Prerelease talk:Sonic the Hedgehog (Genesis)/1990 Tokyo Toy Show

title screen resolution

i have a strong suspicion that the title screen of the TTS '90 demo was using the Genesis/MD's low resolution mode of 256x224 pixels, for two reasons:

• we have four copies of the title screen, and they are all in the wrong aspect ratio. 256x224 is not even close to 4:3 aspect ratio, whereas 320x224 (the resolution of the final title screen/game) is quite close (and actually, the way the Genesis displays it with extra lines on the top/bottom, it is EXACTLY 4:3 aspect ratio). why would four copies of the title screen all come out looking wrong, if they were in 320x224? a possible explanation is they are in 256x224, displayed with SQUARE pixels. this would explain the strange, squashed look of all four copies.
• we have determined that the title screen was almost completely redrawn after the TTS '90 build. but when it was redrawn, it came out looking almost exactly the same. the differences are only noticeable with very close examination. why bother to tweak so many minor details of a perfectly good title screen, unless out of necessity... like a different video mode?

is there ANY way of verifying this? Digital Foundry can count pixels in game capture footage, but can we do that with crappy old magazine scans? Zoinknoise (talk) 21:33, 9 July 2021 (UTC)

self-playing?

in particular, I have a question about this quote: "Second, this image gives credence to the possibility that the demo was automated, and not player-controlled. (see above) It seems to depict the exact same run, by the same player, as the previous screenshot. (The cloud––of all things––confirms this.) Since these two screenshots were published in different magazines (and presumably captured by different journalists), it casts doubt on the likelihood that the TTS '90 build was actually playable. "

Are we sure that they were captured by the journalists and not sent the same batch of screencaps from Sega instead? They absolutely sent screens for Sonic 2 coverage IIRC, how do we know that wasn't the case this time? Are they just too similar-but-different for that? --SystemsReady 2021/08/10

well, i wrote that because every magazine that printed screenshots of Sonic TTS '90 printed different screenshots. i may be mistaken but i don't think there is any overlap: no magazine actually printed the same exact screenshot as any other. (ironically, this is what helps prove the autodemo theory.) most of the time it's the opposite of course; all the magazine print the same half-dozen shots. so that's why i wrote that, because there's no indication that Sega was sending out some sort of press kit for Sonic at TTS '90. also notice how the quality of the screenshots is ALL over the place, like the blurry screenshot that EGM printed. Sega wouldn't have officially sent out such a crappy screenshot. (on the upside, it helps prove that there were moving clouds!) Zoinknoise (talk) 00:18, 17 December 2021 (UTC)

Footage i attempted to restore.

Can someone decide if this should be added? — The preceding unsigned comment was added by Öö (talk • contribs)

I think it could be, but is it possible to get a higher resolution on the footage? It's almost impossible to make out anything. Also, where did you find this? There might be more where it came from. -- FanOfRosalina2007 (talk) 21:06, 27 October 2023 (UTC)

Possible footage(?)

I found some footage that is possibly real. Here's the site I found it on: https://www.tiktok.com/@officialsoniclostmedia/video/7276677631129521450 I don't know if this is real (and I strongly believe it is not real.) I believe that it is not real mostly because the music that plays during the footage seems to be edited in. The main thing I'm concerned with considering the music is that the actual level uses a sped up, altered version of the final's Green Hill Zone BGM, and why would the track be so close to the final game when it is a year from being released? Could someone help me figure this out? I have made mistakes in the past dealing with whether footage is fake or not, so I would really appreciate some help. Thanks! -- FanOfRosalina2007 (talk) 04:35, 28 October 2023 (UTC)

Nope. This is a fake footage. That "Sega" chant is also unrealistic, as the iconic "SEGA!" chant was never added until late in development, which happened after the real prototype (that is already documented on the "proto" page). If this discovery was real, then the internet (and probably even Sega) would be blowing up their minds right now. Of course, since this isn't the case, the actual 1990 Tokyo Game Show prototype is still currently lost media. TetraFan1000 (talk) 16:25, 28 October 2023 (UTC)

