[ComPro]

Hey...does anyone know where I can find the Sonic LCD Handheld games??

I used to have them and I played the crap out of them. Can they be emulated? I would love to play them again.

Thanks,
ComPro

[Rika Chou]

You mean those wierd Tiger Electronics Sonic Classic games? I have no idea weather those could be emulated. I've always wanted to have a look at them, myself.

[Drakmyth]

I own the Sonic 2 Tiger Electronics game and all I know is that it's damn hard. Played it/owned it for at least ten years and still have no clue what I'm doing. I just hit jump and pray I don't die.

[SupperTails66]

I have a Sonic Underground LCD game sitting in a nearby drawer. It's incredibly easy; all you have to do is continually press this little lever that makes a small Sonic marble spin around this tube on the outer edge of the machine to make Sonic run. When a robot appears, you press the "Spin Dash" button, and when a musical note appears, you press "Jump". Repeat for six levels. There's no terrain whatsoever; if you look closely, you can just make out some lines below where Sonic is running, but if that's supposed to be a floor...

[Lostgame]

I'll sell you my Sonic 1 game for like $5. I don't really care... it's fun, though. No emulation though.

[Wetflame]

It would be difficult to emulate; there's no conventional graphics used.

[ComPro]

Damn. Too bad. I haven't played those games in years. I had all of them, but when I moved, I got rid of them. I'm kicking myself now.

[Lostgame]

Yeah! It's pretty fun.

[8-Bit Dragon]

You can't emulate it directly by dumping the data from whatever kind of chip it's using. And the graphics are custom made shapes on an LCD screen.

The only way I can think of to 'emulate' it, is to take the game screen apart and remove any plastic color backgrounds it may have. Then, put the transparent LCD in your scanner and scan it. Even though it should be transparent when it's off, the shapes will faintly show up. Then use image editing software to increase the contrast and your shapes or 'sprites' should show up, then just make the image black and white. Next, you must create an engine that replicates the lighting of the shapes, or gameplay. You can ether have the engine change individual shapes from white to black (using a fill routine or somthing), or you could divide each shape into sprites that the engine displays. As for gameplay, you could try to adapt the data from the chip to control the lighting of the shapes/sprites, but that would be very difficult.

But this is just IN THEORY, I have never actualy done this before and if you decide to try this, do so at your own risk!

[Wetflame]

Essentially you're asking to emulate a CLOCK Radio. It can't be done. You'd have to rewrite it using another method, in the case of radio, the Internet.

[ICEknight]

8-Bit Dragon, on Oct 1 2004, 01:03 AM, said:

by dumping the data from whatever kind of chip it's using

I'm not 100% sure, but I think these games run on logical boards. If this was the case, it would be impossible to dump anything from them, so it would only be possible to simulate them instead of emulating.

This also happens with some old arcade games such as Pong or Monaco GP.

[SupperTails66]

I recall hearing about how some people apparently simulate Game & Watch games by holding down the reset button to make all the sprites in the game come on, then scan it in to get all the animations. From there on, you basically have to re-code the game so that certain sprites will come on at certain times, along with similar problems.

In other words, it's a long and complicated process.

[The Wanderer]

Trust me, it isn't worth the trouble of trying to copy those things. Considering I used to own some of them (and still do....probably packed up with other old stuff), I can fully say they aren't worth your time (The Sonic 1 and Sonic 2 ones at least. The music on the Sonic the Hedgehog 1 is just...no, it's not even music. It's like built in commodore 64 beeping.). As Drak said, the games really make no sense, as all I remember doing is hitting buttons. Rapidly. Then something that looked like an abstract buzzbomber and distorted Robotnik/Eggman appeared...then you fall underwater. Or something. (This is from the Sonic 1 version...I don't remember the Tiger Sonic 2 as well, but it wasn't much better.)

[ComPro]

I loved that music. Those little tunes are like a part of me. I would give just about anything to own one of them again, if not all.

[Drakmyth]

The Wanderer, on Oct 1 2004, 08:56 PM, said:

Then something that looked like an abstract buzzbomber and distorted Robotnik/Eggman appeared...then you fall underwater. Or something.

Yeah, that's pretty much right. I always thought that Metal Sonic attacked you (in the S2 one this is) and he was fairly easy to jump over but once in a while you would fall into the water for no reason. Pointless and only good for wasting time when it is impossible to do anything (and I do mean ANYTHING) else. So even if it was possible to emulate, or if you wanted to go through the trouble of simulating it, don't even bother. It's just a waste of time.