Lava reef pallete in S3

Depending on the way the development was structured, it doesn't necessarily even prove that the graphics were near complete, just that the palette was completed. If they'd already decided on the basic idea of "a fire level" then making a palette to match doesn't require the other level art to be complete. Theoretically, the palette could have been done first so that the rest of the level's graphics would have something to match.

 

Most levels simply have a solid palette meant to use the general color scheme of the rotating one, before the actual rotating palette is usually implemented. I'm pretty sure they had a decent bit in at some point, but took out the core aspects of it since it wasn't going to be in the retail Sonic 3 release. That doesn't necessarily imply completion, mind you, but to say the rotation was made "just in case" is pretty ignorant, and I don't think it's a valid explanation for its existence in S3.

 

This kind of makes me wonder why they do such a bad job getting rid of stuff in these games. Sonic 2 has evidence of like 4 levels. Sonic 3 has all of these little tidbit remainders. So strange.

 

More info about this proto Lava Reef...

It seems to load some uncompressed graphics to simulate more parallax scrolling in the background, which were overwritten by Marble Garden's uncompressed tar graphics in this build. It seems that (unlike Hill Top, which loads them continously), this level changed these graphics only when the screen was scrolling.

Is this known to happen in the final Lava Reef?



EDIT: Oh, and Act 2 seems to load a rotating palette as well, but it just doesn't move.

 

I'm going to take a guess and say it has to do with the little Death Egg sprite that appears near the top of the background when playing as Sonic.

 

Yes this does indeed happen. It also does it in ICZ's underground background.

 

After seeing some evidence (which I can't unfortunately post here yet), I'm quite convinced they had a lot of S3&K finished (90% or even more) before they even released Sonic 3. Sega is dirty.

 

They're dirty indeed. They should have just released new levels for S&K instead of removing anything, and it would have been a much better experience.



I really went WTF after clearing Sonic 3 before lunch, the day I got to play it. I was like, "Is that all? Why was it more expensive than Sonic 2, then?".