For game preservationists and Sonic the Hedgehog fans, the tail-end of October has been a very interesting time. Hidden Palace and The Cutting Room Floor, two websites dedicated to cataloging beta versions of video games or unearthing cut content, have partnered up for a series of documentation on newly uncovered prototypes for old Sonic games for the SEGA Genesis, CD, and Game Gear. The first to be revealed was a 1992 tech demo for what the Sega CD could do. A day later, on October 26, 8 pre-released versions of Sonic CD were dumped for the very first time, letting us learn more about Sonic CD's developmental process. One of the builds is from December 4, 1992, nearly 9 months prior to the game's official release, making for the earliest known prototype of the game. This includes a very early version of Palmtree Panic, which according to the title card, was called Salad Plain Zone. More of these prototypes are set to be shown in the coming weeks, with livestreams slated for November 2, 9, 10, and 16th.

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[RedoLane]

Meanwhile, founder of Traveller's Tales, Jon Burton, have been posting on youtube unused Sonic 3D Blast music samples.

 

[Rabbid4240]

There's also a new remix of Palmtree Panic Past!

 

[Sonic Angel Knight]

Probably why new sonic games make people feel like sleeping.

 

[tech3475]

Nice, I find betas interesting for some reason, its a shame more games don't see beta content leaked like this or better (e.g. hl2)

 

[seam]

Yea, I read about this like a week ago.

 

[Ericthegreat]

There's also a new remix of Palmtree Panic Past!

Wow it's better then I thought.

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Nice, I find betas interesting for some reason, its a shame more games don't see beta content leaked like this or better (e.g. hl2)

A lot of this old stuff is lost, the companies went under or were bought out and the floppys/old PC's with the source code died or were thrown in the trash. (Or are hiding in a developers closet/attic)

 

[tech3475]

A lot of this old stuff is lost, the companies went under or were bought out and the floppys/old PC's with the source code died or were thrown in the trash. (Or are hiding in a developers closet/attic)

Which is a shame.

 

[Reploid]

More to cum

 

[AirbusX]

There's also a new remix of Palmtree Panic Past!

So good!

 

[Silent_Gunner]

Meanwhile, I'm just over here waiting for the Resident Evil 1.5 80% build to leak out...

 

[raxadian]

It is bad that I want a Sega CD port for the Switch?

 

[Rahkeesh]

It is bad that I want a Sega CD port for the Switch?

All of the Whitehead versions should be brought over really. Instead of all these obscure arcade titles stuffing up Sega Ages. (Worse the Sonic 1 isn't Whitehead either...)

 

[Zense]

This is great! Can't wait to see what else is in store....

 

[YukidaruPunch]

Salad Plain Zone is a fantastically stupid name, but let's be honest: after Genocide City Zone in the Sonic 2 Beta, there's just so much lower one could go.

(I'm aware it's part of the devs not having English as a primary language and just going with whatever sounds cool, regardless of whether it made sense or not. It's just one of those things of the time.)

I adore the Mega Drive era of Sonic so I'll look into this more carefully later. Anyways, great find.

EDIT: Jesus Christ, that Stardust Speedway background is creepy. It fits with some of Sonic CD's hidden weirdness. They definitely were going for a weirder vibe during the beginning of the development, that's for sure!

 

[James_]

There's also a new remix of Palmtree Panic Past!

It's... it's beautiful...

 

[DarthDub]

I get Salad Pains everytime I pass the You Say! signpost.

 

[ChaosEternal]

Meanwhile, founder of Traveller's Tales, Jon Burton, have been posting on youtube unused Sonic 3D Blast music samples.

His channel is so cool. I've never seen another old-school developer provide such direct insight into the development process of their games.

 

[raxadian]

If they had gone with the name it would have been changed to "Salad Plains".

I dunno why Japan has such low standards to teaching English but it just does.

 

[tech3475]

If they had gone with the name it would have been changed to "Salad Plains".

I dunno why Japan has such low standards to teaching English but it just does.

It's likely similar to the Genocide City naming.

Someone likely just looked up words they thought would describe the intended theming and put it in e.g. Green plants == Salad.

I barely remember my French lessons from school, so I'd likely be doing something similar albeit with Google Translate.