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Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (Simon Wai prototype)

From Sonic Retro

Revision as of 20:19, 22 August 2010 by Jamesoleruster (talk | contribs) (General)

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Sonic the Hedgehog 2
System(s): Sega Mega Drive/Genesis
Publisher: Sega
Developer:
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 Mega Drive was developed.

Yuji Naka claimed in an IGN interview that it was stolen from a toy fair in New York in 1992.[1]

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

Various Differences

General

  • Instead of playing the 1-Up sound when Sonic gets 100 rings, the game plays a prototype version of the music from Death Egg Zone. (Death Egg Zone plays no music) However, if Sonic breaks open a 1-Up box, the proper 1-Up sound will play.
  • Tails has no balancing sprites, instead he uses a tail-less slowly animated version of his waiting sprites.
  • The concept for a partner is still a work in progress as Tails can lose rings for the player when hit, just like in the Nick Arcade prototype.
  • Tails' AI is much simpler: he simply copies the moves that Sonic makes, and makes no attempt to keep up with Sonic.
  • If Tails dies, he's will come back on screen still in his death sprite, and will spin as soon as he hits ground. This is because Tails cant fly yet.
  • Spindash is still a work in progress, as Sonic and Tails can only charge the spindash once, and the sound for when Sonic spins in Sonic 1 is heard, as there is no sound effect for the spindash.
  • The full blue sphere game is unlocked when Sonic & Knuckles is locked on.
  • Genocide City and Death Egg although empty, use the Emerald Hill palette.
  • Final boss music for Death Egg is in the ROM and is exactly the same as the final's.
  • Tails uses slightly different jumping and rolling sprites.
  • Sonic's sprites use the same palette as the final, but are Sonic 1 style. There are also unused spinning sprites in the ROM.
  • There is a bug where Sonic's pushing animations are used instead of his running animation
  • 2P bugs:
    • Tails is only playable via 2 player mode.
    • Sonic may only pass the signpost
    • Sonic and Tails both share the same life and ring counters
    • Sonic and Tails still have to defeat the boss in Emerald Hill
    • There is no countdown for Tails after Sonic passes the signpost.
    • If the 2P controller isn't moved, Tails will still follow and copy Sonic.

Neo Green Hill Zone

  • This zone is only zone playable without Level Select cheat.
  • Actually Aquatic Ruin Zone is named as Neo Green Hill Zone. 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 effect on Tails other than palette change.
  • If you finish this zone without the Level Select cheat, the game restarts and the SEGA screen appears.

Chemical Plant Zone

  • The loop-de-loop platforms have octagonal edges instead of being flat, just like the Nick Arcade prototype.
  • 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.
  • There is a badnik called Bubbler's Mother that drops Bubbler that was set to appear in this zone, it can be seen through the method of hacking

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. The only way to get to it is by the use of Debug Mode.
  • 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 like the previous build.
    • When defeated, there are no explosion effects, unlike the previous build although it uses the explosions from Sonic 1. This proves that the explosions were taken out and the new ones from Sonic 2 final were added in Sonic 2 Beta 4 during development.
    • 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 (which suggests that the one working was the test object).
  • Sonic can rotate a nut upwards past the height of the supporting screw pole.
  • Act 3 has a diagonal lift that was cut from the final game.
  • There is a Fourth Act witch is exactly the same as Act 3 except Sonic starts in a different spot. This can be accessed by hacking.

Oil Ocean Zone

  • This zone plays different music from the final, which was later used in Casino Night Zone 2P mode.
  • 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 with sky blue floors. The tile layout is pretty similar to the final, but many level pieces are broken or missing, requiring Debug Mode to go deep into the level.
  • There are no objects in this zone.
    • The only 2 objects in the zones object debug list are a ring and a monitor.
  • There is a prototype of the Crawl badnik which can be seen by hacking the ROM, it remains as a lost sprite in the Final Sonic 2.
  • Many of the flipping tiles are missing or the outlines flash and the tiles remain stationary.
  • There are no Sonic, Miles or Casino Tiles, these are part of the layout tiles themselves.
  • There is a different sound for the bouncers that give points and disappear after four hits (that don't yet exist).

Levels

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: Enabled by default. Simply press A+Start on the title screen. You can also manually enable it by pressing Up Down Down Down Down Up then A+Start
  • Debug Mode: Press C C C C Up Down Down Down Down Up then A+Start on the title screen.
  • 2 Player vs mode: Highlight a zone in the stage select and press: B+Start for playing 2-player split-screen mode.
  • Night mode: Highlight a zone in the stage select and press: C+Start.

Resources

Original Sound Version Recordings

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

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