Hey guys, story time! So, as you'll notice in ICEknight's earlier thread, some debate was sparked about the name of the Desert level in Sonic 2. ICEknight sincerely believed that Dust Hill Zone was an old name for Mystic Cave Zone, citing various magazines and concept art as evidence. As a result, we have taken this on as fact, preaching it for years upon years. Wetflame, however, consistently told us to stop and look at the big picture—Dust Hill, as a name, fits the Desert Zone's motif perfectly! And indeed, it does; but the facts didn't add up. Why would a proto exist with Mystic Cave coming before the Desert Zone? Why would the level select never be updated to account for this? Why were there so many magazines that only referred to "Dust Hill" as an older name for Mystic Cave? These things led us to believe that people like Wetflame were full of it, didn't know what they were talking about, and were cast aside. When Wetflame went on his latest rant about the Dust Hill debacle, I was tired of it. I decided to go to a fellow scener, Sik, about getting in contact with Hirokazu Yasuhara, the one person who would definitely be able to settle this once and for all. We were able to do this by talking to another fellow Sonic developer, Chris Senn, who has had close contact with Yasuhara even in recent years. After some talks, both Yasuhara and Senn agreed to answer our questions to settle the age-old debate: Was Dust Hill the name for the Desert Level, or was it an old name for Mystic Cave Zone? Here are the results: Completely unexpected! However, this didn't fully answer the question, so we decided to send a follow-up: Final conclusion? Dust Hill Zone is the Desert Level. And there you have it! Pretty much everything we've ever said about Dust Hill, ever since 2005 when ICEknight posted all his ramblings about magazine clippings, were completely false. All the people at Area 51, ever since 1998 or whatever, have been completely correct in calling the Desert level Dust Hill (albeit for the wrong reasons). Big thanks to Wetflame for pushing for this to happen. This gives us serious grounds to question everything that we've ever claimed as fact based on magazine clippings, and not direct testimonies from game developers. What else could we be wrong about? Who knows? Discuss!
I kinda knew that. What with Sonic 2 and 3's way of adding things they missed. Hidden Palace, Hyper Sonic, and whatnot. I'm glad it's confirmed though. :D
This clears a lot up....except why was mystic cave named dust hill? Was Mystic Cave the replaced zone for dust hill?
Finally, Common Sense Prevails! Good god almighty, its like a miracle! Now step aside and give Wetflame your admin powers. Don't make me quote the IRC
Finally, confirmation! Thank you both for your excellent detective work. Now, all we have to do now is get people stop believing all the current information and go back to the 2001 theories :P So then, the level select editors were just lazy bastards, as supported by Aquatic Ruin still being called Neo Green Hill even after the title cards were added. Thus, there is a proto out there like beta 4 or earlier without the title cards.
I think I remember Brenda ross saying Dust Hill was finished, then she started work on another level. That means there could have been a proto out there with the level intact. The simon wai proto comes some time after that level was removed, but mystic cave was put in its place in the level select screen.
Yes. She stated it was, and it clearly is as it fits the pattern of the other mockups. But, the art was clearly real. For all we know it was a static screenshot of the level, and then with all the sprites for Sonic and the badniks added later.
Most likely just placed it in its level slot. Can't say I'm surprised at this revelation. Good to have some finality on it, though.
Holy shit. Actual confirmation of Dust Hill zone's meaning? I miss the days back when Genocide City was completely ambiguous and the words "Dust Hill" would cause flamewars.
But doesn't the current findings about Dust Hill contradict what she said before about Dust Hill/Desert Zone?
And this answers the question that has been asked for a long time: Is Dust Hill Zone the Desert level? Well, thanks for taking the question to Yasuhara, 2008 is doing good, first the protos & now this.
I wonder if any of the level was programmed, if at all. Did it even make it past the planning stage? Who knows, a prototype might exist with Dust Hill actually in it.
