[GeneHF]

Not like Retro's a stranger to shamelessly plugging prototypes and hosting them.

[qwertysonic]

High Fidelity, on 04 May 2015 - 02:48 PM, said:

Yeah, it definitely looks to be a mock up... but I'm hoping that this alpha Marble Zone & Dust Hill where in game at some point.

I remember reading in the old Dust Hill thread some years back that this was confirmed by the level artist (Brenda?) although my memory is a bit flaky.

Dust Hill was designed for Sonic 2. Why would it be on the same build as an alpha version of Marble Zone?

[Hez]

High Fidelity, on 04 May 2015 - 02:48 PM, said:

GeneHF, on 04 May 2015 - 01:02 PM, said:

High Fidelity, on 04 May 2015 - 10:58 AM, said:

I would love to know if there was a build that included these Marble Zone graphics, I wonder what surprises are hidden beyond Green Hill Zone?

Part of me feels this was more of a mock up similar to Dust Hill. Mind you, I've no empirical evidence to back that up, so it's just conjecture.

Yeah, it definitely looks to be a mock up... but I'm hoping that this alpha Marble Zone & Dust Hill where in game at some point.

I remember reading in the old Dust Hill thread some years back that this was confirmed by the level artist (Brenda?) although my memory is a bit flaky.

Sorry to burst your bubble, but she was just handed sprites from Sonic 1 for a mock up.

[High Fidelity]

@Hez & qwertysonic

Sorry, I was pretty hungover when I posted that! I'll try and make sense of that post.

Looking back at the development of Sonic 2, and the possibility that Dust Hill was in game at some point and not just a mock up (I think this was confirmed by level artist Brenda in the old Dust Hill thread some years back, but memory is hazy... maybe someone with superior S2 knowledge can correct me on that, ICEknight perhaps?)

Hidden Palace was famous for it's mock ups. I'm hoping that because of Dust Hill & Hidden Palace in S2 that somewhere a Marble Zone based on the mock up graphics exists in an early build of Sonic 1 that's yet to be discovered.

Off topic: there's a hedgehog in my back garden making weird growling noises

[Clownacy]

I recall an interview saying something about a unfinished zone, of either Genocide City or Dust Hill, which had a few objects scattered around. Maybe in the way of Wai's Mystic Cave. But just which interview completely evades me. Someone on the SOA side, I'm sure.

This post has been edited by Clownacy: 05 May 2015 - 06:33 PM

[TheKazeblade]

Clownacy, on 05 May 2015 - 06:32 PM, said:

I recall an interview saying something about a unfinished zone, of either Genocide City or Dust Hill, which had a few objects scattered around. Maybe in the way of Wai's Mystic Cave. But just which interview completely evades me. Someone on the SOA side, I'm sure.

That was probably Tom Payne. His assets designed for Genocide/Cyber City Zone were created, then used in Sonic Spinball's The Machine level.

[MarkeyJester]

Something I am very curious about here, is scanning. Are we not able to obtain a scan of these shots at a higher resolution? It seems from most of these shots, that the pixels are just see-able enough, that if we had a larger scan of them without lossy compression from JPEG or GIF, or the automatic "newspaper" dithering technique (I don't know the name of it), and with some specifically written tools. We might be able to generate an accurate pixelated rendition of these shots for further analysis. It may even help to narrow out which shots are mock ups and which are legitimates.

[redhotsonic]

High Fidelity, on 05 May 2015 - 06:20 PM, said:

Off topic: there's a hedgehog in my back garden making weird growling noises

Get him! He may have answers!


As for that MZ shot, there's too much difference to the final that it certainly screams "mock-up". Especially as Sonic is not centre and there's no HUD. Not to say that they never started to implement any art/objects seen in that shot.

[ICEknight]

High Fidelity, on 05 May 2015 - 06:20 PM, said:

Looking back at the development of Sonic 2, and the possibility that Dust Hill was in game at some point and not just a mock up (I think this was confirmed by level artist Brenda in the old Dust Hill thread some years back, but memory is hazy... maybe someone with superior S2 knowledge can correct me on that, ICEknight perhaps?)

I don't think anybody actually said that the level was ever implemented into the game, but I could also be wrong...

I do seem to remember that, when we met in Madrid, Tom Payne told me about how you could get a one-level build from their computers, when you needed to test something. Did Brenda ever get do that with some of her finished graphics? Who knows, but I don't think a test layout could even count as a playable in-game level anyway.

This post has been edited by ICEknight: 06 May 2015 - 10:21 AM

[HEDGESMFG]

I think the planned Genocide/Cyber City's layout was used for Metropolis Act 3, if I recall... but I don't know if the visuals were ever implemented.

You know what would be an awesome hack someone needs to do? Modify the Machine's visuals and reskin them on a tweaked version of Metropolis Act 3 as a one act level. Bam, that'd be as close to an authentic Cyber/Genocide City as we'll ever get.

[Hez]

ICEknight, on 06 May 2015 - 10:20 AM, said:

High Fidelity, on 05 May 2015 - 06:20 PM, said:

Looking back at the development of Sonic 2, and the possibility that Dust Hill was in game at some point and not just a mock up (I think this was confirmed by level artist Brenda in the old Dust Hill thread some years back, but memory is hazy... maybe someone with superior S2 knowledge can correct me on that, ICEknight perhaps?)

I don't think anybody actually said that the level was ever implemented into the game, but I could also be wrong...

I do seem to remember that, when we met in Madrid, Tom Payne told me about how you could get a one-level build from their computers, when you needed to test something. Did Brenda ever get do that with some of her finished graphics? Who knows, but I don't think a test layout could even count as a playable in-game level anyway.

This is why Wood Zone is most likely just a test layout that got thrown into a build. By accident, who knows?

From 06 May 2015 - 10:20 AM:

You know what would be an awesome hack someone needs to do? Modify the Machine's visuals and reskin them on a tweaked version of Metropolis Act 3 as a one act level. Bam, that'd be as close to an authentic Cyber/Genocide City as we'll ever get.

sshhhh......

This post has been edited by Hez: 06 May 2015 - 01:44 PM

[High Fidelity]

ICEknight, on 06 May 2015 - 10:20 AM, said:

High Fidelity, on 05 May 2015 - 06:20 PM, said:

Looking back at the development of Sonic 2, and the possibility that Dust Hill was in game at some point and not just a mock up (I think this was confirmed by level artist Brenda in the old Dust Hill thread some years back, but memory is hazy... maybe someone with superior S2 knowledge can correct me on that, ICEknight perhaps?)

I don't think anybody actually said that the level was ever implemented into the game, but I could also be wrong...

I do seem to remember that, when we met in Madrid, Tom Payne told me about how you could get a one-level build from their computers, when you needed to test something. Did Brenda ever get do that with some of her finished graphics? Who knows, but I don't think a test layout could even count as a playable in-game level anyway.

Interesting, thanks for the info!

I would love to see some of these test levels. I bet Sega's archives is a treasure trove of hidden goodies... S1/2 mock up screens are really inspiring.

@Hez Wood Zone screams test level to me too. Dust Hill & other levels have to be out there somewhere, either on old Sonic Team hard drives or cartridge... I mean, why make all of a zone's assets for a few mock ups?

[rata]

Maybe they just wanted to troll future Sonic fans

[RenyNoise]

Looks like Eggman was gonna be using actual egg enemies at first. How fun.

[Hez]

This stuff just gives me blue balls.... I want more stuff so bad.

EDIT: Did I just find more?


EDIT2: Further examining them...they look fake

This post has been edited by Hez: 08 May 2015 - 01:53 PM