Sonic and Sega Retro Message Board: David The Lurker - Viewing Profile - Sonic and Sega Retro Message Board

So hey, guess what. There's a new Sonic game coming out in 2015. Who would have guessed?! But since we know nothing except that it's coming, we're not going to talk about it.

Ever.

Well maybe later. But not now.

I could see how something like this could fall under the radar, but not that long ago Chris Senn's Sonic Xtreme Compendium went offline. Well, kinda. The forums are still up, his main resume site is still there. But the server that was hosting all the material on the compendium proper seems to have gone missing.

Now, I'm not asking for the whole thing. Or most of it. I was able to sneak around and recover just about everything that was on the site, including the random material which was found in the directories that was never displayed on the proper front page. However, there is one section that seems to have disappeared almost entirely: the concept art that was under the "enemies" header. It seems these files were housed in a server associated with the "Project S" fangame that he was helping with that ultimately went nowhere, and because of that resources like archive.org prove unhelpful.

I know it might seem like it would be simple to ask the forums on that site, but the people there don't seem to have them either, since I'm not the only one who has asked. But, this is Sonic Retro. I'm sure that someone here had the foresight to save the concept images.

For reference, I am speaking of the images that are under the "enemies" header in this picture. There are a total of 29 images in that section, all of which are numbered 01.png through 29.png. I did manage to come across five of them, so the ones missing are 02 through 10, 12 through 14, 17 through 20, and 23 through 29. On a lesser note, I'm also missing the small .gif icons associated with images 25 through 29, but that is of less importance. What's most important is those concept images, because...hey, it's Sonic X-Treme. It was the biggest "zomg mystery" of the Sonic Universe after the Hidden Palace Zone of Sonic 2.

Before reading this topic, go on and listen to the latest installment of the Retrocast.

Are you done? Good. Now if you listened the whole way through, you may have noticed that mention of a chili dog contest was at the end. What with all the hype of Project Needlemouse and just the general promotion of old school Sonic, it only makes sense to walk back to Sonic's early obsession of chili dogs. So this is where we want YOU, the faithful Sonic Retro attendees, to try your hand at the only official Sonic the Hedgehog chili dog. For those who don't want to try and transcribe the recipe yourself, its been provided below:



So now, the contest: we want you to show us just how awesome you can make this chili dog. You can take pictures, you can make a video and put it on YouTube, you can get really fancy and make it part of your latest rom hack - the only requirement is that you have to physically make it and, of course, eat it. Because Sonic would never waste a single chili dog.

Unfortunately, since we can not taste each and every chili dog you make (and please, don't try to send them through the mail...they won't stay fresh, believe me) the judging will be based more on the visual than anything else. But that's why you have to eat it! If you die from it...well, then you won't win.

The judging will be done by your friendly neighborhood Retrocast members, and the winner will win...something! And it will be fantastic! Better than Bentley Jones coming to your house, even!...maybe.

You can't wait around to grow your own ingredients, though. You have two weeks from today to submit your entry - February 14th - and from there a winner will be announced during the next Retrocast! So get out those aprons, turn on the stove, and get cooking like the blue blur himself!

Right. So a few of us got into a rousing discussion of the Chaos Emeralds. And the conversation went to how Gerald Robotnik got a hold of the Chaos Emeralds in the first place, and how he knew of Angel Island and was able to reconstruct and exact duplicate of the Master Emerald shrine in the ARK, and how the Chaos Emeralds somehow went from being in the hands of the government to being the stones of legend in Sonic 1...but there's no way to really figure that out without writing fanfiction. The only reason to bring that up is just to point out the flaws in the Sonic Adventure 2 storyline.

But that's not the main point of this posting. The main point is that there are seven Chaos Emeralds, but there used to be 14.

Right, so at the end of Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Sonic has the seven Chaos Emeralds in his possession, he's defeated Dr. Eggman, yay. Now, at the beginning of Sonic 3, Sonic still has them, runs into Angel Island, and Knuckles steals them. That's all fine and dandy. But no one ever really stops to think why Knuckles would steal them (aside from being an ass). And that's because Knuckles thinks he's stealing HIS emeralds back.

In the Japanese Sonic 3 manual, Knuckles' origin goes into how he is guardian of 7 Chaos Emeralds, and that they all vanish when the Death Egg strikes into the island. And because Eggman tricks Knuckles, our favorite echidna thinks he's just taking back what is rightfully his. So during the course of the game, Sonic eventually reclaims one set of the Emeralds, and then entering the Hidden Palace Zone, a reaction occurs, having the emeralds become enlarged, fitting in their proper locations around the Master Emerald. And so the next seven special stages are him powering up the "Super Emeralds," basically joining together the two sets, giving them their proper form and all that. That helps explain why the Chaos Emeralds look so different between the Mega Drive and Dreamcast.

Just to help tie everything together, in the past segments of the Mystic Ruins, the Chaos Emeralds are plainly seen sitting around that game's Master Emerald shrine. And they are quite huge, if you fly up there with Tails or climb up with Knuckles. They are as big as...say, the Super Emeralds! And yet through the rest of the game they are palm sized. The only time you see any huge emeralds are in the past segments of Sonic Adventure, and in the Hidden Palace of Sonic & Knuckles.

You could go on to say that there were two sets, one light and one dark, which was caused by Perfect Chaos' first attack...but that didn't actually happened during the battle in Station Square. But then you could argue that the ensuing battle didn't give the emeralds the chance to split again before they were restored. But this whole paragraph is pure fanwankery.

However, that doesn't change the fact that it was stated explicitly in the Japanese manual that Knuckles guarded his own set of Chaos Emeralds, and that in the course of the game you end up with only one set of emeralds that look different than the Chaos Emeralds from the first two games, and which maintain that style through the rest of the series up to this point.

And I can't be the only one who knows this here. Because I've read people talk about it before. So yeah...am I just crazy, or is this not common knowledge?