Proto:Sonic Chaos (Game Gear)/May 17, 1993

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The May 17, 1993 prototype of Sonic Chaos is an extremely early build, with many things not implemented yet. It was dumped on November 2, 2019 as part of Sonic Month.

General Differences

• There's no sound at all. In the ROM, the banks that normally contain sound code, music, sound effects, etc. are completely filled with $FF.
• The game is internally referred to as "SONIC 3", which makes sense as this is the third major Sonic title for the Game Gear/Master System.
• The internal ROM Header at 0xC0 states:

MS SONIC.THE.HEDGEHOG.3 Ver0.00 1993/02/01 @SEGA/Aspect Co.,Ltd 

Considering the version number and date, this is probably a leftover from an older build.

(Source: Hidden Palace)

Proto	Final

• The SEGA screen in this build is like the one seen in other Game Gear games and lacks the iconic chant heard in the final.
• As there's no opening demo, the game just skips to the title screen with no animation nor music.

Japanese Final	May 17, 1993 Proto	International Final

• The logo uses a mix of both the Japanese and international titles. Tails' sprite is also slightly different; instead of him giving a thumbs up gesture, his tails sticks out but the proportion of his tails seems to be too small than what it's supposed to be.
• "PRESS START BUTTON" does not flash.
• Waiting on the title screen does not go to a gameplay demo.

• The character select and game over screens uses text on a blue background.
• Turquoise Hill Zone is misspelled "Turquise Hill Zone" in the level select.

(Source: Hidden Palace, Original TCRF Research)

Gameplay Differences

• The title cards haven't been implemented yet.
• The lives counter only has one digit, like in Sonic 1 and Sonic 2.
• Holding 1 will let the player freely move around the level.
• Special Stages are missing. Instead, collecting 100 rings just gives the player an extra life.
• Losing rings doesn't seem to be working correctly.
• The jet shoes powerup works a little differently and is unfinished. It is a permanent powerup at this point, and you cannot move up or down with them.
• Some 10 Ring monitors don't seem to work correctly.
• Monitors cannot be broken by spindashing them.
• Bosses do not flash when being hit.
• When beating a boss, the outro does not work properly. Sonic will just begin running regardless if he is on the ground or not.
• Many, if not all, levels do not have a death plane at the bottom of the level.
• The 3D bridges that are in some levels act a bit differently, sinking Sonic instead of having him instantly fall off.
• There's no final boss implemented, thus making it impossible to beat the game.

(Source: Hidden Palace, Original TCRF Research)

Graphical Differences

To do: Check the crumbling brick sprites, they may be different.

• Sonic and Tails' sprites are much closer to their Sonic 2 Genesis designs.
• The results screen has not yet been adjusted to fit the Game Gear's screen resolution.
• Many palettes are buggy.
• Tails uses Sonic's life icon.
• There are many sprite layering issues, such as Sonic/Tails being able to overlap the HUD.

Level Differences

To do: Rip level maps for comparison purposes.

Turquoise Hill Zone

• Uses a palette similar to the Master System version.
• There are some layout differences.

Gigalopolis Zone

• There is a spring object misplaced above a monitor in Act 1.
• Collision in the tubes seems broken. When you jump, you get stuck into the tiles above the tube.
• Act 3 has a monitor placed in the beginning that is halfway offscreen.
• When Act 3's boss loads, the palette gets corrupted. For some reason, the boss writes to the palette lines twice: once to load the boss palette, and for some strange reason it overwrites the background palette line with Turquoise Hill's object palette.
• The Dangerous Ball Tower boss animates much differently and has many more segments compared to the final version. As a result, the Game Gear's sprite limit is often exceeded and some sprites flicker.

Proto	Final

• The platform in this build is a lot larger than the one used in the final.

Sleeping Egg Zone

• Starting position seems off. You start in midair in all Acts.
• The layout is completely broken.
• No objects are implemented.
• This Zone uses Mecha Green Hill's art and level tiles. Interestingly, it uses the pink background color that is more similar to the final version, yet in this build the normal Mecha Green Hill still uses the Master System version's background color.
• Act 3 has an intact layout.
• At the end of Act 3, the screen fades to white and Sleeping Egg's boss can be fought. The boss has not been altered to account for the Game Gear's smaller resolution, and thus frequently goes offscreen.

Mecha Green Hill Zone

• The various animated tiles are not implemented yet.
• The Motobug badniks use the same palette as the ones in Turquoise Hill.
• When Sonic runs across the tilted bridges, he slowly moves off the edge. In the final, Sonic stays at the center.
• The oil lakes at the bottom of the level do not have a splash effect when Sonic jumps into them.
• Act 2 has a static monitor in the beginning. It is a ring monitor, yet shows no icon on the monitor.
• Act 2's layout may be early: in the lower-right corner of the level, there is a big empty area.
• The boss animates differently compared to the final game, and has more animation.

Proto	Final

• The graphics used for the platform in this build differ from the final.

Aqua Planet Zone

To do: Add unused tiles.

• This Zone looks completely different compared to the final and seems to take place inside of a cave. It looks very similar to Sonic 1's Labyrinth Zone.
• There are no objects implemented in any Act.
• Acts 2 and 3 load strange black-and-white palettes.
• The layouts of Acts 2 and 3 appear to be copies of Act 1.

Electric Egg Zone

To do: Find out if there's an unused object ID for the mine carts.

• This Zone has no animation or cycling colors.
• No objects seem to be implemented, with one exception.
• Act 2 has a boss, and it's a preliminary version of Aqua Planet's boss. The graphics do not load the little birds correctly, and Phase 2 of the boss softlocks the game.
• The buttons that activate lasers do not do anything.
• Act 3 has layout differences.

Proto	Final

• The mine carts are not yet implemented at this point, though sprites for riding in them do exist in the ROM.

(Source: Hidden Palace, Original TCRF Research, Techokami (sprite rips))