Sonic 2 Beta
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| Sonic the Hedgehog 2 Beta | |
|---|---|
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| Developer(s) | Sega Technical Institute |
| Publisher(s) | none |
| Designer(s) | Judy Toyota (character design), Hirokazu Yasuhara (game planner), Yuji Naka (lead programmer) |
| Release date(s) | N/A |
| Genre(s) | Platform game |
| Mode(s) | Single player, Multiplayer |
| Platform(s) | Sega Mega Drive/Genesis |
| Media | 16-megabit cartridge |
| Input | Game controller |
The Sonic 2 Beta is a prototype version of the video game Sonic the Hedgehog 2.
Contents |
[edit] Description
This version of Sonic 2 was discovered by Simon Wai on a Chinese GeoCities site and widely distributed on the Internet as Sonic the Hedgehog 2 Beta. Only four levels can be played in "normal" gameplay; the rest (including several incomplete stages) have to be accessed through the level select code (which is accessed simply via A-Start; the final version requires entering a numeric code through the Sound Test). Many are not entirely playable, but can be explored using the debug code. Some of the acts are completely empty, causing Sonic and Tails to fall to their doom immediately after beginning the level. The prototype was examined by hackers for several years to determine how Sonic the Hedgehog 2 was developed. It was recently stated in an interview with Yuji Naka that this beta probably was from a demonstration cartridge that was stolen at a toy show in New York in 1992.[1] Akinori Nishiyama has also stated that the leak was due to the lack of security at the time.[2]
An earlier prototype has been dumped and released.
[edit] Zones
In addition to the renamed zones, such as Green Hill Zone which became Emerald Hill Zone, Dust Hill Zone which became Mystic Cave Zone, Neo Green Hill Zone which became Aquatic Ruin Zone, and Sky Fortress Zone which became Wing Fortress Zone (not present in the extant prototype, the development name is known from magazine images [1]), the following levels exist in the beta version of the game.
[edit] Neo Green Hill Zone
What would later be moved up to Zone 3 in the final version (and renamed Aquatic Ruin Zone) is now the first Zone. Tails has no splash animation yet, and water doesn't affect him like it does Sonic. The zone is largely incomplete. The level's name was later used for the first stage of Sonic Advance for the GBA. (Neo is greek for new.)
[edit] Chemical Plant Zone
Not much is different about this zone, except for a few sound effects, smaller moving platforms, and loops in the zone have slanted instead of full corners. It also lacks a boss, like every other zone in the Beta besides Emerald Hill Zone (Green Hill Zone in the Prototype).
[edit] Hill Top Zone
Autospin hasn't yet been implemented in the tubes Sonic rides through, and earthquakes don't yet have their sound effects. Act 2 is roughly half done, with an end-of-act signpost placed about the end of the second inside-the-hill section, close to where the stage boss is in the final version.
[edit] Green Hill Zone
This level is almost the same as the final version's Emerald Hill Zone, major differences include walls which are in Sonic's path, lack of the "Aiai" (Coconuts) Badnik and an unnamed snail Badnik similar to Sonic 1's "Motora" (Motobug). Dr. Robotnik is slightly different on his movements. This is the final Zone accessible by normal gameplay of the Beta cartridge.
[edit] Wood Zone
Wood Zone is a dense forest; only the very beginning of Act 1 is filled in with tiles. The music is the same as that in the Metropolis Zone. There are no enemies present in the Wood Zone. Without the debug mode activated, this level is cut very short due to the fact that it is impossible to get past the first ramp, the characters hit the floor above instead. However, using debug, it can be further explored. The stage suddenly ends halfway through an animated (though not active) conveyor belt. Act 2 has a background and nothing else. Some fans believe that this level was originally intended to be a past version of Metropolis Zone, but there is no evidence to back this up. The reason this level was canceled was because the players were meant to head up instead of sideways (Like most stages) and Sega didn't know how to program this at that time, this also explains why half of one of the conveyor belt is missing, you were not meant to go any further sideways.
[edit] Metropolis Zone
This Zone lacks rings and Badniks and the lava doesn't affect Sonic. There is one major change to the zone's third act: a rhombus-shaped lift that didn't make it to the final game. It is probably far from completion.
[edit] Hidden Palace Zone
Hidden Palace Zone appears to be an underwater cavern with large crystals in it. It contains badniks never seen in the released version (although the object code remains intact, the art itself has been removed) such as a red dinosaur badnik. The large emerald found in this stage has at times been suggested to be the Master Emerald, however those who worked on the zone have said it was just another block to break through (although analysis confirms it to be a minimally modified "pink rock" object from Sonic 1's Green Hill Zone, which some find contradictory given the existence of other breakable objects in the prototype).
