Prerelease:Sonic the Hedgehog (Genesis)

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. Notes: Subpages could use some more documentation, including the newly found images of the Shinsaku Footage.

To do: Move stuff that's present in the recently-dumped prototype to the respective page.

This page details prerelease information and/or media for Sonic the Hedgehog (Genesis).

In order to compete with Nintendo's best-selling NES console, Sega wanted to created a new mascot in the same vein as Mario from Super Mario Bros. which would be created into a video game in time for the release of the then-forthcoming Sega Genesis console. Much of the development time was spent trying to figure out what the mascot would be like in order to have a wide appeal, where several ideas were considered before being scrapped entirely or put into newer games.

Sonic the Hedgehog managed to become a video gaming pop culture icon in the 90s after the initial release of the game, which also helped set up a rivalry with the Nintendo at the time.

Builds and Videos

February 1990 The earliest known footage of Sonic the Hedgehog.

1990 Tokyo Toy Show The famous demo build, and the game's public debut––sadly, now presumed lost. Thought to be dated late May.

Pre-WCES Build Considerably more fleshed out than the TTS build, seeing as this is dated months after, but still a typical early build.

WCES-like Builds Minor refinements relative to the previous build, though still far from complete.

Mid Prerelease Builds These builds appear to closely match the recently dumped prototype.

GPSG Build The first build where Green Hill's sunflowers have green centers instead of pink ones, and some other changes from earlier builds.

Sega Shinsaku Soft Video Footage The game is clearly now in late development, but still features a multitude of small differences.

USA Manual Build Almost everything has been finalized at this point. Not too many differences remain.

Game PV Footage Very close to the US release, but has a few leftovers from earlier late builds.

Early Development

Creating Sonic

Before the release of the Mega Drive/Genesis, Sega wanted to make sure that their new console would sell as well as the NES. To do so, Sega held a competition throughout all of its branches to create a character that would end up replacing Alex Kidd as the mascot of the company. Many ideas were created for it, such as:

A wolf wearing an American flag T-shirt.	An elderly warrior.	An odd-looking jester.
A bulldog with shades.	A chick with a cap and overalls.	A pink bunny with punk clothing, as seen in the "Origins of Sonic" video on the Blu-ray of Sonic the Hedgehog (2020).

Eventually, it came down to four designs created by Naoto Ōshima, who had previously worked on the Phantasy Star series:

A fat, pajama-wearing man based on Theodore Roosevelt.	A hedgehog character called "Mr. Hedgehog".	A grey rabbit who could throw things with his ears.	A regular man, likely based on Bart Simpson and Mario.

In addition, there was an armadillo character drawn by Ōshima, but no concept art has surfaced of this design.

It was decided that the hedgehog character was the best of the lot, and was redesigned into Sonic the Hedgehog (Seen right). Some of the other designs were reused later; the pajama-wearing character became the basis for Dr. Eggman/Robotnik's design, while the rabbit's ability to throw things would later be used in Ristar.

Early Ideas

Additional Characters

Early in development, several ideas for Sonic the Hedgehog were created by Naoto Ōshima. One of these ideas was Madonna, a human love interest (obviously modeled on the real-life pop singer's physical appearance at the time) that was described by Ōshima as a "male fantasy" who would chase Sonic around. She was scrapped early in development, with two individuals claiming responsibility (and whose rationale are not necessarily mutually exclusive):

• Sega of America project manager Madeline Schroeder says that she was responsible for removing Madonna in order to make the game easier to sell in Western markets.
• Yuji Naka says that Madonna never got past the concept stage due to how she would have made Sonic the Hedgehog more similar to Super Mario Bros.

Despite the loss of the Madonna character, the concept of a love interest who followed Sonic around would later be implemented into Sonic CD.

At the same time that Madonna was being created, Ōshima drew up a picture showing potential enemies that Sonic could have fought. They included a six-fingered hand, a purple creature with a large jaw and yellow gloves, a walking cannon and exclamation mark, a flying hand similar in appearance to Bat Brain, a large white ghost, and a bee-colored Robotnik. The development team thought that Robotnik's design was the best out of the bunch, so the other concepts were scrapped. The purple creature did make it to a prototype build shown at the 1990 Tokyo Toy Show but had its colors changed from purple and yellow to blue and red.

