The Homing Attack in Advance 2 is so obscure, that it's practically an Easter Egg if you don't read the manual. I think the range is a lot smaller than it is in games like Sonic 4 and Rush, and in Advance 2 it only work on badniks.
I thought Sonic 1 was emulated on the Ipod. I downloaded it on my classic and was playing through it, and noticed that the swinging platforms in MZ act 2 (I think) have the pallete from GHZ. Someone has some s'plainin to do.
In Unleahsed 360 (and PS3 version, maybe), there seem to be two checkpoints placed inside each other in Arid Sands Night Act 1. After the area where you retrieve the four colored stones, approach the next checkpoint very slowly, as in nudge your way into it. It will act like normal, but wait for a few seconds and move forward again, and you'll trigger another one almost immediately after (you can hear a second chime and see a different set of poles spin). If you go through at normal speed, you should hear the *dee-doo* echo. So, there are two sets of checkpoint models and collision detectors, but only one set of lasers. I'm guessing one's collision marker is offset a little, too, otherwise both would be set off at the same time, no? Try for yourself if you have those versions.
Sonic 3 & Knuckles never ceases to surprise me. A new Wiki entry just showed me sonething new that I never thought about before. In Knuckles path in S3&K, you bypass the Carnival Night boss, and take a teleporter to warp to Ice Cap. Seems reasonable, right? Robotnik was taking care of Sonic, and you went on ahead... But wait, why couldn't you just go the normal way? Robotnik wasn't around anymore, right? Why the teleporters?! Well now I think I know why. What if you factor in the fact that Flying Battery Zone was originally supposed to be in Sonic 3? Then the zones would work like this: Carnival Night -> Flying Battery -> Ice Cap If this was true, then Knuckles would effectively SKIP Flying Battery using the teleporters! This may be why Knuckles doesn't have a end-level boss here! He wasn't supposed to GO HERE AT ALL. But then that leaves why the change? Well if Flying Battery was subtracted from the Sonic & Knuckles levels...then Knuckle's game would feel insanely short! Mushroom Hill -> Sandopolis -> Lava Reef -> Hidden Palace (Short Version) -> Sky Sanctuary (Short Version) Thats why they added Flying Battery to Sonic & Knuckles, to lengthen that part of the game! Do the teleporters make sense now?
Knuckles doesn't have a boss as he effectively can't fight the Carnival Night Zone boss with his nerfed jump height. The teleporters are just there for shits'n'giggles.
^Actually Knuckles can fight the Carnival Night boss. Just take Sonic's path towards the end and climb up the elevator, and Knuckles can fight him. It's a lot harder though. Actually that would explain why Flying Battery zone is the only level without Knuckles exclusive paths. Plus the Flying Battery would likely have been destroyed by Sonic so having Knuckles play it never really made any sense. Wow nice call
Funnily enough, that theory could also explain the Robotnik in FBZ for Knuckles instead of the Egg Robo. Let's just assume for a minute what you said is correct, Knuckles wouldn't visit Flying Battery (which makes sense, why would it be there if Robotnik had already left?), they wouldn't have needed to make any front facing art for the Egg Robo for that particular boss. If they then decided to add it back in later, it could have been forgotten as an oversight, as he was never intended to fight that boss. That said, it's all purely speculation, but it'd be interesting to pitch the theory to someone who worked on the game and see if it was ever the case.
Actually is there any forward facing Eggrobo art in the game at all and perhaps it's just not used? It's odd though that they changed the boss's attack pattern but forgot to change the art though
Just remember the special drawn Eggrobo standing/hurt/escape frames in Flying Battery Zone Act 2 during the pre-boss sequence. Those are hard coded for that boss only, and doesn't trigger in Death Egg Act 2's boss, nor in Launch Base Act 2. If my memory serves me right, there is an Eggrobo facing forwards in wierd debree in one of the Sonic & Knuckles endings (Sonic's story)
That's why I referred to it as an oversight, they may have made the art specially for that section when they decided to add that level to Knuckles' game, but then forgot to go back to the boss code to make the compare for the Eggrobo art. If Knuckles was intended to fight all the other bosses, these checks could have been coded when the bosses were, as opposed to later. However, as I said I'm merely speculating, I haven't looked at the S3K disassembly to see how things are handled and I haven't looked at any of the S3 betas to see if there was any trace of a playable Knuckles in those early on. After reading a lot of this topic though, I think it's about time I had a look at that disassembly.
A little while ago people confirmed how the slot machines in Casino Night and tubes in Chemical Plant worked. How do the vertical blue walls in Marble Garden work?
Any builds after Sonic 3 (such as Sonic 3C) have Knuckles and Eggrobo finished already. That's very sad, because I really wanted to know how Knuckles gamplay was constructed, and in which order everything was made. Of course, there is that RAM value that turns on Knuckles's story in Sonic 3, to make some bosses a little harder, but it is a too early build! I want MORE info about background changes and when Eggrobo was added, as well as early Knuckles player abilities. In Sonic 3, we knew nothing about Knuckles's story, or the Master Emerald. Seeing that part of the game being built up would have been great. I am very thankful for the prototypes drx managed to get for us, at it shows the freaking stress the last levels were to build, and some mistakes that would have been left if it wasn't S&K we are talking about
I've got all those guys pictured. They are fun to play with, even nowadays. Got them as a present from my grandfather's friend who collects stuff like that. He gave me a whole box of different McDonalds toys.
About Robotnik's appearance in Flying Battery in Knuckles' story, I always liked to imagine that he retreated to it after the Death Egg blew up to concoct his next brilliant scheme build rehashes of his old weapons. Seriously though, it didn't get destroyed, and it's not like he had anywhere else to go afterwards.
So, has anybody played Eggman Hates Furries yet? Should I make a topic about it over on Engineering/Reverse Engineering? Does it make you hate furries too?
Now that is one hell of a fangame. The bosses are challenging, but easy to learn, and they're as fun as it gets. I never expected anything like this from a Sonic game at all. And apparently it's made on Gamemaker to boot? Insane.
Seriously. All it could use is some tighter handling and gamepad support, and it would be absolutely solid instead of just really solid. Great, unique Sonic fangame. Do you need to actually own the fangame to start a topic about it in Engineering/Reverse Engineering?
http://info.sonicretro.org/Game_Secrets:Sonic_the_Hedgehog_3 The penguin sprites are still in normal gameplay in Act 2. There's a small ramp that one resides by. I'd have taken a screen cap but I was playing the ROM at school and the image uploaders are blocked.
