Sonic the Hedgehog CD/Hidden content
From Sonic Retro
Lost Sprites
Artwork | Name | Description |
---|---|---|
Sonic with eyes closed | An unused sprite of Sonic with his eyes closed. Could have been used as part of an idling animation, akin to Sonic 2's two stages of waiting, and Sonic 3's unused animation of Sonic nodding off to sleep | |
Sonic being electrocuted | An unused animation of Sonic being shocked by electricity. It may have been used in Wacky Workbench, which contains various level elements with the potential to electrocute the player. It could also have been used in Collision Chaos, as part of the Metal Sonic sequence. | |
Sonic falling | An unused animation of Sonic falling into the distance. Purpose is unknown. A similar animation was found in Sonic 1 which was also unused. | |
Sonic waving his arms | An unused animation of Sonic waving his arms with his palms outstretched. This could have been used in Tidal Tempest when walking through the water, to simulate an attempt at moving more quickly. | |
Sonic looking backwards | An unused sprite of Sonic looking over his shoulder. Purpose unknown. | |
Sonic sneezing | An unused animation of Sonic sneezing. Purpose is unknown. | |
Sonic upside-down | An unused animation of Sonic upside-down with his eyes wide and his mouth open. This suggests that this animation could have either been used for an alternate death animation, or if Sonic was caught by an environmental hazard that dangles him in the air somehow. | |
Sonic grabbing | An unused sprite of Sonic grabbing onto something and attempting to create traction. This implies that he may have been trying to stop something from pulling him into some sort of hazard. Part of a scrapped badnik, maybe? | |
Sonic shrugging | An unused animation of Sonic shrugging his shoulders. Note that his spikes rise during each frame--many believe this implies a transformation into Super Sonic, though such a notion is purely speculation. | |
Sonic with chest forward | An unused animation of Sonic with his arms outstretched and his chest pushed out in front of him. Whilst its purpose is unknown, many believe that this is somehow related to transforming into Super Sonic. | |
Sonic skidding | An unused animation of Sonic skidding whilst looking the other way. It's fairly similar to the skidding animation in Sonic Crackers, and could have been used while skidding at higher speeds in contrast to the normal skidding animation, which was modified from Sonic 1. | |
Sonic hanging | An animation of Sonic being pulled up by... something. Purpose unknown. | |
Unused Amy sprites | Unused sprites of Amy with hearts in her eyes. Not used at any point in the game. | |
Oil Slick | Oil slick used in special stages that cause you to slip. These can be found normally in the some prototypes of Sonic CD, but are unused in the final game. | |
Broken Switch | An unused broken switch sprite found within the ROM. Speculation shows that they may have been used in the bad future of a zone, to prevent access to certain routes. Other switch sprites for comparison. | |
Platform | An unused platform which moves up and down. The object belongs to the present version of Quartz Quadrant Zone. |
Extra Special Stage
An extra special stage can be accessed from the Sound Test menu by setting all the 3 selections to 07. According to a former Sega Europe QA Tester, an extra Time Stone was to be collectable here. When collected in addition to the previous Time Stones, "S" TV monitors would appear where the ring TVs were previously located. When broken, you would morph into a gimped version of Super Sonic, which would simply grant you invincibility and greater speed. Graphics would not change.
Unused Music Loops
Within the ISO for one of the Sonic CD prototypes were some specific files, preceded with the letters "SNCBNK", with a number afterwards. The numbers referred to the timezone for which the file represented.
Each file is a small music loop, played using the PCM chip on the Sega CD, in accordance to the timezone it represents. Speculation has been rampant as to their use, but two theories have stemmed that seem to be relatively plausible:
- They were intended to be used to bridge the gap between when a CD audio track plays and when it starts again. (Shadow Hog)
- They were intended to be played at the start of a level, before the CD audio played. (StephenUK)
Of course, there's no concrete evidence to support either idea, but it's an interesting debate nonetheless.
Get the files here, courtesy of ICEknight. Get Shadow Hog's edited files merged with the CD audio tracks here. Check out discussion of this oddity in this forum topic.Prototype Music Tracks
In the 510 beta of Sonic CD, there were two distinctly different music tracks not featured in the final version of the game. scd510_28.mp3 is an alternate speed shoes track, while scd510_25 is an alternate title screen track.
Get them here.