Sonic Ride

Sonic Ride
Developer: Sega AM3
Development timeframe: 1994

Sonic Ride is the name of a roughly one minute, thirty second video clip, created by Sega AM3 in 1994. The video features both first and third-person views of Sonic the Hedgehog and his world, with pre-rendered 3D visuals.

While the video was briefly covered by the gaming press (and in the case of US magazine, Game Players, mistaken for images from the upcoming Chaotix, the then-rumoured Sega 32X Sonic game), it rose to prominence through its inclusion in Sonic Jam, with parts of the video also used in a music video for the promotional single, They Call Me Sonic. There is a suggestion that it could have been used for Sega's motion simulators (for example, the AS-1), though it is not known if the project was even finished, let alone used in the field.

At the time of its creation in 1994, Sega AM3 were thought to be the only division of the company with the technology and expertise required to produce pre-rendered visuals of this quality. Sonic Ride, alongside Sonic the Animation (also seen in Sonic Jam) are thought to be proof-of-concept experiments by the team rather than serious video game or movie pitches.

The ride

After a brief sequence drifting through a casino-styled area called Casino Zone, Sonic suddenly appears running towards the camera in a Green Hill Zone style area. The camera switches behind Sonic, who then runs to the right at a fork, and follows still as he dodges a Buzz Bomber and hits a spring, throwing him high into the air, from where the viewer can see a nice overhead shot of the zone. Hitting the ground, the camera runs around a loop, then runs into a rocky area, jumping from wall to wall, dodging startled looking Moto Bugs.

The camera then switches to a telescope view of Sonic running towards Dr. Eggman, and he is standing by a contraption designed to drop a 200 ton weight onto Sonic when a lever is pulled. He moves into position, and as we see Sonic get closer, Eggman excitedly throws away the telescope and stands by the switch. As he tries to pull it, Sonic zooms past, leaving a trail of dust in his wake and sending the machine and Eggman spinning. They move back and forth, dizzy, and just as Eggman regains his balance and pulls a pose - the weight drops, squashing him flat.

Despite being a pre-rendered video, the Sonic Ride footage appears to struggle maintaining a steady frame rate, with complex scenes causing slowdown. The opening screen of the video features the Japanese words 未公開 (mi-koukai) and イメージ映像 (image eizou) which translate to "unreleased" and "video clip," respectively.

Screenshots

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External links

• Sonic Ride, on YouTube.

References

Sonic the Hedgehog games for the following systems

1991  Waku Waku Sonic Patrol Car     1993  Sonic the Hedgehog | SegaSonic Cosmo Fighter | Sonic the Hedgehog 2 | SegaSonic the Hedgehog     1996  Sonic the Fighters     2011  Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing Arcade     2015  Sonic Dash Extreme‎‎     2016  Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games Arcade Edition     2020  Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 - Arcade Edition      Prototypes  SegaSonic the Hedgehog (revision A)  Unreleased  SegaSonic Bros. | Sonic Ride | Pre-May 1993 Sonic arcade games

1992  UFO SegaSonic     1993  Sonic the Hedgehog | SegaSonic Popcorn Shop     1994  Sonic no Space Tours | SegaSonic Wataame Scramble | Sonic Canball | Air Circus | Curling Holiday     1997  Sonic the Hedgehog AWP     2002  Sonic & Tails Spinner     2003  CR Sonic     2007  Sonic Spinner     2008  Sonic Live!     2009  Sonic Hopper!     2010  Sonic Sports Basketball     2012  Sonic Sports Air Hockey | Oh! Ring | In the Barrel     2013  Sonic Athletics | Sonic Ghost Shooting | Sonic Brain Ranking‎‎     2016  Sonic Blast Ball‎‎     2019  Sonic Sports Kids Basketball‎‎      Unknown date  CoroCoro Fever (199x) | Darts Shot (199x) | Mogu-Mogu Rush (201x) | Neo Target (201x) | Circles Shoot (201x)