Wow, seriously? We've seen tons of magazine snapshots with the ball featured in Green Hill Zone's bog standard level layout, but absolutely nothing indicative of what the ball was actually supposed to do. It would make sense to work the way you mentioned, though—as I recall, earlier accounts of the game specifically note how Sonic didn't have the ability to roll; only jump.
Hmm. Think of this. If sonic could only originally jump, why would they make it a rolling jump animation and not think "Let's make him roll! Now!"? Perhaps the strange jumping frames with sonic doing a fist-in-air jump were originally the jump frames, but when they made Sonic roll they thought it would be logical to do a spinning jump... [/speculation]
Well, if I recall correctly, the rolling ability was since the beginning, and it was pretty much his main method to attack. Now, as we all know, his main method of attack pretty much is jumping on enemies, as well as when we talk about the Spin Attack, we're talking about the jump. So I assume that when they meant rolling, they meant rolling while jumping?
Welcome to Retro, Dean. I think I among other people here had netgasms when we found out your were an ex-Sega employee. =P This is interesting stuff. Did you have anything to do with the creation of the Death Egg, being a reference to the Death Star of Star Wars?
Maybe he couldn't destroy the walls in GHZ by rolling originally? They are bigger than him, after all.
that exactly what I meant. you could always spin, and you got past the wall by rolling the large ball. in later revs, sonic crashed through that area instead. thanks nope, no contribution there.
Did the SLZ walls come after the GHZ walls were made destructible? If not, could Sonic always roll through them, or was there a ball in SLZ?
I'm going to have to quote myself. it's been a long time. "do I recognize anything is kind of open ended... many screens and according typos seem familiar ie clock ork..but its been almost 20 years? the large rolling ball I think was placeholder for the first area that sonic must smash through - using the ball came before his ability to smash through on his own... I think."
Hey Dean - One more question I just thought of. Were you involved in naming the tiny animal characters that Sonic frees from the badniks in Sonic 1? If not, can you confirm whether they are given names in the Sonic bible, and what those names are? If the UK "Stay Sonic" manual is accurate to the bible, I would expect them to be Sally Acorn, Joe Sushi, Porker Lewis, Johnny Lightfoot, Tux, Flicky, etc. I'm particularly interested whether you know anything about Sally Acorn. It would be quite something if you were the one (or happened to know the one) who came up with that name. Would help me out a bunch, too.
Hello Dean! Welcome to the Sonic Retro forums, where we value important members of Sonic's history such as yourself! I hope you can answer some questions for me, too: *Do you recall of any (Sega) CD versions of Sonic 1 or Sonic 2 being discussed or planned during your time at Sega? *Does the name "Sonic Eraser" mean anything to you? Pardon me good sir, but I'm little confused. Have you stopped working for Sega since 1992 or since 1999?
I think he meant the difference between working *at* Sega, and working *for* Sega. I.e. employee and contractor
So the old GHZ ball was used to break the walls instead of a roll after all then, great to hear that to finally confirm it's use, and knowing that sonic could still spin at the time... just not through walls. I <3 this thread.
Dean, Welcome to the Sonic Retro forums and for taking the time to answer our many questions. We greatly appriciate your input as it has been of much value for our community as a whole! Here's something I haven't seen mentioned yet: From the first Sonic the Hedgehog game, you explained that the rolling ball within Green Hill Zone was a placeholder to smash through walls, however in Sonic 2 the rolling ball makes a return . You said that you worked for Sega until 1992, but I just wasn't sure how far into 1992. I was wondering if you had any input into the second Sonic game during the time frame you worked for Sega. The rolling ball is seen in an early version of Oil Ocean Zone for Sonic 2, however this too was removed for the final game. Would you know anything about this?, if not, that's ok.
Hmm... Was that ball always supposed to appear hanging from the first boss? Or did the Green Hill boss feature something different than the brown checkered wrecking ball, originally? Any differences you can remember from earlier versions would be quite interesting to read, for all of us. For example, regarding the character designs, controls, rings, power ups, scrapped levels and bosses, alternate endings, behind the scenes stuff, etc.
"its been a long time" but the large ball connected to robotniks machine by several rings was always the first boss.
Very interesting if you remember anything to do with items dean as iceknight asks :specialed: an item which still has sprites left in the game but unused are a pair of goggles for sonic to wear, could he swim or breave under water with them in an older version? the sprites fit sonic's face and nose perfectly. *edit* feel free to look here and tell us if you remember any of these unused items, if you can't remember it's cool.
don't quote me/I don't know when the last time I played 1 would be/taking a stab at it... the images that appear on several of the monitors are hints at upcoming areas goggles prior to the water levels - robotnik on a monitor before a boss level pretty sure that sonic is shown with those goggles while in water/its the same # of frames for the rotation... but you didnt need to get them several monitors don't actually "do" anything but they suggest upcoming events. it is as if sonic smashed the monitor to gain the item but it doesnt actually reside in any player inventory/its graphic fluff only. I will always fall back on its been a long time... but this sounds like the concept ... I think. (edit) according to Guide to the Zones PCs are super rings shields power sneakers one-ups invincibility the computers were left for the citizens of mobius to report the location of the gray emerald they ever saw it. but theres trouble there.. lol it says also " we confess that we do not know how or why or by whom these objects were crammed into the PCs"
DOn't worry I won't quote anything and I doubt anyone will since you are a little unsure, if you did not know those goggles never appear in the final game at any stage or animation. Having a monitor before an area or boss sounds rather odd though and to break it without an effect, in a way it sounds rather silly so maybe that's why they were never used in the final build? thanks for trying to remember anyway Some speculation was that the "S" monitor was for an early version of Super Sonic, who appears after you claim all 7 emeralds in Sonic 2. Because there are only 6 emeralds in Sonic 1 it was thought that maybe an emerald was removed, but these are just guesses from the community as we try to figure out these beta items.
