ベン・ギルド (Ben Guild)


Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (Sega Genesis): the pre-release Simon Wai “prototype”

Way back in the day, I had a Sega Genesis Nomad, and my favorite game for it was Sonic 2.

This “brick-sized” game console was funny, because, even though it claimed to be portable, it only got about 30-40 minutes of play time out of a fresh set of 6 x AA batteries! — This made it more of a “home” console using a then sold separately AC adapter, as far as I was concerned. 😆

I often liked messing around with the “cheat codes” and “debug mode” that were left in the game by the developers. 😎🛠 — There were a few cool ones, in particular:

  • Activating Super Sonic without collecting the Chaos Emeralds.
  • Accessing the hidden Level Select screen.
  • Activating a night mode for levels.
  • You can even change Sonic's color by placing waterfall tiles using the debug mode, and add items to the game wherever you want, etc.

… This interest in “deep-digging” in the game was rekindled recently when I found out that an unreleased prototype of the game (while still in-development) had leaked onto the internet! — You can find this game's ROM online for download just by searching for it, and then emulate it on your Mac with OpenEmu if you want to try it out.

It contains previously unreleased and/or incomplete levels, as well as others that are in a more “beta” state. Super cool! — FYI, there are a couple of button combinations you should know before playing:

  • Press “A + Start” at the main screen to get to the Level Select screen. (Otherwise, you can only play the first level!)
  • Press “B + Start” if you want to launch two-player mode.

Have fun, and be sure to check out Sonic Retro for more infomration about which zones are playable and which were cut from the game, renamed, or merged and/or redesigned before the final release! — There's a really cool one called Wood Zone that I'm sort of sad we never got to see, but also the mystifying Hidden Palace Zone level that's nearly complete even in this build. 🎮