Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (16-bit)/Development

Prerelease videos

So as we know, there have been a few prerelease videos released in the run-up to the game, which include:

• The Mean Machines Sega promotional VHS, which shows a build that looks to have come a little later after the Simon Wai prototype and shows Emerald Hill, Chemical Plant and Hill Top. Also, Tails has Sonic's life icon in 2P VS Mode.
• The Spanish promotional VHS, which shows a build that appears to be much like the one in the above video, except Tails now has his own life icon in 2P VS (but still says "SONIC").
• A preview of the game shown on the UK game show Gamesmaster, which shows a build made later from the above two videos, with work-in-progress title cards and a Casino Night with a finalised design but different object placement. Nobody ever seems to talk about the build in this video.

Though, given how they're YouTube videos, how do we cover them in this page? --BSonirachi (talk) 11:35, 16 February 2019 (EST)

Truth be told, I don't know. I've been thinking about it for a while, but there's currently no means of saying "show 10 seconds of footage starting at this point in time".

I guess as a start, promotional videos could be uploaded (in full) to Retro CDN - at least then the content is accessible to us. We'll figure something out after then. -Black Squirrel (talk) 11:52, 16 February 2019 (EST)

End of an era

I don't think we need the screenshots under "Later protoypes" anymore (unless some came directly from Sega as press photos). Between the alpha and pre-beta prototypes, I think everything is accounted for.

TODO:

• double check that
• make sure the magazines where those screenshots are from are covered in Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (16-bit)/Magazine articles, so we're not "losing" anything
• burn all the individual images
• re-write this page

-Black Squirrel (talk) 10:14, 16 November 2019 (EST)

Text on the timeline diagram

In the higher-def image showing the timeline documents of Sonic 2's initial time travel concept, the Japanese katakana is barely readable. I've made out the text as follows:

Timeline Diagram

Japanese text on the timeline diagram shows the initial plans for how Sonic progresses through the story. It seems to conflict at points with the English comments added in the presentation, such as the absence of "Medival Time" and Hidden Palace. The image quality for the last line is too poor to make sense of.

"現在" (Present)

• "グリーン" ("Green", Green Hill Zone, expected to have become Emerald Hill Zone)
• "オーシャン" ("Ocean", Ocean Wind Zone)
• "ウッド" ("Wood", Wood Zone)
• "サンド" ("Sand", Sand Shower Zone)
• "メトロポリス" ("Metropolis", Metropolis Zone)
• "EGGMANにげる" ("Eggman escapes")

"過去" (Past)

• "トロピカルサン" ("Tropical Sun", likely Tropical Sun Zone)
• "オーシャン" ("Ocean", has some extra characters too blurry to make out in the image)
• "ヒルトップ" ("Hill Top", Hill Top Zone)

"現在2" (Present 2)

• "ロック" ("Rock", Rock World Zone)
• "オイル" ("Oil", Oil Ocean Zone)
• "ダスト" ("Dust", Dust Hill Zone)
• "デスエッグ" ("Death Egg", Death Egg Zone)
• "EGGMANにげる" ("Eggman escapes", has some extra characters too blurry to make out in the image)

"過去" (Past 2?)

• "ヒルトップ" ("Hill Top", Hill Top Zone)
• "ブルー" ("Blue", Blue Lake Zone)

"未来" (Future)

• "カジノ" ("Casino", Casino Night Zone)
• "ケミカル" ("Chemical", Chemical Plant Zone)
• "ジェノサイド" ("Genocide", Genocide City Zone)
• "デスエッグネオ" ("Death Egg Neo")