Evilhamwizard and I have been going through old Scene releases and we found a new Sonic 2 beta that was released back in 1992 and forgotten. Hidden Palace News - What Was Once Old Is New Again Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (CENSOR prototype) Enjoy!
Just to already make mention, Hidden Palace's 8x8 art has already been stripped out of the ROM, or at the very least, isn't loading, I'll do some more research and comb over data and see if it exists elsewhere.
Man oh man, that old beta title screen brings back such memories. They used it on cereal boxes to promote the game before it came out and I thought Tails was a girl for the longest time because of it.
A new Sonic 2 Beta? I feel like I'm in high school again. I hope we find something exciting and new in it.
You're a wonderful human being. It's not quite the prototype I was hoping for, but it answers a few questions. I look forward to people tearing this apart.
Not the first time I've seen this sort of tactic used by dumping groups from the time, haha. Thank you so much to all involved in the release!
So where in the timeline of betas is this? Somewhere between the betas that were closer to the final DRX released a few years back? Or is it before those?
Oh wow. It's really exciting to see a new proto. I had thought that that particular well had about run dry.
Nick Arcade Simon Wai This Betas 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 Final And there's at least two public builds out there between the Simon Wai prototype and this new one, because they were featured in magazines.
In between Simon Wai and the CENSOR prototype is one with the final title card format that shows "Neo Green H*** Zone" for Aquatic Ruin: The CENSOR prototype has "Aquatic Ruin" as the title card.
And what might come at the same time as or before the build in that screenshot is the one in Gamesmaster's preview:
Not that I'm surprised that drx is still finding builds, but I think there are two of interest: a.k.a. "what does Tails' life icon look like". This CENSOR build doesn't match either of these.
I remember looking at the Beta 4 topic a few years ago, because of all the stuff that was found in it, makes me wonder if anything from earlier than this build can be dug up in this version, perhaps there's more unused enemy sprites leftover in this build