According to Naoto Ohshima, the original plan in this storyline was to have Sonic in a world of nightmares.

(Source: Sonic Retro)

Another idea that was thrown out was the Sonic the Hedgehog Band. Originally, the plotline for Sonic the Hedgehog would have involved Sonic saving both his bandmates and the Animal Friends from Robotnik; concept art was drawn for this (shown below) but was never put into motion. In addition, there was a full sound test where Sonic breakdanced to his band playing music. Due to time constraints, the idea was scrapped, and the sound test ended up being on the level select. The room that the graphics took up on the ROM (around an eighth of the cartridge size) was replaced with the "Sega!" chant heard at the beginning of the game.

(Source: Sega's Yuji Naka Talks!)

The crocodile character, Vector, eventually debuted in Knuckles' Chaotix.

Scrapped "Sonic the Hedgehog Band" Storyline

To do: Get clean scans of the book instead of photocaptures.

Released in 2014, the book Sega Mega Drive/Genesis: Collected Works contained some never-before-seen concept art of Sonic the Hedgehog. They are from an earlier version of the game's story when Sonic's band hadn't been scrapped yet.

(Source: Azukara)

Title Sequence

An early version of the Sega logo and title screen. Instead of its short, iconic jingle, the Sega logo would have had Sonic leaning on it. The logo would have slid over to the left, making Sonic fall back. After this, the screen would have been covered in stripes (?) brought in by Robotnik and Sonic's bandmates, and the giant Sonic emblem falls in place from the top of the screen.

Midboss

Within the concept art is an idea for a construction-themed mid-boss that Sonic would have fought, which held one of Sonic's bandmates and their respective animal species. Sonic would have had to dodge a giant wrecking ball as he used two platforms to destroy the machine. After the machine is destroyed, a small cutscene would play where Sonic and the respective bandmate would cheer.

Rather interestingly, Robotnik is watching the entire scenario unfold, and is riding on a flying sled that has a very similar appearance to the one shown in the ending to Sonic CD.

Final Boss/Ending

The first design for the final boss was very different: it would have consisted of Robotnik behind a shield, firing turrets at Sonic. Presumably, the boss would have to be defeated by tricking the turrets to shoot at Robotnik's shield. After the boss is defeated, Robotnik runs away from Sonic and jumps into a small plane. As he takes off, however, Sonic jumps onto the plane and destroys it.

As Sonic falls from the sky, he is swooped up and carried away by Sharps the Chicken, one of his bandmates. He is flown over to Green Hill Zone, where his other bandmates and animal friends are waiting for him. The two land, Sonic jumps towards the player, and the screen fades out to black.

Misc. Screens

A small animation that would play whenever Sonic got a "special" item, i.e. a key. Other than the setting of the scene, which seems to take place in an early rendition of Marble Zone, it seems that the idea of Chaos Emeralds hadn't been thought up yet.

This screen would have played after a Zone was cleared. It shows Sonic jumping through a strange circle (of rings?), with a heart in the middle of it. Judging from where it would have occurred, as well as the layout of the "items", it's possible that this would have been an after-Zone minigame where the player could have gotten more rings or points.

General Differences

Sonic

Prerelease	Prototype

During much of the game's development, Sonic could not run off the screen at the end of an Act (similarly, but not identically, to how the 8-bit versions behave). Instead, Sonic would fist-pump the air if the player jumped after clearing the signpost. The animation was still present as late as the Shinsaku Soft Video build, and the relevant sprites are still in the final game.

Title Screen/Level Select

Tokyo Toy Show	Early Prerelease	Later Prerelease	Prototype	Final

The title screen of the build shown at the Tokyo Toy Show has a smaller banner (and "SONIC" text), sonic looks to have a more mad expression and is missing the background. Interestingly, this title screen heavily resembles the one from the 8-bit versions. An early 1991 prerelease screenshot shows the final title graphic, as well as the PRESS START BUTTON text that was mistakenly 'dummied out' in the final game.

Early Prerelease	Later Prerelease	Prototype	Final

The stage select once used a bluish-grey palette instead of a sepia-tone one. Later on, the palette got changed to the final's sepia-tone feel. Some acts have Xs listed after them (possibly to mark if they were incomplete), and Final Zone is missing from the list. It's possible that Scrap Brain/Clock Work Act 3 had the boss fight in it, similar to the other Acts. The stage select text is positioned upwards, too, possibly because of the lack of slots like Final Zone.

