Ver0.70

This is a sub-page of Proto:Sonic the Hedgehog CD (Sega CD).

This prototype is documented on Hidden Palace.

Dated July 12th, 1993, Ver0.70 is a later build of Sonic CD that is near completion, but is still unfinished in places and has some differences. One version was found and dumped by Phugolz, while a second one was found and dumped by The Cutting Room Floor and Hidden Palace on October 26th, 2019, as part of Sonic Month.

Differences#

To do: Sixteen of Sonic's sprites have different positioning offsets compared to the final. Specifically: One of Sonic's "I'm outer here" sprites is positioned four pixels lower. Sonic's walking frames at a 45° angle are positioned eight pixels higher. Sonic's walking frames at a 135° angle are positioned eight pixels lower. Three of Sonic's skidding frames are flipped horizontally. Find a way to properly visualize these differences.

Gameplay#

• Despite the title screen having the proper title, the game is still referred to as "CD SONIC THE HEDGEHOG" internally.
• Save files created by this prototype can be used in the final game, and vice versa.
• Debug mode can be used in Time Attack. It was disabled in the final to prevent cheating.
• The robot transporter in the Present doesn't appear to have degraded as much as it has in the final.
• Invisible objects that catapult Sonic into ball form (usually found in tubes) will become visible with shield, invincibility or time warp graphics if Sonic has any of those items in effect.
• The "S" and Clock monitors have been removed aside from a secret room in Palmtree Panic 3, but the Blue Ring monitor can still be found in a few sporadic locations throughout the game. They also have their effects changed somewhat:
  • The "S" monitor, when placed with Debug Mode, not only grants invincibility and power sneakers, it also gives you a shield.
  • The Clock monitor, when placed with Debug Mode, causes other monitors to stop blinking.
  • The Blue Ring monitor now functions like an invisible shield, allowing you to take a hit without losing your rings. It can also stack with a regular shield.
• Getting all the Time Stones doesn't automatically destroy all robot transporters and thus won't change all futures to Good Futures.
• The game-ending "I'm outer here!" Easter egg now causes an instant Game Over as intended, but the camera will still follow Sonic as he jumps off the stage, dying from reaching the bottom of the stage.
• The player will always get a bad ending even if the player has destroyed every robot transporter in the game or collected all the Time Stones. The good ending has been implemented though, and can be viewed in Visual Mode.
• A few frames of the bad ending are yet to be redrawn, and the "TRY AGAIN/YOU'RE TOO COOL!" and the "Presented by SEGA" text don't display at the end of both ending FMVs.

Graphics#

• Sonic's face on the signpost is the same one from the final build, except for the Palmtree Panic demo file, which was built from an earlier stage in development. The demo file uses a unique design not found in earlier known builds.

v0.02	510 - v0.51	v0.70 Demo	v0.70 - Final

This unique sprite was reused for the save manager in the final build.

v0.70 Demo	Save Manager

Audio#

• The jump sound doesn't work properly in normal stages. It works in the Special Stage, though.
• The Super Peel-Out doesn't play any sound effects, but the Spin Dash does.
• Destroying a badnik plays a different sound rather than the traditional badnik explosion sound.
• When you gain an extra life, instead of Sonic saying "Yes!", he says "Yeah!".

• Destroying the robot transporter in the Past doesn't play a sound after the explosion.
• The goal sign doesn't make a sound when passing it.
• Pausing the game does not pause the music; it simply mutes it.
• The ending FMVs have early sound mixing, with the post-credit scenes in particular having their sound changed up.
  • The Good End's flower scene has a different synth and an alternate glitter sound, while the Bad End has more reverb in the evil laugh compared to the final.

• The time warp sound is different from both the 510 prototype and the final, this time playing a CD audio track that would go unused in the final. It is track #33, whereas it would be track #2 in the final. It is still present in the Windows release where it is dubbed as "Metal Sonic" by CD readers and iTunes:

• The title screen music is the same one from 510.

Special Stage#

• Much like the prototype before it, the Special Stage demo that plays by waiting at the Title Screen isn't a demo at all; it is fully controllable.
• The starting points for all Special Stages are in odd places, such as on the far corner on the dirt that slows you down or partially inside a bumper, instead of starting on the road.
• Sonic doesn't strike a pose when the Special Stage begins.
• The oil slicks are present but don't affect game play in the Special Stage.
• When a UFO is destroyed, the UFO counter doesn't count down until the UFO stops exploding. In the final, it counts down immediately after smashing the UFO.
• When all UFOs are destroyed, the Time Stone doesn't wait until the camera finishes turning around Sonic and drops as the camera starts turning. It also doesn't make a sound.

