Yes, I know that, but I had to 'request access' because you Google Drive is private. That's what I meant.
For some reason the settings didn't save. I've corrected it now. Apologies for anyone who tried previously.
Nicely done. I think there are limits to EGM's print but this does seem to confirm something I thought might be a thing. Those cacti - they're 3D: In my very quickly made diagram - if viewed from above (without the flower) it would be a cross shape. Like this decorative tree, but cactus shaped.
That makes sense considering the floor panels with the pyramids are also clearly 3D shaded as well in their design. Is it possible the graphics for this were modeled in low ploy 3D and then downconverted/textured to create the concept? Is this a thing both US and JPN branches would do with Genesis era visuals, or is this purely an American Artist thing?
Sonic 1's art was designed to "look" 3D, but the team didn't have access to any 3D modelling software - I imagine it would be the same thing for Sonic 2.
I would have assumed rather, that this was the only piece that remained after its removal. In fact, if Sega can remove a unique background this quickly, with only a handful of tiles left, whose to say the Dust Hill Desert level wasn't partially implemented at some point in a build we don't have. Early Hidden Palace isn't the only thing that was removed from this build, the Chemical Plant boss was also mysteriously removed.
Yes, I think one of the best examples are the palm trees in Green Hill, whose leaves are polygons. They wanted an early CG look, which IMO is still one of their best design decisions. Look at the leaves for the sunflower too!
Tried to improve it as much as I could. I used some sprite rips from The Spriters Resource and paint.NET to reduce the color pallete.