I was playing the prototypes of Sonic 3. All I can say is "What the fuck?" The levels they pulled out for Sonic & Knuckles were almost *complete*. Were they in a hurry, or something, to release Sonic 3? I'm curious as to why they did that. o.O
[snapback]43606[/snapback]
My guess is that they wanted to do something revolutionary, such as creating the Lock-On technology. I'm actually pretty glad they didn't include all the Sonic & Knuckles stages in Sonic 3, because if they did, then Knuckles in Sonic 2 wouldn't even exist, and neither would the "Blue Sphere" game (which should've been Knuckles in Sonic 1).
As for your question, Yerix, I don't believe there are any emulators that can play those at the moment.