Does Chaotix actually know the player's time of day? I thought the 32X had no internal clock, so the day is calculated by how many levels you've played. Could be wrong though!
It was a jokey comment - Chaotix cycles between "morning", "day", "sunset" and "night", with the time changing whenever a level ends (and maybe when you re-load a save?). It's the same sort of thing Sonic Crackers does. The 1207 prototype even teases 8 different times, though it only has four implemented. I don't think gameplay is affected depending on what time of day it is (unlike say, the time zones of Sonic CD), it's just another excuse to show off the 32X hardware. And it's a feature wasted on Amazing Arena, which is set completely indoors. IIRC there are few windows in the background but they're easy to miss.
IIRC enemy placement is affected by the time of day, though that could be me remembering things incorrectly.
Given the alternate level palettes and object layouts in Mania's Encore Mode, could it be possible to mod Mania to have a faux-clock like Chaotix? I mean, the idea is far easier than the execution, but I've seen some pretty insane mods of this game. In the "Options" menu, using a modified version of whatever code triggers the encore level instead of the normal level, add a mutable number that triggers a different palette/layout upon loading a level. Or even code that automatically picks (x) palette/layout based on a quick check of your PC's internal clock? Is the game modular like that, or would it require tremendous copy+pasting of levels resulting in a bloated filesize? Just feels like Taxman and co gave us some tremendous building blocks here.
The time of the day affects item placement as a whole. Monitors and enemies may change, some of the giant bonus rings may be absent, some of the floating lifts in Techno Tower may be closed... IIRC, it changed every two levels, at least in the final. Ergo, each of the 4 times of the day was repeated once during the cycle. Maybe that's why the cycle had seemingly 8 stages in the 1207 proto? Two stages for each time of the day.
Oh dear, that means our Chaotix maps are wrong. It also means... 100 maps for the normal stages alone. And we have 12 prototypes (not including Sonic Crackers). Eek.
I remember being blown away when I first noticed that. It really adds to replayability (or it would if the level design wasn’t so bland). Also I might be horribly misremembering but I think in certain stages some routes are closed off depending on the time of day (but my memory is a bit shaky about that).
In the absense of Sega Retro I've been adding prototype things, and every time I play Chaotix I seem to find something new. The level design is just really freaking weird - if you stay on the optimal path, you'll miss half the objects that were programmed. So a lot of this is "the 1207 prototype is missing things you didn't know were there".
Might be worth consolidating research and adding the alternate barely-accessible Time Attack menu to the page, too. So much information exists, but it's all spread out and not gathered in one place. Maybe I should have been working on the Sonic Retro wiki instead of TCRF, but I suppose the end result is the same. EDIT: My mistake. Just saw the "Hidden content" section. You already did it. Bueno.
Sonic the Hedgehog 2 Chousoku Action Campaign video. This contest is fairly well known, but I don't think the finer details have been documented anywhere. I believe this is the first time I've seen this particular video.
Bought some items to scan for the wiki. They weren't that expensive, but also weren't exactly cheap to import from Japan. If anyone could spare a buck or two to help offset my expenses, I'd appreciate it. DM for details. Of course, I'm not expecting anything though. I got a few things to finish up before I can start scanning them though.
A while back, I came across this video on the BBC's archive website, and promptly made a thread linking it in General Sega Discussion. Besides it being an good document of the reaction the UK media was having to gaming's rising prominence, it offers excellent footage of the Sega Metropolis arcade in Hamley's, and a glimpse of the music video for the "Supersonic - H.W.A. featuring Sonic the Hedgehog" single released around that time: When I first saw this I thought nothing more of it (besides how low budget the video looked), but now having done some basic digging, I can't find any traces of a full upload on any streaming platforms, or even a mention of it anywhere. Can anyone be of any help here in locating what probably was the first proper Sonic music video, years before Wiz Khalifa, Ty Dolla $ign, Lil Yachty & Sueco the Child's effort?
man even in marketing they were still using the old title screen posing. I mean, I know that the final title screen was implemented very late based on our protos, but it still blows my mind.
Speaking of finer details, the Japanese ad calls our fox buddy Tails instead of Miles, for what it's worth.
Does anyone know where this screenshot of Sonic Chronicles comes from? This, and potentially some of the other screenshots of the game on the Wiki, appear to be from a prototype version, with the most notable differences being that the HUD is completely different, and the fact that there are multiple characters in the active party - the final game automatically removes all characters except Sonic from the party when you enter a stronghold. The image was uploaded to the wiki 10 years ago and is used on the article for Tails' Workshop, however the upload doesn't provide any clues as to where it came from. If I had to guess, I would assume that it came from the game's official website or the product page on Sega's website back when they were still online, but the Wayback Machine hasn't done a great job of preserving the images and videos, so I can't be certain. For reference, this is a screenshot of the final version:
Pretty sure that one was included in the very first batch of screenshots SEGA released for Chronicles. May or may not have been part of a press release. One of the others was Knuckles in a cave. I remember them making a big deal out of "hand-painted environments" when they released the first screens. EDIT: It's most likely from January 2008, going by this article: https://www.sonicstadium.org/2008/01/sonic-chronicles-the-dark-brotherhood-revealed/ The image links in that article are dead, but I found them (and a bunch of other proto screens) here: https://www.nintendoworldreport.com/media/13679/1
The Sonic Retro wiki coverage probably pre-dates being able to run this game through emulation. So yes, fix things etc.
During the time I was making maps for Tails' Skypatrol about two weeks ago, I ran into a couple of oddities while playing the game of which I'll share here. Firstly, whenever Tails recovers from tumbling after being hit by an enemy or hazard, all terrain collisions are disabled during Tails' invincibility frames. This can be exploited to take unintended shortcuts through thin walls, which would be useful for speedrunning: Secondly, I noticed there is a golden piece of the Daruma Blocks (the stack of blocks you have to destroy by tossing Tails' ring at them) embedded in the ceiling of Ruin Wood Area's outer section, just after the final minecart encountered in the level, with no way of Tails being able to hit it: Thirdly, it appears that the tile used for the top-right corner of the large double-bladed propellers in Metal Island Area is erroneously assigned to be breakable. This means Tails can break it by either shooting his ring at it, or by flying into it while under the effects of a Muteki Star: Lastly, and I'm not sure how many people are even aware of this exactly, but a prototype build used during the April 1995 edition of Sega Video Magazine shows that Disney's Pete was originally the boss of the Ruin Wood Area instead of Bearenger (at time code 29:39). This might have suggested that the game used a Disney license instead of a Sonic the Hedgehog one when it was originally developed for a cheaper Game Boy alternative that was cancelled before it even got a press release, even programmer Alice Kagamino hinted towards it on Twitter, saying that the enemy designs still have the same impression in the final game as they did in the original, particularly when you notice how Disney-like the bosses are in character design.
