Difference between revisions of "Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (Nick Arcade prototype)"

Revision as of 08:34, 16 November 2006

Title screen, same as in Sonic 2 Beta

The Sonic The Hedgehog 2 Early Prototype, released to the public on Nov. 7, 2006, is a prototype of Sonic the Hedgehog 2 for the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis, which features extremely unfinished zones. This cart, seen in two 1992 episodes of Nick Arcade, predates the more famous Sonic 2 Beta. It was found and sold to drx in cartridge form for $1500 via a community effort.

In this version, only one zone can be normally played : Emerald Hill Zone. The rest of the Zones can be played only through a Level Select code. The level select screen is completely identical to Sonic 1's, and even contains the original Green Hill Zone.

Download Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (Nick Arcade prototype)

File: Sonic_The_Hedgehog_2_(Early_prototype)_(dumped_by_hidden-palace.org).bin ("Sonic_The_Hedgehog_2_(Early_prototype)_(dumped_by_hidden-palace.org).bin" does not exist) (info)
Current version: only version

Various Differences

General

If Sonic runs into a wall with a high velocity, he will bounce back off of the wall. This feature was ultimately canned, but it uses unused sprites that remained in the later beta.
Each Zone uses music from Sonic 1, further proving that Sonic 2 was built off of Sonic 1.
There is a large amount of raw code contained within the ROM.

Green Hill Zone

The zone from Sonic 1 is included, with its level art converted to Sonic 2's format (128x128 blocks rather than Sonic 1's 256x256s) and the necessary changes have been made to make loops work.
Green Hill has collision detection, albeit it's very glitchy, detecting hills that don't exist, among other things.

Marble Zone

Actually Chemical Plant Zone, the zone is heavily under development, with major differences in level design from the final or from the later prototype, is buggy and unfinished generally.

Spring Yard Zone

Actually Hidden Palace Zone, the zone pretty much as it is in the later prototype and in the final since no work was ever done to it throughout its lifetime.
Hidden Palace Act 2 has some leftover object placement from Green Hill Zone Act 2.
There is a third act, as well, which has water that constantly rises and falls. This zone load GHZ Act 1's ring locations.

Labyrinth Zone

An empty zone, it loads Marble Zone's ring layout and Chemical Plant Zone's artwork, has Labyrinth Zone's rippling effect. Third act is as SBZ3.
Labyrinth also lacks collision detection and is therefore unplayable, a la Genocide City Zone.

Star Light Zone

Actually Emerald Hill Zone (which the later prototype confirms kept the name Green Hill Zone for a time) which is as it was in the Nick Arcade video, with minor differences to the final level layout.

Scrap Brain Zone

Actually Hill Top Zone, this zone is also under heavy revision, as it finishes with a pipe leading to instant death. Second act crashes after a section which ought to have an earthquake effect.

Final Zone

Hill Top Zone (matching behaviour in Sonic 1, where FZ is tucked into a corner of SBZ1), crashes to pink if you continue onwards, death pit backwards.

Art Differences

Sonic and Tails are in different symmetrical designs on the end signpost
Chemical Plant Zone uses a purple-pink accent in the background instead of olive green; buildings are also much lower
Seesaws similar to that in the final Hill Top Zone can be seen in Emerald Hill's object debug

Levels

Green Hill Zone (playable)
Chemical Plant Zone (playable)
Labyrinth Zone (cut) (empty)
Hidden Palace Zone (cut) (playable)
Green Hill Zone (playable) (renamed to Emerald Hill Zone)
Hill Top Zone (playable)

Cheat Codes

Level Select: At the title screen, hit Up, Down, Down, Down, Down, Up, Start.
Debug Mode: At the title screen, hit C,C,C,C, Up, Down, Down, Down, Down, Up, A+Start.
Level Select with Debug Mode: At the title screen, hit C,C,C,C, Up, Down, Down, Down, Down, Up, A+Start, wait for demo to start, then Up, Down, Down, Down, Down, Up, A+Start.

Physical Cartridge

(from drx's Hidden Palace)

Front of cartridge with holographic "Sonic 2" label
Front of cartridge without cover
Back of cartridge without cover

External Links

@@ Line 16: / Line 16: @@
 * Green Hill has collision detection, albeit it's very glitchy, detecting hills that don't exist, among other things.
 ===Marble Zone===
-* Actually Chemical Plant Zone (which may or may not still have been Chemical Factory Zone at this stage of development), the zone is heavily under development, with major differences in level design from the final or from the later prototype, is buggy and unfinished generally.
+* Actually Chemical Plant Zone, the zone is heavily under development, with major differences in level design from the final or from the later prototype, is buggy and unfinished generally.
 ===Spring Yard Zone===
 * Actually Hidden Palace Zone, the zone pretty much as it is in the later prototype and in the final since no work was ever done to it throughout its lifetime.