Translations

I found the Sonic 3 article very interesting, the 3 versions section was most interesting for me.

The apperant special edition cartridge mentioned in the article that would contain Sonic 3 and Knuckles is also interesting for me, they said it would use a 24bit cartridge, I find that interesting as serveral people here mentioned that Sonic 3 and Knuckles can be stripped down to 24mbits. Though think that this is more of a coincidence than anything.

Persuming that this magazine article came before the release of Sonic 3 and Knuckles , I have to say that this could easily confirm Segas plans for a lock-on cartridge in the first place.

Great translation Oerg.

 

Hmm, second time we see that "Sonic 3 Part I" title. That reminds me of the episodic games of today...


Thanks for sharing!

 

Help!-Item? Is that the item that that would use the whistle?

EDIT: On page two there's an S2 running animation frame on the Ice Cap loop.
Also on page 3 while running in Angel Island.
Screw it, they're everywhere. The new art obviously isn't in yet.

 

I never even thought to make the connection, but that makes complete sense. Nice theory!

 

Ah, very interesting articles you've translated, Oerg. Thanks for bringing these to our attention.

 

It absolutely was. It was documented in this article, and the whistling sprites are very much intact still.

Actually, how I think it worked is that you'd grab the monitor... once you did, you'd stop and do the whistling animation. Tails would fly in and grab you, and you'd be in flying mode for a short amount of time, in which you'd use the ability to get to secret areas with goodies and such, or just an alternate path in general.

I figure they ditched it since a second player could come in and do it manually at any point in time during the game. It'd be a bit redundant to have a powerup for that, don't you think?

Man, all of a sudden I'm loads more interested in Sonic 3's development. It always seemed kinda bland and straightforward, but now I'm starting to think a lot differently.

 

PR aside, I can confirm Sonic 3 (including S&K levels and playable Knuckles) was complete before Sonic 3 was released.

Like I said in IRC before, that item box is definitely interesting. The rest just confirms what we knew for a long time =P

 

<!--quoteo(post=175180:date=Jan 3 2008, 11:39 PM:name=Tweaker)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Tweaker @ Jan 3 2008, 11:39 PM)

 

By the sounds of it, I'm thinking it might have been used in Marble Garden 2 only, for the unlimited flight mode.

EDIT: Also, this "help item" could explain the whistling that can be heard when breaking the "S" monitors...

 

Doesn't that sound play during normal transformation as well, though? If not, then that pretty much confirms it.

 

Just checked it, in S3 and S3&K. That sound is only played in Sonic 3 and only if you break an "S" monitor. AND in S3&K's Doomsday. It's never played during regular 50 rings transformation, in neither S3 nor S3&K.

 

Heh, perhaps The Doomsday was intended to have another "Help item" at the beginning... And perhaps you could also play that level as Sonic+Tails?

We can speculate all we want until we see a proto of this. =\

 

won't be long until we do, I'm fairly certain of that

 

Bump, blah blah blah I don't care.

I just came up with this idea in the IRC channel...

What do you guys think? It didn't hit me until just now, but this makes perfect sense—I doubt they'd randomly place the "whistle" sound in the middle of the shield sound effects for no reason!

For the curious, the shield sounds begin at $3E, and the whistle sound in question is sound $46. There's also an odd sound in slot $40, which is also in the middle of the shield sounds... do you think it's another scrapped item? I don't remember it being used anywhere, but I could be wrong.

 

That doesn't explain why you whistle at the beginning of Doomsday in S3&K.

 

I remember finding that myself, years ago, and spending ages playing the whole game through to find a shield that'd make that sound.

I never did though, but I always thought if it had been a shield, it would've been one almost identical to the Lightning one, and thus superfluous.

Good show with finding the whistle, however.