Okay! That does make sense. Thank you! -- FanOfRosalina2007 (talk) 22:28, 29 October 2023 (UTC)

You're welcome! TetraFan1000 (talk) 15:43, 30 October 2023 (UTC)

Something I noticed

Does anyone think that these sketches were used as a basis to draw the Tokyo Toy Show title screen? They're mentioned on the main Sonic 1 page here, which is where I found them. I've compared frames of the sketch with what screenshots we have of the Tokyo Toy Show build's title screen, and a couple of frames are extremely similar or identical. Is it necessary to mention this? -- FanOfRosalina2007 (talk) 01:23, 16 November 2023 (UTC)

New screenshot?

I found another title screen image, I dunno if it's real or not.

And yes, There's already an image like this, But I just wanna clarify if this is real or not.

The image is shown here. http://www.retrolel.com/sonicdatabase/S1/S1B.htm

MarioGuyRetaken (talk) 22:04, 27 December 2023 (UTC)

It seems like it's real, but it just looks like a worse-quality version of the image that's already on the page. So, regardless of whether it's real or not, there's no point in adding it to the page. --Murnjendoof (talk) 02:16, 28 December 2023 (UTC)

Do we already have all the other screenshots on that page documented, or are there any that we need to document? If so, what build(s) are they from? Also, can someone check that website to see if there are any more Tokyo Toy Show screenshots, regardless if they're good-quality or not? -- FanOfRosalina2007 (talk) 23:01, 2 January 2024 (UTC)

Another possibly real video

I found another video, and this one seems like it's more real than the one I found earlier. It seems a lot more like what the demo could have been, as the title screen theme is exactly like Masato Nakamura's Theme of Sonic the Hedgehog demo song, and it just seems more real. Now, this may not be real, but if it is, it's possible that the demo had both a private showing and a public showing (as the video seems to show it as a private showing). Can someone please confirm if this is real? If it is, then this could be the biggest Sonic prototype find since the Sonic 3 proto was found. The video can be found here. If this is not real, then I'll stop searching for footage of this demo. Please reply ASAP!

Also, the tape shown in the video is dated 11:36/11:37 PM on June 10, 1990. Does anyone know if this is around the time the Tokyo Toy Show took place? Thanks! -- FanOfRosalina2007 (talk) 23:32, 2 January 2024 (UTC)

There's no reason to believe this is real. This stuff is incredibly easy to fake, and the channel's description makes it incredibly obvious that this is a hoax.

And, in case you need more convincing, the blue blocky structures in front of the mountains don't scroll independently, which can be seen in pictures of the real toy show demo. But frankly, you shouldn't need to check those tiny details in order to be extremely sceptical of these kinds of videos, the circumstances around it are enough to signal that this is a fake. You need to get better at spotting hoaxes. --Murnjendoof (talk) 02:47, 3 January 2024 (UTC)

It is a recording of a well-known romhack. Sorry! --LUCPIX (talk) 05:45, 3 January 2024 (UTC)

Okay, I'm so sorry. I get overexcited about things easily, I guess. I'll try to get better, and I'll stop looking for stuff like this. Thank you for your input. -- FanOfRosalina2007 (talk) 21:36, 3 January 2024 (UTC)

"NEVER OPEN" sign

Nitpicking topic, but are we sure the two existing snapshots of the "YOU ARE-WELCOME" sign do not depict the very same location on the stage? Of course, both pictures display parallax layers that are visually different from one another, but it may just be because the fast side scrolling that goes on as the camera moves, and I have a feeling the nearest objects in the perspective move unnaturally fast in comparison from the other things in the background.--LUCPIX (talk) 20:54, 19 January 2024 (UTC)

Look at the mountains. The other screenshots show them scrolling fairly slowly, so if it was the same sign you'd be able to see the same mountain shapes in both screenshots. Since you can't, the most likely explanation is that it's a different, identical-looking sign. --Murnjendoof (talk) 00:11, 20 January 2024 (UTC)