Proto:Sonic the Hedgehog 3/Stage Differences/Sonic & Knuckles Zones

This is a sub-page of Proto:Sonic the Hedgehog 3/Stage Differences.

At this point in development, the Sonic & Knuckles zones (with the exception of Flying Battery and the Bonus Stages) have been removed from the game, although some data remains leftover for them.

General

• With the exception of Flying Battery Zone (which technically is between Carnival Night Zone and Ice Cap Zone), all of the levels between Mushroom Valley Zone and The Doomsday Zone reuse Launch Base Zone's title cards. Additionally, any level after The Doomsday Zone shows no title card.
• Unless otherwise noted, all acts are assigned their intended music.

Mushroom Valley Zone

Act	November 3	Final	Sonic & Knuckles Collection
ACT1
ACT2

This zone has been mostly removed from the game at this point.

• The level is titled "Mushroom Valley" in the level select. This early name is still used in the final game, but it was renamed Mushroom Hill in Sonic & Knuckles.
• As soon as you spawn in, Sonic and Tails die.
• Early versions of the badniks exist, and can be placed in debug mode.
• An early version of the Hei Ho miniboss is implemented.
• A decompression error corrupts nearly all the graphics. A fix is provided below.
• Uses Azure Lake's graphics and color palettes. Leftover palette data unique to this prototype exists, which is documented below.
• An object layout is intact for both acts, but it doesn't fit the later Sonic 3C 0408 prototype Mushroom Hill Zone layouts.
• Some unique background scrolling code is still intact.

Decompression Fixes

• 04A8D0:46EE - MVZ ACT1 decompression fix (Part 1)
• 04A8D4:46EE - MVZ ACT1 decompression fix (Part 2)
• 04A8E8:46EE - MVZ ACT2 decompression fix (Part 1)
• 04A8EC:46EE - MVZ ACT2 decompression fix (Part 2)

Unused Color Palettes

Unused color palettes can be found at offsets 0x1F2F0E, 0x1F582A for Act 1 and 0x1F2F6E, 0x1F588A for Act 2. These color palettes are identical for both acts and completely different from any of the palettes used for the final game. Two colors are wrong here, the brightest white, causing rings and the HUD to look incorrect, and the darkest shade of the ground colors being white, possibly meaning the art of Mushroom Hill could have been different during development.

A re-imagining of how Mushroom Valley Zone may have looked. This screenshot is taken from the Sonic 3C 0408 prototype using this prototype's color palettes.

Layout Differences

To do: Actual comparisons. Fix MVZ 1103 maps.

Mushroom Valley Zone Act 1 Map

November 3rd (only object layout)
Error creating thumbnail: convert: ../../magick/quantum.c:216: DestroyQuantumInfo: Assertion `quantum_info != (QuantumInfo *) NULL' failed. /usr/bin/timeout: the monitored command dumped core /var/www/tcrf/includes/shell/limit.sh: line 101: 3016 Aborted /usr/bin/timeout $MW_WALL_CLOCK_LIMIT /bin/bash -c "$1" 3>&- Error code: 134
Sonic 3C 0408

Mushroom Valley Zone Act 2 Map

November 3rd (only object layout)
Error creating thumbnail: convert: ../../magick/quantum.c:216: DestroyQuantumInfo: Assertion `quantum_info != (QuantumInfo *) NULL' failed. /usr/bin/timeout: the monitored command dumped core /var/www/tcrf/includes/shell/limit.sh: line 101: 3021 Aborted /usr/bin/timeout $MW_WALL_CLOCK_LIMIT /bin/bash -c "$1" 3>&- Error code: 134
Sonic 3C 0408

Flying Battery Zone

Act	November 3	Final	Sonic & Knuckles Collection
ACT1
ACT2

Flying Battery Zone is in a very preliminary state, lacking animated tiles and many objects. This is the former stage 5 which, as a result, Ice Cap zone is listed as level 6 and Launch Base as level 7.

Proto	Level Select Icon

• The background is different, and matches the design seen in the zone's unused level icon. Oddly, the palette in the icon is a bit more blue. It additionally always uses the indoor background even in outdoor sections, and features "EGG" capsules not present in the final.
• The background isn't set to loop and as a result, the background becomes more broken as you progress.
• The Act 1 boss position matches that with Sonic the Hedgehog 3 Alone and Sonic 3C 0408.
• Act 2's layout is even less complete.
• The Barrier Eggman boss isn't in the level. Its object does exist within the data, though. The boss arena also exists, although the boss itself locks the screen much higher for some reason, possibly leftover from an earlier layout.
• Act 2's boss position matches that with Sonic the Hedgehog 3 Alone.
• Act transitions are once again not present.
• There are color palette cycles listed for both Acts, but they are empty. Perhaps the lights in the background could have been intended to animate.

Unused Chunks

To do: There is a lot of unused chunks left. Chunks that were altered in 0408 onward.

• 

  ID F3. Meant for the background, this chunk is intended to combine with FD, F9, and F4.

• 

  ID F4. Meant for the background, this chunk is intended to combine with FD, F9, and F3.

• 

  ID F9. Meant for the background, this chunk is intended to combine with FD, F4, and F3.

• 

  ID FD. Meant for the background, this chunk is intended to combine with F9, F4, and F3.

The unused background chunks, once combined, look like this.

Layout Differences

To do: Actual comparisons.

