n/a Sonic the Hedgehog Publisher: U.S. Gold Genre: Action

Not to be confused with Sonic Attack.

The home computer versions of Sonic the Hedgehog is a set of planned conversions of the Sega Mega Drive game, Sonic the Hedgehog, for popular UK home computer formats of 1991. All were cancelled early in development.

History

During the mid-to-late 1980s and early 1990s, Sega Europe sold the rights to many of its arcade games to prominent publishers of home computer games such as U.S. Gold or Mediagenic (Activison). Following the release of the European Mega Drive in 1990, a similar policy was applied to some home console games, namely Space Harrier II, Last Battle, World Cup Soccer and Arnold Palmer's Tournament Golf. As the games market across Europe was dominated by 8-bit and 16-bit computers, this had worked well for Sega, with the likes of OutRun and Thunder Blade becoming best-sellers on home formats.

Following the launch of Sonic the Hedgehog, U.S. Gold picked up the rights to bring the game to home computer formats[1][2][3]. Discussions with Sega and development partners began, but no deals were confirmed publicly. Likewise, no information regarding systsems was ever given, however given the shape of the market and U.S. Gold's previous publications, it was speculated that ports would appear on the 16-bit Amiga and Atari ST formats, and potentially the 8-bit Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum lines. An IBM PC conversion was also on the cards.

However, the success of Sonic and the increase in sales of the Mega Drive console led to Sega rethinking the contract and promptly pulling the license. Incidentally, no home computer conversions of Sega games were released after 1992 - Sega would re-enter the Windows PC market in 1996 on its own, but would never publish a Sonic game on these older platforms. The character would, however, appear unofficially in various pieces of public domain software in the years which followed.

It is not believed any significant work was done on the home computer versions of the game, however the planned Amiga port was demonstrated in the September 1991 issue of the Italian The Games Machine[4]. Two screenshots suggest all of the graphics were re-drawn and layouts changed, but there has yet to be confirmation of a playable build (or indeed if these were legitimate screenshots).

Magazine articles

Error creating thumbnail: Main article: Sonic the Hedgehog (home computers)/Magazine articles

Screenshot

Green Hill Zone Screen

References



