Sonic Jam (Game.com)

This page details pre-release information and/or media for Sonic Jam (Game.com).

To do: Try to reformat the article due to the commercials using the same material as the Tiger Web Link videos.

Sonic Jam for the Game.com is already pretty lousy, but prerelease material indicates the released game was a severe downgrade in both graphics and content.

It should be noted that it's likely most, if not all the stuff mentioned on this page are mockups, rather than in-engine gameplay, given how few of the assets shown here made their way into the final.

Game Selections#

Early promotional booklets for the Game.com promoted Sonic Jam using an image of what is evidently a Game.com version of Sonic 3D Blast. It's not entirely clear what happened here.

The game description states "Play classic levels from Sonic 1, 2 and Sonic & Knuckles". The outlier here is Sonic 1, which would be replaced in the final game with Sonic 3. This replacement would explain why Sonic 3 is the default selection on the game selection screen.

Sonic 2 Special Stage#

A prerelease image showing a rendition of Sonic 2s' "half-pipe" Special Stage. The final game only has the Blue Spheres Special Stages from Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles.

Tiger Web Link CD-ROM#

Watch on YouTube

Tiger Web Link was a service responsible for "connecting" the Game.com to your PC via loading the Game.com's website, which allowed players to connect to Tiger's (now-long dead) web service. Included with the Web Link package was a CD which contains the "program" to link up the Game.com with your PC and AVI files containing three of the Game.com commercials and silent footage of Game.com games (which were used in advertising materials).

Interestingly, the footage used for Sonic Jam seems to be from the early commercial build of the game that a notable 1997 US TV Ad shows off, here it's revealed that Sonic 1 was going to be one of the games included, and the earlier different sprites of Sonic and Tails can be seen more clearly.

Title Screen#

Prerelease	Final

• The background is black.
• There are two options instead of one, though the font used is a blander style than in the final.
• The logo is slightly different: "JAM" is darker and more detailed, and the words are positioned a bit lower than in the final.

Menus#

Prerelease	Final

The Game Select menu is called "Act Select" and looks rather different overall. Most notably, Sonic 1 is included (although no footage of it is known to have been released) and the game highlighted is Sonic 3 & Knuckles, whereas in the final Sonic 1 was removed and Sonic 3 & Knuckles was rebranded to Sonic & Knuckles.

The background uses the final title screen background, albeit without any shading.

Prerelease	Final

The Character Select menu is called "Player Select", and uses in-game sprites for the characters rather than compressed pictures of renders.

In-Game#

The HUD is much larger and closer to the original games, as well as having a light gray rectangular background, and the levels have more detail in general. The camera also seems to be less dynamic.

Notably, both screenshots on the game's box feature the older HUD.

Prerelease	Final

Mushroom Hill Zone actually has a background!

Prerelease	Final

• Same for Emerald Hill. The final generally uses very basic cloud backgrounds.
• Knuckles looks completely different.
• The HUD shows "T.E.", rather than the "K.T.E." of the original games.

Prerelease	Final

Angel Island Zone's foreground and background are completely different.

Bonus Stage#

Prerelease	Final

• "GET BLUE SPHERES" was changed to "GET BLACK SPHERES" for very obvious reasons.
• Both Sonic and Tails are present (you can only play as one character in the final), and their sprites are smaller.
• The starry background from the Genesis version is present.
• The field of view is larger.
• The starting point is different.

Commercials#

Two commercials for the Game.com also included early footage of Sonic Jam.

1997 UK TV Ad#

Watch on YouTube

This commercial briefly shows extended footage of the early Angel Island (that can also slightly be seen in the extended version of the Game.com commercial below but is cut off), as well as a small fraction of the Sonic 3 title screen.

1997 US TV Ad#

Watch on YouTube

The second commercial is much more interesting: while a good amount of the footage is obscured by the presenter, what can be seen is that Angel Island once had an intro similar to its Genesis counterpart, albeit without Knuckles and being slightly different. The build/footage shown here is identical to one from the Tiger Web Link CD-ROM, albeit with much cleaner resolution and bitrate.

The intro begins with the Tornado flying downwards and Sonic having a pretty unique "looking downwards" sprite before he jumps off the Tornado and flies in his Super form for a couple of seconds. He then goes out of Super form and jumps to the starting point of Act 1, at which point the level title card appears. The first ~8 seconds of an early Angel Island layout is seen here, including the earlier mountainous background as well as trees in the foreground. Given that the Tornado also appears flying by the Sonic 3 title screen of this early version, it likely would have transitioned to it after pressing Start.

While it appears that the game is running much faster, the footage is actually just sped-up.

Other Screenshots#

Clean pictures of the Sonic 3 title screen and part of the AIZ intro.