Prerelease:Tails' Skypatrol
This page details pre-release information and/or media for Tails' Skypatrol.
Tails' Skypatrol began development by Japan System House as a Disney licensed game completely unrelated to the Sonic series, intended to be a launch title for an unannounced game system with a monochrome LCD screen, a Z80 CPU, one background layer plus sprites, and two sound channels plus PCM. This system was intended to be a cheaper alternative to Nintendo's Game Boy, aimed at a younger audience with an educational focus. While the game itself was completed, the system it was developed for was scrapped before even putting out a press release, and only those who were involved in the project knew the system even existed.
The developers were then tasked with moving the game over to the Game Gear, which had similar specs to the system they originally developed the game for, in order to recoup development costs. When JSH's business team approached Sega, the decision was made to make Miles "Tails" Prower the main character and remove the Disney license, starting proper development of the Game Gear version. The gameplay remained the same for the most part, but the world design was altered to better fit the Sonic universe.
Early Video
A near-final build of Tails' Skypatrol was shown during the April 1995 edition of Sega Video Magazine.
While the game looks to be nearly complete at this point, the footage shows a couple of leftovers from the Disney-based era. Most notably, Tails is seen fighting Pete as the boss of the Ruin Wood Area, who was replaced with Bearenger in the final game. Aside from that, the "Press Start Button" text on the title screen doesn't flash.
