[ICEknight]

big_smile, on Sep 1 2005, 10:14 AM, said:

3. A document that has been widely distributed within the online Sonic community claims to have been translated by STI (You can find it here). It contains the Mary Garnet Sonic story that originated from Japan (you can find more about this here) and profiles on four of the Sonic characters. Did STI really translate this document?

I had never heard about that text till now, but anyway it says:

Quote

Special Thanks to: Stealth (For typing the text)

So I guess he's the one to ask about where did it come from. Anyway, I really doubt something like this would come from the STI.

Quote

5. Sonic the Hedgehog 3 was originally one game that was later split into two parts (Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles).

Or not. Who told you that?

Quote

7. The design of the character Knuckles is a great source of fascination for Sonic fans. According to SoJ, the final Knuckles design was chosen from 10 possible designs.

What? Where did this come from?

This post has been edited by ICEknight: 01 September 2005 - 04:10 PM

[hxc]

Thanks ICE. My problem is now finding which of these questions here are actully worth asking :P

[Tweaker]

ICEknight, on Sep 1 2005, 04:45 PM, said:

Can we please stop assuming things now that we have the opportunity to know the correct answers? Thankyou.

I'm not assuming. For some reason those songs were replaced, and that's the most logical explanation for it.

I'm not telling you not to ask though. Some clarification would be really damn nice.

[Scarred Sun]

Tweaker, on Sep 1 2005, 01:22 PM, said:

superstarCSB, on Sep 1 2005, 01:47 PM, said:

Does he have anywhere, possibly a cd or some kind of backup, of what Michael Jackson's music for Sonic 3 was like?

How far along were you into Sonic X-Treme before you left the project?

How many levels were originally planned for Sonic 3? Were there as many as there are with Sonic 3 & Knuckles, or were there more/less? If there were more or different ones then in the final games, what kind of ideas were planned for these stages?

Micheal Jackson's music?

CNZ, ICZ, LBZ, S3 credits, S3 Knuckles Theme, Mini boss, etc.

All those that were replaced in S&K or replacd in S3K PC were MJ's.

I was just thinking about the music differences between S3K Gen and S3K PC while editing the S&K Collection page at SHIT today - is there any way to find out if those REALLY are the MJ versions on PC?

Also, HXC, would you be OK with a copy of the interview (with interviewee credits and such) put up on the Roger Hector page at SHIT?

[hxc]

That would be brilliant thanks. Please put my name as credit in there somewhere please though

[Tweaker]

Scarred Sun, on Sep 1 2005, 05:14 PM, said:

Tweaker, on Sep 1 2005, 01:22 PM, said:

superstarCSB, on Sep 1 2005, 01:47 PM, said:

Does he have anywhere, possibly a cd or some kind of backup, of what Michael Jackson's music for Sonic 3 was like?

How far along were you into Sonic X-Treme before you left the project?

How many levels were originally planned for Sonic 3? Were there as many as there are with Sonic 3 & Knuckles, or were there more/less? If there were more or different ones then in the final games, what kind of ideas were planned for these stages?

Micheal Jackson's music?

CNZ, ICZ, LBZ, S3 credits, S3 Knuckles Theme, Mini boss, etc.

All those that were replaced in S&K or replacd in S3K PC were MJ's.

I was just thinking about the music differences between S3K Gen and S3K PC while editing the S&K Collection page at SHIT today - is there any way to find out if those REALLY are the MJ versions on PC?

Also, HXC, would you be OK with a copy of the interview (with interviewee credits and such) put up on the Roger Hector page at SHIT?

You misunderstand me...

I meant that the originals were made by MJ, and replaced in the PC version to avoid fighting over the rights to the song. Something along those lines, anyway.

[Gamerguy]

Great job on the interview, HXC. I noticed that you never asked if he knew anything about "Sonic Mars" even though it was suggested in the last topic.It's probably nothing, but it's worth asking just so that we can debunk it for good.

[LOst]

HXC, on Sep 2 2005, 12:07 AM, said:

Thanks ICE. My problem is now finding which of these questions here are actully worth asking :P

Worth asking:

1. No matter what guy we have turned to, including music team Milpo, Jun Senoue, and Bobby Brooks, they won't answer anything from Sonic 3 yet today over 10 years after the release, so what's the secret? And why are you willing to answer questions about Sonic 3 when no other guy is able to?

