Prerelease:Sonic the Hedgehog 3

This page details pre-release information and/or media for Sonic the Hedgehog 3.

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.

Unlike its direct predecessor, Sega opted not to release any significant preview material of Sonic 3 as it was being developed, likely due to the frantic nature of its production and the many predicaments unfolding behind closed doors. This made people question whether builds were given out to magazines, though the November 3rd prototype confirms at least one build was sent out.

Rather, Sega instead sent out VHS tapes that the magazines would write up about; one was used in several magazines and an EPCOT Innoventions commercial, while another was seemingly used internally to report bugs, both coming from late in development.

Development Timeline

Late 1992 - Early 1993

• The Sega Technical Institute division that developed Sonic 2 is split into two teams: one team comprising of the American developers and the other team comprising of the Japanese developers. The team comprising of Japanese developers developed Sonic 3.

1993

• January - Development begins with the working title "Sonic 3D". The game is intended to use the Sega Virtua Processor (SVP) chip to allow for 3D polygonal graphics. The game is given a deadline of February 1994, to coincide with a McDonald's Happy Meal promotion.
• March - Various Japan-based developers are moved to America, joining development at Sega Technical Institute.
• June - It becomes clear that the SVP chip will not be finished in time for February 1994, so development comes to a halt. Since the game must be released by February 1994 no matter what, the decision is made to restart Sonic 3 as a more conventional side-scroller built off of the Sonic 2 engine.
• September/October - The developers realize that the game's scope and size are far too large to make it possible to complete before the deadline. Not wanting to compromise their ambitious vision, the decision is made to split the game into two parts: Sonic 3 Part 1 and Sonic 3 Part 2.
• November 3 - The Sonic 3 prototype is dated to this day. Though the header indicates that its data is actually from the previous month, suggesting November 3rd to be the date the game data burned onto the EEPROM cartridge, rather than when it was actually last worked on.
• November 20 - The first part is completed as Sonic the Hedgehog 3.
• December 10 - The first issue of the UK Sega Magazine (cover-dated January 1994), containing the most extensive preview coverage of Sonic 3 prior to its release, is published. The screenshots published in the issue are later discovered to have originated from the aforementioned November 3 prototype.

1994

• February 2 - Sonic 3 is released in North America. Development on the second half, to become Sonic & Knuckles, continues, as well as Limited Edition for release in Japan as a singular game.
• May 27 - Due to the importation and selling of foreign copies, Sonic 3 is released in Japan as-is.
• Late-May/June - Sonic 3: Limited Edition is scrapped.

(Source: Hidden Palace, Sega Magazine)

Sub-Pages

Concept Art Knock, knock, it's Stealth.

Production Cycle

Sonic 3D

Sonic 3 was originally developed under the working title "Sonic 3D", and was planned to be a drastically different game compared to its predecessors. Unlike the side-scrolling Sonic 1 and Sonic 2, Sonic 3D was to be an isometric game using pre-rendered 3D graphics, while the Special Stages featured a polygonal Sonic in a figure eight-shaped stage. This was to be accomplished using Sega/Samsung's SSP1601 chip, the Sega Virtua Processor (SVP).

Development on this initial version of the game lasted until June 1993, when the developers were informed that the SVP wouldn't be available in time, which would result in a long delay. Even then, a delay was not possible because Sega had signed a promotional deal with McDonald's that mandated that Sonic 3 be out in February 1994. Due to this, the developers scrapped all their work and decided to build Sonic 3 off Sonic 2. In the end, the SVP would only be used for Virtua Racing, which it was initially developed for.

Not all the work on Sonic 3D went to waste: the character renders were re-used for the title screens of Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles, plus the "No Way!" screen; the in-game sprites of Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles were also designed to resemble these renders. The isometric concept also ended up getting used in Sonic 3D Blast in 1996.

Final Version

Due to the success of the previous two games, Yuji Naka was given more creative freedom and wanted Sonic to go through a large game, essentially doing what they wanted to do with Sonic 2. Early on, the developers had already planned all the stages for the final game, spanning 14 zones, however Sega had a cross-promotion with McDonald's that required the game out by February 1994. Many of the stage concept art was reused from Sonic 2's development, with Metropolis Zone's hilariously being changed to "interior of a blimp" (most likely referencing Flying Battery).

