Proto:Sonic Heroes/GameCube NPDP Prototypes

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

  This prototype is documented on Hidden Palace.

  This prototype is documented on Hidden Palace.

This page sucks. If you could make it suck less, that would be awesome. Specifically: On top of actually documenting the debug features and changes, the page needs to be better organized and cleanup.

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

To do: Compare the differences between the previous builds. If there's any, then compare the differences between the NPDP builds. File paths. Menu differences. Stage differences.

The GameCube NPDP Prototypes are two debug builds of Sonic Heroes, which were dumped on March 3, 2021 by MSX. Both of them seem to be older than the November 18, 2003 build, with an approximate date of October 30, 2003. The first build is in English, while the second is in Japanese. The NPDP 2 prototype works fine, although the NPDP build will not boot normally due to trying to reference a special USB. The Gecko codes below will cause the game to boot into the Debug Menu unused in the final, skipping the USB check:

04017338 60000000
04218a2c 4e800020
04218af4 4e800020
04219274 4e800020
042190dc 4e800020
04218e10 4e800020
04218f94 4e800020

To boot to the title screen instead, use the code below as well:

C2022C90 00000004
7C0C0378 2C050003
40820008 38A00001
7D806378 90A3FF78
60000000 00000000

Sub-Page

NPDP Prototype

Debug Content All the debug content in the final, and more!

Demo Sequence

To do: Video to showcase this in action.

A unique demo for Seaside Hill is present, although the fact it desyncs midway suggests its implementation was a mistake.

General Differences

Interestingly, despite the labels, not only does the NPDP 2 prototype resembles the (currently-undumped) 10.13 prototype, but certain screenshots in the US GameCube manual appear to match up with what's shown in this build.

Graphical Differences

• In the NPDP 2 prototype, it has no GameCube banner, much like the earlier GameCube prototypes. However, in the NPDP prototype, it uses a GameCube banner that was previously unused in the GameCube's "Trial Version" demo. The final Japanese version uses a different graphic.
• The early CG Theater icons (which were unused before) can now be seen in the CG Theater menu.

Menu Differences

Story

• Egg Emperor can not be played if the player resumes the story starting with Egg Fleet.
• For whatever reason, starting the story mode first crashes the game if there are no stages completed. If any story segment is completed and the player is picking the starting stage, the story mode works fine.

Audio Room

• A bug in the Audio Room menu causes track names to not render if hovering over a track that isn't unlocked.

Text Differences

Staff Credits

NPDP Prototypes

Final

SONIC HEROES STAFF Producer Yuji Naka Director Takashi Iizuka Art Director Kazuyuki Hoshino Technical Director Tetsu Katano Sound Director Jun Senoue Game Designers Takashi Iizuka Shiro Maekawa Eitaro Toyoda Artists Kazuyuki Hoshino Nobuhiko Honda Michikazu Tamamura Hiroshi Nishiyama Yoshitaka Miura Takahiro Kudo Atsushi Saito Daizo Kinoshita Keith Palmer Programers Tetsu Katano Takeshi Sakakibara Masato Nakazawa Makiko Nishimura Tomoyuki Naito SONICTEAM JAPAN Assistant Producer Takao Miyoshi Artists Yuji Uekawa Tomonori Fukazawa Takeshi Ichimura Ryutaro Ishihara System Programers Yoshitaka Kawabata Makoto Suzuki Field Game Designers Shun Nakamura Kenjiro Morimoto Field Artists Kaori Hitsuda Michio Abe Field Progreamers Shinya Matsunami Hiroshi Iwasaki Masatoshi Shitara SEGA OF JAPAN Executive Producer Hisao Oguchi Consumer Division Executive Officer Hideki Okamura Officer Masanao Maeda Development Division Product Management Dept. Deputy General Manager Toshihiro Nagoshi R&D Control Staff Toshiro Nakayama QualityÅ@ControlÅ@Staff Yusuke Asano Creative Center Staff Takashi Ando Kazuyoshi Hara Ryo Suenaga Tooru Sasaki Yuki Kobayashi Noriyuki Tarumi Marketing Dept. Chief Director Naoko Ooka Directors Mariko Takeda Hideki Youkaichiya Public Relations Staff Yasushi Nagumo Yoko Nagasawa International Business & Product Development General Manager Tatsuyuki Miyazaki Product Manager Yusuke Suai Customer Relationship Management Director Yutaka Shoji Analysis Nobuyuki Inoue TEST Dept. General Manager Junichi Shimizu Team Manager Akira Nishikawa Schedule Management Staff Akira Terasawa Test Staff Satoshi Kuwano QC Dept Assistant Manager Kazuhiko Morii Test Staff Yuji Nakamura SEGA OF AMERICA, INC. Executive Vice President Content Strategy and Marketing, Shinobu Toyoda Localization Producer Yosuke Moriya Offshore Project Manager Shawn Dobbins Director of Quality Assurance Deborah Kirkham Sr. Release Manager Andrei Belkin Product Manager Noah Musler Marketing Consultant Lori Von Rueden Advertising Manager Teri Higgins Creative Services Manager Arianne McCarthy Public Relations Manager Bret Blount Website Content Manager Chris Olson Licensing Managers Takuma Hatori Robert Leffler SEGA EUROPE, LTD. President and COO Naoya Tsurumi Exective Vice President, Product Development Jin Shimazaki Exective Vice President, Sales and Marketing Mike Sherlock Senior Producer Matt O'driscol Localization Producer Kuniyo Matsumoto Technical Producer Elliot Martin European Marketing Director Matthew Woodley European Marketing Manager Gary Knight European Product Manager Mathew Quaeck Italian Translator Giuseppe Rizzo French Translator Brigitte Nadesan Spanish Translator Marta Lois Gonzalez German Translator Zuzanna Zabkova SOE QA Staff Darius Sadeghian David Smith Roy Boateng Chris Geiles Special Thanks Atsushi Kanno Masaya Amano Mizuki Hosoyamada Yasuko Maruyama V[I]SI[ONSCAPE] R[ender]W[are] DOLBY [SURROUND] [PRO LOGUC II] METAL co.,ltd. PRESENTED BY SEGA CREATED BY SONICTEAM Original Game [Copyright] SEGA [Copyright]SONICTEAM / SEGA, 2003

