Was there an early early release of Sonic Adventure?

[Rlan]

I've been speaking to a chap known as "goodcow" over at the Gaming-Age Forums, who has mentioned that there may have been a really buggy version of Sonic Adventure released way back in December 23rd, 1998,

Quoted:

There's an original Japanese release which is amazingly buggy, and then they released a fixed version a few weeks later. Then they fixed it even more with the U.S. release/Sonic Adventure international.

You can tell whether or not you have the very original Japanese release if two early, Japanese only downloads for the game work with it. They don't work in the fixed version, nor any others. (SA:I, SA US, etc.) I think you can still get those two downloads off booyaka. Mine are archived on my VMUs.

Other than using that method, I'm not sure how to differentiate between them, though there's probably some way.

Those two downloads are the Famitsu and QUO contests:

QUO Contest (Japan) -- Locate and collect the QUO cards around Station Square. (QUO cards are pre-paid cards produced by Japan Card Center Kaisha, one of Sega's sister companies under parent corporation CSK. QUO cards are accepted at 10,000 convenience stores, restaurants, and gas stations across Japan.) Compatible only with the original glitchified Japanese version. 34 blocks.

Famitsu Contest (Japan) -- Locate all five hidden hedgehog pictures in under ten minutes. 18 blocks.

Did anyone here about this at all, long ago? Back then all I had for the latest news was the latest issue of SEGA Saturn Magazine, so I don't recall hearing anything.

[Bo]

That sounds vaguely familiar to me. Initial reviews of the game complained about the buggy collision detection (as did later ones, but not as much), and I think I remember hearing that a new version with small fixes was on the way.
Incideintally, I got one of the dud U.S. discs on 9/9/99. I wasn't happy at the time.

[Locit]

Yeah, my copy froze up when I got to the Egg Hornet. Luckily I had Soul Calibur as a backup, which kept me nice and entertained. Before the DC came out in the states Planet Hollywood rented out Dreamcasts and Sonic Adventures before 9/9/99. The Games were glitchy and had terrible lip-synching. Could Sega have dont the same thing in Japan?

[The Doc]

SEGA? Glitches?

Get out!!!

[Zeta]

And the irony is, I can pretty much count all of the Nintendo glitches I can think of on one hand.

1) The Minus world in Super Mario Bros.

2) Falling through the top of the castle tower in Super Mario 64.

3) Driving off the map in Super Mario Kart 64.

And those were actually FUN glitches that didn't harm gameplay any.

[Delphine]

Videogames? Glitches?

Get out!

[Light Speed]

Zeta you forgot the glitch in Super Mario Sunshine. You sorta fall into an endless pit, but instead of dying you hit the ground. All you can see is black unless you look straight up, you can see the level really small. You have to reset your system to start over. It was kinda cool.

Oh and the final versions of SA1 had terribly lip synching.

[Brazillian Cara]

Oh yes, they HAVE.

[G.Silver]

Zeta you forgot the glitch in Super Mario Sunshine. You sorta fall into an endless pit, but instead of dying you hit the ground. All you can see is black unless you look straight up, you can see the level really small. You have to reset your system to start over. It was kinda cool.

There were spots in Red Canyon in SA where you could do that too.

[Bo]

Sonic Adventure had all kinds of cool ones, like playing as characters in levels they weren't supposed to access... I never got Amy into Emereald Coast, but I think I pioneered getting E-102 into Casinopolis.

[Baba O'Reily]

Oh yes, they HAVE.

...What?

[Light Speed]

Sonic Adventure had all kinds of cool ones, like playing as characters in levels they weren't supposed to access... I never got Amy into Emereald Coast, but I think I pioneered getting E-102 into Casinopolis.

Really? I never knew about any of that stuff.

[Bo]

<a href="http://db.gamefaqs.com/console/dreamcas ... t">Here</a> a GameFAQs FAQ with a list of lots of those. I used to have a bunch of screenshots and a page on how to do some of them, but it was deleted years ago. Pretty cool stuff, and lots of glitchy deaths.

[Brazillian Cara]

(quote)...What?(quote)
I mean that the SA lip synching is still horrible, even in the DX version.

[Light Speed]

Gamefaqs doesn't let you directly link to the .txt anymore. Those bastards.

[BlazeHedgehog]

Well, considering the Dreamcast was released in October 1998 in Japan (wasn't it?) a December 1998 copy in Japan wouldn't exactly be "early". However! I do remember a deal with Hollywood video taking place here in America with something called "Sonic Adventure: Limited Edition".

Basically, it was the quick-and-dirty port of the Japanese version. All the bugs, problems, etc. of the October 1998 release, coupled with even WORSE lip-sync problems for the English voices. As I recall, it was "Rental Only", if you rented a Dreamcast from them during this special offer.

Despite being Rental Only, you can sometimes get lucky and find a copy of "Sonic Adventure: Limited Edition" on Ebay. I think Kulock has one.

[Segaholic2]

Yeah, I rented that. I do remember the framerate being a lot less stable, but that's about it.

I played that thing like crazy. My brother and I promised not to play the Super Sonic story so that "we'd have something to look forward to" when we got the full version. We actually did beat every other character's campaigns, and we kept our promise. :p

[Esrever]

Nerds!

[Double-S-]

You couldn't save, I remember.

[chriscaffee]

In the LE version at Hollywood Video the camera did a worm's eye view of Sonic during a platforming segment in Final Egg that made the jumps quite difficult. It's at the part right before you board one of the crab elevators.