At one point in the zone is a long shaft which appears as if it was intended to loop from the top to the bottom of the map and may have been intended as some sort of lift track. The end of this "lift" is the last area of the Zone that had been designed. The level layout ends on a section of an animated but nonfunctional water slide. Act 2 is identical to Act 1, except the player is stuck inside a wall at the start, and all objects and enemies are gone. While the art was removed from the final game, object and ring data remains, and the level itself can be accessed by entering the Game Genie code ACLA-ATD4 and using the Level Select to go to Death Egg Zone. The debug mode object list is identical to that of Oil Ocean Zone.
In a GameSpy interview,[1] Yuji Naka said that Hidden Palace Zone would have been a secret level that could be entered by collecting all 7 Chaos Emeralds, implying that Hidden Palace is the place where the Chaos Emeralds originated. After this level was cleared, a cutscene would play showing Sonic gaining 50 rings and turning into Super Sonic.
The only 1-Up icon featured in this level has Tails' face on it. This caused some fans to question Tails' original role in the game, with many stating that the Zone was meant to be a Tails-only area. Others claim that he was meant to be guardian of the Master Emerald, despite game artists insisting the large emerald found in the level was a breakable object.
A second prototype reveals that the Tails life monitor was placed very early in development, since it was still using the extra life attribute code from Sonic 1. [2] This shows that Hidden Palace Zone may have been one of the first levels created. It also shows that the level was hardly worked on at all after the alpha build, and development may have stalled even before then.
[edit] Oil Ocean Zone
This level remains superficially the same as its final counterpart, however, the sun in the background moves with the background instead of being stationary, and several things don't work, such as the oil chutes. The background is not complete - it doesn't wrap properly, and one of the pipes sucks oil up rather than dumping it out. Most notable is the implementation of an object that was placeable in the final release's debug mode but not used in its level design: a ball that springs up from a push spring and then rolls to the right when a switch is pressed. The ball looks like a smaller version of the "wrecking ball" that Robotnik used as the boss of Green Hill Zone in Sonic 1.
This Zone plays the 2 player Casino Night Zone music. The music used in the final release is present in the sound test.
[edit] Dust Hill Zone
This level pointer actually brings players to what is known as Mystic Cave Zone in the final game, and not to the "legendary" desert zone. Nothing terribly out of the ordinary happens in this level, aside from the ground-based switches that open the gates, as opposed to the ceiling-based pull switches in the final game.
While the level-data pointer may have by this point been merely reprogrammed to what would become Mystic Cave by the end of the project instead of the canned level has yet to be seen. At one time, there was a code in the beta that allowed one to access the remnants and pallette of the Dust Hill Zone, but the site (called Area 51) has went under.
[edit] Casino Night Zone
This level's color palette is completely different, composed of more bright colors than the final version's. Act 2 has the pinball/slot machine parts instead of the city in the final. None of the flippers, charge springs, or slots have been implemented yet, and the majority of collision detection has yet to be programmed. The level's music has a different intro and features slightly different instrumentation.
[edit] Genocide City Zone
No floors or walls are implemented in this zone of which very little is known about, other than it was to be a technological themed one. The music is that of Chemical Plant with slight changes. The known reason why Genocide city was deleted from the final, is the incorrect use of the word "genocide."
[edit] Death Egg Zone
According to the level select, this zone originally had two acts (unlike in the final version). However, like Genocide City, neither act has any data and the player merely falls and dies immediately. The Zone's music pointer is invalid, causing the Z80 program to slowly crash as it plays data that wasn't intended to be played.
[edit] Miscellaneous
A mock-up picture exists which suggests that at one stage in development, a desert-like zone was planned for Sonic 2, but there is nothing to suggest that the level has ever existed in a playable format. Until recently the stage was believed to be named Dust Hill Zone, but this is false; Dust Hill Zone was the development name for Mystic Cave Zone, as seen in the beta. Design artwork confirms the name of the desert zone to have been simply "Sabaku [Desert] Zone". Its "past" incarnation was Rock Zone.
The zone's artist has stated that the Desert Zone artwork was intended to be reused in a different level a winter-themed Zone, featuring Christmas trees instead of cacti.
If one collects 100 rings in any zone, the music changes into a prototype of the Death Egg track due to an incorrect pointer — the original Sonic 1 1-Up music was at the hex address now occupied by this music; the same phenomenon occurs in Chemical Plant Zone and Aquatic Ruin Zone where the music which plays during the drowning countdown is actually a prototype of the level select music.
[edit] Piracy
In Asia and Brazil, the prototype version was put on cartridges and passed off as the final version by pirates who have altered it slightly to stop the Sega logo from showing when the game boots up, as was common practice. Nothing else seems to have been changed.
[edit] References
- ^ a b GameSpy: Sega's Yuji Naka Talks!. Gamespy. Retrieved on February 27, 2007.
- ^ Sonic Team Interview November 2005. Kikizo Ltd. Retrieved on February 27, 2007.