Due to the short development time left, the developers decided to essentially split the game in two; the first seven zones would be polished and released as Sonic 3, so that the final seven zones could be worked on and released as a second part. Flying Battery Zone was planned to be the fifth Zone, following Carnival Night and preceding IceCap, however it was later moved to Sonic & Knuckles due to time constraints. During this, Sonic Spinball was created so that a new Sonic game could be released in time for Christmas 1993.

The Michael Jackson Conundrum

For what is one of the most infamous behind-the-scene stories in the entire Sonic franchise, Sega contracted Michael Jackson to compose the soundtrack for Sonic 3. Masato Nakamura, who composed the first two entries, was highly successful and popular in Japan, and with his name and band becoming more well-known through the then-lucrative Sonic brand internationally, his asking price for Sonic 3 became significantly higher as a result. As such, Sega chose not to renew him for Sonic 3's soundtrack. It was then that Michael Jackson, who was at the height of his fame and was a Sonic fan, approached Sega and was contracted to write tracks for the game, with allegedly the entire game's soundtrack having been composed by Jackson and his production team.

However, Jackson left before the game was completed and is not credited in the final game. The extent of his contributions - or whether his contributions remained in the game at all - remained a source of debate. Historically, over the years, the people involved or connected to the production of Sonic 3 would typically shy away from providing any details on the collaboration. Whenever they did, they would provide conflicting reasons for his exit. Sega Technical Institute head Roger Hector, who first revealed Jackson's involvement in 2005, has stated that Sega "fired" Jackson following the initial, sensationalized child sexual abuse accusations, which arose during the game's production. Sonic's Character Designer Naoto Ohshima, was not actually involved in the game's development, alluded to this in 2018, upon recollecting the beat-box demo tape received by Jackson's team that was sent to Sega of Japan to be digitized for the Genesis' YM2612 sound-chip [1]. Additionally, a number of Sega staff, including then-Sega of America president Tom Kalinske, have said that no contracts or agreements were ever signed. These individuals assert that Jackson and his work was dropped due the scandals.

"Ohshima: Michael Jackson was kind enough to make some music for the game. He sent us a demo tape, and we all gathered around to listen to it. And it was music, but… Michael Jackson had made all of it with his mouth. <hums a beat> It was like that, but layer after layer of it, complete with oohs and aahs, a drum track, simulated trumpets - all simply hummed by Michael Jackson. And of course his trademark "Wow!" A multitrack recording in which every track was hummed by Michael Jackson - we could not believe it. Ultimately, due to various incidents which took place, we were not able to use the Michael Jackson songs. But Sega probably still possesses that phantom Michael Jackson tape!"

John Szczepaniak: Was there a working prototype with his voiced music?"
Ohshima: I don't know. But even if there was, I'd think it would pale in comparison to the value of a never-released tape of Michael Jackson doing a cappella recordings."- Naoto Ohshima discusses Michael Jackson on Sonic 3 [2]

In contrast, Brad Buxer (one of Sonic 3`s composers) stated that Jackson left because of unsatisfied he was with how his music sounded on the Genesis. Jackson's Japanese correspondent at that time, Mayumi Nina Sakazaki, credited in-game under Special Thanks, substantiated this with her recollection of Sega persuading Jackson to prevail with his work, under the understanding that it would be the best of what could be achieved on the hardware [3]. In addition to affirming Jackson's displeasure with the sound quality and his resulting departure, composers Doug Grigsby, Cirocco Jones, and Buxer have proclaimed repeatedly that Jackson's contributions remained. This, once again, was corroborated by an anonymous source who spoke to GameTrailers in 2013 [4] - and was cited as being directly involved in the development of Sonic 3 - stating that Jackson himself had chosen to exit the game's production prematurely and go uncredited; this developer specified Carnival Night Zone, by name, as having music that Jackson contributed, which contains identical notes to Jam, as well as a sample that was later confirmed to have originated from Jam. Buxer also claimed that the credits theme for the game is what later became the basis for Jackson's 1995 single, Stranger in Moscow. All these sources confirm that Jackson's exit from Sonic 3's production was voluntary.

