The Supreme Topic of 'Other' Knowledge.

Is there a reason why Sega/Sonic Team didn't share the S3&K zone sketches in Sonic Origins or any other material like the anniversary artbooks? The only place where I remember seeing those sketches other than the 1994 MTV special was the 20th Anniversary Expo they did at Joypolis, so they still have it with them. I wanted to see those in decent quality for so long, even if most of them were just recolored S2 concept art. They do have some original drawings like the Sky Sanctuary (?) in the top-left corner. Apparently someone did scanned that art (alongside the Winter Zone sketch) at the time and shared it on the Rare Art thread here on Retro in 2012 but the images have expired since then. There was also a video in French showing the displays at the Joypolis event but the channel owner privated it in 2014/15.

 

Found a rip of the music on Youtube. It is indeed using FM drums (and some really ear-grating vibrato):

As for the sound hardware, the UFO SegaSonic used Sega AM2's UFO Board per SegaRetro. There seems to be very little information about this particular hardware, but based on some information on its successor the UFO Board EX, as well as this Japanese auction listing of a "UFO Board" with IC manufacture dates in 1992, I'm guessing it uses a Z80 as the sole CPU, with a discreet YM3438 for sound (which would explain the use of FM drums: I don't think you can really use the DAC if you don't have an extra CPU to continuously push data to it, no?).

Also, I don't believe the Master System ever had a discreet PSG chip; AFIAK it was integrated into the VDP from the very first Mark III revision.

 

Food for thought: The term 'Werehog' is never spoken by any character, not even once, in the entirety of Unleashed's cutscenes and dialogue. Wonder why?

 

IIRC the term Werehog was coined by fans later in development so that's why its only mention is the level-up screen after you complete a stage. I could be wrong or have details mixed up though.

 

According to some old interviews [og text][Eng TL], "Evil Sonic" (イビルソニック) was the form's original name internally. It didn't seem to read well overseas (which makes sense imo, he's not despicable, malicious, or cruel at all in the final like such a name would suggest... just a lil' bit lanky and buff) so they opted to rename him.
Depending on how late that happened, they might not have had the new name before recording the script, so not calling the form anything makes sense.

Sega of America were the ones to suggest "Werehog" so it's plausible... I'd love to see a contemporary official statement along the lines of "yea, we used what the fandom/general public latched onto", not sure where I'd find that.

 

Nice find! It is possible to do FM and DAC with a single CPU: the Z80 just has to take a break every now and again from streaming DAC data to update the FM channels. This causes the DAC output to have a 'scratchiness' to it, as there'll be 'gaps' in its waveform. On the Mega Drive, the Z80 uses the 'V-Int' interrupt to pause DAC playback and handle other things, and since that interrupt is generated by the VDP - which surely this UFO catcher doesn't have - then its Z80 would have to rely on something else to do that, which could be another reason why there's no DAC playback.

Oddly, the music appears to slow down when sound effects are playing. This has me wondering if SMPS is even synchronising itself to an interrupt at all, or if it's just infinitely updating itself in a loop as fast as it can. That could explain why that note in Scrap Brain Zone's music is split in two: if the driver is updating as fast as the Z80 will let it, then every note needs to be made longer so that the music doesn't play faster, and since that one note in Scrap Brain Zone's music was already really long, then extending it might have caused it to reach the maximum note length, meaning that another note would need to be added after it to take up the remaining time. There is a command in SMPS to make a 'repeat' note like this merely hold the previous note instead of repeat it, but it seems that was not used here.

 

Whoa. Did you try contacting the poster? Do you have a link to the post?

 

I do!
Original post: https://forums.sonicretro.org/index...rt-and-restoring-it.25575/page-12#post-660816

Private video of the event: ("Japon reportage Sonic 20 ans Sega Joypolis pour les sites Gen" from channel "vegeta44" and shared on French website "GamerGen", previously XboxGen)

I tried using Wayback Machine on both links, but I didn't find anything. Maybe there are more videos/photos archived from the exposition that we just didn't find yet. This is the same event where we got the Riders concept art using early designs for the characters.

 

It would definitely be worth trying to contact both Vincent and vegeta44.

 

So, a little while ago, a YouTuber stumbled across a massive lot of DiC cartoon materials, including Sonic stuff. On one of the first videos, I encouraged him to scan because Sonic Retro would love to archive this stuff. He gave my comment a heart but I didn't hear back
Today he put this video up, saying everything was scanned (is it gonna be public and shared? I don't know) he also said they're going to auction off individual pieces on December 15th on an app called WhatNot

So there it is. I hope the scans can be properly archived.

 

Sounds a bit scummy of him, but as long as he releases it all online after the auctions it should be ok...I guess? ^^"

 

Even if it only lives on his computer and the pieces are sold piecemeal to dozens of people, it's a marginal improvement from them sitting in their binders all this time. Hopefully the scans are shared at some point

 

The “Werehog” moniker existed in some early menus and early control scheme screens, so it’s possible they decided it somewhat early on: https://tcrf.net/Sonic_Unleashed_(Xbox_360,_PlayStation_3)

The script could’ve been written at that point, but even if it wasn’t would saying it have added much to the script? “Look Sonic you’re a Werehog!” “A what?” “Idk I just thought some stuff”

Eggman called the look “festive” which always confused me, seemed like a mistranslation. But festive? Does the Christmas Werehog deliver presents under the tree each year?

 

I don't know if you've seen it, but I made a thread for Sonic SatAM production media archival. I'm aware of the auctions they're putting up and am getting ready to save everything, in the event that the materials aren't released publicly outside the auction.

 

wait is the game meant to take place around Halloween?

 

Seems so. In Japanese he called it "amusing" instead. In fact, it seems every localization used a different word. For instance, the Spanish dub used "juvenile"

 

no no you don't get it he looks like Santa see that's the joke

 

Festive is apt wording, and not restricted to Christmas. Pretty much just means something or someone is ready for a party. Eggman uses that in a sort of mocking tone. It sounds like a word he'd used there, I don't know.

 

Awesome!

 

Another one from Richard Osman's House of Games. Sonic is low-brow.

None of you work as question writers, right?