Proto:Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (Genesis)/Beta 4 to Beta 8/Aquatic Ruin Zone
This is a sub-page of Proto:Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (Genesis)/Beta 4 to Beta 8.
General Differences
If the player respawns at a checkpoint and walks to the left, the background will start blanking out. This was fixed in Beta 8.
Act 1
| Beta 4 |
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| Final |
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| Beta 4 | Beta 5+ |
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Beta 4 really goes overboard with badniks in Aquatic Ruin Zone. Here, there's an extra Grounder on the left side of the screen.
Beta 5 added three rings on both sides of the hollow log, and four more rings above the log.
| Beta 4 | Beta 5-8 |
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| Final | |
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The rather pointless rising platform at the path split was deleted and replaced by a super ring monitor. Three rings were placed to the right of a red flipper, which is also new. Three more rings were added on the top part of the split, and both Whisps were removed.
Up to Beta 7, there's a super ring monitor on the top of the loop, and an invincibility monitor floating in mid-air (It looks better with the leaf layer).
Those monitors were removed because the collision engine misbehaves when monitors are close to the top of the screen and are on slopes. The player will often phase through them completely, even if they're rolling or jumping straight into them.
| Beta 4 |
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| Beta 5-6 |
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| Beta 7+ |
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Beta 4 has two extra Grounders: One on the lower path near a yellow spring, and one in the top path at the top-right corner. Beta 6 adds one more ring to the lower path.
In Betas 4-6, if the player spawns at the checkpoint here and quickly destroys the Grounder on the log, both the explosion and the animal buddy will spawn with glitched graphics. Beta 7 removed that Grounder.
| Beta 4-5 | Beta 6 | Beta 7+ |
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Beta 4 and Beta 5 lacks the red flipper that leads to the arc of rings at the top. Beta 7 changed the super ring monitor to a shield monitor.
| Beta 4-5 | Beta 6+ |
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Twelve rings were added in Beta 6, which includes nine on the formerly empty lower path. The floating platform is now flush with the higher ground in Beta 6.
| Beta 4-5 |
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| Beta 6-8 |
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| Final |
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Beta 6 added four more rings behind the waterfall. The glitchy super ring monitor was removed in the final version.
| Beta 4 |
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| Beta 5 |
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| Beta 6+ |
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The Whisp swarm at the end of the act was removed in Beta 5.
With good reason too: The animal buddy graphics are overwritten by the end of act font. Destroying a Whisp will spawn an animal buddy with a glitched sprite.
In Beta 6, they moved the red flipper to the left by a single pixel. Why'd they do that?
| Beta 4 |
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| Beta 5+ |
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The underwater path has very few rings in Beta 4, especially in the first half. Nine rings were added to the start of the path.
| Beta 4 | Beta 5 |
|---|---|
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| Beta 6+ | |
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The pointless red flipper and both Grounders were removed. There are three sinking pillars leading to the upper path in Beta 4; This was altered to a simple set of rotating platforms in Beta 5.
Beta 6 added six rings here, changed the super ring monitor to an invincibility monitor, and then placed it in the corner to the left.
| Beta 4 | Beta 5+ |
|---|---|
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The single Chop Chop in this small area was removed in Beta 5.
| Beta 4-5 | Beta 6+ |
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Beta 6 deleted the second rising platform (Which doesn't actually rise - not sure what they were going for here) and the rising pillar on the right side. The two remaining rising and sinking platforms were properly centered around the log. Speaking of which, there's an extra life monitor in the log now! Finally, they added three more rings on the right.
| Beta 4 | Beta 5 |
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| Beta 6-7 | Beta 8+ |
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Beta 5 removes the Grounder at the top of this section.
Beta 6 added ten rings in this area, plus a set of rotating platforms in the pit with the super ring monitor. Said rotating platforms were properly centered in Beta 8.
| Beta 4 | Beta 5 |
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| Beta 6 | Beta 7+ |
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There are two Grounders just hanging out in the spike pit in Beta 4. Told you they went overboard. They were both removed in Beta 5.
Beta 6 moved the rings in the upper section further to the left, placed a moving platform above the spike pit, and added a crumbling platform above the loop in the bottom-right to make that jump easier.
Beta 7 added something to that conspicuously empty pillar - A shield monitor.
| Beta 4 | Beta 5 | Beta 6+ |
|---|---|---|
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Beta 5 moved the red flipper over to the wall, making the jump out of the water significantly less finicky. The pillar here now hangs from the ceiling starting in Beta 6.
Act 2
| Beta 4 |
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| Final |
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| Beta 4 | Beta 5+ |
|---|---|
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Beta 5 added an arrow shooter and three rings to the start of the act. The arrow shooter cautions players to move slowly, which is a good idea for the series of jumps on rotating platforms in the next area.
| Beta 4 | Beta 5+ |
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In Beta 4, the pillars in the water pit are entirely underwater and slowly descend down. In Beta 5 on, they're all at the same height, and the tops are now above water. Three rings were placed above each pillar.