"Oh, it did get in the game... The stuff we handed in, the stuff we did, made it. To. The game."- Doug Grigsby [5]

With the multiple sources asserting his involvement, as well the abundant empirical evidence and facts supporting them, some skepticism pertaining to the degree of Michael Jackson's involvement remain. The current main puzzle being which composers did what tracks. The ten tracks most commonly believed to be composed by Michael Jackson and/or an associate are the Act 1 Boss theme, Knuckles's theme, the Competition Menu theme, the credits theme, and the tracks for both acts of Carnival Night Zone, IceCap Zone and Launch Base Zone. IceCap Zone, especially, was discovered in the early 2010s to have originated from an unreleased track for Brad Buxer's band, The Jetzons, titled Hard Times. It's worth noting that the tracks for the Act 1 Boss theme and Knuckles's theme used different compositions in Sonic & Knuckles, which extended to Sonic 3 & Knuckles. The 1997 PC version of Sonic 3 titled Sonic & Knuckles Collection ended up using different songs in place of all of these themes (with the Act 1 Boss music using the Sonic & Knuckles version). It was originally believed that either licensing issues or limitations of the MIDI format (which couldn't reproduce the samples used in those tracks) forced Sega to hastily compose new tracks; however, Hidden Palace's 2019 release of a prototype debunked those theories, instead revealing that the aforementioned "replacement" tracks were most likely the originally intended compositions the entire time. Since that prototype is dated around October/November, this means that Jackson's music was likely implemented at the last minute. The next remaining puzzle being, why did these ten tracks by Jackson and his team make it to the final game in the first place.

Post-1103 Prototype Level Changes

To do: The full tape used for the EPCOT promotion (and several images) has been recovered, this section should likely be entirely reworked around documenting a separate build.

Angel Island Zone

November 3rd, 1993 Prototype	Post-Sales Promotion Build	Pre-Final Tape Build

Very Late Prototype	Final

The intro went through three main variations after the November 3rd prototype; In the build just post-dating the Sales Promotion one Sonic's sprites have been finalized, but Knuckles still wears green socks, clashing with the HUD palette (due to both using the same palette), which has also been finalized. The camera is also way further locked to the right than the final game. It's also a little hard to make out, but Sonic's Super palettes remain unaltered from 1103.

The Pre-Final Tape build's intro has Sonic and Knuckles' final palettes, lack of HUD and the camera is more centered on Sonic but swapped the purple and blue Chaos Emeralds so they could be better seen in front of the waterfall. The left boundary for this stage is also nearly final but is at X position $1300 in this build.

The last build's intro is exactly the same as the previous one except that the left boundary for the stage is now in its final position at X position $1308.

IceCap Zone

Given that the HUD is still shaded like the 1103 prototype, this screenshot most likely depicts the Sales Promotion build, and it can be seen that no snow is falling during the boss.

Videos

Sales Promotion

To do: Document any more differences you find. The magazines also show additional details not shown in the VHS (suggesting that it was taken from a 'raw' recording), so post them here to.

This was a video Sega sent to the press shortly before the release of the game, being spotted in an EPCOT Innoventions commercial, as well as at least three magazines. The footage shows a build of Sonic 3 post-dating the November 3 prototype, but predating the tape below, retaining some elements from 1103 while others have been updated to the final game.

General Notes

• Sonic and Tails now have their final designs.
• Tails' grabbing animation is offset too low, making it appear as if he's grabbing the air below the hook in one of the Launch Base clips.
• The HUD for the main game remains unchanged from 1103.
• The Sega logo is still leftover from Sonic 2. Unlike 1103, Sonic appears corrupted (likely due to his sprites now being updated to the final), although the palette glitch no longer occurs.
• The lightning shield still does not attract rings.

Competition Mode

• The select menu now exists for Competition, which may imply that other menu related things like the Data Select are also implemented in this build. Also of note is that the background uses the same palette as the Data Select in the final.
• The HUD for competition mode is mostly unchanged from 1103, complete with the player position markers.
• The starting race message now says "Go!" like the final, but the "!" in "GO!" is spaced a bit closer to the "O".
• The HUD for the main game can be seen in the competition menu. The life counter appears miscolored, and the score/time/rings counters appear as a series of orange lines due to the proper palette and graphics for them not being loaded.
• Desert Palace's background palette has been fixed and it no longer uses a black color for one of the sand shades.