Other

Many prerelease pictures of Sonic the Hedgehog have the HUD display the Ring counter as "RING" instead of "RINGS".

Prerelease	Prototype	Final

The title cards had a minor addition in the prerelease photos: a small period can be seen after the word "ACT".

A couple of prerelease screenshots show an early version of debug mode, where numbers indicating Sonic's position are shown at the bottom of the screen (and replace the lives counter).

In addition, BallHogs originally faced the screen and walked similarly to Crabmeat.

Sega Music Collection

Three alternate versions of Sonic tracks appeared as part of Sega Music Collection, a collection of BGMs from several Mega Drive titles which was distributed digitally in Japan via the Sega Game Toshokan dial-up service.

As heard in this videotape recording of a user's online session with the service, this version of Green Hill Zone's BGM matches the recording of the Tokyo Toy Show '90 demo music, and all three tracks match the BGM for the Tera Drive store demo.

All three tracks have noticeable differences compared to the final game's BGM.

[4:26] "BGM1" (Green Hill Zone)

• Much faster tempo.
• Missing the descending arpeggio in the intro, and the synth chords.
• The overall arrangement is a bit barren compared to the final BGM.

[5:31] "BGM2" (Special Stage)

• Slower tempo.
• The melody line is played by two detuned FM voices at the same midrange octave, resulting in a mellower sound. (The final version's melody transposes FM channel #6 up one octave, to play intervals.)

[6:26] "BGM3" (Sparkling Zone)

• Slightly slower tempo.
• Livelier kick drum programming.
• No noise channel imitating a shuffle hi-hat.

In addition, both tracks with PCM drums ("BGM1" and "BGM3") have the original kick and snare tuning as heard in the TTS '90 demo, the Tera Drive store demo, and the Sega Shinsaku Soft Video build.

To do: I've extracted these three tracks from the video, looped them properly and normalized them for easier analysis. Download here. –Zoinknoise

Zone Differences

Green Hill Zone

Prerelease	Prototype	Final

A large boulder was planned to have been at the beginning of Green Hill Zone, which would have chased after Sonic (more info in the Videos section). While the boulder was removed from the final game, the idle sprite was kept and used as part of the first boss. In addition, the boulder can be selected using debug mode, although it can't be placed. In the game's mobile release, while the boulder still goes unused, it actually can be placed in debug mode, and behaves faithfully to the original idea. It can also be placed like this in Sonic Mania's Green Hill Zone.

Prerelease	Prototype	Final

Green Hill Zone's background used to be brighter. This was changed later in development to have a darker tone.

Prerelease	Prototype	Final

The sunflowers seen in Green Hill were planned to be purple but were changed to green in the final game. They still use their original palette in the game's ending, however.

Prerelease	Prototype	Final

In Green Hill Zone Act 2, in the place where you break through a wall to get 3 Monitors, the Shield Monitor was originally going to be an Extra Life Monitor.

(Source: Raze UK Issue 12)

Prerelease	Prototype	Final

Robotnik originally didn't laugh when he dropped the checkered ball or hit the player. It seems like he lacked the laughing animation at this point of development.

Marble Zone

This well-circulated screenshot depicts a version of Marble Zone not seen in any other prerelease coverage, with flipping platforms, a more segmented ground, chunkier lava, and larger ruins.

Based on the improbable camera position and lack of HUD, this "screenshot" is probably a mockup––at the time, a typical method for publishers to release compelling images of games still in early development.

An alternate scan of the above.

Early Prerelease	Later Prerelease	Prototype	Final

In many prerelease screenshots, and in the background of a scene in Wayne's World, UFOs are seen spinning in the sky in Marble Zone. The UFOs were red early on and then changed to a green and blue look until they were removed from the game in the final version. In the Sonic 1 2013 Port, they were added in debug mode and functions flawlessly. In Sonic Mania, similar graphics were used for the lampposts in Studiopolis Zone.

The first 3 rings in act 1 are also absent and replaced with a Buzz Bomber and a Yadrin badnik.

