Funny... I remember an old magazine speaking about Sonic 3B before "Sonic & Knuckles" was announced, seriously. Edit: I think it was in a small pamphlet given away with a (winter?) Hobby Consolas issue, in case there's any Spanish guy reading this. If I remember correctly, it also had a preview pic of the first Smurfs game for the GameBoy, showing the stork level.
Someone asked why did they have no problem marketing Sonic 3D on a 4MB cart. Sonic 3D was done 2 years after Sonic 3. Sonic 3 was supposed to have three versions: Sonic 3 A - that became Sonic 3 Sonic 3 B - that became Sonic & Knuckles Sonic 3 C - that was supposed to be a special edition of Sonic 3, basically Sonic 3 + Sonic & Knuckles on one cart. That was scrapped in late May and they concentrated on giving the same capabilities with Lock-On There is Sonic 3 B and Sonic 3 C in the release tomorrow.
So I suppose the obvious here is that if any prototypes had the MJ composed music, it'd be in the Sonic 3A protos, correct?
That seems logical. Although if Sonic 3 B was worked on concurrently, there could theoretically be MJ music in an early Sonic 3 B beta.
yep I reckon that german proto with FBZ, the 'help' tv and S2 sprites will have some leftovers DO SO WANT
..But no Sonic 3 A? Meaning Sonic 3 A wasn't on the disc at all? Or you aren't releasing it? EDIT: Reading is fun.
so if Sonic 3 was done at one point (like Sonic 3 and Knuckles) and had all the stuff in it, lock on and all, why the hell didn't Sega release it? That means they just cut us off, cut the game in half and made us pay twice... (or was 3B and C made after Sonic 3 was release?) EDIT: okay I see so it's Sonic 3C... which was going to be released on one cart but was scrapped for the lock on thingie... so to make it clear: Sonic 3A never made it this far right?
Are we going to get any sneak preview on any other non-Sonic protos that might have something interesting in them? I'm asking because I probably won't be here tomorrow... =(
If you can find that one then I would want to see it. You know perfectly I'm Spanish speaker :P By the way, so just you know, once I heard about a full Sonic 3 & Knuckles version being already built-in in a single cartridge. And when I heard this the Saturn was already released long time ago, so obviously Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles were out back then. Maybe there is such a cartridge released somewhere? Anyways, a bit off-topic, but I care about the torrents. Can some of you try to retain a server up even after the download is complete? Torrents are known to be slow, and having more torrents up will allow it to run faster. Also, how do I do that with BitTorrent? Because as well as I say it, I plan to do it. For a week, just in case somebody can't get in here. I know a lot of people will want to download all the files together, and there torrents are better (safer in case of error as you can try to continue where the download shot down).
Other changes I haven't seen noticed, mostly relating to sound effects: *Sonic starts out walking to the right in the final. In Sonic 3C 0517 he's stationary. *The visible yellow spring to the left of the first set of spikes in Sonic 3C 0517 has been removed from the final version. *In the final, Sound Effect 90 plays when Knuckles hits the ground after you beat him. Missing in Sonic 3C 0517. *In the final, Sound Effect 59 plays a couple of times during that explosion sequence after you beat Knuckles. Missing in Sonic 3C 0517. *The timer keeps going in Sonic 3C 0517 after you beat Knuckles. It stops in the final version. *In Sonic 3C 0517, there's no jump sound effects for the jumps Knuckles during the Master Emerald scene. This was fixed in the final version. *Sound Effect CC(?) plays when Robotnik grabs the emerald in the final version. Missing in Sonic 3C 0517. *Robotnik flashes after Knuckles hits him, as if he's been damaged, in Sonic 3C 0517. He doesn't flash in the final version. *Sound Effect 78 plays when Knuckles is electrocuted in the final version. Missing in Sonic 3C 0517. *Robotnik electrocutes Knuckles a lot longer in the final version. *Sound Effect CC(?) is mixed in with the explosion sound effects in the final version when the platform collapses. Missing in Sonic 3C 0517. *Sound Effect 59 plays when Knuckles punches the wall down. Missing in Sonic 3C 0517. *Again, jumping sound effect missing when Knuckles jumps onto the teleporter. Fixed in the final version.
Another small difference I've noticed, is that there's a Fire Shield power-up near the teleporter, rather than a 10-Ring monitor like in the final.
Also that Knuckles makes the "c'mon" pose after he destroys the wall in the beta. In the final version both they are reversed :P
I remember a while back people speculating about the Japanese version of Sonic 3 being a later build, having all the Sonic3k levels. While it wasn't true, it wasn't far off what sega were originally planning I guess. I'm interested to see if if Sonic3C is more advanced than the retail version of Sonic 3 in terms of engine and bug fixes... or if it's the same only with all the 3k content. Are the Sonic 3 betas from before the retail S3 release or before S+K's release?
I'm not so sure >_> Take into mind that all Japan-only games became curiously released here. Maybe it was more than just a rumour, or maybe some pirate got in Sega and stole the beta and sold it. Who knows. I just wonder if such a cart exists for real :/
The date drx gave is 0517, so this is about four months after 3A was released. Without a 3A proto it's hard to say exactly how far past the released Sonic 3 they got, but by the time of the proto in the video they certainly had quite a bit of time to develop things past 3A.
Looks like Saz finally got into his Youtube account. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QoB3v139wUQ This is from an earlier build (April 8). Probably the most interesting thing here is the powerup group, which contains an S monitor.