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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[RuthlessTheHooman]

I remember that for years people have thought the Sega CD tech demo was related to the scrapped CD versions of Sonic 1/2, it's weird having the full version available now and seeing how much more was in than I had thought.

Sonic CD 0.02 is also a great find, I love the version of the song used in Palmtree Panic Past, but it is a shame there's nothing of R2 to be seen.
My guess is the assets for it weren't ever added to the game, which is unfortunate, since I'd like to see what a Sonic level that wasn't considered "good enough" would be like. (Then again, if I wanted a bad Sonic level I could just play Sonic Forces.)