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By Dariean
<dariean@ten.net>  
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Pyramid Beta
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Heres my theory of the removed levels from Sonic 2,
The Beta ROM and Dust Hill. Ill address each in order.


First order of business is the Removed Levels -
Hidden Palace, Genocide City and Neo Green Hills.
Lets think in terms of how Sega handled this
situation - a Sega Genesis cart holds about 6 megs of
info, it works like a realllly small hard drive. So
it can be assumed that sega removed the 2 levels (HP
and GC) and proceeded to add the 2 other levels
(Sky Chase and the one after Metropolis - i forgot
the name. :) ). Then, the Renamed Neo GH to Aquatic,
which has been established as truth.

Now, that theory checks out according to size
limitations, but still doesnt make sense. WHY?
Because. The beta ROM we have is in ENGLISH. NOT
Japanese, like the Jap. Sonic 2 is.

Why does this matter?

Simple.
A Beta test whouldnt be written in english, simply
because its NOT the language the games developers
were speaking, which was Japanese. Why whould you
write a game in a language you cant understand as
well as your home language?

Which leads me to believe that theres 3 (three)
missing carts out there - the Alpha, the Beta
and the Final. (Not shipping) version of the game.

So we are NOT playing a beta test. Beta tests are,
as a rule in the industry, what lead to shipping.

There's no Gamma or Delta in Sega's dev cycle,
Only Nintento practices those.

What are we playing? Near as I can tell a Pre-Beta,
but not an Alpha, as shown by Tails - there was not
Tails in the alpha. This is proven by EGM's article
in I believe June of 92' stating that there was
going to be a new character, but its undecided
yet as to who or what it was.
Speculation lead to Rotor or Bunny, for those of you
familiar with the comic series - which sucks. :)

The article has shots of Dust Hill (the DESERT)
and of Green Hills (Emerald Hills).
So, what about Dust Hill?

Dust Hill cant possibly be Mystic Caves, because
Mystic Caves was called "Deep Caves" in the Alpha,
and to prove that Mystic caves isnt Dust Hill, the
Theory of overwriting the file isnt true, because if
it was overwritten, the music bytes would have gone
with it - dont forget Segas magical "BLAST PROCESSING"
used in Sonic 2 - it stored all the data for the
levels in the level file so more animation and process
or intensive things could be used. So the music would
have gone with the level...

So wheres the level?

Near as I can tell, its was never on a sonic 2 cart
before pre-beta because of the traction physics that
are shown in the pic.

I know the picture that is on the page over at 
http://www.emulationzone.org/sections/sonic/secret/page3.html
is either a complete hoax or a very early screen,
like I said before. If you look closely, look at
sonic. (Load it in PaintShop Pro or something,
then zoom in.)

Thats the Sonic 1 sonic, as defined by the
sharper colors and different animation frame.

Also, hes *walking on air* which also says early version.

Now, if the pic is a hoax, I know the level isnt.
Ive seen many more shots from this in EGM
from june 92' till the relase. Ive seen the Boss,
some monsters and basic layout, so I know its real.

The boss was a giant "pyramid" that shot lasers
from the top and tried to crush Sonic...!
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Taken from 'Secrets of Sonic the Hedgehog - The Original'
http://secretsonic.cjb.net
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