There are many scans on the Sonic Retro wiki that need replacing, but this one is pretty embarassing: https://info.sonicretro.org/File:S3-eu-box.jpg Our Sonic 3 EU Mega Drive cover is fake garbage. We need a replacement. Fake covers are nothing new (look at them all), but this is Sonic Retro, and chances are you each own at least a dozen copies of this game. If we can't source a scan for Sonic 3, then what can we source? First person to upload... wins?
After detecting it was fake, I wanted to replace it with my own scan of it, but my copy is pretty unsuitable as not only has the spine been bleached a bit by sunlight, someone had scribbled over the barcode with a marker pen: So, I'll leave this task to someone else who has a less defaced scan.
Wow, I never would have picked up on it being a fake without seeing/reading the actual key difference. once you notice it becomes really obvious! Yeah, best nip that in the (long overgrown) bud
I have a copy of the cover, it's in pretty good condition, except for a very small white section on the spine at the bottom under the letter E from "DRIVE". If someone hasn't scanned by tomorrow evening, and if I can get my scanner up and running, I'll scan it in for you.
Here you go: https://drive.google.com/file/d/186RDSyLk6yEcifTQ4ZItD3J98LXRsDcC/view See if you can also do something about the slightly sun-bleached spine as well. If this scan isn't salvageable, we could use MarkeyJester's scan if he does it.
Here's mine: https://mega.nz/#!duZzGQJT!v0yb-d2gDhlzzniLkzrCudMCg1lYEq9WIxUDw1E3r90 A bit scuffed, and the scanner seems to have skewed it slightly which is why I didn't crop it.
Checked the date - we have had this since before I did a bunch of mass-scannings of EU Sonic boxes before I took on my previous job, a good chunk of the main-line EU Sonic box covers are ones I did. Somewhat stunning this has been missed for so long.
Nice color correction job! Fred's looks great, although it looks to be a bit more cropped compared SorachiJirachi's. If I have time after work I'll fiddle-fart with the scans a bit. Maybe even a good clean-up. However, what bothers me is that I don't know how anyone here feels about that since it is altering the image's original integrity. I'd personally like to see if a better scan shows up first anyway. Y'know, the whole preservation thing, the reason why we'd don't want a modified "fake" or UGC-sized scan in the first place. Also, has Knuckles always been this pink? I guess I never really noticed. Although, his in-game sprite can be a little bit on the pink-ish side. :P
I think Fred's scan combined with Master Emerald's cleanups looks fantastic and is a lot nicer and well-preserved than mine, but it appears to be cropped a little compared to my scan. I'm waiting to see how far things go with this before I go ahead and replace that fake cover. As for Knuckles being pink, the artist made him like that because of his NPC sprites having a pink palette and the artist may have only had those sprites as a reference (I'm not sure if the artist was provided any of those official style guides that made Knuckles pink).
I also have my copy of the game and scanner at the ready. Would it help in any way if I scanned it and uploaded it? Are there any other covers that I could help with?
https://forums.sonicretro.org/index.php?threads/sonic-scans-for-the-wiki.38249/ https://forums.sonicretro.org/index.php?threads/sonic-scans-for-the-wiki.38249/page-3#post-938929 we are missing alot of scans, i did already a big list of what is missing. Every help will be gratefull.
Funny you mention that. I know of someone who has at least 3 different variations of the cover. The pack in sticker, I believe, comes from the Sonic 3 MD2 Bundle. The scary thing is there are so many different variations unlisted here with some of the tiniest differences. I've posted some before.
This is the benefit of using a wiki (spoilers: add things to the wiki). This is a thing with Sega hardware, but I'm not sure how widespread it is with software. Most games were built in Japan, but you do see outsourcing to China, Taiwan, the Philippines, Malaysia and Thailand. And then they seem to have assembly plants in the US and UK (with really late Genesis stuff being pushed off to Mexico). You could probably track all of these down. The companies get mentioned by name on Saturn and Dreamcast hardware.
I may be alone on this, but... Could we please just use non-cleaned up scans for the wiki (even if they won't look so "good"), so that we can ensure 100% that no details from the originals are lost and that we won't have any frankenstein versions assembled from different places, touch-up goofs, etc? For documentation purposes, I think it's much better to have a few imperfect (but good quality) scans than a "too perfect" one which might have some of the tiny details changed (such as slightly displaced fonts). EDIT: Also, it would be quite relevant to somehow link the cover scans with their respective cartridge (front/top/back) and instructions (and case type, of which there's many) when available, to document which came with which.
I'm in full agreement with IceKnight on this. Get the best quality scans possible, but don't retouch them. At that point they become recreations and cease to be accurate.
Also: Since these are not for printing purposes, it's preferable to leave a small empty space around the scans than to crop them.
Have you got the copy of Altered Beast with the vertical white lines??? Or the really rare (as in, only one copy on ebay right now) "Made in Japan" variant?? I'd love to have a bot of some sort on these forums where, when someone asks if we need a scan, it automatically reponds in big flashing letters, YES. Our Altered Beast scan is marked as good but it turns out it's one of (at least) three! Things I also expect to see somewhere: - Changes of address - Differing (registered) trade mark symbols (because they're inconsistent in-game) - Patents no longer being pending
