Prerelease:Sonic Adventure (Dreamcast)/Early Screenshots

This is a sub-page of Prerelease:Sonic Adventure (Dreamcast).

This article is a work in progress. ...Well, all the articles here are, in a way. But this one moreso, and the article may contain incomplete information and editor's notes.

To do: ORGANIZE THIS BY DATE, PLEASE! Many of these images have higher-quality versions from a 1999 Nurnberger Spielwarenmesse press kit.

Sonic Adventure was given a ton of promotion prior to its release, and as a result there's a ton of material to analyze. For the sake of simplicity and consistency, all screenshots are compared to the original Japanese release of the game (unless otherwise noted), although the date of publication doesn't mean it was from a build around that time.

Magazines and Websites

Cutscenes

Prerelease	Final

The camera angle when Tails is about to crash is different, showing a different sky texture.

Prerelease	Final

Amy's story introduction is set at evening in the final, and the buildings in the background have very different designs and textures.

Speed Highway

Prerelease	Final

Unlike the final game, this area is filled with rings. The higher ring marks position (0,0,0) and is an issue that plagues both the final game and Sonic Adventure 2.

Prerelease	Final

Tails' version of the stage is using Sonic's object layout, as evidenced by the helicopter on the right.

Notably, this image also appears in the final game's credits.

Prerelease	Final

The object layout seen here is nearly identical to the AutoDemo's, except that Tikal's hints are missing (they were only there for gameplay demo purposes).

Prerelease	Final

There's a clock pit here that isn't in the final game, the building far behind Knuckles had its height extended, and the chairs were changed from red/blue to red/yellow.

Sky Chase

Prerelease	Final

These two screenshots show an unused dragon enemy in Sky Chase. It was found in the Sonic Adventure DX Preview disc and can be hacked to work again, though it doesn't take or deal any damage.

Also interestingly, Sonic and Tails are using their Sonic Jam models and textures here.

Chaos 0

Prerelease	Final

Many early images of the Chaos 0 arena show a very different-looking city hall. The object layout shown here can still be found in the AutoDemo (alongside a leftover clock object in the city hall map). Additionally, a much larger bush that can be seen in early screenshots actually does exist in the final and is technically used, however the rendering code was accidentally removed.

Japanese Manual

The manual for the original Japanese version was made close to the game's completion, so most of the differences are minor.

Manual	Final

The camera here is closer than the final game, the lives counter has a lower position, and the health bar seems to be "skinnier" than the final.

Manual	Final (Japan, original)	Final (International)

The levels in the Trial selection are listed by their order in the story, which would also later be the case in International.

To do: Replace the final image with one that shows the same file number and game progress as the early one for a more 1:1 comparison.

Manual	Final

Many differences here:

• Sonic's animation has him looking down.
• The two orbs displaying the current file number and story progress are blue instead of red.
• Different background selection circle.
• Sonic, Tails, and Gamma's names are listed below their selection orb instead of above. While Knuckles, Amy, and Big's names have the same positioning as in the final, the early image makes it clear that they would also be below their orbs.

The fact the character names are opaque while Sonic's story is only 10% complete doesn't necessarily make it a difference from the final, as the other characters can be unlocked through the other stories (such as Tails'). It's also possible that the build this image came from had the characters unlocked by default or through a debug feature.

Manual	Final

Skinnier design than the final.