Proto:Sonic Adventure (Dreamcast)/AutoDemo/Stage Differences/Speed Highway

This is a sub-page of Proto:Sonic Adventure (Dreamcast)/AutoDemo/Stage Differences.

Speed Highway is the level used for Sonic's demo and the only level for Sonic that can be completed normally.

Tails' version is pretty much identical to Sonic's, but he isn't able to move at all. In what seems to be a test for the opponent's AI, he moves along a set path in mid-air that will eventually kill him near the platforming section by the Helicopter.

Act 1

• The starting point is very different. The ceiling is lower, and the walls use a different texture:

Proto	Final

• No black fog on faraway geometry.
• The lighting is slightly different. The bright spots are less bright in the AutoDemo.
• Camera at the start is lower.
• A Life box on the platform to the right of the start was changed into an Electric Shield box in the final.
• Three rings at the top of the two large buildings at the beginning are changed to 1-Up boxes in the final.
• In the middle of the buildings at the beginning are boxes containing a 1-Up box, "?" ring box and another 1-Up box. In the final this was changed to a 5 ring box, a 1-Up box and another 5 ring box.
• The building before the first checkpoint is very different to the final version. It has Tikal hints, rings, and more decor present.

Proto	Final

• There are no rings to collect in the moving platform section.
• No invincibility or Speed Shoes boxes on the wall Sonic runs along.
• Speed Shoes on the platforms at the back of the lower area are missing.
• To the right of the checkered area of the lower path, there is an empty building. In the final it has rings, a Cop Speeder, and a 1-Up in the final.
• The small slope just before the building with the bell area on the lower path has six rings instead of eight.
• Sonic moves slower than normal going up the stairs at the bell.
• The bell is a different color and lower than it is in the final. This is the same case for the bell in Act 3.

Proto	Final

• Two 10 ring boxes below the bell area. In the final, one of these is changed to a shield.
• Rings were added after the dash panels after the bell in the final.
• Two lines of 2 rings were turned into one line of four rings in the final just before the tunnel.
• There are two rings at the end of the tunnel in the lower path not present in the final.
• Double line of rings before the square moving platforms was reduced from six to four in the final.
• There is no Speed Shoes box on the upper path to the square platforms.
• Camera on a 1-Up box under the first square platforms part is slightly different in the final.
• There are arrow signs present next to the three springs that launch the player over to the helicopter.
• The Tikal hint near the helicopter does not have rings surrounding it.
• The helicopter has a different camera during its flight scene.
• Speed Shoes box in the area after the helicopter is missing.
• There are two lives after the upper path's homing attack chain above the end of the Act. In the final, this was reduced to one.
• A circle of rings was added to the bottom of the large circular building in the middle path.
• A line of four rings on the slope leaving the circular building in the middle path was changed to a square.
• A line of six rings at the dash pads after the moving platform was reduced to four.
• The large building on the lower path only has two squares of four rings, three Cop Speeders, and a 10 ring box surrounded by a semi-circle of rings. In the final, the building adds two more squares of rings, three 5 ring boxes, two Uniduses, and changes the 10 ring box into a Shield box surrounded by a square of rings.
• The second moving platform has no rings either.
• A line of four rings at the end of the middle path (where it meets with the lower path) is missing in the AutoDemo.
• Two lines of three rings on the road approaching the area with the rocket were changed to three straight lines of four rings.
• The Spinner and the Bomb box are absent at the rocket area in the AutoDemo.
• A line of two rings next to the rocket were changed into a line of four rings in the final.
• One of the buildings in Tails' section of the map has a chunk of geometry missing.

The text for Tikal's messages in this level are as follows:

Japanese	Translated
ジャンプ中にもう一度ジャンプボタン！？ それで簡単に敵を倒せるはずよ。	(Press the) Jump button once more while jumping! Then you should be able to defeat enemies easily.
落ちないように気をつけてね！	Be careful so you don't fall!

Act 2

• The objects at the bottom of the level are arranged differently. There are no benches or posters, but there are more palm trees in the area at the bottom than the final. This is also where the level ends, with a capsule being present and the path to Act 3 is blocked off. The transition to Act 3 still exists, but the textures will be incorrect if the level is accessed this way.

Proto	Final

• There are no objects or lights in the small starting area.
• The controls moving left and right while running down the building are slightly looser than the final.
• There are no item boxes.
• The circles of rings at the end of the Act are missing.
• There are more plants on the ledges above the bottom of the level than the final.

