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I'm encountering some strange behaviour in Gens Rerecording with Lua.

I wanted to start making something simple that drew Sonic's collision mask on top of his sprite, so I got the camera coordinates and Sonic's coordinates, subtracted the former from the latter, and drew a box at the resulting position. No matter what I did, though, the box would always flicker and jump around randomly.

It turned out this was because memory.readword() and its ilk were giving me incorrect values, and I have made a test script to demonstrate (meant for Sonic 2).

timer = 0;
timerp = 0;
diff = false;
count = 0;

gens.registerafter( function()

	timerp = timer;
	timer = memory.readword(0xfffe04);
	if (timer == timerp) then diff = true;
	else diff = false;
	end
end)

gui.register( function ()

	message = string.format("Timer: $%X, %d", timer, count)
	gui.text(10, 50, message, "#FFFF00FF", "black")
	
	if (diff) then gui.drawbox(0, 0, 320, 224, "black", "black");
	count = count + 1;
	end
end)

Because the game timer is supposed to count up by 1 every frame, it's easy to tell if memory.readword() is reading the new value correctly or not. Each time it gets it wrong (and returns the value from the last frame), I increase a counter and make the screen flash black to make it obvious this is happening.

It doesn't matter if I try to get the value in gens.registerafter(), gens.registerbefore(), or in gui.register(), or even if I put hooks in when the memory is written to. I will still get a bad value from 1 frame ago sometimes.

Oddly, this seems to only happen when the screen is scrolling. If you stand Sonic still, it won't happen.

Furthermore, it's not just my Lua code. The RAM watch feature has the same issue, which can be seen if you watch an increasing value such as the timer and use frame advance, sometime it will not update.

I'm pretty much at my wits' end when it comes to this, because it prevents any kind of useful overlays on objects, making it a showstopping issue. Has anyone here ever experienced this, and do you know what might be the cause or the solution?

(It happens in Gens Rerecording v11a as well as the latest version at Google code.)

"Jimita" is credited for Sound Program in Sonic 1



and thanks to the secret credits their full name is revealed as 久保田　浩.



Those kanji translate to Hiroshi Kubota, and a Hiroshi Kubota is later Special Thanked in Sonic CD's credits, and credited as a sound programmer in Ristar.




So we can with high confidence conclude that Jimita's real name is Hiroshi Kubota.

I was reading his Sega Retro article, however, and the picture caught my eye because the kanji for the name were different.



(Of course, it's not impossible that someone can change how their name is written, but it is suspicious.)

So I looked up that Hiroshi Kubota, and found his biography and profile at the Yamaha Music Foundation site. Using Google Translate to read his bio, it says he was born in Obihiro, Hokkaido ans it also has a conspicuous lack of any mention of Sega, Sonic, programming, or the "Jimita" moniker, but goes on about his albums, singles, and other accomplishments. This other profile says he was born in 1952.

In addition to the different name, I find it just a little strange that a musician with a successful career that started in 1984 would find themselves years later programming for a Sega Genesis game, but again - nothing's impossible.

However, the Sega Retro article also linked to jimita.com, website for Jazz Pianist Hiroshi Kubota. Here, the "Jimita" moniker is embraced, of course. And then when we Google Translate the profile page, it says he was born in Kitakyushu, Fukuoka Prefecture Yahatanishi District in 1965. His timeline page mentions joining Sega in 1989/1990 after university and meeting Masato Nakamura of Dreams Come True in 1991. The site also has other sections dedicated to programming and old microcomputers. But there's no mention of having popular albums or anything to connect this Hiroshi Kubota - who is without doubt the Jimita of Sonic 1 - with the other.

Also, compare their pictures. Jimita's:



And the imposter Kubota:



Sadly, Jimita's site also discusses his debilitating disease, another thing that's not brought up in the other man's profile. Though they are both jazz pianists named Hiroshi Kubota, it's clear at this point that it's nothing more than an odd coincidence and that 窪田　宏 is not "our" Hiroshi Kubota.