2. "Sonic 3 was mainly produced in Japan". Is that true?

3. Was Yuji Naka responisble for all the programming of Sonic 3? A lot of techniques were improved and added that were never even possible in Sonic 2, which kinda makes the question: Did Naka get help just to finish Sonic 3 in time, or did he get help because his programming experience wasn't high enough for yet another Sonic game?

4. Sonic 3 was released, but felt unfinished. Was Sonic & Knuckles add-on to Sonic 3 just a way for Sega to make more money, or a way to make up for the lost stuff in Sonic 3?

5. Knuckles question: Who was the creator of him? Who got the credits for making up this character?

6. Did Takashi Thomas Yuda, the character designer use computer 3D program to render the sprites in Sonic 3? The sprites of Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles have smooth animation states, and a lot of 3D rotations which of course were hand drawn, but still required perspective help. Also the title screen of Sonic 3 and some elements from Sonic 3 were 3D based. Tell us everything you know about the 3D making and the help tools for creating such images.

7. Technical question: Sonic 3 used 3 kinds of compression algorithms. The best algorithm were based on the famous LZSS compression, which packed data down to 10% of the original size. But the other two are still unnamed. We have the formulas for them, but we lack the names. We really need the names of the compressions because of copyright issues. Can you help us to find the names? The graphics compression used in Sonic 1, 2, and 3 were also used in a lot of other native Sega games around that time. It wasn't very great and packed only down to 45% of the original data, but the main idea was to load compressed graphics in real time, each frame, taking small steps to not stop or freeze the game, and was used for updating graphics for Sonic bosses etc. The other compression was used for background maps, and was only used when the LZSS compression didn't pack as good. We believe that this compression was some kind of run length but we are not sure. No compression of these kinds have been used for later Sega projects, only for the Genesis.

8. Sonic & Knuckles included a whole new game with Knuckles starring in Sonic 2. How did Yuji Naka find time to port the whole Knuckles player to work with an older engine of another type than Sonic 3's? Wasn't Sonic & Knuckles under time pressure at the end? I know Naka did the Sonic 2 work himself, so who finished Sonic & Knuckles during that time: Masanobu Yamamoto or Hiroshi Nikaidoh?

9. Hirokazu Yasuhara kinda ended the relationship with Naka after Sonic 3. Hirokazu Yasuhara joined the Sonic X-treme project, and Naka kinda ended it. Was this because they got mad at eachother for some reason? Why did they all of a sudden stop working with eachother?

10. Though Sonic 3 was the biggest Sonic project in history, it kinda failed. Why do you think Sonic 3 never got the same status as Sonic 2? Was it because of the new ideas such as having real environment details other than checkered patterns for level design, or because the game was too based around a story than just running through level action adventure Sonic was so famous for?

11. Sonic 3 was rushed. That's a fact! No other Sonic game was so full of bugs and special events that basically was implented in a few minutes and missed quality. Did you feel this when working with the game? How did everyone work? A lot of Japanese people doing their stuff, and you just couldn't give comments, or guidelines because of the language differences?

12. Finally, the big reach out: We would all be happy if you had any pre-release materials left from your time at Sega including Sonic 3 beta tests, and music recordings. Most of these stuff would be lost if not preserved and dealt with now. It has come to our attention that neither Sonic Team nor Yuji Naka want to give out anything from the old days other than the normal games themselves for money. No beta or pre-release info, and the time is running up. It's over 10 years ago, and people forget how much work was put behind the games. With a pre-release game, and/or documents, we can finally understand the meaning of Sonic and how you guys really worked the hell out of yourselves to give us the best game in history. This is a reach out to you, to help us, who are almost giving up hope on Sonic today, to give us and the world the true Sonic back to us!

EDIT: Feel free to rewrite some questions a little and fix spelling bugs.

This post has been edited by LOst: 01 September 2005 - 10:22 PM

[Quickman]

LOst, on Sep 2 2005, 03:17 AM, said:

9. Hirokazu Yasuhara kinda ended the relationship with Naka after Sonic 3. Hirokazu Yasuhara joined the Sonic X-treme project, and Naka kinda ended it. Was this because they got mad at eachother for some reason? Why did they all of a sudden stop working with eachother?