Act 3

Along with Windy Valley, Act 3 of Speed Highway is one of the levels in the AutoDemo that has the most changes from the final game.

• Act 1's lighting is used here, as the level's own file is missing.
• The level is textured very differently to the final. For example, many platforms use brick textures rather than what they use in the final.
• There are major changes to the buildings in this part of the level, notably around the center of the map:

Proto	Final

• The camera at the start of the level for Sonic is different.
• The start of the level is noticeably different. There are rings on the small walls that aren't there in the final, the road is slightly wider, there is a continuous line of 10 rings at the dash panel near the start and a checkpoint that is not present in the final:

Proto	Final

• There are more decorations on the sidewalk, including plants and newspaper stands.
• There is an area with a speed shoes box to the right of the dash panel near the start that was replaced with a building in the final.
• There is a hole in the road with a clock tower, benches, and rings inside near the start that is not present in the final. This is the same clock tower hole that can be seen in early images of the game:

Early Screenshot	AutoDemo

• The Spinners that are at the location of the clock tower hole in the final are missing.
• On the building to the left of the hole are awnings and a platform with a ring on it that aren't there in the final.
• There is a searchlight at the top of the building to the left of the start of the stage that is not in the final.
• The Speed Shoes box on the building to the left of the start is in a different spot, and neither has the rings surrounding it or the containers near it from the final.
• There is a jump panel on the Speed Shoes building that isn't there in the final. This jump panel sends the player quite far - 9 panels, which is longer than any of the panels used in the final game.
• Three rings on a small ledge at the corner near the clock tower hole were changed to 4 rings that were more evenly spaced out across the ledge.
• The path leading the main street is wider than the final. There are also four Spinners before the glass roof that were reduced to only one in the final and there are many more plants at the area on top of the glass roof than there are in the final:

Proto	Final

• Due to the path being wider, there are 12 glass panels instead of 9 in the roof.
• The entrance to the small tunnel Sonic can run through lacks a Shield box and the ledge is narrower and not directly connected to the tunnel.
• A set of 2 rings on the ledge to the right of the panels were changed to a set of 3 in the final.
• There is a line of rings missing on the wall Sonic runs across.
• The building that Sonic can run on top of has a steeper roof with two Spinners on it. In the final, the roof is made slightly lower and the enemies are replaced with containers, rings, and a 5 ring box. There are also arrow signs on top of the building that are replaced with four posters in the final and an overhead camera that is not present in the final.
• A line of three rings is missing from the area the player can access by jumping over to the right of the building's roof.
• In the small area the player can jump across to, the 1-Up box is in a different spot and the ledge is much larger than the final. There is also a spring here that the player can use the jump onto the building in front of them as a shortcut to the end. In the final, this is replaced with a small passage with a wall between it and the 1-Up box.
• The clock at the loop in the road has a different base to the final.
• There are two Cop Speeders near the clock that are not in the final.
• The sidewalk is lined with rings, dash panels, and springs both on the sidewalk and on small ledges attached to the sides of the buildings. In the final, only one line of springs remains and are accessed through a Spinner floating over the road (that of course does not exist in the AutoDemo) and sends the player into a small tunnel.
• The level goes downhill. In the final, it goes uphill instead:

Proto	Final

• The two buildings that the cars drive under are much shorter and able to be walked on top of in the AutoDemo.
• The path where Sonic runs along a wall after the first tunnel is different, featuring things such as glass panels.
• There is a second tunnel that is not present in the final.
• The last tunnel is in the form of a ramp and has arrow signs and a Speed Shoes box on top of it.
• There is a long, raised platform that is not in the final at all near the end of the stage. It has two lines of rings, a 10 ring item box, a Unidus, and the fountain that sends you to the end, with a support column in place of the fountain's final location.
• The buildings in the center of the road area are very different to the final. They only have two containers on them and the building heights are much different to the final. The small tunnel with steps in from the final is also missing.
• The Cop Speeders near the end of the stage are in different locations to the final.
• The spring to enter the small tunnel in the building near the fountain does not launch Sonic high enough.
• There are four extra rings in the fountain.
• There are a ton of rings around the city hall building that were considerably reduced in the final.
• There are three springs to the left of city hall and one spring to the right of it. In the final, there is one spring on the left and two springs on the right.
• There are dash panels in front of city hall that lead to the spring to the right of the building. The 1-Up box there is also missing.

This version of Speed Highway is very close to the one used in early images for the game, with the main differences being that the early images lack buildings in the background and have a greater draw distance:

Early Screenshot	AutoDemo	Final

The background image in this version is still a bit different from the one in the final game - the buildings are darker, along with some very minor tweaks to certain rooftops.

