
They were the only major Japanese developer/publisher that really kept complete archives, dating all the way back to when they first starting making electronic games (hell, they actually just released a previously un-released English version of Sky Skipper, a game from 1981 that was apparantly lost to time until it got a surprise release on Switch last year!)
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They've kept literally everything (barring a few things that were accidentally lost, like the original Link's Awakening source code - evidenced by how LADX shows signs of having been reverse engineered from a retail ROM of the original B&W LA), they even kept all of their original paper-based level design documentation and design documents! (They actually do make these public on occasion, as was the case when they released Starfox 2 on the SNES mini). Worth noting that Nintendo are the best archivists in the entire industry. I say literally, because people have been doing that, making new fan games out of lost content, for years now. There has been quite literally enough lost content that has been found over the years to fill out an entire game's worth of stuff. I feel like Sonic Crackers was the epitome of that. Sonic development just feels outright mysterious, like a treasure chest of unseen things. The tentpole releases of this scene always seem to hinge on that factor - if they can show the public something they've never seen before. It was more like "holy shit, THAT is where this screenshot comes from!" kinds of moments.Īlthough, to be sure, the Simon Wai prototype also was amazing because of all the stuff we didn't have pictures of, like the Green Hill Zone port, or Wood Zone. So when the Simon Wai prototype showed up, everyone was out of their minds nuts because we already knew what we were searching for. Like, it was seriously underground stuff at the time. I didn't even know you could dump carts back then, that was all so. Then, like a couple of weeks after that dude showed his cart online, boom, it was dumped. It was nuts because all of the sudden, some dude had a cart with all the levels and screenshots we had been documenting, and emulation was basically brand new, having really only taken off in late 1997. I remember when the Simon Wai prototype showed up, I had already been a member of the scene for several years. All fans need to do now is wait for Sonic Origins to release.Before any prototypes were unearthed, we all knew what we were looking for. While some fans may disagree with the way Sonic CD is placed on the new timeline, Origins' cutscenes may provide evidence or story beats that make the placement more sensible.
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Between the TailsTube series that answers lore questions, as well as Flynn being a writer for the latest official guidebook, Sonic Origins is one step toward establishing brand stability for the franchise.

The writer for Sonic Frontiers, Ian Flynn, has also been tasked with writing Origins' cutscenes, which Flynn is helping Sega set up a proper Sonic timeline.Īfter 30 years of leaving the Classic Sonic timeline vague, Sega choosing to suddenly fill in the blanks isn't something it decided without a bigger reason. This is being done as part of an attempt to revitalize Sonic in the build-up to Sonic Frontiers.

Considering how the collection aims to create a more cohesive narrative between games, the order is most likely for the sake of keeping things consistent. While there are plenty of reasons for both sides of the argument, Sonic Origins seems to insist that Sonic CD comes before Sonic 2.
