Sonic X-treme

Sonic X-treme
Developers: Sega Technical Institute, Point of View Platforms: Sega Saturn, Windows This game has unused graphics. This game has unused models. This game has revisional differences. This game has a development article This game has a prototype article This game has a prerelease article

This game was never completed and/or given a public release. As a result of this, keep in mind that the developers might have used or deleted some of the content featured here, had the game actually been released.

This game was never completed and/or given a public release. As a result of this, keep in mind that the developers might have used or deleted some of the content featured here, had the game actually been released.

Sonic X-treme was intended to be the first 3D Sonic game (it would've preceded Sonic Adventure by two years), developed from concepts stretching back to the Genesis era, but ran into myriad development problems that culminated in its cancellation in August 1996; the Saturn port of Sonic 3D Blast was released in its place. The cancellation of X-treme is widely considered a large reason for the Saturn's commercial failure outside Japan (Sonic wasn't as popular in his home country at the time, so the lack of a 3D Sonic game wasn't a big concern there). Notably, the model used to pre-render Sonic's X-treme sprites was used for sprites and promotional material for Sonic's Schoolhouse.

A disc containing an early Saturn tech demo was discovered in 2005 and released to the public on July 17, 2007. In 2014, ASSEMblergames user Jollyroger found a set of data discs that belonged to the Point of View studio, which included early PC builds of Sonic X-treme, level editors, and an unseen prototype made by Point of View dated July 14, 1996. The PC builds only supported Windows 95 and the Nvidia NV1 video card, so Jollyroger modified the builds to render in OpenGL for better compatibility.

To do: Everything. Figure out if the builds of v001 v37, and v40 should even be here as they all have been modified by Jollyroger by way of changes to their original source code, or including levels that were likely not originally "bundled" with the builds. Document the game's development on the prerelease page, including Sonic-16 (Genesis) and Sonic Mars (32X). There's some really cool E3 footage. Document the v37 level editor, PackageX (and all the levels included), and all of the levels found by Jollyroger and/or Andrew75. (Which were included in the 003 release of v37.) Document everything Sonic X-treme related that can be found on Ross Harris' Youtube channel. Document some miscellaneous things on this website concerning X-treme.

Sub-Pages

Development Info

Prototype Info

Prerelease Info

718 Demo

The latest build of "Sonic X'treme" to have surfaced, is the 718 demo. A late prototype, dated July 18, 1996, and the first prototype to be discovered by the public. It is from the "Project Condor" stage of development, uses Chris Coffin's boss engine, and as such is not representative of the games development as a whole.

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• The demo starts with the Sonic X-treme logo.
• A preliminary title card appears with the level name "Jade Gully".
• The music that plays in this demo is Quartz Quadrant Good Future from the non-US versions of Sonic CD.
• There are 50 rings in the level.
• There are floating diamond-shaped objects scattered around the level, but only the first one shoots Sonic up into the sky.
• The score counter keeps going up by itself for some reason.
• When the time runs out, it loops back to 5 minutes.
• An early Game Over screen can be triggered by pausing and pressing C. The music that plays here is also from the non-US versions of Sonic CD.

Unused Models

Fang the Sniper

Fang the Sniper resides as an uncompressed SGL model in the game's files starting at address 656484.

The model is made up of 397 polygons, 550 vertices, and 915 edges.

Skeletal rigging is intact for each segment of the model, though there is no animation data.

Vertex colors are intact for most of the head and body, but is otherwise broken and useless.

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(Bonus: Restored using a screenshot for reference)

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Metal Blade

Metal Sonic's boss arena can be found starting at address 553916

The model is made up of 82 polygons, 328 vertices, and 328 edges.

There is no color data, and the textures are not in the ROM.

Unused Graphics

These textures can be seen below the playfield and were used in the Metal Sonic boss arena as the floor.

A small, yellow flower. Screenshots show these on the outskirts of Fang's boss arena.

A rocky looking texture. Purpose unknown, although it matches the texture used for the edges of the water.