I'm thinking that this might come from one of SEGA's slides which were periodically given to the press. There's a follow up image to that one, but it's not what you'd expect...: https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-sonic-the-hedgehog-tv-29142222.html
Oh there's hoards of stock photos relevant to Sonic/Sega/NEC Retro. There has been for years. I can count the people who might do something about it on one hand.
But I mean, the Sonic 3 "slide" was called "SNIC 001" and this one's "SNIC 002" (and also looks like a slide), so they may come from the same place.
http://www.ladbible.com/technology/gaming-in-conversation-with-team-sonic-racing-producer-takashi-iizuka-20190430 Takashi Iizuka, on Team Sonic Racing, recent Sonic games, the movie etc. Nothing too much of interest. Iizuka is quick to point out that he didn't have much to do with Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric or the Sonic movie (which is true, but always amusing - he's done this with Sonic 2006 and Black Knight before too). On a positive note, he adds "[But] post-Mania, I feel the character, and the games, have really turned a corner, towards where we want it all to go."
Afternoon, https://retrocdn.net/index.php?title=File%3AEGM_US_068.pdf&page=120 Retromags has just released EGM #68, dated March 1995. It has Chaotix coverage I don't think we've seen before. We probably have this build - there's not been much love for our Chaotix prototypes over the years so I can't say which one (other than "not 1207"). It looks very broken - my favourite is BLUE ZONE.
Hey, remember this: That part of Hidden Palace Zone which has all the monitors in a line? I think I know why this is a thing: https://info.sonicretro.org/index.php?title=File%3AS%26K_MD_JP_manual.pdf&page=22 https://info.sonicretro.org/index.php?title=File%3AS%26K_MD_JP_manual.pdf&page=23 To get themselves some clear shots for the Japanese manual!
A memory checker and camera info utility have been found in the "Mario Kart Double Dash!! Bonus Disc (USA) (PM4E01)" version of Sonic Heroes. Credit here and here.
https://twitter.com/toumartcom/status/1128946114353278978 New illustration of Fang the Sniper, by his original character designer.
Something funny I noticed in Unleashed: Sonic's mouth flips over depending on how the camera's angled. Also his arms dig into his quills in this animation I guess
I think I remember Sega talking about this when talking about the graphics before the game released, but I can't remember clearly. It might have been something fans pointed out. Did it happen in Generations too?
Yeah, every post-Unleashed game other than Sonic Boom had that feature. It was glitchy in Lost World, though, causing Super Sonic to have two mouths...
Tony Takoushi has been posting some pretty nice bits and bobs from his time at Sega over on Instagram, including a concept art of Fang the Sniper where he comments his original name was Jet the Sniper. https://www.instagram.com/tonytakoushi/ Also this piece of art that he is trying to get the signature translated https://www.instagram.com/p/BxmE3ZVFU4x/
Ah, that's amazing to see~! Good to have clarification on the name thing, too - I know the name 'Jet the Sniper' turned up in a couple of magazines reporting info on Sonic Triple Trouble, but IIRC it was never clear whether it was an early original name for the character or just an earlier localised name. On the wiki, there's an article from an issue of Mean Machines SEGA which mentions the name - the May '94 issue of the UK's official SEGA Magazine also mentioned the name in a quick preview, which also showed an image of "Jet" pointing his gun at Sonic in an early version of Great Turquoise. I did a high-quality scan of the latter article for Sonic CulT back in the day (along with a Sonic 3 promo article with proto shots from Sonic the Comic, and another featuring proto Sonic Chaos and Sonic CD shots), but it looks like the only version on Retro is cropped down to just the screenshot and is much lower resolution. My copy of the magazine's long-since gone now, so hopefully somone else either has my original scan or can re-scan in better quality...!
