Not sure if anyone has noticed this before, I did some searching but couldn't find it documented anywhere. in Green Hills, there's the word Tom, who i assume did the map for this level: Additionally to this, all of the other shapes in the other acts don't appear very random. Some appear to be patterns. Here are some i coloured out to try and see some things more clearly: The 2nd act looks like it has some aliens or some kind of circular shape drawn in it. The large space at the end of the act appears to perhaps have a face with a hat possibly? With some other shape to the right of it that I couldn't make out what it is. There also appears to be something right in the middle of act 3, perhaps something with a big nose. I find if you zoom the map out and squint, you'll see the shapes im talking about. The fact that the patterns aren't random and arent repeated anywhere, combined with the tom one being the most obvious, makes me think this isn't a coincidence. Thoughts?
"TOM" might be a hidden signature by Takashi "Thomas" Yuda, who's listed in the game's credits. Everything else... I think you're just seeing things.
I think you're trying too hard to see something here. Whilst Act 1 clearly has TOM written, the other two look random. I can't make out images that you're seeing.
Tom being my name, I posted about this several years ago because I liked the coincidence, there are names also in other maps (Sky High iirc). I'd usually post a dusty forum link at this time, but (unsurprisingly enough) the new forum software doesn't cooperate, so eh.
Probably "Thomas" Yuda. He has a penchant for hiding his name in games. I know Golden Axe on Megadrive has his name hidden on the map screens, and I seem to recall some other game (possibly a Shinobi game?) having "YU DA" printed on the crate sprites.
I actually noticed this while hacking the game. Sonic Chaos also has some ring formations in the first special stage that spells out "SHIMA" "RAY" "500" so the dev team decided to add that little easter egg in Chaos as well.
I found the Shinobi "Thomas" Yuda reference. I knew it was somewhere in there. I was wrong about the Golden Axe Yuda reference though, so I don't even know what the heck I was thinking of. I know I'm misremembering something, so now it's gonna bug me. For reference though, Arcade Golden Axe has "DOYDOY" on the map, which is also in the ending sequence, whereas the Megadrive version simply has "G AX - MD" on the map. Anyone able to help me figure out what I'm thinking of? Was I simply thinking of the Quackshot map this entire time and conflating it with having noticed messages on the Golden Axe screens?