Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (Simon Wai prototype)

Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (Simon Wai prototype)
Build date Aug 1992 Dump status Released Origin Pirate Cartridge Lot Old Scene (BBS) Dump method Super Magic Drive Game Sonic the Hedgehog 2 System Sega Mega Drive Genre Platform Final build Sep 29, 1992 10:33:00 Release date JP Nov 21, 1992 US Nov 24, 1992 EU Nov 24, 1992

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A later prototype of Sonic the Hedgehog 2 for the Sega Mega Drive.

Notes

The Cutting Room Floor research

This prototype has a research article on TCRF.

• Also known as the "Simon Wai" prototype.
• Has been reported to be the build stolen from a Toy Fair in New York. However, earlier reports at the time state that the build of the game originated from a magazine. Certain magazines have showcased similar builds at least one month before the final release (given the corrupt stage layout in Casino Night Zone).
• The original ROM was leaked onto BBS before the final release by an unknown group.
• This ROM originated from a pirate cart that was sold in Hong Kong. The pirate cartridge was dumped with a Super Magic Drive and was possibly altered from the original ROM and released on Chinese ROM sites around 1997.
• The ROM became available sometime either on or before August 20th, 1992. In 2025, a copy of a ROM broken down into four separate binaries to be burned onto EPROMs was discovered in a compressed archive on a hard disk by the Video Game History Foundation that originated from Tengen/Atari. The hard disk contained other pirated games that were similarly divided for burning on EPROMs, so it is not the original ROM that was part of the scene release. The ROM contained in the compressed archive is a byte-for-byte match to the Simon Wai ROM. While the timestamp for the .zip archive is lost, the timestamps on the files inside the archive have been preserved.
• Reports of a playable prototype of the game that was leaked on BBS started popping up in early September.
• The ROM was rediscovered by Simon Wai, and identified and distributed as a "beta ROM" of Sonic the Hedgehog 2.
• Certain bytes within the ROM have been overwritten with data from another much earlier build of Sonic the Hedgehog 2. There are also some bytes that have been overwritten with an art compression output.
• Given that the earliest known prototype was built sometime before May 30th, 1992, and that the latest known build to follow this prototype was created on Aug 21, 1992, it's most likely given the completeness of this prototype that this version was built sometime between late June and early August.
• Sometime later, an original EPROM cartridge was discovered by the Video Game History Foundation that contained an identical ROM to the Simon Wai prototype. It's unknown if the EPROM cartridge is an authentic prototype or if the leaked ROM was burned on EPROMS for playing. However, it reconfirms that the game was considered a "Beta" and that it originated sometime in August of 1992. The cartridge can be seen below.

Origin

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  EPROM cartridge front.