Chaotix/Development

Chaotix's roots can be traced back to a internal Sega Mega Drive demo, Sonic Crackers, pitching Sonic the Hedgehog and Miles "Tails" Prower joined together by an elastic connection, and must use their combined speed and strength to navigate stages. Crackers (or Sonic Stadium as it was also called) was never publically announced, but the pitch was seemingly accepted and was brought over to the new 32-bit Sega 32X platform.

Following the move, Sonic was turned into Mighty the Armadillo and Tails was removed entirely, and then a series of new characters were added, turning the project into a game about Knuckles the Echidna. Development occurred simultaneously with the 32X hardware, which may explain the need for a colour test screen and a range of (often needless) graphical effects to demonstrate the console.

A number of prototypes have since been leaked, numbered as following: 1207, 1227, 1229, 0111, 0119, 0202, 0208, 0209, 0210, 0213, 0214, and 0216.

Prototype screenshots

Various

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  Consistent with some of our prototyes, the title screen says "Featuring Espio the Chamelon", suggesting Espio may have been considered for the main role for a while.

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  This 3D model features in our Chaotix prototypes in the introduction sequence (appearing behind the Sega logo). It can also be found in the manual.

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  The "Attractions Information" area is arranged differently, with Speed Slider having a different palette.

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  Here the palettes are completely broken for some zones. Botanic Base, Marina Madness and Techno Tower are the worst hit.

Special Stages

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  It can be safely assumed that for a long while, the Special Stages were effectively glorified tech demos, with no objects in play and no way to obtain a chaos ring.

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  The limit requirement for these shots is also 3 instead of the usual 6.

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  Empty level and 3 for the limit instead of 6.

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  This variant of the stage may be even older - there is no HUD and there appears to be some palette issues.

Levels

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  Consistent with some of our Chaotix prototypes, Heavy is mispelled as "Heaby".

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  Here the main character is overlapping the larger, supporting character (which is meant to be closer to the screen).

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  Again.

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  Tricky to see, but the ending signpost is different.