Angel Island Zone

• The final introduction has since been implemented, but has some differences from the final:
  • The HUD is always present during the cutscene, with the timer incrementing.
  • The palette for the ocean background is slightly bugged, with a light green where a grayish-blue color should go.
  • The flame on the Tornado's booster doesn't animate (though this could be the result of VHS frame-skipping).
  • Super Sonic's palette remains unchanged from Sonic 2, causing Sonic's lighter and darker shades of blue to appear swapped when he reverts to normal.
  • Knuckles' cutscene palette still features the proper green color for his socks, which causes the HUD to turn green.
  • The screen locks further to the right than in the final game during the intro Knuckles scene. The video has been edited to show Knuckles grabbing the Emeralds sooner, as evidenced by the timer skipping.
  • The blue and purple Chaos Emeralds had their positions swapped for the final, likely due to it being difficult to discern the blue emerald in front of the waterfall.
  • Sonic appears to blink when Knuckles runs past him, though this may just be an early version of his idle animation.
• Tails still has his unique demonstration AI from the 1103 build at the start of AIZ Act, though he lacks a unique animation for carrying Sonic (who gets misplaced shortly after the grab thanks to a spring placed in the tree). The footage has been edited to speed up when Tails grabs Sonic, as the timer also speeds up.

Hydrocity Zone

• Act 1 now features its final background design in this build, although it still unloads partway through the level. The swinging ball decorations are also present now.
• (1:08) A bubble shield monitor would be replaced with an invincibility monitor.
• (1:46) One of the two Bugernaut enemies seen on the left which were present in 1103 has been removed. The one seen on the right would be removed later.
• (1:47) The Bugernaut enemies have been removed, but the ring formation still features five rings instead of the final's ten.
• (2:44) Rings still appear outside the waterslides due to incorrect layer priority. A Turbo Spiker enemy in the loop right after is absent.
• The tunnel at the end of the Act 2 wall chase sequence seems to have the same amount of doors and breakable walls as 1103 and the pre-final tape build.
• The Egg Vortex boss does not override the darkest grey in the player/Eggmobile palette to true black.

Marble Garden Zone

• The palette is unchanged from the 1103 build, with the darkest ring color being black instead of gold, and the overscan border color being turquoise instead of black.
• The Spin tops retain their behavior from the 1103 build as they still don't disappear when Sonic gets off them.
  • The red springs seen during this part of the video would later be changed to yellow.

Carnival Night Zone

• The lights now go out in Act 2, but the water does not rise yet. In the final game, the blocks seen at 1:13 drain the water when at least one is broken.
• All of the balloons in the section underneath the breakable blocks are absent.

Ice Cap Zone

• Sonic still does not ride on a snowboard at the beginning of IceCap Act 1.
• Due to the snowboard not being implemented yet, Sonic quickly rolls down the mountain and clips into the floor.
• (1:04) A Penguinator enemy is absent.

Launch Base Zone

• Launch Base Act 1 now features its final palette. However, Sonic still doesn't enter a unique animation when spinning around; instead using his walking animation.
• (2:39) Three rings have been spread slightly further apart since 1103. These rings would be replaced with a starpost by the pre-final tape build.
• Knuckles still stands on a smaller beam during the Launch Base 2 cutscene but now laughs compared to 1103. The background also does not load properly and can be seen briefly with its lettered placeholder tiles.
• The Egg Rocket appears immediately, while in the final it waits for the Egg Mobile to leave the screen. Eggman's head priority makes him appear behind the foreground. Tails also appears with Sonic during the fight, which is disabled in the final but was restored for Sonic 3 & Knuckles.

Special Stage

• The Special Stage appears to be finalized, but Tails lacks his tails completely.
• (0:49) Special Stage 4 features a cluster of eight blue spheres. This section would be replaced with a more tricky one where the player needs to jump over two bumper spheres in succession to collect only three blue spheres.

Pre-Final VHS Footage

To do: Document any more differences you find.

