Let's just not forget that the timming is simply perfect, with the discovery/release of the prototype Resident Evil 1 for the Game Boy Color. Are we seeing a pattern here? So, I believe someone probably just wanted some attention and jumped on the prototype waggon. Hahaha!
Enough with this, please. We do not know for certain, especially with some of the things recently raised in this topic. If you're just going to spam it up then you know what'll happen (om nom nom). Has anyone from here tried contacting this person on Youtube to find out how this is being played? (Cart, ROM, something else, whatever.) It might be a good opening to establish an actual rapport with the person instead of just being "lol dis b fake", and may open up the way to more "footage", etc.
Being honest here, if this thing "was real". I'd imagine so many problems trying to sell it. Correct me if I'm wrong, wasn't the sonic 1 alpha/beta stolen? From what I'm aware the property in question was missing from SEGA's vault. I'm not completely sure but I'd imagine some legal trouble somewhere here... Not to mention its a piece of history... I'm sure SEGA would try to do anything in their power to get it back. Not gonna lie... if there was no stipulations into selling the cart, I doubt "VERY MUCH" we would even be able to get a hold of it. The Sonic 1 beta is literally a goldmine easily worth thousands and thousands of dollars... Hell, maybe even millions. The fact that it has never been dumped, no other copies known to man exists and SEGA themselves no longer have it probably makes it even that more valuable. Realistically speaking, If I was the owner, there would be no chance in hell I would give it to the community to dump it or dump it myself. It would degrade its value. For all we know, the cart (or any copies for that matter) may not even exist anymore.
This has gone on for too long. It's time for the person who did this to come out and admit it's a fake. I know it's a fake. Ignoring all speculative points and simply sticking to hard facts, here's why it's fake: - Buildings overlapping mountains between 0:53 and 0:55 in the first video... again, this would be difficult to do that on the Genesis. Is it possible? Sure, it is technically possible, but not realistic. It would be a programming nightmare. Sonic 3 does it because the sections that overlap in the background cycle. The same goes for Hill Top in Sonic 2. However in this, those buildings in front of those mountains do not cycle at all. It therefore doesn't make any sense. As for 7 layers of scrolling that Naka claims -- that would make sense if the trees and rocks in the front were objects that scrolled at a different speed. Therefore, it's simply unreasonable to accept this as scrolling done on the Genesis. This person knows nothing about the Genesis VDP. - Neither location in the two tech demo pictures we have are shown in this demo. Look at them closely. It's not the same. Even without the sign, let's just focus on the first picture -- there's no flat land anywhere in this video. Period. - The clouds are completely different. Again, look at the pictures we have. Those clouds are nowhere to be found in this demo. The clouds shown in the video are from the special stage. They are not the same. - The mountain peaks are rounded off. It's not the original artwork. Look at the tech demo pictures, and then look at this video. The creator had to redraw those moutains. They're not authentic. Prototype pictures link: http://www.gamesradar.com/super-rare-1990-sonic-the-hedgehog-prototype-is-missing/ This person is laughing at everyone right now. I don't belittle anyone who was fooled. I am only saying this person has had enough fun, and now it's time to face the music and admit he couldn't trick researchers like me, Taxman, and others who know this thing isn't real. Pranks are fine as far as I'm concerned, but now it's getting out of hand -- there's a post about it on TSSZ, there's talk about it on other forums, and the videos have over one thousand views. You've had a laugh. Now stop. Come out and tell us who you are so we can put an end to the wild speculation and wonder.
In fact, if I were him, I wouldn't show up! I mean... people even contacted Naka and other acclaimed devs and tricked them! I'd be realized! If you stop to analyze the videos, not a single art matches (other than the checkboard pattern) but believing into finding that 1990 proto was now closer than ever was what kept people's faith.
http://forums.sonicretro.org/index.php?showuser=17068 Looks as though we have a visitor. Hopfully he'll say more about it. Fake or not
If you increase the collision size of Sonic enough, you can get collisions exactly like those in the movie: Sonic only overlaps with terrain/objects because his collision box is smaller than his sprite dimensions suggest. For all we know, a prototype could have had a different hit box size that was tweaked later for playability. Now, I am skeptical that this is real; but this argument is not very good to prove that.
Ok so if all the proof up until now hasn't been enough then I don't see why this would hurt it's fake status. I have burned my eyes out looking at these magazine photos, analyzing them and recreating them, so much so that they are eternally etched into my mind. Not to mention the clouds are completely different, the only ones we do have to compare it to are missing entirely. The bushes may be seen as grasping at straws, but you can't deny the mountains are too different yet too similar to be anything but a good attempt at recreation. I am firm in my belief that I am right about the bushes as well. I'm not making any color comparisons, due to the colors probably being washed out, and the fact that I, being colorblind, have absolutely no right in talking about if a color is correct. Regardless I enjoy this video because it is a nicely done recreation of what it might've been like had we ever found this proto.
This "beta" looks very impressive on video, fake or not. Not being technically minded I would personally not be able to spot it's fake immediately, but I do share several concerns with the way these demo videos are being played. Does kinda seem like the guy is trying too hard to stay in one small area, do certain things that normal people wouldn't do unless they where trying too hard to make it look different. Naka's quote seems a bit ambiguous, although the comment about object placement seems to infer he either doubts or does not entirely believe this to be legitimate. Unless more substantial proof emerges I can't make a decision. I like to give people the benefit of the doubt, but if people are in true possession of something like this but are unwilling to share every detail, then they shouldn't reveal that they have it at all. At the end of the day, the guy IS trolling, fake or not.
I have a WAY clearer image to compare the footage to, so I've put together a really good comparison shot with both the Sonic sprites side by side with the correct proportions and everything. By the way, after comparing the very low quality, halftone dotted to hell scan of the widely known distributed image of this tech demo with the version that I have, I've began to notice that the visibility of mine shows details that I think the Sonic community may have never seen before. What comes to a surprise to me is the fact that, after searching the internet, there was no copy of my detailed version of this image on the Internet! IMO, I think my version should definitely be considered archiving in the wiki section about this tech demo. Just a suggestion.
IMO completely trivial compared to other points raised. Look at the videos of people playing arcade games like DDR taken on camera phones - shit quality stuff still exists in mass.
I did some PS job on that, if someone could scan that on at least 4800dpi, we could rebuild the original art better . That PIC is from EGM #13 IIRC.
