Development:Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (Genesis)
This page details development materials of Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (Genesis).
Contents
Tom Payne Archives
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In 2019, a set of floppy disks owned by former STI member Tom Payne were found and preserved, creating what is now known as the Tom Payne Archives. These files contained sprites for Sonic 1 and 2, along with internal concept art and unrelated sprites pertaining to two other games that went unreleased.
Original files can be found here.
sonic_enemies_backup
ball
_Ball.png){kind=small}
The Ball badnik seen in the Nick Arcade prototype.
bubbler and mamabub
_Bubbler.png){kind=small}
_Bubbler%27s_Mother.png){kind=small}
Bubbler from the Nick Arcade proto, with Bubbler's Mother in green. The colors used for the sprites predate all known versions of Chemical Plant.
dino and dinosaur
_Stegway_1.png)
_Stegway_3.png)
The Nick Arcade proto's sprites for Stegway.
fish
_Masher.png){kind=small}
Unrefined sprites for Masher.
gator and gator.2
_Gator_1.png){kind=small}
_Gator_2.png)
Sprites for Gator, but with a much brighter palette! According to a cancelled Tom Payne interview from 2004, these Gator sprites date back to April 2, 1992.
newsnail.3, snail and snail.2
_Snail_1.png){kind=small}
_Snail_2.png){kind=small}
_Snail_3.png){kind=small}
Sprites for Snail that seem to predate the Nick Arcade build, seemingly unsure on whether to give it a wheel.
sandcrab
_Crawl_and_some_dirt.png){kind=small}
Nick Arcade-build sprites for Crawl, with some dirt. Crawl was originally intended to pop out of the ground with sand/rocks appearing under it. The idea was likely scrapped after Crawl was repurposed for Casino Night Zone.
wasp.2 and wasp
_Buzzer_1.png)
_Buzzer_3.png)
Early sprites for Buzzer, including some not found in any known prototypes.
Desert Zone Mockup Fragment
At the very end of the disk image, unreferenced by the filesystem, is the bottom fragment of the "Desert" zone mockup by Brenda Cook. The width of the image is 320 pixels, following the Mega Drive's screen dimensions. Unfortunately, this is all that remains, as the rest of the image was overwritten by the preceding art files for all of Tom's enemies. Also as a result of being partially overwritten, no palette data has been found, so Sonic's palette is used instead.
This is a reconstruction of its palette, based on potential colors as seen in the Sandcrab's Digitizer file.
metropolis
| To do: Check which tilesets are final. |
Contained here are several tilesets for Metropolis Zone, mostly seen in the Simon Wai prototype.
block005
_Metropolis.png)
The Simon Wai proto sprites for the wheel obstacle.
block003
_Metropolis_1.png)
Several animated tiles.
piston.df
_Metropolis_2.png){kind=small}
The pistons in the background.
zone04.pc
_Metropolis_3.png)
Floor, pipes, and wheels.
block004
_Metropolis_4.png)
Simon Wai slanty lift walls, Simon Wai background conveyors, and nuts.
block002
_Metropolis_5.png)
Pipes, wheels, (the top half of) a conveyor belt, and those bumpers that launch you into Slicers.
block001
_Metropolis_6.png)
Curved floors.
block000
_Metropolis_7.png)
Slanty lift. 'Nuff said.
bob
Early badniks, once thought to be just mere concept art, in sprite form! Results vary.
bobnface and faces.bg
_Tom_Payne_Faces_3.png)
_Tom_Payne_Faces_2.png)
_Tom_Payne_Faces_1.png)
Included in a scratch pad are some... disconcerting sprites of some guy making various expressions. When animated, he flashes a smile and winks. The full-body sprite appears to have been shot.
When removing the six pieces that are overlayed onto the image, a rougher version of the full image can be seen.
_Tom_Payne_Bob_BG.png)
wheelpig
_Pig_Badnik_1.png)
Several sprites of a badnik based on a pig. According to a cancelled Tom Payne interview from 2004, these sprites date back to when he first started working at STI (March 9, 1992).
pigwheel.s.0
_Pig_Badnik_2.png){kind=small}
Another pig, this one pink with a silver nose.
pigpage
_Pig_Badnik_3.png)
Another rendition that would walk on four legs and fire some sort of projectile out of its neck after lifting its head up.
pigs.01
_Pig_and_Insect_Badniks.png)
_Spider_Badniks.png)
A slightly different rendition, pasted over another sprite sheet of an unused Badnik, based on an insect.
pig
_Pig_Badnik_4.png){kind=small}
A singular sprite of the pig's walker variant.
blupigwh.eel
_Pig_Badnik_5.png){kind=small}
Another singular sprite, this time of the top-right pig in image 1.
2morepig.s
_Pig_Badnik_6.png){kind=small}
A rougher version of the wheeled pig variant, and a weird pig-bug thing.
drgnfly
_Dragonfly_and_Wasp.png)
The dragonfly moving and... aiming, though it's hard to tell as the sprite's not finished. Also here is a badnik similar to the Buzz Bombers from the Sonic 2 Master System box art. Comparing to the other sheets, though, these are actually part of...
enemies
_Several_Unused_Badniks.png)
...a whole treasure trove of unused badniks! Pictured here are:
- Bee/Wasp, an early version of Buzzer, including an early yellow version.
- A pterodactyl that may have dropped something on Sonic's head.
- A squid.
- A lobster, similar to Zaririn from the 8-bit Sonic 2.
- A blue tank-like badnik with claws.
