The preview exhibited what turned out to be one of the more significant of the cuts made during development, which was one of the game’s power-ups. In the prototype previewed by Nutter about a month after E3, there was only one playable stage on show, which was the ‘Resort Island’ track, but it offers plenty of insight into some of the cuts made between then and release. Editor, Lee Nutter, described in detail his first experience with playing the demo behind closed doors, which was accompanied by a variety of screenshots. First Playable Build In SEGA Saturn Magazineįeatured in the August 1997 edition of the UK’s SEGA Saturn Magazine is a write-up of the earliest playable build of Sonic R shown off to the public. The vast differences between Sonic R’s first showing and its final version.
Originally, the game used 2D art for these and they were slightly reminiscent of the images seen in the continue item boxes of the original main series games on the Megadrive/Genesis. Perhaps the most immediately noticeable contrast is the alteration of the character icons used in the E3 trailer towards the left of the screen. Chiefly, the HUD’s used are distinctly different from one another. In the E3 1997 clip, which has since been archived online, a few changes can be observed that were made between it and the finished game. In another interview, also given to SEGA Saturn Magazine, which was recorded a month later, Kats Sato added that what the video showed “was not even a proper playable version”.
The trailer in question states that it was approximately “ 20% complete” at the time.
The build showcased in the video impressed attendees, but in actuality, had “no AI for its opponents, limited animation and special effects”, according to Burton. It was being worked on at the time by no more than six people: three artists and three programmers.Ī playable demo of it was not present at E3 that year, and Burton explained that this was due to them having only started programming one track at that point, which was an incomplete Resort Island. According to one of the game’s programmers, Jon Burton, who was interviewed in the October 1997 issue of SEGA Saturn Magazine, work on Sonic R had begun in February of the same year less than 4 months before the reveal. Its first unveiling was made by SEGA in the form of a teaser video at E3, showing off just over 30 seconds of very early prototype gameplay. One enduring rumour tells that it began as a Formula 1 game, later turned into a Sonic racing title, but this goes completely without corroboration from any reliable source. The first working title of Sonic R was simply ‘ Project: Sonic’. Kats Sato explains SEGA’s decision to recruit TT.