[bock]

It's not technically new news, but I stumbled on this VHS recently and wondered if it was well known (not, according to the view counter).

We have uploaded this VHS recording a few years ago
https://www.youtube....h?v=MaphDMaxU9A

It has long shots of Sonic 2. I didn't look at it in details but I thought maybe Sonic 2 experts would want to look at it for perhaps prototype footages. It might be worthless, but I thought I'd point out the existence of the video just in case.

Happy holidays all.

[Kiddo Cabbusses]

The footage appears to be somewhere in-between the earlier prototypes and final.
7:15 in shows "Simon Wai beta" title screen.
Emerald Hill and Chemical Plant following it don't seem too different.
7:51 shows Hidden Palace Zone.

EDIT: 9:02 also shows more Hidden Palace Zone. In retrospect, this may be the most anyone has ever seen of that level before prototype ROMs got leaked.

This post has been edited by Kiddo Cabbusses: 26 December 2014 - 02:11 PM

[Black Squirrel]

http://info.sonicret...Promotional_VHS

but if your point is, all this legacy SWS2B stuff from ten years ago might not be all that accessible these days, then yes, I agree.

[Kiddo Cabbusses]

Black Squirrel, on 26 December 2014 - 02:14 PM, said:

http://info.sonicret...Promotional_VHS

but if your point is, all this legacy SWS2B stuff from ten years ago might not be all that accessible these days, then yes, I agree.

Text and pictures didn't quite get the point across the same way seeing the whole video does, in my opinion.
Seeing it in motion like that, realizing Sega actually SHOWED people that incomplete stage, Tails monitor and all...
....
Speaking of that, did you notice the actually Genesis-accurate fade-to-black from HPZ when they finished showing it's footage?
Perhaps I'm looking too much into it, but that gives me the impression that was an autodemo. (theoretically it could have been debug mode start+a, but I wouldn't think they'd (the video producers that is.) go that far just for the sake of a transition.)

This post has been edited by Kiddo Cabbusses: 26 December 2014 - 06:31 PM

[Dark Sonic]

I always find Hidden Palace to be so weird considering it's one of the first levels put into the game at all, and yet it was almost never touched after it's first iteration and it was inevitably cut.

[LocalH]

Would like to see this video uploaded in the full vertical resolution (in this case, would be 720x576) without deinterlacing.

[Kiddo Cabbusses]

LocalH, on 26 December 2014 - 07:18 PM, said:

Would like to see this video uploaded in the full vertical resolution (in this case, would be 720x576) without deinterlacing.

Was there some detail in the video that is worth getting this in as high-res as possible?

Because from what I could tell, any footage relevant to Sonic 2 could probably be theoretically recreated in an emulation environment or such - the video is more notable for having existed in the past than for anything to gain from it now.

[Black Squirrel]

Kiddo Cabbusses, on 26 December 2014 - 06:29 PM, said:

Text and pictures didn't quite get the point across the same way seeing the whole video does, in my opinion.

To be fair that was written in the days before YouTube - when you had to download big AVI files on 56k modems and the like. It was the best way in 2002!

[SpeedStarTMQ]

Amazing to watch, thanks for sharing!

Did anyone else notice the title music? Obviously it was the 50htz version, but I'm sure it wasn't the same as any of the existing proto versions. The bass is louder and there are more kicks in the beat.

[Hez]

A lot of that footage is from prototypes of their respected games. Interesting.

EDIT: Also, when HPZ is displayed, it fades out near the end. This means it was in demo mode. Such a confusing zone...

This post has been edited by Hez: 27 December 2014 - 09:40 AM

[BlackHole]

Sorry to bump this, but I just noticed Sonic's movements in Chemical Plant, when he gets to the machine in the pipes. Is it just me or does he go in a circle vs the more square movements of the final version?

[Hez]

Actually, now that I look at that video again, the pallet for the monitors is screwed up because it still has the pattern of palettes they used for Sonic 1. They really did not touch that level after the wai proto.

[Neo]

Hez, on 21 February 2015 - 05:07 PM, said:

Actually, now that I look at that video again, the pallet for the monitors is screwed up because it still has the pattern of palettes they used for Sonic 1. They really did not touch that level after the wai proto.

Yeah, they did. There's an auto-spin object at the tube entrance now. (Also, I think this is the only video footage we have of this build, with Hidden Palace and the final Sonic sprite?)

[Hez]

Neo, on 21 February 2015 - 09:17 PM, said:

Hez, on 21 February 2015 - 05:07 PM, said:

Actually, now that I look at that video again, the pallet for the monitors is screwed up because it still has the pattern of palettes they used for Sonic 1. They really did not touch that level after the wai proto.

Yeah, they did. There's an auto-spin object at the tube entrance now. (Also, I think this is the only video footage we have of this build, with Hidden Palace and the final Sonic sprite?)

Oh yeah...I forgot about that. THINK there were a few rings added too. Since the pallete wasn't changed, it still almost supports the theory that this level really was a test level for a lot of things.