Hello everyone. I have a problem I need help with, as I just cannot find the answers no matter what I do. I have a very particular memory from childhood about a certain Sonic game, in fact, the first Sonic game I have ever seen. It all started when I was at my cousin's house. I don't speak to my cousin anymore (family issues...too long-winded to get into) and this was the only time I ever went round his house. I don't remember why I went round his house, but it honestly doesn't matter. What does matter is the Sonic game he had. I can't remember if it was for the Megadrive or the Master System, but if I had to guess, I would bet on the Master System. He wanted to show me this really cool game called Sonic. It looked awesome and I was super excited to get it for Christmas. Ever since, I have obviously been a massive Sonic fan, but I have never seen this game anywhere, not in any of the compilation games, nor on the internet. I'll try my best to describe the game, as much as I can remember. I only saw the first level, as my cousin seemed to lack the skills to beat the first level. I remember that the first level looked like Green Hill Zone, typical Sonic fare. However, there was one aspect about the game that was very unusual and a bit odd. Every time you would take damage, say run into a badnik or fall into spikes, you would lose all your rings and immediately fall straight underground. Thus, there was no way one could take their rings back and Sonic was stuck in the dark underground of the Hills with no protection. After running for a short time, Dr Robotnik would show up in one of his death machines and chase after Sonic. Now, I'm assuming that the player would be able to escape Robotnik if they managed to run away correctly, or perhaps there was some way of hiding from Robotnik, but I remember that my cousin was never able to outpace Dr. Robotnik. No, Sonic was virtually already dead when he fell into the underground. I'm also assuming that the level would come to an end if the player was skilled enough to make it to the end without taking damage, and thus, not falling into the underground. However, my cousin lacked the skills to do this and he always ended up in the underground. This is the game I remember, and I have no idea what it is. Am I simply remembering incorrectly? Did I see one of the Master System titles and has time re-interpreted the game in my mind? It cannot be an official Sonic game, can it? After all, I know a lot about Sonic and I have never seen or heard of this on the internet (usually a good place to look up obscurity). Was it a bootleg or hacked game? Perhaps, as I remember that my cousin had friends who at least had pirated games. One of them gave me a copy of Jet Set Radio on Dreamcast that I never played because I was afraid that it would somehow destroy my Dreamcast (my parents were anti-piracy and used to tell me incredible stories that I believed). Then again, would it be easy to make a homebrew game of this standard in that late 1990s? I remember that it was well-made, with good physics and the like, so to speak. So, what was this game? Sonic Retro, you are masters of all Sonic, and perhaps you can help me!
Well, it's none of the official games,I'm pretty sure of that. The whole "rings being impossible to collect once you lost 'em" fit with the master System games, along with the underground green hills environment but the chasing Eggman..that's not on the regular Sonic 1 for Master System. It could be a mix between foggy memories and childhood imagination, or it could be a hacked game. If it's the latter, I'll love to see it.
Well, being chased by Eggman's traps and machines, as well as a mostly-underground (from a certain point of view) first stage makes me think of SegaSonic the Hedgehog from the arcades, but IIRC you don't drop rings at all in that game, and it doesn't have any stage like your standard GHZ level. Really, the whole "Eggman chases you" thing is what's tripping me up. I can't think of any games (other than SegaSonic, and even there it's a bunch of his traps that he triggers more than he himself) where that's the case. Closest I can think of is the Flying Battery in Angel Island Zone, but then that runs afoul of the "fall underground" part; even if I assume you're misremembering some details and you only fall underground at a certain point (a la GHZ2 in the Master System/Game Gear Sonic [1]), that doesn't happen at all in AIZ.
Sounds like a bootleg to me, but it's pretty impossible to say. I would say see if you could track it down, but that seems out of the question. Another theory is that maybe some of your Sonic memories have blended together over time? To an extent I could see elements of Mushroom Hill/ Doomsday's bosses possibly accounting for the chase sequence, or falling into the pit to Hydrocity Zone for the underground? Bootleg sounds more likely, though, since these memories seem very specific. Is it possible that your cousin somehow obtained an unofficial copy somehow? You mentioned late 90's, but do you have a specific year?
Memory sometimes plays tricks with us. I went to the see Titanic in the movie theater back in 1997, I was 5. I could SWEAR there was a special version of the poster in a red duotone with fire on the background o.o hahahahaha
I wouldn't be surprised if you were misremembering details, like the whole Grayscale/Color debate regarding Sonic 2's ending cutscene.
This reminds me of a similar conundrum I was in. One day I played Sonic 3K at a friend's house (who lived very far away, I don't think I have seen them since my childhood) and we got to Mushroom Hill. Everything was fine, until the midboss. We defeated it fine, and the signpost dropped down. After the score tally though, there was some kind of sequence with Knuckles and he ran away, and then Act 2 started normally. Or something along them lines. I now know after looking through the Beta finds etc, that this is just very faulty memory and no such thing exists. If I ever spoke to the family again, I'd love to see if they had the cart just to play it and prove to myself I was remembering it wrong.
