If you have seen my Sega Channel thread, you know where this is headed: Back in November a Youtuber named kukun kun started uploading video footage of Satellaview content, and I started following him. So let's jump to the next part: he also had a large archive of footage of Sega Game Toshokan from when Seganet/the Megamodem was usable. Today, he uploaded, among other things, footage of one of the last Sonic-related Megadrive apps to not be preserved in amy way before: Sega Music Collection: Sonic the Hedgehog. This is kinda hitting it while it is hot - I have not seen the video the whole way through so i will edit a more descriptive summary of it later. Edit: alright, more descriptive. The recording goes through 3 music tracks, seemingly all there is in this - the download process is longer than the time it takes to listen to all three tracks. They are simply called BGM1, BGM2 and BGM3. BGM1 sounds like Green Hill Zone, but is off in several ways. For one, it plays at Speed Shoes tempo, when the other tracks do not. It also seems to be missing some sound channels. BGM2 is Special Stage, and BGM3 is Spring Yard Zone. They sound closer to how i always remember them sounding. Please check his other Toshokan videos as well; the music collection for Phantasy Star III and several news publications are also among them.
The special stage music has the wrong (or missing?) lead instrument. And yet I feel like I've heard it this way before - maybe through an old emulator or a hack. Maybe with one of the audio channels switched off. I guess it's easy to jump to the conclusion that it's prototype content, given that this service was released slightly earlier than the full game of Sonic the Hedgehog, but to bring up Masato Nakamura's demo version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8SqSTDo3Jk it doesn't sound more like that. It sounds unfinished.
A few possibilities: 1) only one soumd channel recorded 2) only one sound channel is in the ROM, or that sound is bugged, due to limitations of Game Toshokan. 3) Sega had trouble replicating the sound of Nakamura's demo tracks at first 4) the music collection was a rushjob as bad as Sonic Eraser.
It seems to me like GHZ is missing its PSG channels, and the Special Stage is missing its FM6 channel (which was always a fickle thing in S1's driver). SYZ sounds identical to me. Also hi there lower-pitch drums. EDIT: Here's an S1 ROM with those channels disabled: http://sonicresearch.org/clownacy/s1withsonicmusiccollectionmusic.zip
Spting Yard's lead instrument sounds like it's wobbling a bit to me, though I don't know how much of that might just be the VHS!
BTW, as I posted in the Sega Channel thread, several of the other notable Game Toshokan undumps also got uploaded today, including three Kinetic Connection versions and Taiketsu! Columns. https://youtu.be/dzRLftWEF_E Pyramid Magic https://youtu.be/m7UCA-m_Suk Kinetic Connection (Moles) https://youtu.be/zP2fnXfhRZw Kinetic Connection (Penguins) https://youtu.be/0gKkewwyEY0 Kinetic Connection (Nei from Phantasy Star II) https://youtu.be/_N_fzSBZXFw 16t (with correct music) https://youtu.be/0lhULpLL9Yw Taiketsu! Columns
It sounds like there's either a delay with the drums in Spring Yard, or there's a extra drum beat. That's the only difference I hear with that track, and of course channel 6 being unused in the Special Stage music, but that's been brought up already. Here's a rip from the game for a comparison: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ia71rCO55E
