'm not going to speculate about it right now.
     
  5. T.Q.

    T.Q.

    The Sims 2, Tim Drake [Robin] Member
    Since you guys have contact with Hirokazu Yasuhara, maybe you can ask him questions about the planning of Sonic 2, before any demos, alphas, and betas were created (e.g. storyboarding, other concept arts). Maybe we can find out what descriptive names each zones was given (e.g. skyscraper zone as Oil Ocean). Basically, a formal interview about the intial stages of Sonic 2.
     
  6. MK

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    Well the Sonic 2 names were most likely still in development too. I /think/ Chemical Plant was referred to as Chemical Factory at some point, I'm sure the others didn't have definite names either. Emerald Hill may have been Neo Green Hill for all we know, and Aquatic Ruin was just pushed to that slot later even if the name was not intended for it, as was clearly done for Mystic Cave.
     
  7. The Taxman

    The Taxman

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    Well now we know this, I think it's pretty likely that Dust Hill did exist in a build of Sonic 2 at one point, considering Wood Zone did, which was started after the Dust Hill tiles were finished according to Brenda. Which could mean that by the Simon Wai build the looming deadline had already changed their plans for the game. Wood Zone was just a left over, waiting to be deleted, Genocide City was an empty slot never filled and Mystic Cave had moved in to Dust Hill's slot in the level select. The slot name didn't change because they obviously didn't care too much about misnamed levels at the time (Green Hill, Neo Green Hill etc)

    Of course this is just late night speculation for me... :P
     
  8. Puto

    Puto

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    <!--quoteo(post=224763:date=Sep 13 2008, 08:18 PM:name=MK)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (MK @ Sep 13 2008, 08:18 PM) [​IMG]
     
  9. BlazeHedgehog

    BlazeHedgehog

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    All along, I knew you guys were only trying to be logical about the whole "We don't know that Dust Hill is the desert level so let's not assume anything", but I always thought that was sort of dumb.

    Feels really good to finally have this all sorted out properly. Now: What about the cacti on Little Planet? :colbert:
     
  10. Sik

    Sik

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    That was the main reason for the second question, because I was unsure if the same thing happened again. Sending both pics of Mystic Cave and Dust Hill should have made it clear if it was Mystic Cave and not the desert level. And not only he said it was the Desert Level, he even pointed out a YouTube video with Esrael's recreation which nobody ever mentioned. So I don't think so this time.

    Give him a break, geese! >_>
     
  11. T.Q.

    T.Q.

    The Sims 2, Tim Drake [Robin] Member
    Well of course! I didn't say to ask him now. Although if that was what you thought was implied, then my apologies for not detailing my post enough. I meant for future interviews.
     
  12. MathUser

    MathUser

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    You mean yesterday?
     
  13. saxman

    saxman

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    One thing I did note in the past (before I decided to side with ICEknight) was that Oil Ocean has a blazing hot sun. It just happens to be the level before Mystic Cave (0A -> 0B).

    While we're on the subject, something I always thought was that slot 06 was used for the winter level before being scrapped and eventually turned into Wing Fortress.
     
  14. Sik

    Sik

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    And you forget the arabian-like music it had...
     
  15. JoseTB

    JoseTB

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    Soo it turns out whoever came with the by that time somehow "random" assumption that dust hill = desert level was actually right... well, this was indeed unexpected for me :P nice find.
     
  16. Wetflame

    Wetflame

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    What's worse is that I've known this for a day or two :P

    Seriously though, how did Dust Hill end up being assigned to Mystic Caves? That's what I really want to know. Also whether Dust Hill was meant to have the snow section - that makes sense, as I said "Dust" describes both snow and sand(though is technically incorrect for both - particles considered dust are actually 75% and under the size of sand grains, but kids won't know this).

    I'll have to wait see if he responds to my questions and see if I can fire another one at him, but I've no idea how often he checks the site, maybe not that often.

    I think this is good for the community because it highlights the importance of theories and logical reason over "technical evidence", which in this case turned out to be meaningless due to it being little more than procrastination on keeping the level select and title cards up to date. I don't want people to take away from this "Oh so that crazy crowd just so happened to be right". Anything could happen to be right by "chance", like Xenu really DOES exist, but that's a random belief drawn out of air; there was reason to back this conclusion.

    I hope this changes the way we think about "research" in the future, and brings back the fun and wonder of the A51 back into the spotlight, at least a little.
     
  17. MK

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    Brenda Ross was asked about this in an interview and said they weren't related, if I recall correctly.
     
  18. Hivebrain

    Hivebrain

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    I would prefer some physical evidence, like a ROM or some concept art.
     
  19. muteKi

    muteKi

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    Now, it never was clear for me -- were there supposed to be in-level transitions to ice areas a la Freezeflame from Mario Galaxy?


    In that case the idea isn't that random. To wit: http://info.sonicretro.org/Diamond_Dust_Zone
     
  20. Tweaker

    Tweaker

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    Magazine scans and nonsensical technical tidbits. They still don't make sense, admittedly (I guess that was the point you were making), but I suppose reasoning held credence over magazine scans. =P

    This experience has definitely taught me to never trust magazine scans again, though. Final Fever? Pff! :colbert:

    I don't mean to be blunt or anything, but I don't think he's going to check that website. If we decide to maintain contact to ask questions, it will likely be through Sik and Senn again, and we'll have to plan it out very carefully—he's very simple when answering questions, so we'll have to be simple in asking them.