I guess the developers chose Emerald Hill Zone, Casino Night Zone, and Mystic Caves Zone for the final's 2P Versus because they were the least broken of all the stages to feature split screen to the players. Hill Top Zone looked good except for the background that glitched. That's probably how the chose the 2P levels to showcase in the final.
??? This is completely backwards! EHZ, CNZ and MCZ were DESIGNED to be compatible with interlaced mode! Incidentally, the reason HTZ "looks good except for the background" is specifically because the background was not designed to work in 2P mode, whereas the bits cribbed from EHZ were because EHZ was designed to work in 2P mode!
If there's a prototype between Simon Wai and the pre-beta, I'm interested to see if there's any more of Wood Zone. From my understanding, we do know it was worked on after Simon Wai (because scrolling data that wasn't there in Simon Wai is in the final release) but was scrapped by the pre-beta. One theory I have is that the Coconuts badnik was actually intended for Wood Zone, but the developers decided to replace the Snail badniks in EHZ when Wood was scrapped. I'm probably dead wrong, but who knows?
I do find it odd that there doesn't seem to be much evidence that other zones were on the cards for 2-player mode. Even in the Simon Wai proto, everything that isn't EHZ, CNZ and MCZ looks like garbage. Coming to the decision that "ooh it's too difficult" is fine but it does make you wonder - did they try with Chemical Plant Zone? It was in all the marketing after all, and even back in the day I thought it was a strange omission. It's like they made plans for 2-player before they'd finalised the level count. The faith was there that Mystic Cave Zone would be done, despite Hidden Palace being in the press from practically day one.
The next stream is starting in two minutes. https://www.twitch.tv/hiddenpalace/ Save yourself while you still can.
After Wai but with final sprites. This may very well be the build I've been on about. EDIT: August 21, 1992. (Alpha)
Pink neon Casino Night and the balls in Oil Ocean were the best. Those rolling balls feel like the closest thing to a Sonic 1 proto we might ever get. Thanks drx!
So is this it for Sonic 2? And even if it's not are these 2 builds the last significant builds available? It's weird but after almost 20 years... I feel like Sonic 2 is done. I don't see how we'll ever learn more about the game via the actual builds (interviews not withstanding)
For a brief moment during the live stream, in Casino Night Zone, a debug item was scrolled to but didn't seem to be placed. It's an icon of 4 springs, does it do anything?
Yeah. Kinda feels like the end of an era. Apart from the stuff people discover in the ROMs (if anything new, at all) Can't wait for the final week. Hoping it's a biggie but even if it isn't, it'll be interesting nonetheless.
