Hidden Palace have gifted the community one of the most significant ROM dumps of any SEGA game for their final release of 2020.

The team have released the very first publicly available prototype of the original Sonic the Hedgehog for Mega Drive, and it is downloadable right now and playable in either an emulator or on real hardware.

You may have seen the various unused gameplay elements and alternate artwork from this prototype in pre-release footage or the various magazine coverage from the time. This includes the UFOs in Marble Garden Zone, the different neon signs in Spring Yard Zone, the checkerboard ball that Sonic can run on in Green Hill Zone and the different stage titles for Spring Yard Zone and Scrap Brain Zone. Well, they’re all in this prototype and it makes for a fascinating insight into the game’s development.

Download the Sonic the Hedgehog prototype now by clicking here. Thank you to everyone at Hidden Palace for digitally preserving such an important piece of SEGA history.

[Source: Hidden Palace]

sonicyoda

Webmaster and lead writer at SEGADriven. Likes old games, heavy music and too much pizza. Follow on Twitter @kronkblats

Tags: hidden palace, mega drive, platform game, prototype, rom dump, sega genesis, sonic the hedgehog

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