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Game Secrets

Game Secrets

The Story of the Sonic Beta, With The Best Shots You’ll See Today

When it comes to new information about early versions of Sonic the Hedgehog titles, we here at Sonic Retro get very excited. If you’ve been here long enough, you may remember that this whole community was birthed because a certain fellow stumbled across the Sonic 2 Beta many moons ago. In the interim, we’ve been able to get our hands on even more Sonic 2 prereleases, not to mention early builds of Chaotix, Sonic CD, Sonic Spinball, and who can forget the interviews and concept art that have been gathered over the years…but there has been a holy grail that is still elusive to this day. Something that, until last summer, we didn’t even know existed. What I am talking about is the very first playable version of the original Sonic the Hedgehog designed specifically for the Tokyo Toy Show back in June of 1990. The only shots of that build we had for ages were of Sonic standing in a pose not seen anywhere else, and Sonic running next to a sign that we still don’t have a clear shot of. But today, that all has changed.

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Game Secrets, Interviews, Sega Retro

Sega Plays Dangerous Games

The American government recently made an attempt to enact rules to regulate protection of intellectual properties and to take down piracy. Thanks to the millions of people who shared their anger for overbearing protection and angry high school kids cheating on their homework, both the SOPA and PIPA bills have been suspended for reconsideration. What great timing for this, and the re-release of Sonic CD for PC platforms via Steam, as it lets us recall an incident as early as 1993 during the US Senate hearings for violent video games.

If you recall the lengthy retrospective on the Sega Mega CD, as well as another one of its landmark titles, Night Trap, the developers put out a short documentary named “Dangerous Games” regarding their perspective during and after the hearings from producers, actors as well as avid ‘gamers.’

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Game Secrets

Second Generations Demo Round-Up: More Things Found!

So, if the Sonic Generations demo has dropped in your locale and/or platform of choice, you’ve probably had time to see the improvements to the engine and performance that have been made since the first demo came out–and they’re very encouraging, indeed.

However, that’s not really the fun part of getting a demo: getting new code to tear apart is. We found spoilers; they’re under the break. You’ve been warned. Continue Reading

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Game Secrets, Interviews, Miscellaneous

SAGE Interviews Naoto Ohshima Later Tonight

Heads up for all you guys: SAGE–the amateur fangame expo that takes place in the Sonic community once a year–is going to have a live interview with Naoto Ohshima, the original creator of the Sonic the Hedgehog character, at 8:45PM EST over the SAGECast radio station! If you’re interested in asking him a question, feel free to join their IRC channel at irc.rizon.net in channel #sagexpo.

If you don’t have an IRC client, simply go the SAGExpo website and click the Chat tab to enter the channel. Alternatively, you can use Mibbit and enter the IRC details to get in. Remember that there will be a translator present on the radio station, so unlike in instances where Ohshima is speaking English himself, responses will be far more clear, concise and in-depth. Think carefully before you ask; not everybody will get a chance to have their questions answered, so time is of the essence.

For more information and discussion, check out the forum thread.

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Community, Game Secrets, Interviews

Interview: Yuji Naka and Takashi Iizuka at Summer of Sonic

Saturday, June 25th. A thousand-strong horde of Sonic fans descends upon the Camden Centre in London, to celebrate a video gaming icon with music, games, laughs and chilli dogs. So far, so Summer of Sonic, but this was the 20th anniversary show so there had to be something just a bit special going on, and blimey did they ever deliver on that. How? By getting Yuji Naka and Takashi Iizuka to drop by London to enjoy the festivities, do some signings and some Q&A sessions. That is pretty hard to top, ladies and gents, especially when fans were able to quiz the pair on Madonna, the joint American/Japanese development of Sonic 2, and dat barrel. However, Sonic Retro was also able to get a little more into the bargain and snag an interview slot with Naka and Iizuka. Exciting? I thought so.

Now if you will, allow me to set the scene. Things are behind schedule and everyone is hot and totally knackered, a fact that fellow attendees will attest to. We’re now down to the last interview slot of the day, and another site needs to cram into the session too. We finally get to head in as Jun Senoue takes to the stage to wow everyone downstairs. Still, I know things are going to be at least a little bit good when we’re asked what sites we came from – the mention of our site causes an “Ah, Sonic Retro!” from Iizuka, as he tilts his head back and smiles with a mixture of recognition and amusement. If you were ever in doubt of Retro’s reach, dear reader, that should give you a rough idea of our place in the grand scheme of things.

Then, with little time to spare and more questions than I can possibly ask, we get down to business.

Retro: Naka-san, you joined Sega around the time of its first real console releases, having worked on the SG-1000 and Sega My Card series back in the mid-80s. What was it like to see Sega become a video game publisher that was known all over the world?

Naka: At the beginning, Sega’s real catalyst for success was the arcade, and Sonic pulled it along and really built upon that. Also, the fact that we had hardware and were a first party helped to give us that status in the market, as a global name. So, I feel really happy to be able to be involved, really lucky. It’s really amazing that something created in Haneda, which is not at the centre of Tokyo, sold worldwide.

Hit the post break for the rest of the interview!

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Game News, Game Secrets

Unreleased Xbox “Sonic Extreme” Game Footage Released

So, I heard some of you are a fan of this one game, Sonic Adventure 2. It’s a pretty great game, I must admit. Most people who have played are familiar with the very first stage, City Escape. The very first part has this little part where you do a bit of downhill “skateboarding.” Pretty fun, right?

Now imagine a game based on that, because that’s precisely what Sonic Team was working on at one point in time.

Sonic Extreme is a game recently discovered on a development unit for the original Xbox console that appears to be based off the Sonic Adventure 2 engine, possibly between the time of SA2 and Sonic Heroes, and features Sonic skateboarding around in an area reminiscent of Heroes‘s Seaside Hill. Additionally, there appears to be a battle mode with Sonic and Shadow built in the same split-screen style as Sonic Adventure 2: Battle. More videos after the cut.
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Game Secrets, Miscellaneous

SegaAge Releases First Prototype: Swamp Thing

SegaAge is a new Sega fansite from the people behind NintendoAge, which normally wouldn’t be that big a deal–sites come and go, and while having a new Sega site is always exciting, it’s not exactly something to make any real noise over. What is noteworthy, though, is that the site has released its first Mega Drive prototype: a canceled 1991 game called Swamp Thing.

The game was produced by Nuvision, perhaps best known for the prototype Bean Ball Benny, as well as one published title: Bimini Run, a boat racing game. And honestly, when it comes to that title?

That about says it all. Swamp Thing is pretty legitimately horrible as well; you control the titular character from the Swamp Thing comic book series. I’m not too familiar with the original property, so I can’t say how much is accurate to that world, but if turning into a log and rolling around is part of the action, I’m skeptical. It’s interesting in that this is the first I’ve heard of it, but it’s likely nothing more than a historical footnote in the world of Nuvision. You can grab a copy of the ROM here and try it out yourself.

Check the image gallery past the jump.

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Game Secrets

An Easter Egg Fit for Geeks

You may (or may not) remember our joint exclusive sneak preview with Sonic Stadium and Sonic Wrecks of Sonic Colors’ new voice actors a while back. In that clip, Tails mentioned only he can read what his translator says because it’s in Binary.

Those sneaky writers took advantage of that and snuck in a nice little message to those intrepid enough to catch a glimpse of Tails’ PDA.

Slight and minor ending scene spoiler, so view at your own discretion.

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