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[Kazza]

As part of Sonic Month, the Hidden Palace website ("a community dedicated to the preservation of video game development media (such as prototypes, hardware, source code, artwork, and more") has released a hitherto unreleased Mega CD/Sega CD tech demo, as well as some early Sonic CD prototypes.

Firstly the tech demo.

It was originally shown to journalists at the 1992 Summer Consumer Electronics Show (SCES):

The journalists were quite excited by what they saw, although most of the info in this news piece turned out to be incorrect:

Hidden Palace's excellent article gives a bit of background on the newly formed team behind the demo disk:

In late 1991, Sega began putting together a brand new studio that would help achieve this goal called Sega Multimedia Studio.

Sega invested $10 million dollars into creating an environment that would not only serve as one of its main R&D divisions in Redwood, California, but would eventually become a studio that could create high budget, high quality games for its future systems. The function of the division had changed over time of course, but in the beginning it was created primarily to provide support for the Sega CD. The studio was an attempt by Sega to have all development under one roof, like STI. Unlike other video game companies at the time, Sega would eventually employ over 200 programmers, musicians, and artists to create games for the Sega CD. To make sure that all technological fronts were covered, Sega even provided this division with its own recording studio! Sega invested many of its resources in hiring many great talents, such as Spencer Nilsen, David Young, Brian Coburn, and Dave Javelosa - all were there since the division's inception to provide music for almost two dozen Sega titles.

Among the first things this new studio did was to develop the following tech demo, showing all all the new CD system was capable of (FMV, scaling, rotation, storage, CD quality audio etc):




It's a real eclectic mix of different things, with a rather grump looking Sonic standing on a CD, Bugs Bunny, Toe Jam and Earl, Angels:

It's Joe Montana and Batman flying through space with strange expressions on their faces which makes me laugh though:

This new Sega Multimedia Studio is news to me, but it sounds like it was a pretty big deal at the time, with over 200 people involved in one form or another, all with the task to make content for the Sega CD. The only two games I can find attributable to the studio are Jurassic Park (which turned out pretty good) and a platformer called Wild Woody (which I never heard of until today). It seems likely that they were involved in those upgraded CD versions of Genesis games too (Ecco etc). It's a shame that technology was moving so fast that the Sega CD/Mega CD never had the time to show off its potential - the 32-bit systems would arrive just a couple of years later. Still, that tech reminds me what got me excited about the system in the first place.

News/Sonic Month Part 1 - Sega No. 1

Hidden Palace and The Cutting Room Floor present...

hiddenpalace.org

I think the Sonic CD prototypes are considerably less interesting (a changed title screen here, unfinished level design there). Here is the earliest released prototype:

Hidden Palace

The Hidden Palace is a community dedicated to the preservation of video game development media (such as prototypes, hardware, source code, artwork, and more). This website can be utilized as a catalog for the items that we and others are able to collect and share.

hiddenpalace.org

 

[Spukc]

went in thread excited

went away disappointed

 

[Tarin02543]

I want to visit the 1992 Sega booth.

 

[Kazza]

I want to visit the 1992 Sega booth.

Me too! Although in terms of sales and market share Christmas 1994 was probably peak for Sega, for that summer of 1992 it really did feel like that Sega was the future.

 

[alabtrosMyster]

That demo was horrible.

 

[Kazza]

That demo was horrible.

You misspelt the word awesome.

 

[Starlight Lotice]

The Demo is hilariously awkwardly placed with those sound effects and that Sonic Animation.

Sonic CD's Prototype is actually very interesting. It seems that some of the Present Level Design is good, but the Future Design is terrible, and the Physics and Momentum seem to look more improved compared to the final game, perhaps they tuned it down thinking that players would not get used to it as you don't need the Speed Shoes for them.

The Future Music leaves a lot to be desired, which is why I am glad they changed that, it is Techno Music done wrong.

You can tell that this is Sonic Team without the Key Staff due to where everything is placed, and some sound effects are missing from the 1UP/Invincibility (which seems to be a Blue Ring now. Sonic Mania referenced it?)

I personally think that Sonic CD was an experiment to make it different from Sonic 2 to make Sonic more open world than what the Mega Drive games were doing, and it failed with the execution of Time Travel.

However, I do think that Sonic Team looked at the CD approach for Sonic Xtreme and Adventure later on.

 

[alabtrosMyster]

You misspelt the word awesome.

That must be the auto-correction.

 

[Kazza]

The Demo is hilariously awkwardly placed with those sound effects and that Sonic Animation.

Sonic CD's Prototype is actually very interesting. It seems that some of the Present Level Design is good, but the Future Design is terrible, and the Physics and Momentum seem to look more improved compared to the final game, perhaps they tuned it down thinking that players would not get used to it as you don't need the Speed Shoes for them.

The Future Music leaves a lot to be desired, which is why I am glad they changed that, it is Techno Music done wrong.

You can tell that this is Sonic Team without the Key Staff due to where everything is placed, and some sound effects are missing from the 1UP/Invincibility (which seems to be a Blue Ring now. Sonic Mania referenced it?)

I personally think that Sonic CD was an experiment to make it different from Sonic 2 to make Sonic more open world than what the Mega Drive games were doing, and it failed with the execution of Time Travel.

However, I do think that Sonic Team looked at the CD approach for Sonic Xtreme and Adventure later on.

While I wouldn't say it's my favourite Sonic game, I replayed it recently while waiting for my Megadrive mini to arrive and really enjoyed it. I even managed to enjoy Wacky Workbench a bit (a like the way it subverts the usual Sonic strategy of trying to stay as high as possible by requiring you to stay near the bottom of the level, all the while trying to launch you to the top).

