Yes, most of the content here is the same as on my old site, but you'll notice the image quality has improved greatly. This will surely make it easier for you to take in the information.

A Tour of the Secret Zones

Many magazines showed pictures of Sonic the Hedgehog as the game was in development. Here are some pictures which show some crazy things not in the final game!

Case 01: Green Hill Zone

Wow! Green Hill Zone set at night! Notice the mountains in the background? Also, the picture on the left has a very different looking Sonic sprite (a tad skinny) and the other picture features a sign which clearly says "Welcome" at the top. I'm sorry that the picture is so blocky. The reason for this is because it was too small.

Case 02: Marble Zone

These two pictures are pure madness! The first one has Sonic doing some fancy footwork in the sky, while the second one has a foreign enemy in it. Also, notice how Sonic's rings are flying outward. Those UFO's are in quite a few Sonic 1 promotional pictures so they were probably removed quite late in the game's development.

Someone E-mailed me and said this picture must be a hoax, because it has the word "Ring" instead of "Rings" (the most anorak observation someone could make). I won't name this person because, sadly, they are horribly wrong. Soon afterwards, Solly E-mailed me saying that he/she (I'm not sure) was the one who sent me the picture and that it is not a hoax! It is a screenshot of Marble Zone, obviously, from the ECTS. Wow :)

Case 03: Spring Yard Zone

Not much is known about the origins of this zones except that the name was changed from Sparkling Zone to Spring Yard Zone. Yes, I know there is a high risk of your brain exploding because it can't handle so much information about this zone, but I just had to tell you:)

Case 04: Labyrinth Zone

This zone doesn't look much different except that those big crystals on the ceiling aren't there at the start.

Case 05: Starlight Zone

You might be eating you brain trying to figure out what is so special about this picture. Well, I'll tell you. This location isn't found anywhere in Starlight Zone.

Case 06: Scrap Brain Zone

The strange thing about this screenshot is that the name doesn't make sense. Clock Ork Zone? I think they meant Clockwork Zone. Also, this part of the level in the final Sonic 1 doesn't have that background.

Case 07: Crazy Removals

This ball is in Debug Mode, you can't do a thing with it.

Case 08: Knuckles in Sonic 1

This picture of Knuckles in Sonic 1 (when attached to Sonic and Knuckles) remained a mystery until Lindsay Stevens came forward with the truth.
"I would just like to inform everybody that the picture of Knuckles in STH1 is, indeed, fake. I happen to live in Australia, and, I used to buy the magazine in question (Sega Megazone) every month untill it shut down. A few months after they reviewed S&K and printed that picture, they admitted to a readers' question that it was, indeed a hoax. Just look at it. There's no lives counter. Sega Megazone got a bit of a reputation for tricking people like this, and, I believe that this is why they were closed down."
Interestingly, in the last issue of Sega Megazone, they said they were closing down because of French bombing in the Pacific Ocean, but I think the real reason they closed was their decline in sales due to the diminishing support for Sega.