History

The Inspiration

Sonic Adventure advanced from the "what if" ideas to the actual conceptual stages as far back as 1996. Shortly after the completion of NiGHTS into Dreams... for the Sega Saturn, Sonic Team decided the immortal hedgehog was ready for the jump to 3D. Thus, the Team left their home country of Japan for a "little" vacation in South and Central America. Their goal? Inspiration for Sonic Adventure, of course! (Although it looks like they had a hell of a good time while they were at it...) To achieve this, they visited many ancient ruins, climbed some mountains, hiked some rainforests, and flew in helicopters to get panoramic views of the beautiful scenery (these panoramic views were the inspiration for Sonic Adventure's breathtaking backgrounds). Having conceived the game, the Team returned home to begin actual development.

The Genesis

Upon returning from their vacation, the Sonic Team began putting their ideas to paper. Originally, Adventure was planned to be a Saturn game. Having heard the pleas of Saturn-owners calling for a true 3D Sonic game on the 32-bit system, the Team was prepared to answer the cries. However, it quickly became very obvious that the Saturn could hardly begin to handle the massive demands of Sonic Adventure. Enter Dreamcast, the most powerful piece of home-use computer hardware the world has ever known. Being Sega's premiere in-house consumer development studio, Sonic Team was naturally the first group to have the honor of working with an actual Dreamcast development kit. Since the the actual hardware was still in the planning stages and very flexible at the time, Sonic Team actually played a big part in the development of the system. Usually, a designer has to mold and re-shape the game to fit the hardware, but in the case of Sonic Adventure, the hardware was making the movements to accomodate the game! That's the biggest advantage of developing a game simultaneously with the hardware, both can and will directly complement each other. And so it was that Sonic Adventure and the Sega Dreamcast were borne of the same blood.

The Exposure

Two years later, Sonic Adventure was ready to be revealed to the general public. On August 22, 1998, the world got its first taste of the hedgehog's Second Coming, and their first sample of the Dreamcast's true power.

The conference was a pretty big event, drawing sell-out crowds and leaving many poor schnooks waiting hours in line for one of the later shows. Originally, there were only two planned showings, but the crowds were so immense on the day of the unveiling, a third had to be scheduled to accomodate everybody. Luckily, it was completely free-of-charge, wide open to the public, and several free omake goodies were handed-out to all attendees...not to mention the little stands selling other Sonic goodies. Yuji Naka was, of course, at the show himself, as were several other Japanese celebrities. (Oh...and when you hear the crowds of people cheering Sonic on in his final battle against Perfect Chaos in Sonic Adventure, remember that the cheering was recorded from the actual crowds attending the show.)

The Fulfillment

Originally, the game was planned for a simultaneous release in both Japan and the US. But the Dreamcast is already out in Japan, and Sega desperately needs games to support it. So they've scheduled Sonic Adventure to December 23, 1998 to accomodate...with the US Dreamcast launch still ten months away. Well so much for plan A, but it's probably worth the wait so that Sega of America doesn't screw up the launch as Sega of Japan did.

But whatever the case, Sonic Adventure looks good enough to hold the Dreamcast's first holiday season solely on its own shoulders. Come December 23, the world will quite literally be a better place...