- Back to: Sonic the Hedgehog Spinball (Mega Drive prototype; 1993-08)/Comparisons.
Only one Bonus Stage is accessible in this prototype - an unfinished version of Robo Smile (the second Bonus Stage). To access it, Sonic needs to collect every Ring in a level, which is normally the way to access Clucker's Defense in the final game. There are no Bonus Stages between stages like the final game. The other three Bonus Stages have been implemented, and must be accessed using PAR code FF3949:00??[1] to change the Bonus Stage ID:
- 00 - Robo Smile
- 01 - Clucker's Defense
- 02 - Trapped Alive
- 03 - The March
General
Tilting the table must be performed by holding , and a directional button, rather than holding , and in the final.
Losing a ball will display "LOSER" instead of "YOU LOSE".
Robo Smile
The Bonus Stage works, but there are plenty of problems. The table is grey rather than green, and there are palette issues when fading in and out. The screen at the back is completely broken - while there are some signs of life, the graphics are corrupted and so cannot inform the player about his/her score or the remaining balls. The bonus stage is harder in this prototype as it takes more hits to knock out the teeth.
Many sound effects are either missing or are different to the final game. If a ball lands in Robotnik's mouth, the game will start making a crackling sound, which won't go away until the stage is over. Repeat and the noise gets worse.
Earlier prototypes show this Bonus Stage in a more presentable state, suggesting some of the graphical issues were regressions caused by re-working the stage.
Clucker's Defense
It is possible to hit the Crawl while it's exploding, cancelling out the animation as if nothing happened. As this is a multi-ball stage, this glitch is unfortunately very easy to trigger.
Trapped Alive
This is the most incomplete of the Bonus Stages.
The table is coloured blue rather than yellow/green. The player has infinite balls here, meaning they cannot lose.
Hitting Robotnik can cause various things to happen: the Egg Mobile's sprite may glitch up, a random sound effect or a broken version of the level music will play, and the game will very likely freeze after the animation ends.
No win condition has been defined. Therefore, if the player manages to defeat Robotnik without freezing the game, the Bonus Stage will continue forever on an empty table.
The March
The table is coloured magenta rather than purple. The Capsule's button is also miscoloured.
References