Proto:Sonic Heroes/E3 2003 prototype

This is a sub-page of Proto:Sonic Heroes.

  This prototype is documented on Hidden Palace.

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.

This page or section needs more images. There's a whole lotta words here, but not enough pictures. Please fix this.

To do: About everything. For one, the Xbox demo has some files that the GameCube version doesn't and vise-versa. Demo videos for Seaside Hill and Rail Canyon. More object differences. Find any technical differences.

This prototype of Sonic Heroes was displayed during E3 2003. It was recovered in 2014 and dumped in 2016, in a joint effort between English fansite Sonic Retro and Spanish fansite Sonic Paradise. This build is different in that one was made for each of the three consoles, however only the Xbox and GameCube versions are available. There are elements from the PlayStation 2 version of this build that are left over in the 9.28 prototype though.

Sub-Pages

Level Differences There were some changes to the levels that were seen in later builds, but redone before the final version.

Unused Content A lot of them, including 2D artwork from Sonic Adventure 2, and...a Sonic X logo?

Debug Modes

Debug Displays

Camera Info

Action Replay code
041EA220 00000001

This will enable a debug display during gameplay.

Technical Differences

• The AFS archive, a file that stores voice clips, is not present in this build since voice acting was in a very early state at this point in development.
• The files for the cutscenes aren't on the disk.
• Only five ADX files are available. See below for more information.

General Differences

Startup Screen

• The Dolby Digital Pro Logic Pro II logo is nowhere to be found.
• On the startup screen, you can skip all until the stage select screen. This feature was completely disabled in the final.
• There's no opening cinematic.

Bugs

To do: Find a way to get screenshots for the spheres bug comparison for whenever progressive scan mode is turned on or off.

• The spheres around the "?" hints don't display if the game is in progressive scan mode (which normally isn't possible in this build).

Reseting the game will result in a crash on the faded Sega logo screen.

Graphical Differences

Sega

E3 2003/Final (Windows)	Final (Console)

The Sega logo lacks "Presented by". For whatever reason, this was eventually used for the Windows version.

Sonic Team

E3 2003	Final

There's no "Created by" for the Sonic Team Logo.

ADX

E3 2003	Final

The ADX logo is present, but it lacks Sofdec.

Logo/Title Screen

E3 2003 (GameCube)	Final (GameCube)

One of the most notable differences from the final is the title screen:

• The background is completely different.
• The game's logo has a different color for the trademark symbol, in which is white instead of black.
• In the previous two 3D Sonic games, the "PRESS START BUTTON" (or "Press Start Button") graphic was used for the title screen. The final Xbox and GameCube versions would eventually change it to be "Press START".
• The layouts are placed differently.
• The GameCube version lacks "Licensed by Nintendo".

This is basically identical to the 10.8 prototype, but without the "E3 Version" logo for obvious reasons.

Menu (Stage Select)

E3 2003	Final

Only two stages are available from the start: "Easy", which is Seaside Hill and "Hard", which is Rail Canyon. The "Stage Select" graphic is also different.

(Source: Sonic Retro)

Loading Screen

E3 2003	Final

Instead of featuring title cards, the three team rings on the bottom-right corner is seen, which is used in the final version for whenever you boot up the game (although without any spinning animations).

HUD

To do: Crop these two images on the wiki using the CSS image crop template correctly to just show the HUD.

E3 2003	Final

Power levels aren't displayed on the character icons and there's no Team Blast.

Hint Box

Text & Hint Differences With no voice-overs at the time, the game explains how these work instead.

E3 2003	Final

Every hint rings show a blue semi-transparent rectangle surrounding the text.

Gameplay Differences

Checkpoint

E3 2003	Final

Instead of getting a level up when passing a checkpoint, you'll get an item depending on which character you're currently playing as. Sonic gets speed shoes, Tails gets 20 Rings, and Knuckles gets a shield.

Object Differences

Floating Item Box

E3 2003	Final

The Floating Item Boxes are a lot smaller compared to the final.

Audio Differences

Music

A total of three stage tracks exist in this build. Interestingly, Sea Gate's music is given the filename STG02 in this build, suggesting it may have been intended for Ocean Palace at this point in development. In the final, it was moved to the file as STG29, which is the last normal stage music in the game. There are also two themes used for the title screen, but the tracks have been finalized and aren't covered here.

Name	E3 2003	Final	Notes
Seaside Hill			Missing most of the drums, guitar is mixed slightly different.
Sea Gate			Ditto. Unused, as you cannot access Sea Gate in this build. In addition, there's no music in Ocean Palace.
Rail Canyon			Different drums.

• The Speed Up track doesn't exist in this build, so the stage music continues to play instead. It's also missing the "Round Clear" track from Sonic Adventure 2.

Voice

To do: Rip all Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles' voice clips that are different in this build and compare it to the final.

At this point in development, almost no voice clips are present in this build (as Japanese voice acting was recorded between July 11-20), but there are still changes to note about:

Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles' death voice clips (when getting hit by an enemy with zero Rings) are very different compared to the final.

Character	E3 2003	Final	Transcript	Notes
Sonic	Nooooooo!	D'wyoh!	<--	A very different line.
Tails	Wahhh!	Ahhh!	<--	A completely different scream.
Knuckles	Nooo...	Auahh!	<--	Similar to Sonic above.

• The voice clip for Tails' Thunder Shoot is different.

"Coming Soon!" Screen

Beating either stages or getting a game over will give you the "Coming Soon!" screen and take you back to the title screen. There are other ways to see this:

• Likely for demo purposes, the timer counts down for some reason, limiting gameplay sessions to just be 10 minutes.
• The game will automatically reset after the player is inactive for a short while.