Proto	Final

Knuckles' version has an outdated object file, meaning none of the objects that appear in the level are correct. He can still find Master Emerald shards, but sometimes the third shard won't appear, making the level impossible to complete, likely due to the shard being inside nonexistent enemies or objects. The trash can object that goes unused in the final can be seen with its original design and textures here.

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  The long platform.

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  The top end of the stage.

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  The base of the platform near the end.

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  The incorrect object layout when playing as Knuckles.

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  The trash can object.

Act 3 also uses some unique textures that were deleted before the final game.

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  The windows had two more unique reflections.

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  The fountain used a unique water texture.

Object Model Differences

Some objects for this stage differ from the final game, mostly in the textures that they use. Some models also received slight redesigns.

Rooftop Tanks

Autodemo	Final

The rooftop tanks that Knuckles can destroy in Act 3 were all given a redesign, with one of the tanks changing drastically. All of the tanks changed to be more shiny, rendering their unique non-shiny textures deleted from the final game. Although not shown, the bases of the tanks, as well as the pipe and ladders for each, also all received the same treatment. Below are the unique textures that were used by them in this build.

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Radio Tower

Autodemo	Final

The radio tower seen in Tails's area in the final game has a completely different design. This object is not normally seen in this build because Tails lacks his own SET file for the stage.

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  The texture used by the main structure.

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  The unique antenna light.

Bell

Autodemo	Final

One of the more well-known differences for this stage's objects is that the bell used to be blue instead of gold. Incidentally, this was due to the bell once having its own unique texture, shown below. In the final this texture was deleted and the bell was set to use a generic metal gold texture instead.

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Trash Can

Autodemo	Final (Unused)

As shown previously, the unused trash can object from the final game is used in the stage in this build, with a different design. All of its unique textures were deleted in the final due to the redesign.

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Plants

Autodemo	Final

A couple plant decorations also saw some texture changes. The different textures used by these objects were deleted from the object texture file for this stage in the final game, but are still used elsewhere in the game. One texture, however, was unique to the Autodemo, and is not present in the final game at all, shown below.

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Lights

Autodemo	Final

The skylights in the stage originally used more unique textures. In the final, the design was simplified. Additionally, the light rotates from the very bottom of the light in the Autodemo, and just below the middle of it in the final.

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Autodemo	Final

The small pink pyramid lights seen around the level originally had their own unique light texture.

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Autodemo	Final

A couple objects in this stage in the Autodemo use an early version of a final texture that is rotated 90 degrees and contains transparency for some reason. This leads to the odd appearance of this light object.

Autodemo	Final

Arrow Sign

Autodemo	Final

Received a minor design change and uses the early caution texture mentioned above.

Grass Pads

Autodemo	Final

The grass patches in Act 3 once had a few different textures, and some more unique ones as well. In the final, a couple were deleted, and the remaining ones were shuffled (With one of them being slightly changed).

Autodemo	Final

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  A slightly differently-colored version of this texture is actually used on the Egg Carrier in the final game.

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  The unique grass.

Wall Platforms

Autodemo	Final

The wall platforms in Act 3 were all originally smaller, and were doubled in length in the final likely due to most of their uses in the Autodemo having them placed in pairs anyway.

Misc Texture Changes

The clock in Act 3 used a different reflection texture for its glass that was, you guessed it, deleted from the final game:

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The newspaper bins in Act 3 are slightly smaller than the final game, and are also for some reason made up of three separate models each. The final game has them each as one individual model. A couple tiny textures were used on these early versions of them, but it's barely noticeable.

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Cars

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The cars seen driving around the stage are all the early versions seen in screenshots and footage from the game's unveiling. Their proper textures are not supplied in the build, though.

Normal	Alternate

The van has an alternate version of itself that is also used in the stage, and the fourth car variant seen in the final is nowhere to be seen, although its collision does exist. The alternate van design has some additional details on the model, the textures for which are either unknown, or not supplied in the build but can be found in the final game elsewhere.

Unused Textures

There are a small handful of textures supplied with this version of the level that not only go unused in this build, but were also deleted before the final game.

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  A wood texture with an insignia on it. Sort of looks like a car.

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  A tiny black texture.

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  A noisy white-colored texture. Name could possibly hint at it being used for a scrapped telephone model.

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  A small grey texture.

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  An unused pipe-themed ad.

There are numerous textures for some kind of stoplight object, which cannot be found in this build nor the final game.

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