Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (Simon Wai prototype)

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Sonic the Hedgehog 2
System(s): Sega Mega Drive/Genesis
Publisher: Sega
Developer: Sonic Team, Sega Technical Institute
Genre: 2D Platform

The Sonic the Hedgehog 2 "Simon Wai" prototype is a widely distributed prototype of Sonic the Hedgehog 2 for the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis, which features an array of incomplete zones. It was found by Simon Wai on a Chinese website.

In the prototype copy, only four levels can be played in "normal" gameplay (though technically this is a prerelease to test some features and so there is no real level order). The rest have to be accessed through the level select code. Many are not playable, so the debug code is used to explore the acts. Genocide City Zone and Death Egg Zone are blank, causing Sonic and Tails to fall to their deaths as soon as the Act begins.

The Simon Wai prototype was widely distributed and may have been altered slightly by pirates to hide the SEGA logo from showing when the ROM boots up. The game was put on pirate cartridges with the help of a Super Magic Drive in Asia and Brazil and was then passed on as the final version. The prototype is frequently examined by hackers to determine how Sonic the Hedgehog 2 for the Megadrive was developed. The official word on the prototype, from Yuji Naka in an IGN interview, is that it was stolen from a toy fair in New York in 1992.

In November 2006, an earlier prototype was bought and dumped by drx. This was the same beta that had appeared on the TV show Nick Arcade. On February 23, 2008, several other betas of the game were released.

Download Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (Simon Wai prototype) File: Sonic_The_Hedgehog_2_(Simon_Wai_Prototype)_-!-.zip (625 kB) (info)

Various Differences

Neo Green Hill Zone

• Actually Aquatic Ruin Zone, the name Neo Green Hill Zone is not to be confused with the Sonic Advance level of the same name.
• There are no enemies except the arrow-shooting totems.
• The layout is half-completed.
• There is a corrupted splashing animation consisting of misaligned bubbles instead of a splashing sprite. Tails has no splashing effects.
• If Sonic gets out of the water during the countdown, the music will be changed to the Emerald Hill theme.
• Water does NOT have any affect on Tails other then pallete change.

Chemical Plant Zone

• The loop-de-loop platforms have octagonal edges instead of being flat.
• The platforms which move across rails (most noticeably in Act 2) are much smaller.
• Demo gameplay hasn't been rerecorded to fit new level design since the Nick Arcade build.

Hill Top Zone

• Sonic doesn't spin when going through tunnels.
• There is no earthquake sound effect.
• The background music runs at a slightly slower tempo than in the final.
• Demo gameplay hasn't been rerecorded to fit new level design since the Nick Arcade build.

Green Hill Zone

• In this Beta, Emerald Hill Zone is referred to as Green Hill Zone.
• Demo gameplay for 2P Mode hasn't been rerecorded to fit new level design since the Nick Arcade build.
• Demo gameplay for 2P Mode illustrates a bug: both players share the ring counter (when one player gains or loses rings, so does the other).
• There is a snail badnik that did not make it to the final ROM. Its art offset is at $7C514 (Nemesis compression, 26 blocks).
• At one point, there is a hidden wall which is supposed to contain an extra life; it does but it is blocked off.
• This is the only zone with a boss. It looks exactly the same as it does in the final, but there are slight differences in its behavior:
  • The Eggpod drops straight down into the car rather than descending diagonally.
  • When defeated, there are no explosion effects, and if Robotnik was facing left, he will not turn around as he escapes to the right.

Metropolis Zone

• Pistons don't throw you up as high as they do in the final.
• Metal crushers do not hurt you unless you go underneath them when they come down.
• Fire and lava have no effect.
• Sonic falls through most of the rotating nets, but one of them does work.
• Sonic can rotate a nut upwards past the height of the supporting screw pole.
• Act 3 has a special lift that was cut from the final game.

Oil Ocean Zone

• The sun scrolls with the background, and is non-animated.
• Wooden balls are embedded in the ground, and can be activated by pressing a nearby switch. They will pop up and move to the left at a fixed speed. Sonic can stand on these balls while they travel. They were dropped as a gameplay element from the final, possibly because nobody could think of a good use for them, but the chambers and switches can be placed with debug mode, and both have the same behavior as in the beta. Wooden balls were seen in prototype shots of Sonic the Hedgehog's Green Hill Zone, and can be seen in this game's debug mode, but they cannot be placed.
• Two seahorse enemies are found within the prototype ROM through hacking.
• An unused, shoot-and-flee octopus enemy is found within the prototype ROM through hacking.
• The oil splashing animation is missing and oil slides have no effect on Sonic.
• A pipe in the level's background is sucking oil up instead of pouring it out.

Casino Night Zone

• Drastic art changes when compared to the final. This zone has a pink card-suit-based scheme.

Levels

• Neo Green Hill Zone (playable) (renamed to Aquatic Ruin Zone)
• Chemical Plant Zone (playable)
• Hill Top Zone (playable)
• Green Hill Zone (playable) (renamed to Emerald Hill Zone)
• Wood Zone (cut)
• Metropolis Zone (incomplete)
• Hidden Palace Zone (cut)
• Oil Ocean Zone (incomplete)
• Dust Hill Zone (incomplete) (renamed to Mystic Cave Zone)
• Casino Night Zone (incomplete)
• Genocide City Zone (empty) (cut)
• Death Egg Zone (empty)

Cheat Codes

Cheat codes are different in the Simon Wai prototype from the final Sonic 2. These codes can be accessed by inputting button sequences or by various other methods.

• Zone Select: Simply press + on the title screen.
• Debug Mode: Press , , , , , , , , , , then + on the title screen.
• 2 Player vs mode: Highlight a zone in the stage select and press: + for playing 2-player splitscreen mode.
• Night mode: Highlight a zone in the stage select and press: + .

Resources

Original Sound Version Recordings

See Sonic the Hedgehog 2 "Beta" OSV for a download page.