Sonic 1 Beta: Chinese World Zone & Gold World Zone?

[Badnik Mechanic]

For those of us who backed the megadrive history book on kickstarter, there was a new update today and something in it caught my eye....

 

 

The written sections of the book have been receiving a great deal of attention over the past month, most notably in the form of a pair of new VIP contributors. I'm delighted to announce that you'll be hearing from both Tom Kalinske and Hayao Nakayama – ex-Presidents of Sega of America and Sega of Japan respectively – in our opening essay. They will both be speaking with Keith about their time at Sega and offering candid recollections about the decisions that led to the console's global dominance. There are several other Sega heavyweights that will be joining Mr. Kalinske and Nakayama-san, however I will wait for a future update to unveil them all. I wouldn't want you to spill your eggnog (or, 'Robotnog' as it's named in the West) in over-excitement.

Also, we've submitted all 27 of our long-form developer interviews to Sega for approval. From these, I'd like to offer you the following chocolate-coated Sega facts...

Which was then followed with this....

. Naoto Oshima revealed that there were several rejected level ideas during the creation of the first Sonic the Hedgehog. Among the ideas not to make it into being were Chinese World Zone and Gold World Zone.

 

Chinese World Zone and Gold World Zone?

 

I presume this is from the scrapped 'Mr Monster Guy' edition of Sonic 1, you know, the original one which had Sonic fighting monsters and Madonna?

 

Is there any information on these zones at all?

[The drunkard from space!]

This just makes me (and I'm sure several others) want the Sonic 1 Beta even more! How could it not be found yet?

[WhoWhatMan]

It make me wish that those series of videos for the beta of Sonic 1 wasn't a hoax.

[Chaos Warp]

This just makes me want the beta for Sonic 1 even more dammit.

[Brad]

All I can think of when I hear "Gold World Zone" is this:

 

 

imsorryiknowsonic1cameoutfarbeforethistitle

[azoo]

Chinese World Zone and Golden World Zone

 

Well, well, well!

 

^ Gold World (???). Originally thought it could've been an early Star Light Zone. ^

 

^ Chinese World? Seems to share elements with Spring Yard, but the aesthetic is obviously different. ^

 

^ Is this also that China stage? It's definitely much more like Japan, but it fits the "Asian locale" trope. Seems like an early Labyrinth too. ^

 

So yeah, I'm guessing at least one of these is related to what he's talking about? It's so neat though. I might throw some of these at him on Facebook and ask him if that's what he might be referring to (don't expect that to go far though, it might be classified for the "making of" book).

[Badnik Mechanic]

Holy crap so that might be it.

Actually, that 'gold world' image has an Aztec esq building in the background... and what do Aztecs always have in fiction? GOLD!

[Blue Wisp]

We had two unknown zones as concept art for years and we never realized that until now?

 

Wow.

[Tara]

We had two unknown zones as concept art for years and we never realized that until now?

 

Wow.

Not really surprising, considering that the stages share many similarities with other stages.  That and there's really not much detail to make it out as anything other than just random stage gimmicks.

 

Really, I'd love to see these zones.  I hope they're released soon, like the beta stage from Sonic 2 was recently.

[Blue Wisp]

Really, I'd love to see these zones.  I hope they're released soon, like the beta stage from Sonic 2 was recently.

With extreme luck they'll be added in an update but will introduce six other scrapped stages, ho. 

*looks at Egg Gauntlet and Final Fever*

[TitanWarlord93]

I'm actually surprised when I first read this. I had absolutely no idea about it at all.

 

I would very much like to see how these will turn out in the update but I'll doubt it's going to happen though.

[iDEATH]

Wow, based purely on those clouds, yeah I'd say that's definitly chinese world zone. Great find.

 

This is another one of those things that makes you wonder what the Sonic series would have been like had they went with the original idea.

[JezMM]

Well while I'm sure it's just a coincidental connection, East-Asian world with water certainly saw the light of day eventually.

[PatMac]

So... who's going to make a hack that makes this playable?

 

I'm sorry, I know this will never happen.

[Willsy]

Wait, Sonic was supposed to fight Madge originally?

O_O