The Supreme Topic of 'Other' Knowledge.

Not sure if this is substantial enough for a topic, so I'll just put it here.

I just received my copy of John Szczepaniak's "The Untold History of Japanese Game Developers, Volume 1". There's a 12 page interview with Yuzo Koshiro in there. Here's what he says about working on the 8-BIT version of Sonic the Hedgehog. It might clear up some misconceptions about how closely the 8-BIT version was based on early concepts for the 16-BIT version.

I haven't read it all yet, but I don't think there's any more information about Sonic games in the book. If you're interested in reading about games development in Japan over the last thirty years, the interviews are really great, though a little dry. Lots of these people are quite small names, and have had interesting careers working on lots of unconnected games. There's also an interview with Keiji Inafune, that I've still got to read.

 

That explains why Sonic 1's GG sprites were so derpy at the very least. They got time to work on them for the MS version.

 

http://info.sonicretro.org/Sonic_the_Hedgehog_%28Game_Gear_prototype%29

Actually, the MS sprites came first because the GG prototype of Sonic 1 we have, has them instead of the ones in the GG Final.

 

... so they intentionally replaced those sprites with the derp ones that don't have noses?

Why?

 

Simple. They wanted Sonic to look more narrower and identical to his Genesis Counterpart. But they eventually messed up for reasons unknown. :v:

 

I don't think it's a beta. It looks more like a demo.

The music bank is identical to Sonic 1 SMS. (S1 GG final has a few minor differences, about 10 bytes in total IIRC.)
I also tried to access the other levels by modifying the "current level" byte and the scrolling in Bridge Zone 2 is present, as well as the script for the Ending scene. None of the graphics are correct though.
The Bonus Zones seem to have a correct object layout, but are unplayable, because the screen is locked to a very small area.

(The level ID is at offset $D23E in RAM and you should modify it while the map is shown.)

 

Ha, it's a plush of '06 Sonic.

Found at Target by a friend.

 

That's one of the more tolerable looking modern Sonic plushies I've seen anyway. Most of the ones I've come across look like a pitbull or particularly hopeless child just finished having their way with it.

 

Drifting the topic here... but more Sonic Chaos beta footage not listed on SOST!

1: SVM from August 1993 - Go to 22:53 as IP.Board's YouTube integration is bitchy with m and s tags at the moment...
http://youtu.be/myzSBJOlvX0

Here's a couple differences I can spot out:

• The title screen has no music at all.
• No 0 in the life counter.
• Music pieces coming from the Sega Master System version.
• Boss music is slightly different but emphasizes more on it's notes (if I got that right).
• The Boss Clear music is entirely different.
• No angular sprites when going across bridges (Thanks Jen!)
• The music doesn't come to a halt when going through a signpost

2: TV Commercial


This is the only shot I could see in a US Sonic Chaos commercial that didn't have a 0 in the life counter.

3: Sample Boxart


On SMSPower, I found some sample boxart for Sonic Chaos which had these 2 screenshots of Tails in Sonic Chaos's alpha stage. While the loops are different in shading, if you look very close, he oddly has the infamous case of the S2 Beta Tails "Sonic" life icon!

EDIT: Seems that Xilla found the first one I mentioned way earlier, but the others he didn't look at. Checking his post, he also found this.



More or less, more of those pre-beta Spinball-S3 esque sprites.

 

There was another one I found (a few pages back) where the Gigalopolis Zone boss had an extra ball. /

I wonder if they were seriously gonna call it Sonic 3 at one point alongside the MD version, or if that was only ever a working title.

 

http://segaretro.org/images/1/10/SegaVisions07US.pdf
Sega Visions issue 7, page 52 has the ever horrendous Niles Nemo take a trip to "Sonicland".

Sonic encounters one of those scrapped Green Hill Zone balls... in a tube.

 

How odd! It was a winter 1991/1992 mag, and Sonic was released June 23rd 91. I imagine that sketch was done earlier on in the year just before the game's release.

Wasn't that ball scrapped really late? There's so much Sonic info in my head I forget, but that explains why it's in debug mode (yet unplace-able) in the final.

 

Haha, the way Sonic uses only gestures to communicate in that Niles Nemo comic is like seeing Generations Classic Sonic appearing 20 years early.

 

Just stumbled onto an amusing bug in Knuckles' Chaotix:

Playing as Mighty with Espio as partner, I hit a Swap monitor and became Espio right before entering an elevator, which locks player input. Espio starts glowing different colors while waiting. The elevator finally reaches its destination in the level, and shortly thereafter I turn back into Mighty... and both characters are now palette-swapped! Espio's skin color is now a red while Might's outer shell rotates the rainbow when idling.

 

Not sure if it's been brought up before, but 200+ pages is something I'm not going to dig into, so I'll just post and hope for the best.

Is it just me or does it look like the Death Egg is still under construction in the Sonic the Hedgehog 2 Level Select shot?



I might be wrong, but those black spots really make it look like the Death Star II in construction over the Forest Moon of Endor. Not to mention at the bottom it looks like there's pieces missing from the full circle...

 

I would LOVE to see the developmental notes on that level. Just because of that icon alone. There had to be at one point, a level layout designed and a bigger res icon designed. Like, was it always intended as the pun "Death Egg", or was that put in there for a place holder for a space level?

 

Oh sweet buttery Jesus...
http://www.capcom-unity.com/dubindoh/blog/2014/09/17/tgs-2014-monster-hunter-4-ultimates-palicoes-get-a-sonic-the-hedgehog-armor

 

http://www.capcom.co.jp/monsterhunter/4G/dlc_sonic.html?last=0&id=67&cat=9

Oh jeez, what am I looking at?!

 

Is it really worth a separate topic?

I understand we need a "Sega vs Capcom" speculation topic but still?