I just noticed last night that Metal Sonic is drawn with a mouth on both covers of Sonic CD, and now I can't un-see it:
https://twitter.com/Mazin__/status/897017751113416704 According to Masato Nishimura, it was a reflection effect in the Japanese art, that was mistaken for a mouth by the American artist.
For what it's worth, it looks like the EU cover was redrawn/recoloured from the JP version, so it is more mouth-like on that version's cover. The differences with Sonic are more pronounced if you look at the EU PC version's cover. Besides the different colouring job, Sonic's thumb is fatter (doesn't curve back up) and a chunk of his body has been removed between his back spike and his tail, losing the circular shape of the original. His tail looks longer and there's more of a gap between his muzzle and his arm/thumb, which makes the shape of his face look off. Also, the shoe buckle has been removed. Does anyone want to make an overlay?
That honestly makes me wonder why Sonic artwork was so different across regions. I get that Sega of America wanted him to seem “cool” but I think even ‘90s playground edgelords could agree the Japanese art looks better.
It's just the hole in his chest, seen from above. You can also see the reflection of his shoulder pad on the left.
So here is a stupid question I've been wondering since 1994(no seriously) but never asked anybody about(probably been answered in the last 26 years). On my Mega Drive model 2(MK-1631-50) when I insert Sonic 2 in Sonic & Knuckles the game shows the license info then it black-screens but if I put the same 2 cartridges in my model 1 it just works. Anyone knows what could cause this? I remember being so confused as a kid on why it didn't work even though the back of the Knuckles package said it would. I actually had to go to my friends house just to play it. Booting it from a flash-cart works just fine. Edit:grammar
What about Sonic the Hedgehog 3 on Sonic & Knuckles, and Sonic the Hedgehog on Sonic & Knuckles? They also work alright?
They work, it's just those 2 for some reason. Sonic 2 Rev 01 Edit: Just tried plugging in my old 32x that I usually use with my model 1 and Sonic 2 and Knuckles actually boots with it plugged in. I tried removing the 32x again and same thing. Licence screen then black forever
Hm, that is peculiar. Sorry I can't be of more help. Have you tried cleaning the contacts of the Mega Drive and both cartridges?
Yeah, I think it's the checksum that's failing. I could try opening the Mega Drive and clean everything inside too but idk
Surp https://archive.org/details/redump-id-70999 https://archive.org/details/redump-id-70998 Got some press discs for Sonic Riders, Shadow, Gems Collection and Rush. Contents need mirroring on the Sonic Retro wiki... unless they're already there, or we have better versions. Be careful with names, reundancy etc. Convert silly formats to better ones, use your brain and so on. I've been using AnyBurn to get into disc images. I've done a few over the years for Sega Retro if you need tips.
I thought seem people might find this interesting. When I was a kid, I loved Sonic (duh) so my parents got me these official plushes of Sonic and Tails from SEGA World in the late 1990s. I think they were around £50-60 each? I know they were really expensive for back then. I remember that the Tails one had his Tails clipped together with something and both had tags for them which had Sonic 2 UK art and maybe a description (but I can't remember that so well!).
I still have those from back in the day too, although mine were in the £15-20 range from John Menzies and Future Zone. Sonic was released around the same time as Sonic 2 and Tails followed a few months later.. Tails indeed had his tails attached to each other (and those were also attached to the back of his head IIRC). I cut them free though!
So while I was researching the games to assemble a timeline of Sonic, I noticed a couple of small things about SEGASonic the Hedgehog: 1) The flyer actually uses the name Robotnik instead of Eggman, which is odd for the Japanese canon. That was released in 1993, so is that the oldest Robotnik in Japanese canon? Spoiler 2) The game actually echoes the Sonic Heroes team system, and even has matching colours. Speed - Sonic the Hedgehog, blue. Flight - Ray the Flying Squirrel, yellow. Power - Mighty the Armadillo, red. Of course, we don't see these powers in order to balance the game-play and not have one character overshadow the others, but considering Sonic is Sonic, Ray is a flying squirrel and Mighty is displayed as immensely strong in media such as Sonic Mania Adventures, I'd say he fits that aspect.
@BlackHole regarding #2, I think even Sonic team realized that as apparently one of their early Heroes team set ups was Metal Sonic, Mighty and Ray. But instead the former became the villain and the latter 2 stayed dead for another 13 years
I recall something to that effect... but if they were going to be in Sonic Heroes... There's Adventure Redesigns for Mighty and Ray somewhere..