VHS footage of a very late prototype of Sonic 3, possibly dated only a few days before the final build. At this point most of the oddities with the 1103 build have been ironed out.

General Notes

• The HUD matches that of the final game by this point.
• The prototype compositions have been replaced with their final versions.

Special Stage

• (3:40 - 4:48) With the introduction of the playable Special Stages since the November 3rd, 1993 prototype, the tape reveals a bug with the speed system that doesn't seem to have been fixed by the final build: by getting snagged in-between two bumpers and jumping out of them, Sonic is unable to go faster with the music. You can make Sonic get back to the proper speed by pressing Up on the D-Pad in the final game, but it's not known if the player didn't press Up or the bug simply had a workaround by pressing Up.

Angel Island Zone

• Act 1
  • (1:40) In the opening cutscene, the blue and purple Chaos Emeralds are in opposite positions compared to the final game, matching a screenshot used for the US box art. In the final game, the positions of the two emeralds were likely swapped to prevent the blue emerald from blending in with the waterfall.
    • In the same cutscene, the screen boundary is set further to the left at $1300, whereas the final game has it further to the right at $1308.
  • (2:17) When the Fire Breath descends into view before setting Angel Island on fire, its flame jets appear to be rendered using bubble sprites for a few frames. This does not happen in the November 3rd prototype or the final game.

Hydrocity Zone

• Act 1
  • (12:45) As Sonic goes around the final loop before the Act 1 miniboss, the lower part of the background becomes corrupted due to boss graphics being loaded over the background tiles. The final game fixes this by loading the boss graphics over a different part of the background that is off-screen.
  • (12:51) Big Shaker has been updated to use its final bright red and purple palette. However, its damage flash palette has not been updated, causing it to revert to the dark red and turquoise palette used in the November 3rd prototype after taking damage (12:57).
• Act 2
  • (13:46 and 15:25) The trailing water splash graphics become corrupted when loading in from Act 1. This is fixed after the player exits a Bonus Stage.
  • (14:02 - 14:05) Like in 1103, there are only four breakable walls after the wall chase sequence, along with doors that immediately drop into their places. In the final game, there are two sets of two breakable walls, followed by a set of six breakable walls, and finally a third set of two breakable walls for a total of twelve breakable walls, with doors only dropping down in place of only the first four breakable walls.
  • (18:15 - 19:28) Right before the boss, the water turns a solid color for the remainder of the stage due to a bug related to the Thunder Barrier, the water, and the palette fade in from black. This also affects the "SONIC" text on the life counter, which utilizes the enemy palette line.
  • When the bombs dropped by the boss explode, the explosion graphic is absent, displaying only a corrupted tile where it should be.

Marble Garden Zone

• Act 2
  • (29:26) The two column platforms are already in their final positions despite Sonic or Tails never having interacted with the flywheel. This is likely due to the platforms having the same trigger ID as a puzzle from earlier in the Act, causing both puzzles to be "solved" after completing only one.

Carnival Night Zone

• Act 2
  • (40:50 - 41:00) During the underwater "lights-out" sequence, two sets of balloons are absent in this build. The second set was most likely added to allow Sonic to hit one of them and regain horizontal control after being locked out of it after performing a Spindash (which funnily enough happens in this very tape!).
  • (42:29) There is a breakable wall next to the button where a set of ceiling spikes is in the final game. This was most likely changed since using Super Sonic and a well-timed jump, the player could jump over the button, burst through the wall, and avoid turning the lights back on completely.
  • (43:57) Near the end of the Act, there is a Starpost that was moved further back in the final game (it is placed at around 43:50 in the final game).

IceCap Zone

• Act 1
  • (45:46) The screen does not shake when Sonic crashes into the wall at the end of the snowboard sequence.
  • (45:49) After the snowboard sequence, a stack of breakable ice blocks was added to the cave's entrance in the final game.
  • (45:49) In this build, there are only two crushing columns in the cave's entrance. A third one was later added after the second one.
• Act 2
  • (53:23) After defeating the boss, the snow does not stop falling like in the final game, causing the capsule to flicker during the Act results due to the large number of sprites on screen.
  • (53:39) The snow that Sonic rolls through in the transition cutscene makes a rumbling sound (CD in the Sound Test). In both the November 3rd prototype and the final game, the snow is silent.