Flying Battery Zone Act 1

November 3rd
Sonic 3C 0408
Final (Sonic & Knuckles)

Flying Battery Zone Act 2

November 3rd
Sonic 3C 0408
Final (Sonic & Knuckles)

Flying Battery Zone Background

Proto	Final (Sonic & Knuckles)

Lava Reef Zone

Act	November 3	Final	Sonic & Knuckles Collection
ACT1
ACT2

Proto	Proto (Restored)

Lava Reef is normally broken upon loading, but it's possible to make it playable by forcing the game to load leftover data from an earlier build, which just so happens to contain all of the necessary data for Act 1. The only data that is missing is collision. The prototype contains a set of 6 identical maps for Act 1 and 1 map for Act 2, which both have differences, there are 7 complete maps and 2 identical map fragments. Unfortunately, no graphical data for Act 2 is present in the ROM.

Act 1 seems to be the most intact of the Sonic & Knuckles Zones, having a full layout prepared for it, albeit completely lacking objects.

• The level's palette is completely different from the final.
• The pipes were completely redrawn and replaced in later builds.
• The upper-right path was shrunk down in the final game.

Full Maps

• 0x1EB85E LRZ2
• 0x1EC4CE LRZ1
• 0x1ED2F6 LRZ1
• 0x1EE11E LRZ1
• 0x1EEF46 LRZ1
• 0x1EFD6E LRZ1
• 0x1F0B96 LRZ1

Fragmented Maps

• 0x1EAF4A LRZ1
• 0x1F3EC4 LRZ1

Download Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (Nov 3, 1993 prototype - LRZ1 restored) File: Sonic 3 (Nov 3, 1993 prototype - LRZ1 restored).bin (2 MB) (info)

Download Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (Nov 3, 1993 prototype - LRZ2 restored) File: Sonic_3_(Sonic_3_Nov_3_1993_prototype_-_LRZ2restored).bin (2 MB) (info)

(Source: Drx)

Color Palettes

Act 1		Lava Reef Zone color palettes 0x1F58EA (Act 1) and 0x1F59AA (Act 2).
Act 2		A color palette for Lava Reef Act 2 is located at 0x1F594A or 0x1F302E. This color palette does not match well with any known version of Act 2. However, a few of the colors are recognizable to the final version, albeit arranged very differently.

Background

Act 1 Background

Proto
Final (Sonic & Knuckles)

(Background, Map Rips: evilhamwizard)

The lava channels, far-end cavern hollow background, and Death Egg were redrawn. The coloration is also more blue-green in the prototype.

• The HUD uses an incorrect palette here. The second palette line apparently has not been defined and is only using a single color in place of white.

Unused Chunks

Act 1:

• 

  ID 7E. Only a single chunk is not used in the level.

Act 2:
Although the map contains several unused chunks, these may have been intended for the boss area.
1D, 1E, 32, 82, 86, 99, A8, A9, AA, AB, AC, AD, AE, AF, B0, B1, B2, B3, B4, B5, B8, D4, D5, D6, D7, D8, D9, DA, DB, DC, DD, DE, DF, F0, F1, F2, F3, F4, F5, F6, F7, F8, F9, FA, FB, FC, FD, FE, FF.

Layout Differences

Lava Reef Zone Act 1 Map

November 3rd
Sonic 3C 0408
Final (Sonic & Knuckles)

Lava Reef Zone Act 2 Map

November 3rd using S&K dataset and palette, with chunk IDs shifted / remapped
Sonic 3C 0408
Final (Sonic & Knuckles)

Unimplemented Zones

To do: Add the missing music rips, with the S&KC versions for consistency.

The remainder of the main Sonic & Knuckles zones all use placeholder data from Angel Island Zone, indicating that the levels proper weren't yet implemented into the game.

Act 1	Act 2

There are still some interesting things to look at in here, as level data isn't the only part of what makes a zone.
Note that all of these levels still use the placeholder entries in the final version of Sonic the Hedgehog 3.

Sandopolis Zone

• The Act 1 boss is coded into the game, and can be spawned through hacking. Behavior is a little different from the final and it cannot be defeated.
• The music is only slightly different from the final.

Sky Sanctuary Zone

November 3	Final	Sonic & Knuckles Collection

• While the title card reuses Launch Base Zone's, the act number is missing. This is because the hardcoded zone check in the title card code is already implemented.
• The music instrumentation here is quite different.
• Act 2 oddly uses Death Egg Zone Act 1's music. This is likely the result of the Death Egg's track being right after Sky Sanctuary's.

Death Egg Zone

• The music is almost identical to the final.
• Both acts use Death Egg Zone Act 2's music.

The Doomsday Zone

November 3	Final	Sonic & Knuckles Collection

• Much like Sky Sanctuary, the act number is missing.
• The music here has different instrumentation on a few parts.

Zone ID $0D

• In the final version of Sonic the Hedgehog 3, Act 1 of the zone was used as a dummy slot for loading in the stage data instead of the intro cutscene data when skipping the intro cutscene in Angel Island Zone act 1. This special case isn't yet implemented, so both acts of the zone are still using the default placeholders.
• Unlike the final game, this zone lacks a title card.
• Uses the Special Stage music, much like the final game.

Zone ID $16

• Act 1 was later used for Lava Reef Act 3 or Lava Reef's boss.
• Act 2 was later used for Hidden Palace Zone.
• Both acts play the Special Stage music, like the final game.

Zone ID $17

• Act 1 was later used for Death Egg Zone's boss.
• Act 2 was used for the alternate Hidden Palace Zone that is accessed through a big ring in Sonic & Knuckles.
• Both acts use the special stage music, like the final game.