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Sonic Month 2019: Sonic Chaos

Discussion in 'General Sonic Discussion' started by drx, Nov 2, 2019.

  1. Black Squirrel

    Black Squirrel

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    Absolutely - Gigalopolis on the Master System is copied from a Korg M1 demo track. When I heard this prototype had different music it was the first thing I checked.

    But guess they were stealing from elsewhere!
     
  2. Overlord

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    Sonic Chaos is a personal favourite from the series so amazing to see protos of it - thanks so much, will have to pore over these!
     
  3. Naean

    Naean

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    Great catch! I was wondering why the heck this total banger didn't get used in any retail releases, perhaps one or more staff flagged it up as a potential risk of rights issues? Hmm... :eyebrow:
     
  4. ICEknight

    ICEknight

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    Called it! :V
    [​IMG]
     
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  5. SGR

    SGR

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    I wasn't the first to discover this, a Youtube comment lead me to spread the information around.

    Personally I think the developers/composers were just having fun or showing off a cool thing they made. Stuff like that does happen in game development. Pretty sure this wouldn't have slipped by when the game was being reviewed by Sega.
     
    Last edited: Nov 3, 2019
  6. Travelsonic

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    I gotta wonder what the development team was on with some of those hazard placement choices in the latter levels.
     
    Last edited: Nov 3, 2019
  7. CRITAWAKETS

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    The exact same level exists in both the June and July build, although the July build requires hacking your level number along with having different ring sprites. The exact same picture can be recreated in the June build. Considering that the special stages are made to require jet boots, the previewer probably just did not know the states were meant to be Sonic-only and chose Tails instead.

    Also the May build has no special stages. They just cause the game to output garbage rainbow tiles in an attempt to kill any epileptics.
     
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  8. SonicGenesis89

    SonicGenesis89

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    That's not the only song that Sonic Chaos ripped off of either. There's quite a few real songs that were used for the Game Gear Sonic titles mostly for Sonic 2 and Sonic Chaos. Here's some more examples.


    Go to 0:38 here and listen up until 1:03.


    Now listen to Sonic Chaos' character select theme.
    (Game Gear Version - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0V61aZzAbNg)

    The developers of the Sonic Game Gear titles seemed to be really fond of 808 State as they used several of their songs in not just Sonic Chaos but also in Sonic 2.


    Does this song sound familiar to anyone? That's because it's the boss theme for Sonic 2!


    Sonic 2's Boss Theme.


    Someone made this really cool mashup that really shows the similarities between the two songs. It's virtually the same song only sped up and with the Game Gear sound font.

    I'm honestly surprised that they didn't get in trouble with copy right infringement back then but maybe that's because it was a lot more lenient back in the 1990s. This was pretty common with a lot of video games back at the time but it definitely wouldn't be allowed to happen today.

    The unused Sleeping Egg theme could have just been a fun placeholder song that they had made while the real song was being finished but regardless I really like all of these unused music themes and I'm really glad that I had the privilege to be able to hear them! :)

    EDIT: I forgot that the character select music for Sonic Chaos was slightly different in the Master System version. It actually sounds even MORE like 808 State's Lift. I edited the post and switched the video with the Master System version.
     
    Last edited: Nov 4, 2019
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  9. SGR

    SGR

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    Wow. That is some pretty mindblowing stuff.

    Shameless-ish plug, but SMS Alfredo made this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnOzhAOZGFM
     
  10. Chainspike

    Chainspike

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    I knew that Sonic Chaos would be interesting! The prototype music is way past cool!

    For those of you wondering, the unused level slots in the final version ($06 and $0D) are very much the same here (with some minor alterations, nothing too significant) and they don't even exist yet in the early May prototype. I think that they laid out all the levels that they had planned initially, but $06 and $0D were simply cut for some reason or another. The current theory regarding these levels is that $06, following Electric Egg Zone, would be a secret level granted upon obtaining all of the Chaos Emeralds (Very much like Sonic 2 MS & GG) and that $0D was another special stage, perhaps Robotnik wasn't going to have the red Chaos Emerald from the start of the game (some unused graphics also support this idea).

    On another note, does anybody know how one would go about ripping maps from these prototypes? There are some big layout differences compared to the final version. Oh, and prototype Aqua Planet looks amazing!
     
  11. Dr. Mecha

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    Late to the party, but I could say they kinda went with a more "cuter" approach for Sonic and Tails sprites in the final build, just to differentiate from the mainline console titles.

    Though I do believe the prototype sprites does look superior as a port of Sonic 2's.
     
  12. SupperTails66

    SupperTails66

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    Since no one else seems to have gotten around to it, I've put together timed and tagged VGM packs for the two prototypes that have music to make for easier listening: http://stargood.org/files/Sonic_Chaos_prototypes_VGM.zip Let me know if I screwed up any of the loops or something.

    It's really interesting to hear the progression from prototype to final. I find the successive revisions of the final boss music particularly amusing -- it got shifted down a key, had a new backing part added, then got shifted down another key and had its melody rewritten for the final. In some cases, we've managed to end up with four different versions of the same track (two protos, SMS final, and GG final), which gives a lot of insight into how the composers developed them.

    There are also some oddities in there: the unused jingle from the final game exists in the prototypes, apparently still unused, but for some reason it got pitch-shifted for the final. And the Sunset Park boss music is nowhere to be found, which begs the question of why it was added to the game late in development just to end up going unused anyway.

    If I have time, I may put together some track comparisons later. There are a lot of subtle differences in there that are hard to notice by just listening to the tracks individually.
     
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  13. kazblox

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    The final Game Gear version shows how focused they were with keying the music; Gigalopolis' earlier track is still present, but it's shifted down a key. Very "last minute" change there that proved worthless with an entirely new track taking place.
     
  14. Black Squirrel

    Black Squirrel

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  15. Overlord

    Overlord

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    Thanks for doing this, I was hoping we'd see VGM rips of these!
     
  16. Thanks for releasing these! I love Sonic Chaos, I played it a lot as a kid, it's probably my favorite 8-bit Sonic game. Tons of glitches and slowdowns all around in the protos, I find it amazing that they managed to fix everything in time for the October release!
     
  17. Chainspike

    Chainspike

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    I started working on getting the maps for each zone in the prototypes. Here is Aqua Planet Zone in the May 17th prototype, because I thought it was the most intriguing, but I'll eventually rip all of them (assuming no one beats me to it).

    Map of Act 1:
    [​IMG]

    While working on finding all the assets from the ROM, SGR and I noticed some unused tiles within the art set:
    [​IMG]
    The most notable of these are the red tiles, which don't appear anywhere in this layout. There are also various springs, rings, spikes, and a ring monitor, which indicates that more was going to be added later on. For those not familiar, in the 8-bit Sonic games, some objects are actually tiles drawn with the background layer which is why they are present with the rest of the level art. This is for the purpose of optimization and reducing sprites onscreen. An unused pillar tile is also here with a ripple effect that was likely intended for the not-yet-implemented underwater sections.
     
  18. SGR

    SGR

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    I beat you to it for the June prototype. They're up on the TCRF article.
     
  19. Black Squirrel

    Black Squirrel

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    You're a wonderful human being - ta
     
  20. ICEknight

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    Uh... wouldn't it be more appropriate for the wiki to explain why the colors look wrong?