Producer Yuji Naka Director Takashi Iizuka Art Director Kazuyuki Hoshino Main Programmer Tetsu Katano Main Game Designer Shiro Maekawa Sound Director Jun Senoue Player Designer Nobuhiko Honda Player Motion Designer Atsushi Saito Player Programmer Tetsu Katano Level Designers Takashi Iizuka Eitaro Toyoda Stage Programmers Takeshi Sakakibara Makiko Nishimura Tomoyuki Naito Field Art Director Hiroshi Nishiyama Field Artists Yoshitaka Miura Takahiro Kudo Michikazu Tamamura Daizo Kinoshita Enemy Game Designer Shiro Maekawa Enemy Designer Kazuyuki Hoshino Enemy Programmers Masato Nakazawa Makiko Nishimura Makoto Suzuki Tetsu Katano S-Stage Game Designer Kenjiro Morimoto S-Stage Artists Kaori Hitsuda Michio Abe S-Stage Programmers Shinya Matsunami Hiroshi Iwasaki Masatoshi Shitara Scenario Writer Shiro Maekawa Event Scene Artist Nobuhiko Honda Story Event Programmer Takeshi Sakakibara Menu Screen Programmer Makoto Suzuki Menu Screen Artists Yuji Uekawa Takeshi Ichimura Ryutaro Ishihara MEDAL co.,ltd. Multi Platform Programmer Makoto Suzuki Multi Platform Artist Ryutaro Ishihara Development Support Yoshitaka Kawabata Shinya Matsunami Tomonori Fukazawa Shun Nakamura Soosa Kim CG Movie Producer Keith Palmer CG Movie Director Takashi Iizuka Story Board Designers Shiro Maekawa Kazuyuki Hoshino Movie Art Support Nobuhiko Honda Hiroshi Nishiyama CG Movie Production Vision Scape Inc. Clayt Ratzlaff Tammy McDonald Matt McDonald JS Lennox Mike Sherak Dave Riewald Andrew Wilson John Giordano Ryan Benjamin Bryan Pritchard Steve Lennox Paul Anderson V[I]SI[ONSCAPE] Sound Designed by wavemaster inc. Executive Coordinator Tatsuya Kouzaki Lead Music Composer Jun Senoue Music Composers Naofumi Hataya Yutaka Minobe Tomoya Ohtani Keiichi Sugiyama Hideaki Kobayashi Mariko Nanba Teruhiko Nakagawa Fumie Kumatani Sound Effects Jun Senoue Takashi Endoh Tomonori Sawada Tatsuyuki Maeda Technical Supervisor Shigeharu Isoda Theme Songs SONIC HEROES by Crush 40 WE CAN by Ted Poley & Tony Harnell THIS MACHINE by Julien-k FOLLOW ME by Kay Hanley TEAM CHAOTIX by Gunnar Nelson from the NELSONS WHAT I'M MADE OF... by Crush 40 Coordination Supervisor Kazuo Koizumi Recording Coordinators Jun Senoue Atsushi SUSHI Kosugi (Beat on Beat, inc.) Recording Engineers Stan Katayama Masahiro Fukuhara Hirokazu Akashi Yoshitada Miya Surround Mixed at wavemaster studio DOLBY [SURROUND] [PRO LOGUC II] Japanese Voices Jun-ichi Kanemaru Ryo Hirohashi Nobutoshi Kanna Kouji Yusa Rumi Ochiai Taiten Kusunoki Taeko Kawata Sayaka Aoki Takashi Nagasako Kenta Miyake Yuki Masuda Youko Teppouzuka Etsuko Kozakura Chikao Otsuka Voice Recording Producer Hiroyuki Inage (TOHOKUSHINSHA) Voice Recording Director Eriko Kimura (TOHOKUSHINSHA) Recording STUDIO UNI Recording Coordinator Akinori Nishiyama English Voices Ryan Drummond William