Sonic Prototypes (released by Hidden Palace)

Discussion in 'Discussion & Q&A' started by LazloPsylus, Oct 26, 2019.

  1. LazloPsylus

    LazloPsylus The Railgun Member

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    So, since no one else has jumped on it:
    https://hiddenpalace.org/Sonic_Month_2019

    Getting a bunch of Sega CD prototypes and releases, focused primarily (but not entirely) on Sonic CD. Release yesterday was the Sega Multimedia Studio demo disc, which reveals the origin of the infamous Sonic on a CD image that has been known about for years but could never be pinned down in where it was used.

    Another release is scheduled for today (October 26th, 21:00 GMT), which should be what is now the earliest known existing prototype for Sonic CD, dated December 4th, 1992, version 0.02.

    October 25

    A small Sega CD surprise for TCRF’s birthday!

    [​IMG]
    Sega Multimedia Studio: Sega CD Demo (May 29, 1992 prototype)


    October 26

    [​IMG]
    Sonic the Hedgehog CD (Dec 4, 1992 prototype)

    Sonic the Hedgehog CD (May 12, 1993 prototype)
    Sonic the Hedgehog CD (Jun 21, 1993 prototype)
    Sonic the Hedgehog CD (Jul 12, 1993 06:37 prototype)
    Sonic the Hedgehog CD (Aug 1, 1993 prototype)
    Sonic the Hedgehog CD (Aug 6, 1993 16:54 prototype)
    Sonic the Hedgehog CD (Aug 19, 1993 prerelease)
    Sonic the Hedgehog CD (Oct 13, 1993 prerelease)

    November 2

    [​IMG]
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    Sonic Chaos (May 17, 1993 prototype)
    Sonic Chaos (Jun 30, 1993 prototype)
    Sonic Chaos (Jul 13, 1993 prototype)

    November 9

    [​IMG]
    Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (Sep 14, 1992 prototype)


    November 10

    [​IMG]
    Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (Aug 21, 1992 prototype)


    November 16

    [​IMG]
    Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (Nov 3, 1993 prototype)


    So, discuss.
     
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  2. Spanner

    Spanner The Tool Member

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  3. Devon

    Devon Down you're going... down you're going... Member

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    Past music seems to be CDDA music instead of being tracker based, too.
     
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  4. Pokepunch

    Pokepunch That guy who posts on occasion Member

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    Can't wait for the community to dig into this one!
     
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  5. Devon

    Devon Down you're going... down you're going... Member

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    Jesus Christ, the level design was even worse in the 621 build! :V
     
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  6. Kilo

    Kilo Foxy Fren Exiled

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    Ripped the best parts of the 0.02 version.
    upload_2019-10-26_16-35-14.png
     
  7. Devon

    Devon Down you're going... down you're going... Member

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    Ripped the CD audio version of the Palmtree Panic Salad Plain past music:

    Raw WAV rip

    [​IMG]
    Nice glitched spring lol

    Also, I quickly looked into the OPEN_S.BIN file in v0.02 to see why there's no audio stream. Turns out, there's just simply no code for streaming the audio. It initializes the PCM chip, but never streams any data to wave RAM. It does clear it out, though. The data for the music DOES exist in OPEN.STM, however.

    Quick disassembly of v0.02 OPEN_S.BIN
    Quick disassembly of 612 OPEN_S.BIN
     
    Last edited: Oct 27, 2019
  8. Gray21oh

    Gray21oh Newcomer Trialist

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    You have to wonder how many people will start using the older fall animation found in this beta for any of their projects?

    Really cool to hear the past music rendered with CD audio instead of PCM though, makes me wonder if that was intended for all the past versions of each zone and that something in Sega is storing any prior past version CD audio.
     
  9. Devon

    Devon Down you're going... down you're going... Member

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    I ripped all of the maps from the v0.02 prototype:
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    [​IMG]
     
  10. Trickster

    Trickster Well-Known Member Member

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    Can we just appreciate how funky and chaotic SCD level design is? It's so messy.
    upload_2019-10-27_22-32-56.png
    upload_2019-10-27_22-43-45.png upload_2019-10-27_22-33-4.png
    upload_2019-10-27_22-44-30.png
    upload_2019-10-27_22-46-6.png

    Well, I think what happened here is that devs didn't need to save chunks to reuse it in more than one time. So they went wild and made everything look like this to, again, show the capabilities of Sega CD.
    I... kinda like this chaos, but it's too much information in everything.

    EDIT: Thanks for Spanner, I noticed that I put "Naka" Instead of... The name I'll never remember again.
    Anyway, that wasn't true and he didn't work with level design and anything.
     
    Last edited: Oct 28, 2019
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  11. Spanner

    Spanner The Tool Member

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    Yuji Naka had nothing to do with Sonic CD, and he wasn't a level designer.
     
  12. Spanner

    Spanner The Tool Member

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  13. breakthetargets

    breakthetargets Well-Known Member Member

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    Sonic Chaos protos are cooool. I love hearing the different tracks they had, especially with that Sky High remix for Aqua Planet. Will eventually log them to .vgm once I have time.
     
  14. DeltaWooloo

    DeltaWooloo The noob next door Member

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  15. Devon

    Devon Down you're going... down you're going... Member

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    There was an article or 2 back when this was being developed that referred to Sonic Chaos as "Sonic 3". It IS the 3rd 8-bit Sonic title, so it makes sense. More than likely, it was just a working title before they came up with the final name.
     
  16. Crimson Neo

    Crimson Neo I changed a lot. Member

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    I kinda wish the other two 8-bit games had its own name too.
     
    Last edited: Nov 5, 2019
  17. Spanner

    Spanner The Tool Member

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  18. Devon

    Devon Down you're going... down you're going... Member

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    I disabled PLCs in Hidden Palace, and...
    upload_2019-11-9_18-31-40.png
    Okay, it seems that Hidden Palace's first PLC entry is busted, but the rest are fine, because I found this in VRAM:
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]

    Art, blocks, and chunk pointers all go to OOZ's block data. So, basically, they only removed the most basic HPZ data, but kept the object art intact.
     
    Last edited: Nov 9, 2019
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  19. jubbalub

    jubbalub Mania fanboy Member

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    I can't tell if those are Hidden Palace, or Oil Ocean, or some other level's graphics. Certainly interesting looking
     
  20. Devon

    Devon Down you're going... down you're going... Member

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    That's just leftover title screen tile data. AFAIK, this build still relies on PLCs to load Nemesis compressed level tiles, unlike how the final used the pointer in the level data list to load Kosinski compressed level tiles. That's why it crashes when it tries to load the level, since the tile pointer just goes to OOZ block data.

    Also HPZ objects are still intact.



    What I find interesting is that this is still using MCZ 2P's music, and the unused music 10 track is in this build.

    Also there are no other game modes, so no ending, continue screen, credits, etc.
     
    Last edited: Nov 10, 2019
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