Was Knuckles a red Sonic in the prototype of sonic 3? Probably...

[Oblivionthehog]

Hey guys my name is João, I am from Portugal and in the 90's we used to have our own game magazine the "MAXI consolas", well during that time I would buy that magazine every month just to see some new games from the Mega Drive!

One day I found something amazing! Sonic 3!!!

I was like FTW! And thing were awesome, I saw some pictures of the game and I noticed a red Sonic called Dreds, he was a Sonic clone created by Robotnik.

I thought "Well sound awesome maybe he has other powers, playing with him would be cool!"...

And so the game was released but it seemed different Dreds was now Knuckles not a red hedgehog but an echidna!

Years later (yesterday) I found the magazine once again, I was like "O.O I had the holly grail in my house all this time?" back then it wasn't nothing special but now it was more then that!

So I scanned the magazine and here are the pics:

http://i1264.photobu....aoRobalo/1.jpg

http://s1264.photobu....&current=3.jpg

I dunno seems rather amazing.

Guys I found a neeeeeew thingy in the middle of my magazine box!

This one is from the same magazine company "Maxi consolas" and its from a month after the other magazine.

So This new pic shows "Dred" gliding...I guess...

Here's the magazine article...

Edited August 7, 2012 by Oblivionthehog

[Indigo Rush]

...huh. It seems like a place-holder for Knuckles while they were still designing him. It would make sense since palette-swapping was a simple action back then. That's some awesome info, though. I think the folks at Sonic Retro would really appreciate it!

Edited August 6, 2012 by Indigo Rush

[Oblivionthehog]

...huh. It seems like a place-holder for Knuckles while they were still designing him. It would make sense since pallet-swapping was a simple action back then. That's some awesome info, though. I think the folks at Sonic Retro would really appreciate it!

I tried to join the site but the validation thingy takes a while so...its so awful

Thanks anyways.

[MegaMan_EXE]

Wow. That's pretty cool. It would've been interesting if they used this instead of Knuckles.

Also, if Dimensions pulled through and was confirmed, we probably would've seen this red Sonic.

That's a mindblow, because I never heard of that. Ever. XD

[Marcello]

Barry the Redhog??!

[Vertekins]

This is such an early beta that it uses Sonic 2 sprites. It is entirely possible that the red Sonic is Knuckles' temporary sprite and isn't a reflection of a beta design.

[Person]

WOW! Nice discovery! I don't think this was ever mentioned before. Also, in regards to this picture:

Could you please scan the Sonic art to the right? I want to know if it's concept art, or rarely seen stock art or something. A full scan of the page would also be very appreciated, if you can. It's a good thing you didn't throw this out!

Edited August 6, 2012 by a person

[McGroose]

In the 2nd picture, why would Sonic Tails, and the Knuckles alpha sprite be in Knuckles final boss area? The original Sky Sanctuary for Sonic had Angel Island in it maybe? It looks like Sonic is Fighting Knuckles there. So what happened to Hidden Palace?

Nice find. Its always nice to see more information on the early stages of the games come up, and we don't really have much as Sonic 3 beta/alpha information as we do to something like Sonic 1 or especially 2. This looks like it goes right to the very early development of Sonic 3.

Edited August 6, 2012 by Mephiles550

[Person]

In the 2nd picture, why would Sonic Tails, and the Knuckles alpha sprite be in Knuckles final boss area? The original Sky Sanctuary for Sonic had Angel Island in it maybe? It looks like Sonic is Fighting Knuckles there. So what happened to Hidden Palace?

I assume it's the part where Knuckles is running along to the teleporters and such, and Sonic's just jumping, but it could be the fight. Also, isn't Sky Sanctuary from Sonic and Knuckles? So this may have been at the point where they weren't seperated games.

EDIT: also:

yeah, "Dreds" is in Sonic Jam 6

Edited August 6, 2012 by a person

[Oblivionthehog]

WOW! Nice discovery! I don't think this was ever mentioned before. Also, in regards to this picture:

Could you please scan the Sonic art to the right? I want to know if it's concept art, or rarely seen stock art or something. A full scan of the page would also be very appreciated, if you can. It's a good thing you didn't throw this out!

Yes I can do it, though I am curious...I have one more magazine that has more info about Sonic 3 I need to look around (I am the kind of guy who doesn't throw game related stuff away) after a quick search I'll do it with gusto

[Law]

It could be related to this concept art of Knuckles.

[Oblivionthehog]

I assume it's the part where Knuckles is running along to the teleporters and such, and Sonic's just jumping, but it could be the fight. Also, isn't Sky Sanctuary from Sonic and Knuckles? So this may have been at the point where they weren't seperated games.

EDIT: also:

yeah, "Dreds" is in Sonic Jam 6

Oh! Its that pirate game where Sonic is in Mario's world!

It could be related to this concept art of Knuckles.

Oh my...and I thought Megaman's cover art was an abomination O.O is...is this even original?

[...]

WOW! Nice discovery! I don't think this was ever mentioned before. Also, in regards to this picture:

Could you please scan the Sonic art to the right? I want to know if it's concept art, or rarely seen stock art or something. A full scan of the page would also be very appreciated, if you can. It's a good thing you didn't throw this out!