This definitely sounds like Green Hill Zone act 2 from the Master System version, though your memory is getting the best of you. At the beginning of the act, there is a warning sign that does harm Sonic, granted it just sends him underground without losing any rings. However you lose all your rings while running into an enemy or trap, without the chance of collecting them. All in all it's definitely sounding like Sonic 1 for the SMS but with your mind adding stuff that isn't there.
I believe you. I saw a lot of things as a kid and questioned them later on to be told they weren't true or never happened. I remember watching a soccer game on tv and a guy kicked a perfect goal and the net recoiled the ball back to his feet and he kicked it again... and I SAW THEM ADD 2 POINTS TO THE SCOREBOARD... as wrong and as impossible as it sounds. Soooo I'm going to assume that this game was 'something' way out there. But still believable.
I have similar thing with 1 NES pirate game what was a hack of Somari. I know that it was on a 4 in 1 famiclone cassette and it said Sonic the hedgehog. When I booted it up, it had SOnic & Knuckles beginning but it had TAILS too between Sonic and Knux. The game started from Spring Yard. That's something I'm not sure have I seen it correctly or not. I can not find any info about youtube of this game intro. Closest is Sonic & knux beginning without Tails. All I know is I was surprised it had Tails there and was like woooaah! So it had to have something what made me surprise. The game You mentioned sounds interesting, I'm trying to see maybe I can find some info about it.
This. I'm pretty sure that you brought this up before on another forum, and people there told you it was Sonic 1 MS coupled with an unreliable childhood memory.
Well, something I remember from my childhood that I've pretty much debunks as poor memory was a weird ending to Sonic 1. I was only like, four at the time I saw it, and I played Sonic 1 and 2 a lot, so I'm sure it was just my derpy little kid brain fooling me. It was some variant of the ending of Sonic 1, except he ran left through EMERALD Hill Zone, and it was littered with celebrating animals like normal. He just ran left for a bit, stopped, and just stood there, facing left, animals jumping around him. Then the game sat like that for a minute, and went to marble zone without him doing a victory pose or anything. Then my Mom called me. Or Something. Either way, that was like, 1993, so it's unlikely to be anything of importance, as much as blurred memories.
I've also weird memories about a movie where a guy got drunk at his stag party and appeared on a remote british village ( the movie was british), where he had to go trough several wacky antics to come back to his marriage ceremony. One of them was being arrested for driving a car with the car boot/trunk full of Sonic, Tails and Knuckles plushies dressed as S/M and being called "sex toys". No one remembers that movie except me...I remember watching it around 1997 or so, at TV. Also, an arcade game about some firefighting ducks. No, it's not Dynamite dux.
Yeah, I think you're describing the Sonic 3D Blast 5 pirate for the NES. You're correct in thinking that it's a Somari hack, as well as it starting from Spring Yard (Green Hill and Marble are accessible, but for whatever reason the game sends you to SYZ instead when you boot it up). However, the title screen was just a piss-poor remake of the Sonic 1 title screen. No Tails or Knuckles. Edit: To stay on topic, it does sound like you're describing the SMS/GG Sonic 1. Though it's possible you could also be describing Sonic 2 SMS as well.
Its possible that you are thinking of Sonic 2, Master System, Underground Zone 2. There's a section where no matter how hard you try to get away from Robotnik, he will catch you (right before you hit the lava actually) Skip to, 3:13, looks like embedding the video with the time position doesn't seem to work. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWksbrzGH0w&feature=player_detailpage#t=193
I remember when I first played Sonic 3, I kept thinking that there were elements from Hydrocity found in hidden paths of Angel Island. Such as going through fan blown chambers and having to hold and break off the columns. I guess my mind played a good trick on me then since it was weird enough at the time to see the first zone of a Sonic game with underwater sections.
I remember when I was in Israel in Q1 '95 with my Dad they were selling Shadow of Atlantis in the store we got our 32x and Star Wars Arcade. He remembers it though, so its unlikely my imagination. I really hope someone unravels it someday. As for the Sonic game, there are 12 game gear ones, 2 are racing and couple are non-standart Sonic games so you can just check them all.
I used to think Angel Island had an Act 3 that started at the bottom of the waterfall. Butttt I was clearly very wrong.
As a kid I first discovered what a Game Gear was when I was given one to play at my uncle's house. (For some reason the fact that it existed it had completely passed me by up until that point) This was probably around 1994. At the time I loved playing Sonic 1 on the Mega Drive at friends' houses, but didn't own it myself, and was amazed to find that a portable version of the game existed. I was convinced afterwards however that this Game Gear version was identical to the Mega Drive one. I have specific memories of playing parts of Green Hill Zone on that Game Gear which don't actually exist in the 8-Bit version, memories that can't be real. (I was incapable of beating Green Hill Zone in either version at the time, otherwise the Bridge Zone/Marble Zone inconsistency may have tipped me off) When I got a Game Gear about 3 years later I was disappointed to see that Sonic 1 wasn't identical to the Mega Drive version which I loved so much. For a while I was convinced that my uncle must have had a different Game Gear version that was identical to the 16-Bit one, but over time I discovered that no such game exists, and that it would be technologically impossible to port the 16-Bit game as-is to the Game Gear.
