[SpeedStarTMQ]

With regards to that scene with the pincher-bot trying to grab Sonic, I don't recall it being in the original Sonic CD games (I had the PC version in 1994/1995). It's not present in the Sonic Gems Collection version either, which as we're aware of, is a port of the PC version. The rough sketch is present however as an extra.

Wasn't it just reanimated for the Jam and later versions? The FULL sequence appears in Sonic Mega Collection as a stand alone video. The original sketch itself is awefully similar to the ending where Sonic jumps crumbling floors with Amy in his arms, so maybe the full FMV just grew naturally as an extra from the basic sketches over time? I don't think that the finalized sketch had anything to do with Sonic CD's development, however, the black and white sketch itself is certainly something to look at. As it's been pointed out, the enemy is definitely from Sonic 2 Game Gear, but I wouldn't go any further about the backgrounds, as they were drawn in full after the games release.

Am I right?

[ICEknight]

Wasn't it just reanimated for the Jam and later versions? The FULL sequence appears in Sonic Mega Collection as a stand alone video. The original sketch itself is awefully similar to the ending where Sonic jumps crumbling floors with Amy in his arms, so maybe the full FMV just grew naturally as an extra from the basic sketches over time?

I don't think they'd hire Toei Animation again just for an extra that would only appear in collections.

[SpeedStarTMQ]

That occurred to me too, but I can't see why they didn't include it originally, only included it as a sketch, then only to have it magically appear in full working colour later on in some media collection. Surely they took it out for some reason, and then put it back in, or they animated it later on through their own studio or another?

[John Calibur]

What appeared in Sonic Jam was the uncut intro and outro animations.

In terms of the intro, the FMV in a copy of Sonic CD is pretty gimped compared to the original. A few transitions were cut or shortened, like the one where Sonic does his wierd frog-skip swimming before running along the side of the alcove. Also, there's an obvious contrast in quality from the source animation. The reason for this I read along time ago, but now it aludes me. something about framerates or something.

The outro, specificly the cut antlion scene pretty much tells us that the animations used in the FMVs were made quite some time before the game was finalized and R2 was cut. The little scenes of each level are pretty vague anyway, only slightly resembling the levels they correspond to, and the Race with metal sonic apparently is taking place during the present Stardust Speedway, which never happens in game. Perhaps they only used the initial concept art to create the scenes used, very early in the games developement.

Everything included in the pencil test, baring the first segment with the smoketrail and the stars, was cut in 1 way or another. So the water-skipping, the antlion scene, and Sonic's running and spindashing demonstration weren't seen in the original Sonic CD except in pencil form. However, at that point in time, full color versions of each of those animations probably exsisted, I don't think they went out of their way to color the antlion scene after the game was released. I imagine putting the scenes in pencil form allowed them to bypass the color limitations that are visible in the intro, and probably saved space on the disc, while also evoking the feeling that this content was from the cutting room floor. So I can see where you might be confused.

If it wasn't already clear enough, the antlion scene was removed, and so was R2, so it is assumed they correspond to each other, but who knows! Maybe the animation was for something totally different, like what they though tidal tempest would've ended up like? It's all speculation anyway, it's probably just R2. The scene pops up in the pencil test and sonic jam as a little bonus, much like the deleted scenes of a movie.

This post has been edited by John Calibur: 21 April 2010 - 12:50 PM

[SpeedStarTMQ]

Right, that's made it a lot easier, I hadn't realised that the Sonic Jam/Mega Collection scenes were uncut, implying that in fact previous versions were cut.
I don't think we'll ever have a conclusive peice of evidence to ever verify these claims 100%, but it's just the thought that we could be seeing things which would have been totally different which is just so damn fascinating.

[John Calibur]

Game design is an extremely demanding artform, even for an entire team of people.

In the mainstream industry, there are alot of deadlines to meet, especially when it comes to the holiday season. When making a game there's alot of contingencies too, and when deadlines aren't met, and things don't meet quality standards, that's when things start getting cut and cut.

In the end, the Sonic CD we know and love is a very unfinished product that the devteam settled on, and it's a little more skimpy than what the game designers had originally imagined. The sad thing is that this almost always happens with every game ever. Developers run out of time, and then they have to compensate by sacrificing aspects of the game.

If they had all the time in the world to perfect the game, we'd have things like R2, and Naoto's original vision of instantaneous time travel with the level changing all around you, and who knows what else. We'd also probably not see the game for a few years too, and that's no good.

This post has been edited by John Calibur: 21 April 2010 - 01:46 PM

[Cooljerk]

What appeared in Sonic Jam was the uncut intro and outro animations.

In terms of the intro, the FMV in a copy of Sonic CD is pretty gimped compared to the original. A few transitions were cut or shortened, like the one where Sonic does his wierd frog-skip swimming before running along the side of the alcove. Also, there's an obvious contrast in quality from the source animation. The reason for this I read along time ago, but now it aludes me. something about framerates or something.

The outro, specificly the cut antlion scene pretty much tells us that the animations used in the FMVs were made quite some time before the game was finalized and R2 was cut. The little scenes of each level are pretty vague anyway, only slightly resembling the levels they correspond to, and the Race with metal sonic apparently is taking place during the present Stardust Speedway, which never happens in game. Perhaps they only used the initial concept art to create the scenes used, very early in the games developement.

Everything included in the pencil test, baring the first segment with the smoketrail and the stars, was cut in 1 way or another. So the water-skipping, the antlion scene, and Sonic's running and spindashing demonstration weren't seen in the original Sonic CD except in pencil form. However, at that point in time, full color versions of each of those animations probably exsisted, I don't think they went out of their way to color the antlion scene after the game was released. I imagine putting the scenes in pencil form allowed them to bypass the color limitations that are visible in the intro, and probably saved space on the disc, while also evoking the feeling that this content was from the cutting room floor. So I can see where you might be confused.

If it wasn't already clear enough, the antlion scene was removed, and so was R2, so it is assumed they correspond to each other, but who knows! Maybe the animation was for something totally different, like what they though tidal tempest would've ended up like? It's all speculation anyway, it's probably just R2. The scene pops up in the pencil test and sonic jam as a little bonus, much like the deleted scenes of a movie.

FYI, that water skipping scene is cut from the game's intro, and can be seen on Sonic Jam and Sonic Mega Collection fully colored.