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Prerelease:Sonic the Hedgehog (Genesis)/WCES-like Builds

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This is a sub-page of Prerelease:Sonic the Hedgehog (Genesis)/WCES-like Builds.

Tera Drive Demo WCES Build
We're stuck like this. Now we're moving!

While closer to looking like the final game, these builds are called WCES-like Builds due to still having noticeable similarities to the build shown at Winter CES. Sonic's palette has now been updated to match his final colors. The background of Green Hill Zone is still brighter than it appears in the final game - with the foreground mountains using the same array of colors as the background mountains, rather than the foreground being a shade darker - and its background placement order has been updated since last time to now use different orders for each act, unlike most of Pre-WCES. The background on the title screen also now scrolls unlike the previous builds.

Green Hill Zone

Sonic1prerelease cesghztitlecard.png

The background design, while closer to the final's, still features brighter tiles and uses the title screen's water palette cycle. Green Hill's water has also been changed to be lighter blue and the RINGS HUD is still lacking its S. Sonic's spawn location is different in this version.

(Source: Beep! Megadrive May 1991 Issue)
Sonic1prerelease VideoGames 02 GHZ.png
(Source: Video Games (Germany) Issue 02)
Sonic1prerelease VideoGames 03 GHZ.png

An alternate scan of the image above.

(Source: Video Games (Germany) Issue 03)
Sonic1prerelease wcesghzball.jpg

The removed Green Hill Zone ball appears here for the first time.

(Source: Beep! Megadrive June 1991 Issue)
Sonic1prerelease wcesghzmotobug.jpg

An extra Motobug is visible to the right of the platform; it would be moved even further to the right of the map in the final game.

Sonic1prerelease latercesghz2.jpg

A common prerelease image of the Act 1 loop containing an invincibility monitor on the top instead of a shield.

(Source: Beep! MegaDrive April 1991 Issue)
Sonic1prerelease latercesghz4.jpg

This picture of the end of Act 1 indicates that the background was set lower in at least one build. A strip of lighter blue can be seen above the rightmost palm tree as a result of this.

(Source: Beep! MegaDrive April 1991 Issue)
Sonic1prerelease latercesghz7.jpg

The lower section of Act 3 has now been updated to have the final platform to the right, but there's extra rings where Sonic is and spikes on the leftmost part of the platform.

(Source: Joystick Issue 15 and Mega Force Issue 1)
Sonic1prerelease Joystick 15 GHZ03.jpg
(Source: Joystick Issue 15)
Sonic1Prerelease Joystick Alternate.png

An alternate scan of the frame above.

(Source: Video-Ace Dendy Issue 17)


Sonic1prerelease Joystick 15 GHZ02.jpg
(Source: Joystick Issue 15)
Sonic1prerelease Joystick 15 GHZ01.jpg

Green Hill Zone's first palette line went through a change of pink to green, which as a result altered the colors of the flowers and Newtrons.

(Source: Joystick Issue 15)
Sonic1prerelease latercesghz6.jpg

Dr. Robotnik's first appearance. We can see that there is no waterfall in the background due to the different chunk order.

(Source: Megadrive Fan April 1991 Issue)
Sonic1prerelease Joystick 15 GHZBoss.png
(Source: Joystick Issue 15)

Labyrinth Zone

A picture of an empty Act 2. Some of the layout design is different, including the crystals that look similar to the 8 bit version of the game, and there doesn't seem to be any actual background at this point.

Sonic1prerelease wceslz1.jpg
(Source: Video Games (Germany) Issue 02)

Marble Zone

The green UFOs that were removed from the final game were originally red as seen here.

Sonic1prerelease MegaForce 01 MZ.png
(Source: Mega Force Issue 1)
Sonic1prerelease Joystick 15 MZ.jpg
(Source: Joystick Issue 15)
Sonic1prerelease wcesmz1.jpg

The debug mode has been updated to now affect the score like it does in the final game.

(Source: Video Games (Germany) Issue 02)
Sonic1prerelease attack7mz2.jpg

The lava in Marble Zone is still using different graphics in this build. The piece of ground on the right is positioned higher than in the final game.

(Source: Attack Issue 07)
Sonic1prerelease wcesmz3.png

A better look at the red UFOs.

(Source: Megadrive Fan April 1991 Issue)
Sonic1prerelease attack7mz1.jpg

A closer look at the lava.

(Source: Attack Issue 07)
Sonic1prerelease wcesmz4.jpg

This picture of Act 3 has a layout that's positioned one chunk lower in the final game and there doesn't seem to be any objects.

(Source: Video Games (Germany) Issue 02)

Spring Yard/Sparkling Zone

Looks pretty identical to Sparkling Zone from the pre-WCES builds. The recently dumped prototype has an unused object layout for Act 1 that's very similar to this version of Sparkling Zone Act 1, which has a completely different layout from the final game.

Sonic1prerelease wcessz1.jpg

This picture shows chunks that never made it into the final game.

(Source: Joystick Issue 15)
Sonic1prerelease VideoGamesDE 02 SZ.jpg

Other pictures showing more of the early layout design and background.

(Source: Video Games (Germany) Issue 02)
Sonic1prerelease Attack7 SZ.jpg
(Source: Attack Issue 07)
Sonic1prerelease Joystick 15 SZ.jpg

This may be the beginning of act 1 or act 2.

(Source: Joystick Issue 15)

Scrap Brain/Clock Work Zone

Sonic1prerelease latercescwz6.jpg

The background in this build is broken. It scrolled as if it used Green Hill Zone's parallax code.

(Source: Video Games (Germany) Issue 02)
Sonic1prerelease latercescwz2.png

A chunk of the level was left broken in development.

(Source: Joystick Issue 15)

Special Stage

Sonic1prerelease latercessz1.jpg

The Special Stages' layout is identical to the one seen in Shinsaku. The blocks are all yellow instead of multicolored.

(Source: Megadrive Fan April 1991 Issue)
Sonic1prerelease cesspecialstage.png

Slightly later in the Special Stage.

(Source: Attack Issue 07)
Sonic1Prerelease wcesspecialstageoutside.jpg

Outside of the Map, doesn't crash.