Menus#

• Menu navigation on the title screen is inverted.
• The preview for Special Stage 6 in the Time Attack menu doesn't animate.
• The RAM Data screen has very different visuals:

v0.70	Final

• The RAM Data menu is not fully functional and has some bugs that would be fixed in the final:
  • You cannot copy your save file to the Sega CD's internal RAM if a RAM cartridge is not present or there isn't already a Sonic CD save file copy in the internal RAM.
  • Erasing your save file doesn't appear to work.
  • You can't seem to replace your save file with one saved in storage.
• The D.A. Garden is called "Sound Test" on the title screen.
• Exiting the D.A. Garden will lock up the game.
• The Visual Mode screen does not have background music.
• "Opening" is misspelled as "Openning" on the Visual Mode screen.
• The pencil test hasn't been implemented and cannot be viewed yet. Selecting it in the Visual Mode will just play the opening FMV.

Cheat Codes#

Level Select#

On the title screen, press Start on the first controller and then press B on the second controller. A black screen with a list of numbers and letters corresponding to various levels and events appears just as it looked in the 510 prototype. Make a selection and press Start to enter it.

Note that you will be taken back to the title screen upon completion of the selected level or upon attempting time travel.

Sound Effects Test#

On the title screen, press Start on the first controller and then press A on the second controller. A black screen with a list of hex numbers preceded by the letter S appears. Press C to play the selected sound, and press Start when you want to return to the title screen.

Debug Mode#

Press Start on the second controller at any time during gameplay to enable/disable Debug Mode.

RAM Data screen#

On the title screen, press Start on the first controller and then press C on the second controller. This will cause the RAM Data screen to boot up.

Rounds#

Palmtree Panic#

• There is no rock at the end of Zone 2 to stop you in your tracks.
• A loop exists above the goal in Zone 2's Past and Good future. A downwards loop is placed next to said loop in the Present to keep it company. It does not exist in any other prototype.

Collision Chaos#

• The background parallax in the Past glitches out at the top of the stage near the end of each Zone.
• The mini bumpers that surround the yellow point cups make the same sound as the large bumpers when collided with.
• PCM-based sound effects such as the bumpers don't work in Zone 3.

Quartz Quadrant#

• The outdoor background in the Good Future is still different. The sky is black, the mountains are darker, and the foliage is less refined.
• The end of the upward transport tube near the robot transporter in Zone 2 has a group of large platforms at the end, stopping you from flying right into the transporter. They were removed in the final.

Wacky Workbench#

• The bouncy floor doesn't make any sounds.
• The angel statue in the Past of Zone 1 is a solid object and doesn't give you rings.
• Zone 3 has an arrangement of rings before the boss that spell out "CD". This arrangement is replaced with a pyramid of rings in the final.
• The capsule at the end of Zone 3 is sunken into the floor a bit.

Stardust Speedway#

• Parts of the foreground in the Past are blue instead of yellow.
• The sky in the Bad Future is constantly flashing red.
• There is no spring in the way of the goal in Zone 2.
• The boss music doesn't start during the intro to the Metal Sonic race. It instead begins when the race starts and plays throughout.
• The background parallax in the Good Future of Zone 3 glitches out near the end of the race.

Metallic Madness#

• Trapdoors similar to the ones in Scrap Brain Zone from Sonic 1 can be found. These remain from the 510 prototype, and can also be seen in a screenshot on page 49 of the European manual.
• Zone 1's Bad Future has no collision or properly defined start point.
• The area where the robot transporter is in the Past of Zone 1 has more springs than spikes.
• The shrink laser has a delay before firing each laser instead of firing constantly. The growth laser, on the other hand, is constantly firing like in the final.
• The door to the goal in Zone 2 is guarded by three Big Bombs in all timezones.
• The whole stage doesn't explode when the final boss is defeated, and Amy doesn't appear.

Unused PCM Music#

Each level has a dedicated PCM bank, labeled SNCBNK(id).BIN. In the final game, these hold the voice clips for time warp signs and sonic, along with samples for Past music in the B files. In this prototype, instead of the A, C, and D files starting with the "FUTURE!" voice clip, they start with small music snippets, usually one or two measures resembling that stage's normal music. Some are 1 sample for mono, others 2 for stereo.

Speculation was rampant as to their use in the years following the prototype's release, but Masato Nishimura confirmed in 2011 that the samples were intended to be used to bridge the inevitable gap created when a looping CD audio track rewinds to start again. According to Nishimura, the samples were not implemented in the finished game because it proved to be too challenging to get the timing down. The 2011 rerelease of Sonic CD restored many of the samples' intended use, though Nishimura has commented on the interpretations being slightly different than intended during the original game's development.

Dummied code in the 621 prototype reveals their intended use:

1. When the level starts, the CD music is set to play on one frame, then immediately stops on the next.

2. The PCM sample is played until the CD drive comes to a complete stop, repeating if necessary.

3. After the PCM is done playing and drive conditions are met, a flag is set and read to start the CD music.

4. When the CD track is finished, the PCM sample is played during seeking and the process repeats.

The issue here was likely less programming and more mechanical- There's simply no way to guarantee consistent seeking times when you factor in condition, manufacturing variations, and general mechanical lag, so the tracks usually won't line up anyway.

Some of these are obviously created to serve the bridge purpose, but most of them are actual measures cut from the end of the original tracks. When they opted to use fade-outs in the final game these measures weren't put back in, so a good 10 seconds of each CD track were technically never heard by the public before 2011.