Proto:Sonic Chaos (Sega Master System)/June 30, 1993

This is a sub-page of Proto:Sonic Chaos (Sega Master System).

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To do: More screenshots. Check if the APZ boss acts differently.

The June 30, 1993 build of Sonic Chaos is considerably more fleshed-out than the May 17 Game Gear prototype, but it still has a ways to go.

General/Technical Differences

• The game will hang on a black screen after the title screen on some Master System models, due to writing to a Game Gear-exclusive I/O port, which happens to map to a port that handles memory mapping on these models, effectively disabling most memory regions.
• There is no SEGA screen.
• The game's EPROM refers to it as "SONIC 3," which makes sense as this is the third major Sonic title for the Game Gear/Sega Master System.
• There is no introduction sequence.
• Demos do not seem to be implemented completely yet: the demo will load, but Sonic or Tails will just stand and do nothing.
• Sonic cannot do the strike dash.
• Beating the final boss and collecting the final Chaos Emerald from that boss causes the music to change based on the player's character. Playing as Sonic plays what seems to be this build's version of the credits theme, while playing as Tails plays, presumably due to an error, a maddeningly slow and drawn-out version of the decision noise from the character select screen. However, the player never gets sent to the credits, so they're essentially softlocked.
• The level select includes entries for the Special Stages. There is an entry for the fifth Special Stage in the list, but it is cut off.
• The level select misspells Turquoise Hill Zone as "Turquise Hill Zone", much like the May 17 prototype.
• Pausing the game effectively softlocks it. You cannot unpause, which is extremely annoying.
• The Speed Shoes powerup does not appear to do anything, nor does it change the music. The final build of the Master System version seems to not play any music either. However, the powerup still seems to affect the sound engine in this prototype. After a few seconds, the song currently playing will restart.
• Crumbling platforms are in a preliminary state and do not work very well.

Prototype Graphics

Artwork	Name	Description
	Early Big Ring	An Unusual Big Ring, Only Used in Prototype.

(Source: Original TCRF research)

Graphical Differences

• Despite the May 17 prototype having a similar-looking title screen to the final Game Gear version, this build uses a preliminary title screen with plain text.
• The character select screen does not animate.
• Switching repeatedly between Sonic and Tails on the character select screen causes their mappings to load incorrectly for a few seconds.
• Some bosses load incorrect graphics after death.
• Some of Sonic's sprites differ from the final game.
  • The spring sprite goes unused in this build.

June 30 Proto	Final

Audio Differences

Song ID	June 30 Proto	Final	Name	Comments
$93			Aqua Planet Zone	A much slower, mellow tune. It has a few similarities to Sky High Zone from the 8-bit versions of Sonic 2.
$8C			Master Robots	The boss music is much lower in pitch and contains a different section compared to the final.
$86			Special Stage Results	The jingle is lower in pitch in this prototype.
$94			Continue	Higher in pitch at this point.
$8D			Credits	Shorter and lower in pitch.
$87			Game Over	The game over jingle is also used as the death jingle, is higher in pitch, and has a slight "kick" at the beginning.
$90			Electric Egg Zone	A significantly different version of the introduction song/Electric Egg Act 3. In this prototype, this song is assigned to all Acts of Electric Egg.
$8B			Final Boss	More pitch differences and rougher instrumentation. In addition, the prototype's version of the final boss music shares similarities with the boss music from Sonic 2 Game Gear.
$84			Invincibility	Endlessly loops, whereas the final version actually has an ending. (You don't hear it anyway.) Like many other tracks, it has pitch differences.
$92			Mecha Green Hill Zone	Close to the final composition, but is unpolished here.
$91			Sleeping Egg Zone	Entirely different from the final, instead being a cover of the song ”I’m About You” by The System. Likely a placeholder track.
$8F			Special Stage	Also radically different. It definitely has a "Bonus Stage" feel, and feels like a much happier song overall.
$88			Title Card	The title card jingle has some minor differences, mainly in the ending portion.
$8E			Unused Jingle	Even this unused song is different, mainly just pitch variations, though the final version is slightly longer.

• 1-Up monitors do not play the 1-Up sound, even though the sound does exist and works when getting 100 rings.
• Hitting a signpost causes some unusual noises.

Level Differences

To do: Double-check the palettes and boss intros.

Turquoise Hill Zone

• For some reason, Act 2 does not load after beating Act 1.

Gigapolis Zone

• The intro to the boss is different.
• The boss acts and animates differently.

Sleeping Egg Zone

• The spring badnik looks completely different.
• Act 3 has problems with layout - the slope at the end of the level is impassible if you are on the lower level.
• The speed booster does not animate.
• The boss intro is much slower.

Mecha Green Hill Zone

• No animated tiles are implemented at this point.
• The palette cycle is different.
• When Sonic gets stuck in the oil, his sprites for running on the sloped bridge are used. It is likely that the two tile types share code at this point - you sink slowly when standing on the sloped bridge.
• When the level fades out, the palette cycle does not stop.
• The boss arena here is different, featuring a bottomless pit instead of spikes.
• The boss animates differently.

Aqua Planet Zone

• The clouds in the background do not animate, and use more tiles.
• The bird badniks use a completely different palette.
• The "door" tiles that send the player through a tunnel do not work or animate.
• Water is not implemented yet.
• The bubble spout sprite is different. In addition, it never seems to spawn a large bubble.

Electric Egg Zone

• The palette cycle is different compared to the final.
• The palette cycle does not fade on level end.
• Speed booster tiles are garbled.
• The sliding platform object does not work properly. It will slide down the slope, but the player cannot interact with it.
• The buttons that cause lasers to fire do not work.
• The final boss' palette is different.
• The final boss' second phase works differently. It takes 8 hits to beat unlike the final's 1 hit, but it does not instant-kill you if you get hit.

Special Stages

• Every Special Stage layout is different.
• Special Stages use similar tilesets to the final, but there are still differences. Notably, some of the tiles used here go unused in the final ROM.
• None of the Special Stages use a countdown timer.
• The "big ring" tiles look unusual and do not animate.
• One of the Emeralds uses completely different colors.
• In a majority of the Special Stages, the player will spawn in the air and land on an Emerald. This was likely done for testers.
• Emerald objects do not do anything.