Corkery Scott Dreier David Humphrey Lani Minella Jon St. John Jenny Douillard Sarah Wulfeck Marc Biagi Bill Corkery Emily Corkery Deem Bristow Voice Recording Director Lani Minella Post recording Editors Rick Bowman Lethal Sounds Recording Coordinator Keith Palmer Voice Files Operation Attic Arcade Inc. Assistant Producers Miyoshi Takao Kenjiro Morimoto Product Support Akinori Nishiyama Yuji Uekawa Masanobu Yamamoto Multi Platform Library Criterion Software Ltd. R[ender]W[are] Middleware Support CRI Middleware Co., LTD. Masao Oshimi Katsumi Yabuno ADX SOFDEC SEGA CORPORATION President Hisao Oguchi Consumer Division Hideki Okamura Masanao Maeda Development Division Toshihiro Nagoshi Toshiro Nakayama Yusuke Asano Marketing Naoko Ooka Mariko Takeda Hideki Youkaichiya Public Relations Yasushi Nagumo Yoko Nagasawa International Business Tatsuyuki Miyazaki Yusuke Suai Creative Center Takashi Ando Kazuyoshi Hara Ryo Suenaga Tooru Sasaki Yuki Kobayashi Noriyuki Tarumi Customer Relationship Yutaka Shoji Nobuyuki Inoue TEST Department Junichi Shimizu Akira Nishikawa Akira Terasawa Satoshi Kuwano QC Department Kazuhiko Morii Yuji Nakamura SEGA OF AMERICA, INC. President and COO Hideaki Irie Localization Producer Yosuke Moriya Director of PD Osamu Shibamiya Sr. Release Manager Andrei Belkin Product Manager Noah Musler Marketing Consultant Lori Von Rueden Advertising Manager Teri Higgins Creative Services Arianne McCarthy Public Relations Manager Bret Blount Director of QA Deborah Kirkham Offshore Project Manager Shawn Dobbins SEGA EUROPE, LTD. President and COO Naoya Tsurumi Executive Vice President Jin Shimazaki Mike Sherlock Senior Producer Matt O'driscol Localization Producer Kuniyo Matsumoto Technical Producer Elliot Martin Marketing Director Matthew Woodley Marketing Manager Gary Knight Product Manager Mathew Quaeck Translators Giuseppe Rizzo Brigitte Nadesan Marta Lois Gonzalez Zuzanna Zabkova Quality Assurance Darius Sadeghian David Smith Roy Boateng Chris Geiles Special Thanks Shinobu Toyoda Yukio Aoyama Atsushi Kanno Masaya Amano Mizuki Hosoyamada Sachiko Kawamura Yasuko Maruyama Tomomi Silverman Miyuki Friedman ESP guitars LINE 6 Executive Producer Hisao Oguchi Created by SONICTEAM Presented by SEGA Original Game [Copyright] SEGA [Copyright] SONICTEAM / SEGA, 2003

While the staff credits text is a lot further along than the previous builds (with all of the placeholder names gone), both prototypes still contain differences:

• The extra spaces before the credits scroll still haven't been added.
• The "SONIC HEROES" text now features the word "STAFF".

Level Differences

• Team Rose's stages appear to be the same length as in the final version. This is longer than the other NPDP build, which itself were shorter than in the 10.8 prototype.

(Source: Hidden Palace, Sewer56)