Launch Base Zone

• Act 1
  • (56:27) One of the Orbinauts in one of the spinning tube rooms is placed closer to the end of the room than in the final game.
  • (57:00) Near the end of the Act, there is a flamethrower present where a Ring monitor is in the final game.
• Act 2
  • (1:02:05) After beating Ball Shooter, the timer stops, just like it does in Sonic 3 & Knuckles. Unlike S3&K however, the timer remains stopped until the end of the game. Sonic 3 alone "fixes" this by simply leaving the timer on during the cutscene.

Credits

• (1:06:48) In the "Senior Programmers" section of the credits, Takahiro Hamano is in place of Hiroshi Nikaidoh with the name also properly centered.

(Source: Hidden Palace)

Early Sprites

For some bizarre reason, certain sprites of Sonic, Tails and Knuckles in the Game.com version of Sonic Jam are based on sprites from earlier builds of Sonic 3. This went unnoticed until 2020, after the release of the November 3, 1993 prototype. One set of sprites that differ from the final's (Tails' hanging sprites) are the same as they were in Sonic 3C 0408, and the early whistling sprite.

Sonic Jam	Restored	Sonic 3

The second of Knuckles' three skidding frames is drawn like his November 3rd design, which is quite odd given that the other two sprites match the final version.

Sonic Jam	Restored	Sonic 3

An early laughing animation. The Sonic Triple Trouble version of Knuckles' laughing animation appears to be based on this one. It was replaced in the final with a chuckling animation.

Sonic Jam	Restored	Sonic 3

Knuckles' pushing animation is more static, which matches up with Sonic and Tails'. While frames two and four are the same, one and three were redrawn to add more motion. Looks similar to Knuckles' walking animation in Sonic Blast.

Sonic Jam	Restored	Sonic 3 Competition Mode	Sonic 3

Sonic's arms in his "hurt" frame are more straight, and his right foot is slightly more to the right. This lines up with the competition sprites, indicating that this is sourced from an early build of the game.

(Source: Chainspike)

Early Angel Island Zone

Along with the early sprites coming from the Game.com version of Sonic Jam, pre-release images and footage of that game show quite a lot of differences to the final, including an early Angel Island Zone that predates the 1103 prototype. This early Angel Island contains a completely different ocean mountainous background and foreground than what is seen in Sonic 3. It also has a different layout than the retail Game.com version of Sonic Jam and the 1103 prototype as there is a Caterkiller at the start. The demo seen in the 1103 prototype is known to be an earlier layout too, with a Caterkiller being referenced at the start, although the rock seen in the early Angel Island is not referenced in the demo layout. However, it is currently unknown if these early Angel Island assets were sourced from a pre-1103 prototype, or are only native to the Game.com version. Though it is likely the former considering the development team behind the Game.com version would only be trying to port the game over instead of creating new art assets for it.

Another thing to note is that the hurt animation seen in the Sonic Jam Game.com prototype is not consistent with the earlier hurt animation where his arms are more straight and match up with Sonic 3's Competition Mode Sonic sprites, which ended up being used in the retail Sonic Jam Game.com game.

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(Source: Sonic Retro)

Sonic the Hedgehog 3: Limited Edition

To do: Add scans of the magazine articles.

While Sonic 3 released in most regions in February 1994, its Japanese release was not until May 27. In the June 1994 issue of Famitsu, it is explained by Sega that the intention was to release a 24 MiB (3 MB) version of the game in Japan, but that many shops in Japan had started importing and selling Western copies of the game, resulting in Sega of Japan opting to release the standard 16 MiB version instead. This 24 MiB version was previously stated to be planned in the March 1994 issue of Beep!, which also stated it would include more Zones.

The "24 MiB version" is presumably in reference to Sonic the Hedgehog 3: Limited Edition (also known as Sonic 3+ in the notes for Sonic Mars, dated May 1994), which would've had the content from both Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles on a single cart. The earliest mention of this special version comes from the February 1994 issue of the German Sega Magazin, and the last official mention comes from Mean Machines Sega in October 1994, where they mention it was scrapped due to price concerns.