I mean, go nuts, but I'm sure SonLVL can make better and more accurate maps of the Simon Wai prototype by this point.
The OST could be referring to it as just an unused track simply to avoid confusion. People who are unfamiliar with Sonic 2's development history and purchase the soundtrack would be puzzled to hear that there's seemingly a level called Hidden Palace they don't remember in Sonic 2. Regardless of whether it was meant to be HPZ's theme or not, the fact it was assigned to HPZ after this one was scrapped is pretty puzzling. It's definitely not a result of the order of the tracks being shuffled around during development, since the track order is the same in September '92 prototype (which already has track 10) as in the final. The only possible explanations I can think of are poor communication (ie: someone assigned it unaware that HPZ had been scrapped), and the ones suggested by Hez.
Okilydokily. I'll work on getting them up, and if SonLVL can do better maps then I suppose they can be replaced.
This. The simplest explanation based on our knowledge of the Sonic 2 development debacle. Until we know the truth, someone add this to the wiki.
This is a really interesting breakdown. It would be neat to see a similar breakdown for other stages. Maybe even document chunk differences on the wiki with a timeline comparison showing art updates and reordering.
Yes it would be helpful to have images of all the chunks and tiles of all the levels from all of the builds. (we actually already have some for later games) The wiki wants most things. It doesn't matter if there's no obvious page to show them off yet.
Chemical Plant Zone, alpha build. If you skip past the "rising water + moving blocks" part in act 2 using a spindash and a well timed jump, the game seems to get confused about whether Sonic is underwater when it rises later on. The game registered that I was underwater (when I wasn't), started playing the broken countdown music, and then locked the screen. Apparently I have drowned in the above screenshot. So that's a thing.
You're correct - Tails can't drown in the Wai proto but he can drown in the Alpha and break everything for Sonic. He's a proper liability.
Anyone know whether the Wood Zone background scroll code that was found in Sonic 2 REV 00 exists in the August build? If not, it seems as if there was an odd last minute update to both WZ and HPZ (autospin object) before the eventual removal of these zones.
Just from seeing the video, it doesn't seem to have any scrolling. This does support my theory that the coding, art, and other various tasks seemed to be tasked to certain teams last minute, and then compiled together near the end. Especially if a document handed to some coders said "Slot 01 needs this paralaxing at these points, Level slot 02 requires this...etc etc.". It would explain the HPZ changes after the level was removed.
Is anybody else amazed by the amount of work put into this game in such a short amount of time? These developers were extremely talented, if only they were given a few more months, maybe we would have saw HPZ in the final game.
...well, they were paid to do it, it was for a living. It's not like they did it during their free time whilst doing another job d=
Off-topic, but there's less than 25 hours until we learn what drx has got in store for us for the final day of Sonic Month!
Oh man, I am so excited for this. I’m getting my hopes up way too much, but I hope with all my heart that it’s the Sonic 1 Proto that that guy’s dad has in his storage compartment. If I die before the day that thing is released I’m going to die an unhappy man.
I don't know that I would use the word talent for cramming the development of like half the game in just the last month :p But uh sure, they got a lot done in that mighty September crunch.
Also, we're not entirely sure exactly sure that more wasn't already done. Again, with teams very likely being split up, they may have had "stable" code and WIP code. Some dev teams probably handed them stuff that they know would work for a demo to be compiled for magazines. I'm willing to bet that's why some stuff is wildly different, while other stuff remains similar to other builds. It probably went along the lines of "Yo, we need to get a test build out to Magazine A company, lets get something going! Hey coders, hows your stuff?" "Its not done, use the stuff on disk A from a month ago" "OK, Music team...." etc. I find it hard to believe these builds had exactly every single thing up to date in each department.
