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We may have confirmed that Japan got the American Sonic CD soundtrack

Discussion in 'General Sonic Discussion' started by Kiddo Cabbusses, Apr 15, 2019.

  1. Another "kukun kun put up something interesting for Sonic fans" thread.

    He has a lot of recordings of the Famitsu TV show Game Catalogue. His most recent one today, they did coverage of several PC programs, including a segment on the Sega PC line. For convenience, I've snipped the section here;

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5T2QyQWFkc

    You may be interested in seeing how Virtua Fighter and Panzer Dragoon looked on Win95 back in the day too, but the interesting thing for Sonic fans is when it goes to Sonic CD.

    Pay attention to the audio... yep, that's the American version's soundtrack. (In comparison, it didn't sound like VF PC had any BGM at that point.)

    While Game Catalogue 2 has shown "early version" stuff before (I got some beautiful early BS Zelda from a previous episode), this Sonic CD port looks about as polished as the actual PC port is so it's just as likely that this is what it is, and Japan got the same Win95 Sonic CD the west got, western audio and all. I wonder what to make of it? I kinda wish I could go asking around to see if Japan had much familiarity with the "Ameircan Soundtrack" before this point.
     
  2. Black Squirrel

    Black Squirrel

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    I never bothered to check so I guess it was never a known thing, but all PC versions using the same soundtrack was something I kinda assumed. I don't know of copies using the Japanese soundtrack - it may even be the same situation for Gems Collection.

    Certainly until the 2011 release, PAL regions were always given the US soundtrack, despite using the Japanese one in the original Mega-CD release.
     

  3. Grabbed some reference for Japanese Gems:

    [media]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1o7vb0rpfkw[/media]

    Japanese version audio. We know Gems is based off the PC version's build, so this probably means the Japanese audio was specifically added back in for JP Gems.
     
  4. Overlord

    Overlord

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    Actually if I remember right both soundtracks are on the disc for all regions, it just only plays one or the other.
     
  5. Black Squirrel

    Black Squirrel

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    According to our wiki this is the case or the PlayStation 2 version, but not the GameCube. I probably should have read that earlier.


    Sega's efforts on the PC are woefully under-documented. I still run into the occasional undocumented game - importing from Japan and trying to run 20+ year old PC software just isn't something people do (see also: NEC Retro's computer coverage), and it's not something the Japanese have archived as well as the West.

    But PC development is usually Western-led, and from what I understand, Sonic CD on the PC was built for a reason (aka "buy a Windows PC we can do 2D console games"), so I imagine they would have had to make a conscious choice to include a Japanese soundtrack.
     
  6. Pengi

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    I don't suppose anyone's come across anything regarding the Sonic the Screen Saver trial version that was supposed to come with the JP Sonic CD PC release?

    Does this apply to the tracks for the opening and ending as well? I vaguely recall hearing something about them being handled differently.

    Also, from what I recall, the Metal Sonic boss music is handled differently.

    In the JP Mega CD version, the Metal Sonic race will always play the Stardust Speedway Bad Future BGM. The NA Sega CD version will play the Good Future or Bad Future, depending on which one you're playing in.

    Since Gems Collection is ported from the PC version, the North American behaviour carries over into the JP version.
     
  7. Sappharad

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    I haven't checked the wiki, but can confirm that's correct. The Gamecube had limited disc space so they actually had to put effort into removing the other soundtrack to save space.
    HOWEVER, the videos themselves still contained both audio streams on Gamecube and there were Action Replay codes available to switch videos to the Japanese soundtrack.
     
  8. XCubed

    XCubed

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    Is there video evidence of this? It would be quite interesting to see the JP GF music play during the Metal Sonic race!
     
  9. big smile

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    Fun fact: The story in JP PC version is actually a Japanese translation of the US story, rather than being the Japanese Mega CD story.
     
  10. Blue Spikeball

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    So a reversal of S&KC, which used the Japanese storyline everywhere? How curious, considering that both ports were done by Sega PC, and were released only half a year apart. Did the JP PC manual also use the US PC manual's artworks, including AoStH Robotnik?
     
  11. big smile

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    No, it had Japanese Mega CD style artwork and even the character profiles.

    Now that I think about it, I am not sure if the story in the paper manual was the American one or if the American one was only in the PC helpfile. But it definitely had the US story translated in Japanese. It appeared on Japanese Sonic fansite Sonic Dimension. Back in the days of Ezboard Sonic 2 Beta, Koji Chao even translated it back into English (although I don't think anyone saved a copy).
     
  12. Gryson

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    I assume that the PC port for all regions was done at Sega Entertainment Inc. in the US (under Bernie Stolar). I doubt Japan had many/any PC developers, and knowing how small the PC market there was, the JP port probably received minimal extra attention from the US staff.
     
  13. OKei

    OKei

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    Here.

    Although, this is actually the 920 build with customized soundtrack (the same respective zone tracks remain, just with the GeneHF mixes), the game still calls for that specific track to play according to the internal track playlist.
     
  14. ICEknight

    ICEknight

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    Or maybe it's just an early Japanese version based on the final US release?
     
  15. The KKM

    The KKM

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    The announcer mentions something specific about the soundtrack when talking about Sonic CD- I don't know japanese, but I know "BGM" when it's said, and it sounded to me like "BGM upgrade"- is he trying to make "it's got a new soundtrack" into a selling point or something?
     
  16. Considering these are the Famitsu guys, most likely.