- A scorpion, similar to Skorp from Sonic & Knuckles.
- Another version of the Buzz Bomber seen above. This version has only two jets similar to the original, and a firing sprite is also present.
- The previously-mentioned dragonfly.
- A frog.
Also included is a sprite of Sonic walking, for scaling purposes. Oddly, the palette used here (and in the Sonic 1 badnik sprites found in the TPA) appears to be the early palette seen in prerelease material for Sonic 1!
mole
_Dango_and_Mole.png)
Contains sprites of the mole badnik from the concept artwork, and a pillbug badnik which is very similar to Dango from Sonic CD.
squidfly
_Dragonfly_and_Squid.png)
The dragonfly and squid from before, same as then.
wasps
_Buzzer_2.png)
Bee/Wasp, identical to what's seen above.
Spring 2023 Discoveries
| To do:
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Tails Concept art sent to DiC
Various concept art of Tails sent to DiC by Sega of America for the production of The Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM).
Artwork from Greg Martin
Artwork from Moore & Price Design Group (1/2)
Artwork from Moore & Price Design Group (2/2)
An early sprite sheet for Tails. Note that the scan was darkened, so it's possible the correct colors were not known.
Artwork from Yasushi Yamaguchi (1/7)
Artwork from Yasushi Yamaguchi (2/7)
Artwork from Yasushi Yamaguchi (3/7)
Artwork from Yasushi Yamaguchi (4/7)
Artwork from Yasushi Yamaguchi (5/7)
Artwork from Yasushi Yamaguchi (6/7)
Artwork from Yasushi Yamaguchi (7/7)
Notes from Yasushi Yamaguchi
Tails' designer, Yasushi Yamaguchi, also mentioned several things about the artwork shared with DiC.
"These are the earliest character set-up drawings. Since the development period for Sonic 2 was short, we used these drawings as a base and brushed up the design as we created the game."
"You can see that the pictures on the game screen have changed considerably between the beta version title screen and the final version."
"The character designs were stabilized when we returned to Japan from creating the manual illustrations to create the official character setting drawings."
He also answered several questions in regards to the artwork and other Sonic promotional material.
Q: "Did you make that early sprite art for Tails? Tails' colours appear to be different than in your finalized design. These early design colours appear on official Sega merchandise in 1992 as well." (shows photos of early US promotional with Tails as an exanple)
"I have no knowledge of the pictures or figures in the photos.
At the time, Sega of America ignored the opinions of the development staff.
They did not listen to our requests for the number of fingers on Sonic in the package art, or our request to fix his legs to be straight."
"The data was immediately discarded, so it is a mystery why it is still there.
The printer at STI did not have good performance, so the colors are quite different.
The printout is only for the programmer to get the coordinate data and size, not for checking the exact color."
"I don't remember much about it since it was over 30 years ago, but I think maybe the pixel art on the printout is a test pattern for size and what the Sonic 1 color palette can represent. The results were not good, so I immediately created a new color palette."
Q: "When you say that the colour palette was quickly discarded, do you mean that Tails' mouth and chest were changed from peach to white almost immediately after the pixel art was made? I'm not sure why 1992 Japanese media also uses it."
"Sega in Japan also did not have a department to properly manage the characters until I returned to Japan and finished the development of the SONIC CD."
"The quality of the promotional materials that Sonic ordered from outside in Japan was also disparate, so we created a solid document and Mr. Oshima, Mr. Miyake, Mr. Hoshino and I began to do quality checks little by little."
"Miles' test pattern with different colors should have been used only two or three days after the character design in line drawings was completed, and the animation pattern should have already been created in December 1991 with the current color palette."
"The existence of this pixel art was so short-lived that I myself had forgotten about it until it was pointed out to me this time, and only the development staff would have seen it, so I do not know why figures such as the one in the photo were created based on this color data."
Q: "I'm not sure why Sega of America sent this early pixel art to the animation company DiC in April 1992, around 5 months after the colours had been changed. Or why these colours appear on other merchandise."
"Perhaps the data for Miles' painting was created in January 1992. I would have to check the date of the saved DISC data to be sure. However, I only remember that I was correcting Sonic's animation pattern in December 1991."
"I must have started working on Miles' animation pattern right after that...I spent about a month each for each character to create them."
It's possible that the scan of the spritesheet were darkened, and the correct palette could be revealed when brightening up the image, reveals that a Sonic Crackers-esque palette was used. A similar leftover was found in the raw palette index in the Simon Wai prototype, which just so happens to contain the darker colors that Metropolis Zone had.
Masato Nakamura's Demos
In 2011, composer Masato Nakamura released a CD containing his original demo tracks for Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic the Hedgehog 2. They were performed on a Yamaha SY99 synthesizer.
| Name | Masa's Demo | Simon Wai Audio | Final Audio |
|---|---|---|---|
| Emerald Hill Zone | |||
| Chemical Plant Zone | |||
| Casino Night Zone | |||
| Aquatic Ruin Zone | |||
| Hill Top Zone | |||
| Mystic Cave Zone | |||
| Oil Ocean Zone | |||
| Metropolis Zone | |||
| Sky Chase Zone | |||
| Wing Fortress Zone | |||
| Death Egg Zone | |||
| Special Stage | |||
| Robotnik | |||
| Final Boss | |||
| All Clear | |||
| Stage Select | |||
| Emerald Hill 2-Player | |||
| Mystic Cave 2-Player | |||
| Casino Night 2-Player | |||
| 2-Player Results | |||
| Super Sonic | |||
| Unused Track |
