Sonic the Hedgehog (1991)/Beta elements

This article pertains to the beta elements of Sonic the Hedgehog (1991).

Title screen
In the title screen there was a "Press Start Button" text on-screen. The level select shows the original order of the zones placed, with some Xs listed after some levels, Final Zone is not listed in it. The "Press Start Button" text is visible once again.

Green Hill Zone
The first glimpse of Sonic the Hedgehog in video game form was at the Tokyo Toy Show in June 1990, which also happened to be the first time the game could be played by the general public. In a retrospective interview with Yuji Naka, it was revealed that the original Sonic Team put together a small, playable technical demo for the show featuring Sonic in an early version of the Green Hill Zone. Of note is that in the interview, Naka claims that this tech demo was planned at one stage to be included in Sonic Mega Collection, but was never in any build as the ROM has since been lost internally at Sega.

Green Hill was different; the sky was more dark than in the actual zone, the conical mountains were normal mountains (they appear to be close in the background unlike the actual Green Hill) with few small waterfalls and no river to be found, the clouds are also bigger. There was a signboard giving the welcome to Sonic, in which it is thought to say: "You Are Welcome Sega, Sonic", with a picture of a palm tree in the top right hand corner. The rocks were original orange, they weren't a layout obstacle, they were a foreground along with the palmtrees being independent from the clouds and other objects in the background, all separate from the scrolling of Sonic as he ran through the hilled terrain, similar to those light posts from Star Light Zone. There is a second beta iteration of Green Hill, elements such as the taller purple flowers and the strikingly close water/sky shades of blue in this build did make their way in the finished version. The layout was different, the Ball Hogs were here with the Robotnik monitor from Sonic 2. There was a rolling ball, in which you could move by pushing it, which was later used for the wrecking ball Egg Mobile. The differences are less evident, though the Debug Mode is evident. This version was in the Consumer Electronics Show March 1991.

Labyrinth Zone
The background was dark rocky with celing crystals (similar to this zone in the 8-bit version), the crystals were a bit smaller. Due to at that point was in development, there are some sections empty with no water, and Act 3 had a completely black background.

Labyrinth Zone was going to be the second zone, according to the unaltered Level Select menu, but due to its high difficulty compared with the earlier stages, it was put as the fourth zone in the final version.

Special Stage icons
Note: ''All of these items can be seen in-game by using the Debug Mode to fall outside the playing area of the Special Stage. It is easier to see them when advancing frame-by-frame by pausing and pressing C.''

Trivia

 * The idea of the welcome signpost was reused later in Casino Paradise Zone of Sonic Advance.
 * The purple flowers make an appearance in Green Hill in the final moments of the game after the player has fought the final boss, while the similar shades of blue in the sky and water appear in the title screen.