If we can agree on this, then of course the Hiroshi Kubota article needs to be amended, and a note added to it saying something to the effect of "not to be confused with this other guy", to foreclose future confusion.

Also, Jimita's site has contact info. As the man who programmed Nakamura's music into the system, he would certainly be a fascinating subject for interview, if such a thing could be approached respectfully.

I recently bought the Solid Gold Guide for Sonic 2 by Tony Takoushi off eBay.



I was annoyed to find that it was missing the colour pages (I got a refund for it, so I'm happy with the seller, however). I then bought a second one from the same seller (the last one they had) and it, happily, did contain colour pages - 14 of them (7 leaves).

I'm wondering if any other members here, perhaps from the UK, own this book and can confirm for me that this is indeed the number of pages it should have. I would have suspected there should be 16 pages (8 leaves), but it doesn't look anything has been torn out or otherwise removed.

And finally, for those who don't scour the wiki thoroughly, some of these pictures I took of the book might be interesting.

Frank talk of Hidden Palace and Dust Hill way back in 1993:



Picture of Aquatic Ruin with "Neo Green Hill" Title Card:



Picture of early Beta Level Select with "Sky Fortress" (!):



Pictures of Sonic CD (what appears to be similar to the 510 version's FMV player and an early Special Stage):





Unusual art of Tails:



I will post the whole thing eventually, since I have a spare copy I can scan.

So I found this Sonic Jam Poster on eBay.

EDIT: It might not have been clear... I don't own this, this is someone else's bay on eBay. I just found it when searching and wanted to know more about it.



It's like 100 dollars, which seems pretty steep. So I figured I'd ask the all knowing Retro what makes this so special? It claims to be rare and NFS (which I assume means "not for sale"). Was this used at trade shows or something?

Anyway, I found it kind of interesting. I also thought it would be nice to bring it to your attention, in case anyone here is a moneybags and wants it.

One of the many things I've been doing on-and-off between AeStHete work is researching stuff pertaining to the origins of Sonic, out of my own personal interests (and also because it's relevant to my Sonic Freedom project).

Along the way I've discovered that the wiki here is not as thoroughly sourced as it could be. Many things are just asserted, just begging for a [citation needed].

I'm making this topic in the hopes that others with the relevant knowledge might help out. I'll probably expand it with more subjects as I go, but for now there are two things I'd like to resolve.

Madonna (name) (resolved)

So we all know about Sonic's girlfriend. There are pictures of her in concept art that can be unlocked on Gems Collection, and she's talked about by Ohshima in the Gametap Sonic retrospective. (These things are on the wiki already.)

The question is: How do we know her name is Madonna? I can't find any official source for this.

Answer: Madeline Schroeder uses the name in this interview.

Sonic's Band (names, image) (resolved)*

Ah, yeah. The removed Sound Test picture. They (well, most of them) also appear in the old Japanese Story Comic (scandalously absent from the Retro Wiki...).

But again, like with Sonic's girlfriend, I can't find an official source for their names. They are given names here on the wiki, but as far as I can tell these were pulled out of someone's ass.

Their names (Vector, Mach, Max, and Sharps) as well as the famous image can be found in the Sonic Jam Official Guide, printed in 1997.

*This is basically enough for me, but it might still be worth tracking down the issue(s) of Beep! Megadrive that the Official Guide makes reference to.

Sonic 1 Zone Concept Art (artist)

Who drew these? Ohshima or Yasuhara, or someone else even?

Discussion starts here.

Knuckles' early design (resolved)*

It's been claimed Knuckles, back when he was still a WIP, he was green at some point, and also called Dreds. I can't find sources for either of these claims.

Sources for these are here and here.

Mr Needlemouse

ICEknight, on 11 February 2013 - 07:42 PM, said:

Needlemouse sounds like a stupid mistranslation of harinezumi to me, but the questions remains - was the moniker invented by Sega of America in the early days of Sonic, or by a fan later on?

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If these sources exist, they should be on the wiki. If they don't, then the community needs to know these names are speculative fanon only (like wechnia). Can anyone shed light on this?