Prerelease	Prototype	Final

Spikes was also planned to be in the zone in place of Caterkiller and can be still be spawned with debug mode in the final game. In addition, this area's moving platform was changed.

Prerelease	Prototype	Final

In this screenshot, the background is positioned higher up and lacks rings. The lava has a less polished appearance, too.

Prototype	Prerelease	Final

This screenshot shows of Act 2 with a monitor before the lava flow. This monitor is not there in the final game.

Prerelease	Prototype	Final

An early screenshot of the end of Marble Act 1 shows an unused, sideways variant of the "spike chandelier". It was replaced in the final game with the moving green blocks seen throughout the level. The object itself wasn't removed, however, and will properly work if placed back into the Zone using a level editor. The used spike chandelier was made smaller for the final game, and flames were added to the torch in the background.

Prerelease	Prototype	Final

This screenshot of Marble Act 3 shows a broken animation of the fire from the torch in the background. Note that the animal that appears in this zone in the final is not Picky, the pig rather, its Ricky the squirrel. This was possibly due to the zone order being rearranged.

Spring Yard/Sparkling Zone

Prerelease	Prototype	Final

Early in development, Spring Yard Zone had a completely different look and was called Sparkling Zone. The foreground was the same and was left relatively unchanged, but the background showed a large city with flashing lights and signs. In addition, the pillars seen throughout the level were originally colored both purple and blue.

Earlier Prerelease	Prototype	Later Prerelease	Final

This area near the starting point in Act 1 once had spiked balls spinning around the bumper, presumably removed due to making the part too difficult. Interestingly, this obstacle was kept when Sparkling Zone was changed into Spring Yard Zone (although the length of the spiked balls was changed from 6 to 5), possibly because the level order wasn't changed yet, which means that the difficulty in the zones had not been tweaked yet.

Prerelease	Prototype	Final

In this shot, the sparkles can be seen in the background, as well as the lack of some rings.

Prerelease	Prototype	Final

Spring Yard's slopes originally weren't blocked by a spring as seen here.

Labyrinth Zone

Prerelease	Prototype	Final

All of the known pre-release photos of Labyrinth Zone show it in a very early state, seemingly a lack of objects and water. Although it appears as though there's no background to this stage, other screenshots from the same source indicate that it did have a background, it doesn't seem to loop well and is only visible from certain parts of the stage.

Prerelease	Prototype	Final

Other early screenshots of the level reveal the aforementioned background, with a rocky design. Earlier versions of Labyrinth Zone also included smaller versions of the crystals seen in the final game.

8-Bit	Proto 16-Bit	Final 16-Bit

Interestingly, these smaller versions of the crystals are very similar to the ones that appear in the 8-bit versions of Sonic 1. The proto design would later be used as a module for the bigger, more complex structures found in the final game.

Star Light Zone

Prerelease	Prototype

Star Light Zone had a less blocky appearance and used its truss tiles more often, which gave it a more "under construction" look. The area containing four monitors at the beginning of Act 1 had two pits and a breaking platform at some point in development.

Prerelease	Prototype	Final

Act 2 had a very different (and less empty) starting area.

Later Prerelease	Final

The row of springs in Act 3 originally had a second row facing downwards.

Scrap Brain/Clock Work Zone

Prerelease	Prototype	Final

Scrap Brain Zone was originally called Clock Work Zone... or Clock ork Zone, since the title card font doesn't contain the letter W. The first rows of rings are not present. Also the background and foreground shared the same colors.

Prerelease	Prototype

Diagonal conveyor belts were once used in Scrap Brain, but were removed and most likely replaced with the spinning platform conveyors.

Chunk $10	Prototype	Act 1 Final	Act 2 Final	Act 3 Final

Scrap Brain Zone used what is now foreground chunk $10 as its background. It wrapped in both directions but didn't appear to scroll. The final game uses completely different art for each act.

Prerelease	Prototype	Final

The tunnels with the large beams that move back and forth were originally zig-zagged.

Special Stages

Early Prerelease	Later Prerelease	Prototype

Every prerelease screenshot of the Special Stages shows a layout that does not appear in the final game. The earliest screenshots have it entirely made out of gold blocks, with no rings whatsoever. Most of this early layout would be shown off in the Soft Video footage.

The image on the right is a map from the prototype.