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New Sonic 1 prototype screenshots

Discussion in 'General Sonic Discussion' started by Black Squirrel, Feb 20, 2020.

  1. Black Squirrel

    Black Squirrel

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    What up buds.

    [​IMG]

    Issue #7 of Swedish magazine "Attack" reviews an unfinished version of the game. Apparently everything is amazing. Even the ugly lava.

    There's a pretty bad, watermaked "scan" on Archive.org. A higher quality scan could answer some questions, or raise more.
     
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  2. arc

    arc

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    About the Archive.org scan. Maybe it's just because of the poor quality, but doesn't it look like Sonic's head is held out further than normal in the running animation on the right page? Also, I know this is an already-known cut element, but the Saturn-looking shapes in the sky of Marble Zone on the bottom of that same page look shockingly surreal to me.

    Edit: Also, what's up with the yellow banner-looking sprite in the Springyard screenshot? It looks like there's a sign in the background that says "Good Luck" on it, too.
     
  3. ICEknight

    ICEknight

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    I never expected to see the old lava design in a working build, great find!
     
  4. Mastered Realm

    Mastered Realm

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    That's amazing!
     
  5. Antheraea

    Antheraea

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    It toootally does!! The Nick Arcade proto has unused Sonic running sprites:

    [​IMG]
    And that proto was running largely on Sonic 1 assets.......
     
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  6. DreamsComeBlue

    DreamsComeBlue

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    Nice find! That Springyard looks really different. How crazy is it than 30 years later new prototype screenshots are still being uncovered?
     
  7. arc

    arc

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    I’ve gotta be real with you, I like these sprites miles more than the final release sprites.
     
  8. Antheraea

    Antheraea

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    Other Spring Yard/"Sparkling Zone" scans, for comparison:

    [​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG]

    The one posted in this topic I think is the clearest one found so far! Even with the page dividing it, the colors don't look as washed out as the middle scan above, for instance.
     
  9. Lithium

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    And too bad we may never get playable sonic 1 betas/prototypes. These screenshots looks great! I wish one of these guys had a cartridge but they probably had to send it back after review.

    I wonder what major changes they have made over time. Also it doesn’t make sense to review a version of the game that is not close to the final version. Logically, there shouldn't be any big differences between promotion and final product. None of the images in the magazine match the actual final game. I bet there are things in the game likely to have been undecided until the very last minute.
     
  10. Dark Sonic

    Dark Sonic

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    I wish they kept the old spring yard background. The final one is so boring.
     
  11. DreamsComeBlue

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    Indeed. The yellow horizontal lights/bars/beams/whatever you call them are much more vibrant in the new shot. It's hard to believe there are still clean shots like that out there waiting to be rediscovered.
     
  12. arc

    arc

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    This kind of thing makes me wish we still lived in a pre-internet age. Big companies don’t have “development blogs”—well, not most of them, anyhow—let alone high resolution screenshots of alpha builds or anything of the sort. I’d kill to see development builds of Unleashed. Let me hear those unused Werehog screams.
     
  13. Hivebrain

    Hivebrain

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    The watermark isn't part of the scanned images. Recompiling the PDF should remove it when it goes on CDN.
     
  14. Lurker

    Lurker

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    Since I'm actually Swedish I found something interesting
    "Musiken till spelet är densamma rakt igenom, men blir aldrig tråkig, eftersom man använder sig av olika rytmer, trumljud och hastigheter för att få det att låta som olika låtar. Fiffigt va? Dessutom är musiken riktigt bra. Den spelas i discotakt, när man befinner sig i tredje nivån, och då kan man nästan tro att den är hämtad från någon hitlista!

    "It is played in disco-speed when you are on the 3rd act". Does that mean music speed up on the third act? This is the first time I've heard about this and it's oddly specific
     
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  15. Black Squirrel

    Black Squirrel

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    I think there might be two builds with it in.

    [​IMG]
    This extremely early build, which judging from the HUD, might not have anything in the level yet.

    [​IMG]
    This later build, which could be the same one as in the magazine scan above (RING)


    [​IMG]
    there's also another prototype Marble Zone in this very late build which might have clues. But I'm sceptical about this one.


    And of course if it turns out the really old Tokyo Toy Show 1990 version has Marble Zone things hidden away, that'll count too.
     
  16. MrLordSith

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    Thank you!! This is going to be very useful for people who are remaking the Beta, because now we can recreate in a more accurate way how the lava was placed! The music speeding up on act 3 sounds really interesting.
     
  17. Vangar

    Vangar

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    Very interesting, great find. The more pictures we find, the more i wish we found a beta rom.
     
  18. Travelsonic

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    upload_2020-2-23_16-50-42.png

    Heh, Sonic's palette (and any issues with how the image was taken?) in this screenshot almost made me question if he was there at all for a second. Looks like the special stage was in development at a very, very early stage in the game. No objects here (aside from Sonic)- no bumpers, speed up / down, or GOAL spheres, no rings, no breakable crystals, etc (plus all the blocks being the same color, versus the kind of rolling block color change we see in the final). Looks like at this stage, it was more a test of the physics, and possibly rotation?



    Hang about, were these screenshots given to the magazine by SEGA, or did they actually get a copy to test/play? Stupid question, but I felt it had to be asked... :P
     
    Last edited: Feb 23, 2020
  19. Black Squirrel

    Black Squirrel

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    This set would have been taken by the magazine.

    Usually if it's from Sega you can tell. The key giveaway being that they appear in other publications.


    And they probably wouldn't show Sonic dying with rings penetrating through solid objects.
     
  20. Travelsonic

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    I wonder, at this point, what other zones might have been in a preliminary stage at this point.


    I wonder if this could give us another lead for trying to find Sonic 1 prototypes (obviously, left to those with the experience needed in both hunting them down, and actually obtaining them)? I mean, regardless of if it is a long shot or not, it seems like a shot worth taking UNLESS we can confirm that the game cart made it back to SEGA w/o mishap, and even then, we should still try hunting for S1 prototypes (regardless of what stage in development they come from), as anything can be neat.


    I wonder, was the protocol the same when Sonic 2 was being shown off? IF so, I'd imagine there is at the very least hope, seeing how we ended up with so many prototypes from so many parts of Sonic 2's, 3's (& Knuckles'), etc development (again, IF IN PLACE, in spite of such a policy).
     
    Last edited: Feb 24, 2020