If Naughty Dog gets back to me, which I expect that they will - they seem like a friendly bunch - we might be able to get this information from the horse's mouth.

[hxc]

LOst, on Sep 1 2005, 07:17 PM, said:

HXC, on Sep 2 2005, 12:07 AM, said:

Thanks ICE. My problem is now finding which of these questions here are actully worth asking :P

Worth asking:

1. No matter what guy we have turned to, including music team Milpo, Jun Senoue, and Bobby Brooks, they won't answer anything from Sonic 3 yet today over 10 years after the release, so what's the secret? And why are you willing to answer questions about Sonic 3 when no other guy is able to?

2. "Sonic 3 was mainly produced in Japan". Is that true?

3. Was Yuji Naka responisble for all the programming of Sonic 3? A lot of techniques were improved and added that were never even possible in Sonic 2, which kinda makes the question: Did Naka get help just to finish Sonic 3 in time, or did he get help because his programming experience wasn't high enough for yet another Sonic game?

4. Sonic 3 was released, but felt unfinished. Was Sonic & Knuckles add-on to Sonic 3 just a way for Sega to make more money, or a way to make up for the lost stuff in Sonic 3?

5. Knuckles question: Who was the creator of him? Who got the credits for making up this character?

6. Did Takashi Thomas Yuda, the character designer use computer 3D program to render the sprites in Sonic 3? The sprites of Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles have smooth animation states, and a lot of 3D rotations which of course were hand drawn, but still required perspective help. Also the title screen of Sonic 3 and some elements from Sonic 3 were 3D based. Tell us everything you know about the 3D making and the help tools for creating such images.

7. Technical question: Sonic 3 used 3 kinds of compression algorithms. The best algorithm were based on the famous LZSS compression, which packed data down to 10% of the original size. But the other two are still unnamed. We have the formulas for them, but we lack the names. We really need the names of the compressions because of copyright issues. Can you help us to find the names? The graphics compression used in Sonic 1, 2, and 3 were also used in a lot of other native Sega games around that time. It wasn't very great and packed only down to 45% of the original data, but the main idea was to load compressed graphics in real time, each frame, taking small steps to not stop or freeze the game, and was used for updating graphics for Sonic bosses etc. The other compression was used for background maps, and was only used when the LZSS compression didn't pack as good. We believe that this compression was some kind of run length but we are not sure. No compression of these kinds have been used for later Sega projects, only for the Genesis.

8. Sonic & Knuckles included a whole new game with Knuckles starring in Sonic 2. How did Yuji Naka find time to port the whole Knuckles player to work with an older engine of another type than Sonic 3's? Wasn't Sonic & Knuckles under time pressure at the end? I know Naka did the Sonic 2 work himself, so who finished Sonic & Knuckles during that time: Masanobu Yamamoto or Hiroshi Nikaidoh?

9. Hirokazu Yasuhara kinda ended the relationship with Naka after Sonic 3. Hirokazu Yasuhara joined the Sonic X-treme project, and Naka kinda ended it. Was this because they got mad at eachother for some reason? Why did they all of a sudden stop working with eachother?

10. Though Sonic 3 was the biggest Sonic project in history, it kinda failed. Why do you think Sonic 3 never got the same status as Sonic 2? Was it because of the new ideas such as having real environment details other than checkered patterns for level design, or because the game was too based around a story than just running through level action adventure Sonic was so famous for?

11. Sonic 3 was rushed. That's a fact! No other Sonic game was so full of bugs and special events that basically was implented in a few minutes and missed quality. Did you feel this when working with the game? How did everyone work? A lot of Japanese people doing their stuff, and you just couldn't give comments, or guidelines because of the language differences?

12. Finally, the big reach out: We would all be happy if you had any pre-release materials left from your time at Sega including Sonic 3 beta tests, and music recordings. Most of these stuff would be lost if not preserved and dealt with now. It has come to our attention that neither Sonic Team nor Yuji Naka want to give out anything from the old days other than the normal games themselves for money. No beta or pre-release info, and the time is running up. It's over 10 years ago, and people forget how much work was put behind the games. With a pre-release game, and/or documents, we can finally understand the meaning of Sonic and how you guys really worked the hell out of yourselves to give us the best game in history. This is a reach out to you, to help us, who are almost giving up hope on Sonic today, to give us and the world the true Sonic back to us!

