Adventures with Chaotix

Yes, I'm positive they're both based on this character sheet:

 

I was going to point this out, but I believe this as well because there appears to be a visual artifact in both images in Knuckles nose. The top right corner of it, there's a smudge present in both the concept art and the KC title screen. There's also a coloring error in the KC title screen, where the lower left corner of Knuckle's left eye was colored flesh-toned instead of white. This makes me think it was originally a non-colored image that they gussied up using a fill function. One thing about the title screen art is that it's squished horizontally, the concept art image doesn't fit if you scale it while keeping the aspect ratio. It's squished horizontally about 15%. Which would make the ring graphic extremely weird if it was done in tiles, because there would be no aspect ratio correction anywhere, it's super wide.

EDIT: Merged them, they are nearly identical... except the eyes have been redrawn:



One thing that sticks out to me about the Knuckles art in the title screen specifically his eyes... they're more slanted than any official jpn/usa art, but they match the eyes of the EU art:



That EU art is proto-Sonic 3 development art, as evident by the "Part 1" in the pic. Also note that the original Knuckles sprite from Sonic 3 had taller eyes, and most importantly, a flesh colored swish on his chest instead of a white one. The KC title screen art also has a flesh colors swish, not white. I believe that the image from Knuckles in that title screen comes from some mid-development Sonic 3 concept art or something.

Where did this magazine scan come from? I'd guess europe?

 

Yeah. IIrc, SoA made their own knuckles model sheets.

I remember the guys who found the Trilogy Sonic Movie outline uploading an old, American-made model sheet for Knuckles. Has amyone else seen it?

 

The eyes are pretty in-line with the European Promotional art, though a different pose.

 

Assuming this is a euro-model picture of Knuckles, that would be another point for that title screen being doctored, because why would a game made in Japan feature european concept art? Of course, that relies on this actually being from a european model sheet, if one exists. I've always thought the tall thin-eyed knuckles looked so ugly, tbh.

 

Forgive the rant, but... Why did the SoA and SoE artists always struggle with proportions? My Sonic drawings from when I was 9 looked better than most of their art, and that's no hyperbole.

I mean, these are the freakin' classic designs. They were designed to be simple and easy to draw. Even Greg Martin had difficulty making Sonic's spherical head and body... well, spherical. How hard can it be to draw a circle and give it features?

 

I'm also on the side that the title screen was mocked up by the magazine staff.

 

I've seen the 1997 Sonic digital style guide. The one that was probably used to force Sonic The Comic to be all Sonic 3D head-like. It has honestly some of the ugliest fucking Knuckles artwork I've ever seen that is not online.

One day I hope it comes to light.

 

An old 1991 marketing bible for Sonic got put up for auction back in 2023, and featured a really rough turnaround for Sonic in it. I mean, just look at it.

He's drawn like this a lot in StC early on, actually. We can assume that a lot of the reference material SoA and SoE were getting just outright sucked.

 

Did it have these in it?


These pieces of stock art were all over Sonic the Comic in 1997/1998, but I don't think I've ever seen them used outside the UK market. (The clean images above are from Sega Europe's Sonic Generations wallpaper.)

This is pure speculation, but I think the fresh new UK specific art may have been commissioned to tie-in with Sega World London, which had some merch with Sonic in the same style: https://sonicthehedgehogcollectibles.weebly.com/miscellaneous-sonic-items.html



Is this based on one of the ugly Knuckles pics you saw?

 

that knuckles flying graphic is absolutely hilarious, lmao. He looks like a squished goomba.

 

The 4 Sonic's are in there.

The Knuckles is also in there, and is the ugly Knuckles I mentioned - though, this one is a mix of two ones. The head and feet is from a piece of art of Knuckles hanging from something. The arms are from another, different ugly Knuckles where he's hanging from a ledge, and they've reused an arm from that one.

 

Awww, does my widdle knucky-baby want his uppies? Do you want your uppies??

*ahem* Yeah I don't think this really communicates 'gliding pose' to me

 

That would imply that the model sheet was based on western art rather than the other way around, which is highly unlikely.

 

No, but the dimensions in the pic would be extremely odd for someone making a graphic. They would have been squishing the image of Knuckles horizontally, while the ring itself is stretched horizontally, which to me reads that the image of Knuckles in the raw tiles would have to be extremely thin, much thinner than the source image. It makes much more sense to me that this was poorly composited using some image editing software from the 90's than it showed up like that in the tiles.

 

what makes it unusual is the *mixed* aspect ratios, and that they're opposites. I know that certain parts of Sega/MD games use more or less horizontal resolutions depending on if they're in H40 or H32 mode. This wouldn't be a case of that, the squishing there happens when you *draw* to the screen, not the tiles, the tiles are still 8x8 perfect squares internally. If this Knuckles sprite is being displayed thin for the reason you are describing, then the ring would be too, and since it's not, if we still assume Knuckles is thin for the reason you're describing, then the ring would be *incredibly* fat. Like, to the point where it'd be an ellipse essentially while Knuckles wouldn't be squished. When you draw things purposefully at weird aspect ratios, it's to cancel out the squish/stretch, but the way the images are being presented is the opposite of how you'd do it. The aspect ratios don't make sense for how the art would be internally. I'm saying that specifically because I'm referencing how higher horizontal resolutions work. The image is just bizarre.

The ring is 340x300 pixels big. that means it's roughly stretched 15% from a perfect circle. I mentioned Knuckles is squished roughly 15%. They're being changed in the wrong, opposite directions for it to be a resolution mismatch.

Put it this way: Knuckles is squished horizontally in that image. That implies his art was made for H40 mode and is being displayed in H32 mode. But the Ring is stretched horizontally. That means it would be art made for H30 mode displayed in H40 mode. If they were both H40 mode being displayed in H32 mode, then for the ring to be that shape, it would have to be *incredibly* fat in tiles internally. Like, weirdly fat. If they're both made for H32 mode tiles being displayed in H40 mode, the Knuckles would be incredibly thin in the graphic internally. You can't draw certain things in one resolution or the other, either the entire screen is H40 or the entire screen is H32.

 

For what it's worth, you actually can mix resolutions on the 32X, with the Genesis at 256 and the 32X at 320. It's not an officially supported combo, but it works and is used in one officially released title.

 

Well I guess that is true, I was supposing the image would be a tile map on the Genesis. I still think the aspect ratios displayed in the image points more towards a poorly edited photo than something they actually whipped up for the game, though. It'd be weird to take that much effort to make a title screen that was temporary and that poorly made, splitting the image up into multiple layers. If such a thing was an actual title screen in some build, I would expect it to be a singular image made up of tiles on one plane, as it'd be the most simple way to display that.