The super ring monitor is placed inside one of the pillars in Beta 4. This looks fine when the player stands on that pillar and it descends down -- the super ring monitor will now appear on top of the pillar -- but otherwise it looks pretty strange. Beta 5 fixed that by moving it on solid ground in the bottom-left corner.
| Beta 4 | Beta 5 |
|---|---|
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| Beta 6+ | |
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Beta 4 added a stationary platform to plug in the hole that leads to the bottom path. This was likely done to force the player to either go across the pillars or use the detached swinging platform to reach that path. Beta 5 removes that platform, allowing the player to skip both of those methods.
In Beta 4, to get the nine rings floating in the air, the player has to ride on the detached swinging platform -- now a makeshift raft -- and jump up as they pass the rings. The rings were placed lower in Beta 5: Not only are they directly in the floating platform's path, eliminating the need to jump, but they can be collected even if they don't ride the platform through here.
Beta 6 takes one of the Chops Chops out and spaces the remaining two further apart.
| Beta 4-5 |
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| Beta 6 |
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| Beta 7+ |
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Beta 6 changed the rising pillar to a pillar with a shaky base that tries to crush Sonic and/or Tails. That Chop Chop on the right was moved up some.
Then, Beta 7 changed the Grounder on the left to another Chop Chop and added an arrow shooter in front of the Chop Chop on the right. It looks a little awkward but it works.
| Beta 4 |
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| Beta 5+ |
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Unfortunate checkpoint placement in Beta 4: That Grounder will kill the player the instant they spawn there. It's a problem. Later versions remove that Grounder. Oh, and they added another ring to the left side.
| Beta 4-5 | Beta 6 | Beta 7+ |
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Beta 6 added two pillars and a red flipper, while Beta 7 changed the super ring monitor to a speed shoes monitor.
| Beta 4 | Beta 5 |
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| Beta 6 | Beta 7+ |
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Beta 4 has two floating pillars: One out in the open, and one behind a waterfall. The player is supposed to jump from the swinging platform to the pillar out in the open to reach the top path, but it's too high to reach. In Beta 5, the pillar in the open is now next to the one behind the waterfall, with the red springs being the intended way to get to the top path.
Beta 6 removed the rising pillar and the first Grounder; Beta 7 changed the super ring monitor to a more helpful invincibility monitor.
| Beta 4 | Beta 6+ |
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The Grounder was moved further to the right, and a bubble generator was put in its original position.
| Beta 4-5 | Beta 6 | Beta 7+ |
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Beta 6 removed the Grounder, moved the bubble generator to the left, and plopped a super ring monitor where the generator was.
The method to get the super ring monitor changed. In Beta 4 and Beta 5, the player has to jump to a moving platform, then climb up three crumbling platforms before getting to the monitor. Beta 6 removed the crumbling platforms and added a red flipper, but the player can't get enough height from the flipper to reach the monitor. So, Beta 7 added another moving platform to get the player high enough to reach the thing.
| Beta 4 | Beta 5+ |
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Pillar's gone.
| Beta 4-5 | Beta 6+ |
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Monitor's gone.
| Beta 4-5 | Beta 6+ |
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This area is desolate in Betas 4 and 5. They spruced it up by adding a bubble generator, a pillar, a couple of super ring monitors. Lookin' good.
| Beta 4-5 | Beta 6+ |
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Both of the pillars were moved to the same height in Beta 6. That's all.
| Beta 4-5 | Beta 6+ |
|---|---|
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Beta 6 placed a crumbling platform to the left of the ring pyramid and a red flipper to the right. The rings were appropriately recentered.
| Beta 4 | Beta 5 | Beta 6+ |
|---|---|---|
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Beta 6 changed the way to get to the two super ring monitors in the next area.
Originally, the player would have to land on the rotating platforms from the upper path and then jump down to the floating platforms. Beta 5 changed this a bit by adding a red flipper to get to the rotating platforms.
In Beta 6, the rotating platforms are gone, replaced by a series of moving platforms. One of the pillars was removed, and the Chop Chop moved to the left.
| Beta 4-5 | Beta 6 | Beta 7+ |
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Beta 6 moved the first pillar up to the ceiling, then added two more pillars at the end...which unfortunately cover up two of the rings, making a perfect ring bonus impossible to achieve.
Beta 7 gave the two Chop Chops room to breathe. Don't want them eating each other.
| Beta 4-5 | Beta 6+ |
|---|---|
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Closing out this zone with one last Grounder removal, though the three arrow shooters are probably more of a threat than that Grounder ever was.