EDIT: Feel free to rewrite some questions a little and fix spelling bugs.

No offence to ya, but some of these questions seem a little demanding, for example, do we really expect him to know about the compression from more than 10 years ago?

[big smile]

Quote

These documents are plainly nothing but fanciful rubbish, not worth the bandwidth it took to send it to me.

The second scan comes from the Official Japanese Sonic Jam strategy guide, but was originally published in a Japanese magazine in March 1991. As Yashura confirms in the scan, the Mary Garnett story is fictional. However, the scan is interesting as it suggests that the core development team had a strong involvement with the game’s story, which differs from the practises at other development houses (where stories are written by external marketing departments). This was the reason I included questions 1 and 2 about the story, so we could have an official confirmation about the role the core team played in writing the story.

Quote

So I guess he's [Stealth] the one to ask about where did it come from

Stealth seems to believe the document came from the Sonic Birthday pack (released with Sonic Adventure 2). However, the Birthday pack only contains a very brief extract of the Mary Garnett story.

Quote

Anyway, I really doubt something like this would come from the STI.

Note that STI didn’t write the document – they merely translated it. The author of the original document is unknown. However, it seems odd that STI would translate it, as the character profiles follow the Japanese storylines and so differ completely from the story material released in the West (which is another reason why I asked those questions about the story).

I have seen extracts of the Japanese document that contains the Mary Garnett story, but there are several key differences (the character profiles are missing and the Mary Garnett tale is divided into three parts). Hence, it would be great if Roger could shed some light on this mystery.

Quote

Or not. Who told you that?

It’s implied in Mega Collection.

Quote

What? Where did this come from?

Sega Japan interviewed Takashi Yuda (the creator of Knuckles), where he stated this information. He also revealed that Knuckles was supposed have the Nike swoosh on his chest and be green in colour. I posted the interview on the GHZ Newsboard in 2003.

Another question suggestion:
In a recent interview, Yojiro Ogawa (a producer at Sonic Team) stated that Yuji Naka worked on Comix Zone and The Ooze, which contradicts with Sega’s previous press releases. Did Naka ever work on either of these games?

^_^

[Ben2k9]

im late to this topic but I discovered the Michael Jackson link years ago, Me and LOst did a bit of research into the matter.

My discovery (although not credited) is even on the Cult page!

Damn, cult is down but it is there.

[Jayenkai]

I think we were all aware of the MJ link (probably 'cos we all read the Cult site!) but it's the fact that it's now Official, and that they replaced most of the tracks. I think we were all just assuming that the few MJ-alike tracks were all there were, but from the sounds of it, he did a whole lot more..

[ICEknight]

HXC, on Sep 2 2005, 02:09 AM, said:

LOst, on Sep 1 2005, 07:17 PM, said:

Worth asking:
[...]

No offence to ya, but some of these questions seem a little demanding, for example, do we really expect him to know about the compression from more than 10 years ago?

I think L0st's questions are perfect to ask.

Quote

Quote

Or not. Who told you that?

It’s implied in Mega Collection.

I'd suggest you not to trust blindly any of Sonic Team's recent official statements... Remember when Yuji Naka said Sonic CD wouldn't fit in Mega Collection because of space restrictions? Or even this statement:

Quote

Yojiro Ogawa (a producer at Sonic Team) stated that Yuji Naka worked on Comix Zone and The Ooze

Which is as false as you can get.

Quote

Stealth seems to believe the document came from the Sonic Birthday pack (released with Sonic Adventure 2). However, the Birthday pack only contains a very brief extract of the Mary Garnett story.

Well, it certainly didn't come from there.

[Scarred Sun]

Quick Man, on Sep 2 2005, 12:30 AM, said:

LOst, on Sep 2 2005, 03:17 AM, said:

9. Hirokazu Yasuhara kinda ended the relationship with Naka after Sonic 3. Hirokazu Yasuhara joined the Sonic X-treme project, and Naka kinda ended it. Was this because they got mad at eachother for some reason? Why did they all of a sudden stop working with eachother?

If Naughty Dog gets back to me, which I expect that they will - they seem like a friendly bunch - we might be able to get this information from the horse's mouth.

Good luck. I've talked to Yasuhara and he has a non-disclosure agreement concerning his work on the Sonic series. If you can get SoA to waive it, all the more power to you. I've basically given up.