With Sonic 2, I think it's safe to say there's only one meaningful prototype left to find (which I assume must be "Beta 3"). There'll have been a million different internal builds, but only a small handful of versions sent out to the public, whether that be trade shows, magazines, videos, etc. For the record, "Beta 3" would probably be the one with the more complete proto Casino Night, final running animations in Hidden Palace, etc. We have "Beta 1" (nick arcade), "2" (Simon Wai) and versions after 3. The reason there won't be many out there I imagine is quite simple - you have to do a bit of testing and quality control to make sure the Mega Drive doesn't explode during the demonstration. With internal builds, nobody cares. It is mere luck that drx found an archive full of them - I don't think there's much chance in finding any more. With Sonic 1 it will likely be a similar story. There'll be roughly three or four different builds out there and this really early version will be one of them. So http://info.sonicretro.org/File:GHZ-DarkBG.jpg - "Beta 1" (seven layers of scrolling GHZ demo) http://info.sonicretro.org/File:GHZ-CES91-1.jpg - "Beta 2" (debug coordinates in bottom right, different GHZ layout) http://info.sonicretro.org/File:GHZ-Ball.jpg - " Beta 3" (mostly final GHZ but with balls and purple flowers) Versions between "Beta 1" and "Beta 2" will have existed once, but I think the chances of finding them are ridiculously slim. You'd have to travel back twenty years and raid Sonic Team's archives. You could compare it to say, a web browser. In 2030 people decide they want to dig up old versions of Firefox - they can find the final versions and the beta ones, but nobody gave a damn about the nightly builds so it's almost impossible for them to find the 12 February 2008 nighty build or whatever. Exactly the same situation here - you're only likely to find major milestones. So though it's true that the welcome sign might have changed... I don't think we're ever likely to wind up with a "slightly different" build to one of the above three. It's too unlikely. Almost every Mega Drive prototype found has appeared to have been identical to one seen in a magazine before release.
I personally would like to see if they will confess or continue to try and prove themselves, despite it being pointless.
I remembered something. This image should also be present in the Prototype: http://info.sonicretro.org/images/8/8e/S1concept-Madonna.jpg It would also in some Japanese magazine? Will Yuji Naka remember this picture in the Tech Demo Prototype in 1990?
Haven't thrown an bone at this whole Sonic 1 Alpha debacle yet, I'd like to believe this is real but there has been more and more evidence to call this one a fake. There is one thing I have noticed in this video that others haven't pointed out yet: the title logo on the title screen. Just like the title logo for the final version, the title logo in this alpha is also off-centered to the right. For the record, the title logo in the scan looks to be centered. I can't put the pieces together for everyone to see what I mean right now, but I'll pull a graphic out here soon.
And I don't think it's relevant. Same reason I don't pay any attention to specific colors. Relative position is a good metric, but there nothing indicating that the scan represents the whole screen.
Oh, just came back on here, are we done? I present this to you; Job done. I can at least get a pat on the back for being captain obvious, can't I? It sticks out quite a lot, I'm sure he probably would. I'm glad we got the Sonic The Hedgehog we did. The series may not have fared as well with so much random stuff in it- Madonna the girlfriend, riding moving boulders, alien craft, glittery welcome signs and underwater goggles. It sounded like the original concept relied too heavily on story, gimmicks and extra abilities, whereas the Sonic we got was silent, cool, had to save some animals and only relied on his own basic skills. What I'm most interested in is the screen with the Sonic band, that's the killer for me.
It's too bad we couldn't all meet somewhere else, then claim that there was also playable Eggman and Giraffes in the game, and see if the hoax maker includes them in the next update. Since I'm fairly certain he's reading this topic.
Nick Arcade prototype ? "Beta 1" and Simon Wai prototype ? "Beta 2". The eleventh-hour proofing prototypes we have ("Beta 4" through "Beta 8"... with two "Beta 6"s) are simply a final round of bugfixing and proofing before the final was shipped. You are correct in that the earlier two are milestones sent to the public, the former of course to Nick Arcade and the latter to a New York Toy Show, but it is not correct to assign them numbers because they are loads different than the later set. It is more correct to call the early revisions alphas, and even more correct to just call them prototypes. The term "Alpha" refers to an incomplete game, which is what the first two are, while a "Beta" is feature-complete. However the Greek naming system is falling out of use. Hopefully I can dig it up but I remember some sort of "Sonic 2 dev timeline" document from when I started lurking way back in 2004/2005 which contained a screenshot of a more updated level select than the Wai beta but still in the Sonic 1 style. While you may be right about the binary builds themselves of the nightlies, you are incorrect about minor revisions being lost for an open source browser like Firefox. Firefox keeps its source code in a versioning system which contains every change made to it possibly as far back as its creation.
However we are talking about a game made in 1991. While its possible to compile a firefox version from an specific date... It's impossible that Sonic Team used SVN or any kind of versioning system, not just because it was 1991... but because we're talking about game development, its way too complex for svn. It may work for a simple program that has to reach X functionality but for a game, It's way too centered...even if you can fork it to add more stuff. --- Still, I'd kinda like for this guy to release the fangame just to try it out for shits and giggles.
Please don't give this link to Yuji Naka. Its generic shitty fangame #567, with Sonic 4 style physics.
I think the idea is to assume any sort of versioning system is lost if the comparison is to work. Whcih is why I set it in the future Point is, you're never likely to find an archive containing 382902183 different versions of Sonic 1's source code because there was only ever likely one or two copies ever made. With the review copies the number of ROMs out there could be in the double figures. Tons of places had access to the version with Sparkling Zone and Clock Ork.
Someone else inevitably will give it to him no doubt. The physics look so much more obviously god awful now than they did in the videos. Not sure how that happened.