I think the Sonic art could be this:

Notice, the shoe in the bottom right of a magazine scan matches this one, and his belly in both this picture, and the scan are the same (noting the curve to the left), and so does the arm pointing up.

[Oblivionthehog]

I think the Sonic art could be this:

Notice, the shoe in the bottom right of a magazine scan matches this one, and his belly in both this picture, and the scan are the same (noting the curve to the left), and so does the arm pointing up.

Yap! Its the same one alright thanks!

[Pixel Brain]

Notice the Redhog's original name, Dreds... Maybe they had even gotten Knux's design together by this point, but haven't though of the final name yet, and were still trying to make his pixel art. That would explain why they were using Sonic as a placeholder (to an extent).

[Diogenes]

The Sky Sanctuary pic is almost certainly a mockup; if you size it to match Sonic's sprite, Angel Island is much bigger than it should be:

The AIZ pic is a lot more accurate, but I think they might've squished the background a bit.

Given this, this "red Sonic" may not have ever existed in-game, or even been anything Sega was planning; the guys at the magazine may have heard that Sonic was getting a spiky red rival, and extrapolated/made up a bunch of stuff

[SweeCrue]

Cool, Blue Knuckles has a brother/rival/boyfriend now!

Red Sonic x Blue Knuckles is now my OTP!

Edited August 6, 2012 by Sweecrue

[Oblivionthehog]

Guys I found a neeeeeew thingy in the middle of my magazine box!

This one is from the same magazine company "Maxi consolas" and its from a month after the other magazine.

So This new pic shows "Dred" gliding...I guess...

[Wittymations]

Given this, this "red Sonic" may not have ever existed in-game, or even been anything Sega was planning; the guys at the magazine may have heard that Sonic was getting a spiky red rival, and extrapolated/made up a bunch of stuff

Are they even allowed to do that? I mean, yeah, there was truth to it -- but are they allowed to give loose truth like that? Guess I'd have to look at Portugal's press laws or something.

[Diogenes]

Are they even allowed to do that? I mean, yeah, there was truth to it -- but are they allowed to give loose truth like that? Guess I'd have to look at Portugal's press laws or something.

It's an old video game magazine; they could probably spout whatever ridiculous rumor or misinterpretation they could come up with.

[Chaos Warp]

The Sky Sanctuary pic is almost certainly a mockup; if you size it to match Sonic's sprite, Angel Island is much bigger than it should be:

The AIZ pic is a lot more accurate, but I think they might've squished the background a bit.

Given this, this "red Sonic" may not have ever existed in-game, or even been anything Sega was planning; the guys at the magazine may have heard that Sonic was getting a spiky red rival, and extrapolated/made up a bunch of stuff

It may not match the final game if this is what it really looks like, an early beta. Just saying.

[Vertekins]

Mock-up screenshots can be created and released by SEGA themselves. After all, the infamous Dust Hill Zone mock up that was released to the media during Sonic 2's development was actually cobbled together by Brenda Ross, a graphic designer at STI at the time.

[Carbo]

The Sky Sanctuary pic is almost certainly a mockup; if you size it to match Sonic's sprite, Angel Island is much bigger than it should be:

The AIZ pic is a lot more accurate, but I think they might've squished the background a bit.

Given this, this "red Sonic" may not have ever existed in-game, or even been anything Sega was planning; the guys at the magazine may have heard that Sonic was getting a spiky red rival, and extrapolated/made up a bunch of stuff

How would the two magazines obtain assets such as the Angel Island sprite or those desert sprites to create the a hoax like that? Because it'd seem a bit tinfoil hat-ish to assume it might not just have been an obvious placeholder beta.

[Oblivionthehog]

The size of some sprites may change during the making of a game, seems rather dificult to them back in the 90's having access to a game's sprites, especially an unreleased game! :S

Edited August 6, 2012 by Youvegotthisobama

[Diogenes]

It may not match the final game if this is what it really looks like, an early beta. Just saying.

It's pretty clearly the same sprite of Angel Island; you can match even the little details (at least, what you can make out from the magazine pic) one-to-one. The pyramid, the house, the rivers, each mountain peak and...whatever you'd call the "mountains" on the bottom, it's all there. And if the magazine pic is from in-game, the final Angel Island sprite was shrunk down, and if that were true it wouldn't have details as clear as it does unless they were redrawn.

How would the two magazines obtain assets such as the Angel Island sprite or those desert sprites to create the a hoax like that?

How am I supposed to know what assets Sega gave them? Maybe they got a shot of Sky Sanctuary with Angel Island in the background, and pasted in a Sonic and a Sonic recolor.

Because it'd seem a bit tinfoil hat-ish to assume it might not just have been an obvious placeholder beta.

There's nothing tinfoil hatish about noticing that the proportions don't match. The life icon isn't the right size either, and I couldn't find a close match for the floor without stretching things.

This third pic isn't helping much either, considering it's using graphics from one of the multiplayer levels, but in full screen as if it's a normal level, with a weirdly cramped HUD that's different from both the final game and the previous pics (which look like the final, aside from the scaling issue).