Can we really call it unreleased if it never made it into the game in any shape or form? That's what it looks like at least; if a known beta version of Sonic 2 had this track, it would've been discovered a while ago.
Uh -- yes? Holy shit get this guy to release more. The digitizer stuff never made it into the game either, and I eat that shit up.
Even if this was never used in any actual builds of the game, if this really was written for Sonic 2, I'd love to hear more.
If this is what it claims to be, it must be from pretty early in the development process - I wonder if very early on they were concerned they might not be able to get Masato Nakamura back on board for the sequel, and considered having tracks from the 'in-house' US team? It'd be great if we could get more info from the guy who wrote/owns it on exactly what it is, and when and why the tracks were composed. Per this comment in the other S2 music topic: ...it sounds like some things are already in motion, so hopefully whoever's in contact with him (or trying to contact him) will ask a few choice questions along the way!
This is definitely strange. Much more information is needed. There may be something to it, but it's very questionable how much this actually had to do with Sonic 2's development, given what we do (and more importantly, don't) know.
Must have been crazy early in the dev cycle. Maybe it was a case where Nakamura was going to handle the main stage tracks, and other composers were taking care of lesser imporant tracks (potential cutscenes, etc)? But then of course, Nakamura composed enough material that these other tracks weren't used or needed in the end. I do wonder where this fits into the whole production timeline.
Not his only placeholder music at SEGA, it seems: https://twitter.com/KSlackie/status/1123862456198205441
I wonder if this was a somewhat similar (But obviously also different based on specific context.) scenario to Sonic 1's very early development, where various people submitted playable character ideas before Sonic was chosen? Could it be that there was also a point in time where SEGA allowed various people to submit their music ideas for Sonic 2, before it was set in stone that Masato Nakamura would be returning for another full soundtrack? Whatever the case may be, the potential new Sonic 2 discovery that this may hold has certainly caught my attention... ... I'm very curious about everything else on that cartridge, too.
Pretty sure half the people on Retro could knock together something like this in a couple of hours. Dunno why everyone's falling for this.
See, this is what I was talking about. This is Sonic 2 we're talking about, and nobody's ever heard about this before?
I'm not sure of everything that's been going on, but I think that has been proven since even before this topic was made.
The name on the bottom of the menu, Kenneth Chao, is definitely someone who worked at SoA from 1993-94 at least, according to his LinkedIn. I'm guessing that's not who this teacher is though. Though why would he program a music module (or whatever it is) in 1994 that contained unused music for Sonic 2 two years after the game was released?
