Kazza
Member
As part of Sonic Month, the Hidden Palace website ("a community dedicated to the preservation of video game development media (such as prototypes, hardware, source code, artwork, and more") has released a hitherto unreleased Mega CD/Sega CD tech demo, as well as some early Sonic CD prototypes.
Firstly the tech demo.
It was originally shown to journalists at the 1992 Summer Consumer Electronics Show (SCES):
The journalists were quite excited by what they saw, although most of the info in this news piece turned out to be incorrect:
Hidden Palace's excellent article gives a bit of background on the newly formed team behind the demo disk:
Among the first things this new studio did was to develop the following tech demo, showing all all the new CD system was capable of (FMV, scaling, rotation, storage, CD quality audio etc):
It's a real eclectic mix of different things, with a rather grump looking Sonic standing on a CD, Bugs Bunny, Toe Jam and Earl, Angels:
It's Joe Montana and Batman flying through space with strange expressions on their faces which makes me laugh though:
This new Sega Multimedia Studio is news to me, but it sounds like it was a pretty big deal at the time, with over 200 people involved in one form or another, all with the task to make content for the Sega CD. The only two games I can find attributable to the studio are Jurassic Park (which turned out pretty good) and a platformer called Wild Woody (which I never heard of until today). It seems likely that they were involved in those upgraded CD versions of Genesis games too (Ecco etc). It's a shame that technology was moving so fast that the Sega CD/Mega CD never had the time to show off its potential - the 32-bit systems would arrive just a couple of years later. Still, that tech reminds me what got me excited about the system in the first place.
I think the Sonic CD prototypes are considerably less interesting (a changed title screen here, unfinished level design there). Here is the earliest released prototype:
Firstly the tech demo.
It was originally shown to journalists at the 1992 Summer Consumer Electronics Show (SCES):
The journalists were quite excited by what they saw, although most of the info in this news piece turned out to be incorrect:
Hidden Palace's excellent article gives a bit of background on the newly formed team behind the demo disk:
In late 1991, Sega began putting together a brand new studio that would help achieve this goal called Sega Multimedia Studio.
Sega invested $10 million dollars into creating an environment that would not only serve as one of its main R&D divisions in Redwood, California, but would eventually become a studio that could create high budget, high quality games for its future systems. The function of the division had changed over time of course, but in the beginning it was created primarily to provide support for the Sega CD. The studio was an attempt by Sega to have all development under one roof, like STI. Unlike other video game companies at the time, Sega would eventually employ over 200 programmers, musicians, and artists to create games for the Sega CD. To make sure that all technological fronts were covered, Sega even provided this division with its own recording studio! Sega invested many of its resources in hiring many great talents, such as Spencer Nilsen, David Young, Brian Coburn, and Dave Javelosa - all were there since the division's inception to provide music for almost two dozen Sega titles.
Among the first things this new studio did was to develop the following tech demo, showing all all the new CD system was capable of (FMV, scaling, rotation, storage, CD quality audio etc):
It's a real eclectic mix of different things, with a rather grump looking Sonic standing on a CD, Bugs Bunny, Toe Jam and Earl, Angels:
It's Joe Montana and Batman flying through space with strange expressions on their faces which makes me laugh though:
This new Sega Multimedia Studio is news to me, but it sounds like it was a pretty big deal at the time, with over 200 people involved in one form or another, all with the task to make content for the Sega CD. The only two games I can find attributable to the studio are Jurassic Park (which turned out pretty good) and a platformer called Wild Woody (which I never heard of until today). It seems likely that they were involved in those upgraded CD versions of Genesis games too (Ecco etc). It's a shame that technology was moving so fast that the Sega CD/Mega CD never had the time to show off its potential - the 32-bit systems would arrive just a couple of years later. Still, that tech reminds me what got me excited about the system in the first place.
News/Sonic Month Part 1 - Sega No. 1
Hidden Palace and The Cutting Room Floor present...
hiddenpalace.org
I think the Sonic CD prototypes are considerably less interesting (a changed title screen here, unfinished level design there). Here is the earliest released prototype:
Hidden Palace
The Hidden Palace is a community dedicated to the preservation of video game development media (such as prototypes, hardware, source code, artwork, and more). This website can be utilized as a catalog for the items that we and others are able to collect and share.
hiddenpalace.org
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