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Breaking News: New Sonic 1 Prototype Stuff Unveiled

Even more than two decades after being cancelled, Nick Arcade is still giving us more alpha/beta stuff. The earliest version of Sonic the Hedgehog 2 that we’ve seen in action was first seen on the show, and now that the unaired pilot from 1991 has popped up online we now have the best footage yet of a Sonic the Hedgehog prototype.Sadly we don’t see that much of it because the challenge had to be completed in less than 25 seconds. The most notable differences shown are the rolling ball, which kinda looks like something that’s meant to be used to experiment with the rolling physics, and the different ring placement. Thanks to forum member ashthedragon for uploading a video of just the prototype footage. The full pilot can be seen here.
And on the subject of Sonic development stuff, this book by Read-Only Memory has lots of never-before-seen visual material from Mega Drive games and the console itself. This of course includes stuff related to Sonic as well. Forum member 87th has been kind enough to post a photo of the design documents for Sonic 1 showing some storyboards of the original ending. If you want to see more of it, you can buy the book here.
Also, yes we know that all of this news is old. We’re playing catch-up. :V