For the longest time, the Sonic Retro community (and others) have debated the true name of the mysterious Dust Hill zone. Originally it was held that the true name of the Desert Zone (seen in mockups, like the one to the right) was named Dust Hill Zone. Over time, however, it came to be thought that it was not, due to a various events, including the concentrated posting of an image which screamed the whole idea was fake, and some conflicting magazine clippings. For the longest time, calling this zone Dust Hill Zone was considered the mark of a n00b, or otherwise somebody who hadn’t been paying attention. Flame wars used to (and still do) erupt over this topic, but a recent development appears likely to put all of the arguing to rest.

Several members and others with connections to one of the people who worked on Sonic 2, Hirokazu Yasuhara, began to ask him about the truth of this. Despite some bickering over whether all the questions would get through or if Yasuhara would have the time to properly respond, it eventually worked out, for… when he was repeatedly asked about, he finally gave a definitive answer.

Yasuhara: Ok, the DustHill zone is like below.

http://sonicology.fateback.com/beta/sonic2/concept/concept-desert.jpg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQ4kc9sY88Y

Thus, he silenced any last thoughts that the zone was not Dust Hill Zone. Leaving us as a community to wonder: What other ‘proven facts’ based on magazine clippings could be wrong? Could there be more out there than what we thought we knew? Perhaps the answer lies in asking the developers more…

(Based on the original topic by Tweaker, relaying the findings here; read it for the full story. There’s too many people involved for me to properly credit them all, but I’ll note that I’m just relaying their story for you to read.)