Sales Promotion Build

This is a sub-page of Prerelease:Sonic the Hedgehog 3.

To do: Document any more differences you find. The magazines also show additional details not shown in the VHS (suggesting that it was taken from a "raw" recording), so post them here too. Add images from these magazines.

Watch on YouTubeThis was a video Sega sent to the press shortly before the game's release, being spotted in an EPCOT Innoventions commercial as well as at least three magazines. The footage shows a build of Sonic 3 post-dating the November 3 prototype but predating the other VHS footage, with some things held over from the dumped build and others finalized.

General#

• Sonic and Tails now have their final designs.
• Tails' grabbing animation is offset too low, making it appear as if he's grabbing the air below the hook in one of the Launch Base clips.
• The HUD for the main game remains unchanged from 1103.
• The Sega logo is still leftover from Sonic 2. Unlike 1103, Sonic appears corrupted (likely due to his sprites now being updated to the final), although the palette glitch no longer occurs.
• The lightning shield still does not attract rings.

Competition Mode#

• The select menu now exists for Competition, which may imply that other menu related things like the Data Select are also implemented in this build. Also of note is that the background uses the same palette as the Data Select in the final.
• The HUD for Competition mode is mostly unchanged from 1103, complete with the player position markers.
• The starting race message now says "Go!" like the final, though the "!" is spaced a bit closer to the "O".
• The HUD for the main game can be seen in the Competition menu. The life counter appears miscolored, and the score/time/rings counters appear as a series of orange lines due to the proper palette and graphics for them not being loaded.
• Desert Palace's background palette has been fixed and it no longer uses a black color for one of the sand shades.

Angel Island Zone#

• The final introduction has been implemented, but has some differences from the final:
  • The HUD is always present during the cutscene, with the timer incrementing.
  • The palette for the ocean background is slightly bugged, with a light green where a grayish-blue color should go.
  • The flame on the Tornado's booster doesn't animate (though this could be the result of VHS frame-skipping).
  • Super Sonic's palette remains unchanged from Sonic 2, causing Sonic's lighter and darker shades of blue to appear swapped when he reverts to normal.
  • Knuckles' cutscene palette still features the proper green color for his socks, which causes the HUD to turn green.
  • The screen locks further to the right than in the final game during the intro Knuckles scene. The video has been edited to show Knuckles grabbing the Emeralds sooner, as evidenced by the timer skipping.
  • The blue and purple Chaos Emeralds had their positions swapped for the final, likely due to it being difficult to discern the blue emerald in front of the waterfall.
  • Sonic appears to blink when Knuckles runs past him, though this may just be an early version of his idle animation.
• Tails still has his unique demonstration AI from the 1103 build at the start of Act 1, though he lacks a unique animation for carrying Sonic (who gets misplaced shortly after the grab thanks to a spring placed in the tree). The footage has been edited to speed up when Tails grabs Sonic, as the timer also speeds up.

Hydrocity Zone#

• Act 1 now has its final background design, although it still unloads partway through the level. The swinging ball decorations are also present now.
• (1:08) A bubble shield monitor would be replaced with an invincibility monitor.
• (1:46) One of the two Bugernaut enemies seen on the left which were present in 1103 has been removed. The one seen on the right would be removed later.
• (1:47) The Bugernaut enemies have been removed, but the ring formation still features five rings instead of the final's ten.
• (2:44) Rings still appear outside the waterslides due to incorrect layer priority. A Turbo Spiker enemy in the loop right after is absent.
• The tunnel at the end of the Act 2 wall chase sequence seems to have the same amount of doors and breakable walls as 1103 and the pre-final tape build.
• The Egg Vortex boss does not override the darkest grey in the player/Eggmobile palette to true black.

Marble Garden Zone#

• The palette is unchanged from the 1103 build, with the darkest ring color being black instead of gold, and the overscan border color being turquoise instead of black.
• The Spin tops retain their behavior from the 1103 build as they still don't disappear when Sonic gets off them.
  • The red springs seen during this part of the video would later be changed to yellow.

Carnival Night Zone#

• The lights now go out in Act 2, but the water does not rise yet. In the final game, the blocks seen at 1:13 drain the water when at least one is broken.
• All of the balloons in the section underneath the breakable blocks are absent.

IceCap Zone#

• Sonic still does not ride on a snowboard at the beginning of Act 1.
• Due to the snowboard not being implemented yet, Sonic quickly rolls down the mountain and clips into the floor.
• (1:04) A Penguinator enemy is absent.

Launch Base Zone#

• Act 1 now features its final palette. However, Sonic still doesn't enter a unique animation when spinning around, instead using his walking animation.
• (2:39) Three rings have been spread slightly further apart since 1103. These rings would be replaced with a starpost by the pre-final tape build.
• Knuckles still stands on a smaller beam during the Act 2 cutscene but now laughs compared to 1103. The background also does not load properly and can be seen briefly with its lettered placeholder tiles.
• The Egg Rocket appears immediately, while in the final it waits for the Egg Mobile to leave the screen. Eggman's head priority makes him appear behind the foreground. Tails also appears with Sonic during the fight, which is disabled in the final but was restored for Sonic 3 & Knuckles.

Special Stage#

• The Special Stage appears to be finalized, but Tails lacks his tails completely.
• (0:49) Special Stage 4 features a cluster of eight blue spheres. This section would be replaced with a more tricky one where the player needs to jump over two bumper spheres in succession to collect only three blue spheres.

Screenshots#

Given that the HUD is still shaded like the 1103 prototype, this screenshot of IceCap most likely depicts the Sales Promotion build, and it can be seen that no snow is falling during the boss.

Competition Menu#

Sales Promotion Build	Final

• The Competition Menu is using the same background palette from the data select screen.
• The level HUD is not fully disabled, as a Sonic life icon is present in the bottom left.