11 (Yes, Eleven) prototype builds and design documents for cancelled Vectorman PS2 sequel found and preserved

Vectorman is a name well regarded by fans of the Sega Genesis/Mega-Drive. Vectorman (1995) and its sequel Vectorman 2 (1996) were hallmarks of that console’s twilight years, with some truly impressive pseudo-3D graphics and fluid animation, on top of also being a legitimately fun time. It’s earned it’s honor of being one of Sega’s common picks for their many Genesis game compilations in recent times. It’s just too bad that Vectorman was never able to move beyond the Genesis, though this wasn’t for lack of trying. The original developer of the two Genesis games, BlueSky Software, had envisioned a second sequel on the Saturn that never came to pass, and other developers have wanted to bring Vectorman to the Dreamcast and beyond.

The ill-faded sequel that came closest to fruition was the PS2 game being worked on by Pseudo Interactive, the creators of Full Auto (2006) and Full Auto 2: Battlelines (Also 2006 on PS3 and 2007 on PSP), both of which were actually published by Sega. Before that, Sega announced a new Vectorman title for the PlayStation 2, simply known as Vectorman, in April 2003, with intent to release the following year. The news of the game’s cancellation came before 2003 even ended, in November, despite a positive showing at E3 earlier that same year. This was during the time when then-Sega of America CEO Peter Moore was preparing his departure from the company and shortly before the company would merge with Sammy, so internally, things were tumultuous at Sega and Vectorman did not survive this transition. What did thankfully survive was a bunch of prototype and press builds, art, and documentation on the game, which was all just found and preserved by Comby Laurent on his preservation website Sega Dreamcast Info Games Preservation.

Check in past the break for more info, and a link to check out these finds in finer detail.

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UPDATED: SegaSonic the Hedgehog arcade prototype supposedly uncovered – presenting SegaSonic Bros.

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Remember when the SegaSonic Popcorn Shop ROM was dumped and playable on MAME? Well that same person who did that is now teasing something else Sonic arcade related! Originally shared on Tumblr is what appears to be a working prototype of SegaSonic The Hedgehog the arcade game. The user tagged the Tumblr post with “#unreleased” and added the caption “…it’s the megaton…”. The megaton indeed. For those not in the know, SegaSonic the Hedgehog was a trackball controlled arcade game released exclusively to Japan and North America in 1993. Given the control scheme, the game has not released outside of arcades as Sonic Team has claimed it is too tricky to make the game playable with standard control pads. The game featured the debut of Mighty the Armadillo and Ray the Squirrel, but as this supposed prototype dated 1992 reveals the game was initially known as SegaSonic Bros. and featured blue hedgehog Sonic and a yellow and orange version of our hero (or perhaps two new hedgehogs?). Let’s just hope this hedgehog trio don’t form a band and look for their long lost mother.

We hope to hear more details on this soon, so in the meantime consider this a rumor. Fingers crossed this game gets dumped as well.

Discuss multi-colored Sonics and more in the SEGAbits forums, and after the break check out a small update on this story!

Sonic Dreams Collection: Fan made ‘unreleased’ Sonic Dreamcast prototypes

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It seems that Arcane Kids, the programmer behind 2013’s Bubsy 3D tribute is now he doing a similar release for Sonic the Hedgehog. He is releasing the ‘Sonic Dreams Collection‘ over on his new site ‘hedgehog.exposed‘ (password is: grandpa). Yes, the site is hosted via Tumblr. You can try Sonic Dreams Collection on both Windows and Mac OS.

According to Arcane Kids’ own description:

“The Arcane Kids$ salvaged FOUR playable prototypes, some concept art, and countless top-secret SEGA files.”

The four ‘salvaged playable prototypes’ include:

  • Make My Sonic ’96: Change colors, size of body parts and more.
  • Eggman Origins ’97: Not working, needs to be connected to ‘Seganet’.
  • Sonic Movie Maker ’98: Play director in various scenes featuring a dark story line.
  • My Roommate Sonic ’99: Hang out with your roomate Sonic while Eggman gives you instructions via phone texts.

While they are passing off the collection as obtained unreleased games via a developer kit purchased via Ebay, the release is clearly created using Unity and doesn’t run on Dreamcast hardware. Its a nice tribute release to make the rounds online. If you want to see someone with a unenthusiastic voice play the leak, hit the jump.

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