 

[Starlight Lotice]

While I wouldn't say it's my favourite Sonic game, I replayed it recently while waiting for my Megadrive mini to arrive and really enjoyed it. I even managed to enjoy Wacky Workbench a bit (a like the way it subverts the usual Sonic strategy of trying to stay as high as possible by requiring you to stay near the bottom of the level, all the while trying to launch you to the top).

It does some interesting things and when I tried it on a proper Mega CD, the graphics look much more cleaner than say the Remasters which was nice.

I don't think some of the level design is that good really, and the bosses are pretty out there but it is a good addition to the Sonic series.

 

[RAIDEN1]

Had Sega made the the CD add on, a 32-bit add on straight off, then that would have worked out better and may have improved sales, instead of near two years later bringing out the 32x which was a flop in the making....if you are going to make the add-on capable of handling FMV at least try and get the quality of the playback as best as you possibly can, without it looking so washed out/grainy as if you were watching 2nd rate video quality compared to a VHS tape...I like Sonic CD mainly for its great music...as well as the Sonic Boom theme...may not have been the best of the series for some, but it certainly wasn't a Sonic 06 by any standard....

 

[MrCunningham]

That demo was horrible.

In all fairness, it does showcase all the capabilities of the Sega CD.


FMV streaming video -- It is a bit odd that they used clips from Cool World. Was there a Cool World game planned for the system at some point? There was never one released. Though, there are also clips featuring Bugs Bunny as well, and there was never a Bugs Bunny Sega CD game. I guess they were just showing random animated clips, to help promote the video streaming capabilities?

Built in hardware sprite scaling -- Though it doesn;t showcase the mode 7-like dual playing fields that the system can generate. It just showcases hardware scaling.

PCM audio -- Not really an impressive audio, demo. But I think the music is sequenced using the PCM channels?

It's still neat to see these demo's surface. Especially the Sonic CD prototype.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

If only Genesis could show more colours on screen. T-16 and SNES could.

Lots of Genesis game shave tons of grey and purple. Ugh....

 

[WindomURL]

A E S T H E T I C

 

[molasar]

BTW, are you guys getting a MD/Gen port of Xeno Crisis (ROM, cartridge) as it is to be released tomorrow?

Sega Mega Drive / Genesis

Pre-order your copy of Xeno Crisis for Sega Mega Drive / Genesis, Sega Dreamcast, Neo Geo AES / MVS / CD and more...

shop.bitmapbureau.com

 

[Carna]

I want to replay Sonic CD again, it was more of a Saturn like Sonic game than I could have ever imagine.

 

[alabtrosMyster]

In all fairness, it does showcase all the capabilities of the Sega CD.


FMV streaming video -- It is a bit odd that they used clips from Cool World. Was there a Cool World game planned for the system at some point? There was never one released. Though, there are also clips featuring Bugs Bunny as well, and there was never a Bugs Bunny Sega CD game. I guess they were just showing random animated clips, to help promote the video streaming capabilities?

Built in hardware sprite scaling -- Though it doesn;t showcase the mode 7-like dual playing fields that the system can generate. It just showcases hardware scaling.

PCM audio -- Not really an impressive audio, demo. But I think the music is sequenced using the PCM channels?

It's still neat to see these demo's surface. Especially the Sonic CD prototype.

The zooming and rotation really undersell the system's capabilities -- it shows only 1 item being manipulated at any given time, which makes it seem like a cheapo low frame rate mode 7 like effect (mode 7 is neat but very limited as it can only manipulate a single background layer).

I did not pay any attention to the other demos (I could not use the sound when I listened and I don't care for FMV, as a Sega CD owner I think the sheer number of FMV titles made the system look useless).

 

[wondermega]

Most people looking at this stuff in the present day will only shrug, but at the time (nearly 30 years ago) it was certainly interesting. I remember seeing some of those demo screen caps of Sonic standing on the CD and really wondering where all of that was going, that it must have looked pretty neat in motion. The scaling bits and full motion video are nothing now, but seeing this stuff piped through a Sega CD at its release was definitely an interesting glimpse into the future. It still wasn't enough, though. SNES was already looking and sounding better than these limited demos, and after the first wave of Sega CD releases the novelty was wearing thin. There were still some curiosities but overall it started to become clear that things weren't going very smoothly behind the curtains at Sega, compared to what had come before. The 32X and Saturn launch helped cement these notions.

 

[Spukc]

If only Genesis could show more colours on screen. T-16 and SNES could.

Lots of Genesis game shave tons of grey and purple. Ugh....

nintendo sucks make ur own thread

 

[cireza]

Lots of Genesis game shave tons of grey and purple.

Yeah, actually out of the 512 colors from the system, 250 are purple gradients and 250 others are grey gradients. Meaning that only 12 colors are not purple or grey. This explains a lot really.

Still more colors on screen would have been nice indeed.

 

[Starlight Lotice]

If only Genesis could show more colours on screen. T-16 and SNES could.

Lots of Genesis game shave tons of grey and purple. Ugh....

To be fair, the 360 also went through this phase and that is much more powerful.

I would blame the Grey/Purple on Western games since they like gritty and dark themes.

 

[Kazza]

A prototype of Sonic 3 just dropped from the same source:




Some notable highlights include alternative Carnival Zone music, Ice Cap Zone music and early evidence of the Sonic Mania spin-dash (here and here).

I like both he Carnival and Ice Cap music, but not as much as the versions in the actual console release. Apparently, at least some of the songs here were included in the PC version of the game, but I've never played it before, so can't confirm.