Sonic Origins Collection - General Thread

Watch the Sonic 3 Widescreen be an emulator running additional scripts to achieve wide screen. In fact that could be the whole collection

I'll wait till it comes out and see what the verdict and price are.

 

I don’t think it’d be fair to make such a statement without knowing the whole story if that were to be the case. I recall seeing one of the people who worked on Mania say a while back that they personally wouldn’t want to be tied down to working on Sonic, so I don’t think it’d be unreasonable for others in EveningStar to share that sentiment. Perhaps SEGA had approached them but they weren’t interested for whatever reason? Perhaps they’re in the midst of a passion project that’s requiring all hands on deck? I think it’d be best to wait for more information on what exactly we’re getting and to see if anybody who worked on Mania has something to say about it then. As far as I know, we’ve not heard anything from any EveningStar members in response to Origins, so perhaps they are working on it under NDA?

 

Most devs, probably including Thomley and Whitehead, are already massively exploited by publishers not giving them any of the money their work actually produces, so I don't really see much difference whether they remain hired for it or not.

 

Not even sure there are music controversies to resolve. It'll be the original music.

 

A lot of people say that and it's just not the realties of working in the creative industry. You take any job you can get. Stealth at least has confirmed he wants to work for SEGA and they've never offered any more work.

 

Just a bit of funny wording. It's including Sonic & Knuckles and Sonic the Hedgehog CD on top of the Classic Trilogy.

It's funny how they keep treating Sonic & Knuckles as a separate game completely, rather than Sonic the Hedgehog 3.5 and just putting it with the first half.

 

..........? We still don't have actual track credits for the soundtrack of Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and Knuckles. This has been a highly debated topic for years now.

That being said, I'm hopeful we'll get the Genesis music. Not sure how much has changed since Classic Collection, but they had no issues with doing it then.

 

Regarding the music; I think it's no coincidence that after the prototype was released we are finally getting a new official release of Sonic 3. SEGA probably had a eureka moment when they realised the beta music could be used. I think it's likely that SEGA own the rights to use the beta music without causing any legal trouble.

So I think this new release will include the beta music. No idea whether SEGA could just modify the original rom to add the beta tracks without any legal trouble? Or whether this new (widescreen) version has to be built from the ground-up so that the beta tracks can be used (of course it should be built from the ground-up anyway to bring it up to the standard of the mobile remasters).

As for the MJ tracks, I can only guess that even if SEGA have come to some kind of deal to use them this will involve SEGA paying royalties, which I'd imagine they'd be reluctant to do.

So I think this new release will feature the beta tracks but not the MJ music. Although fingers crossed both will be included (which would be awesome) and there's an option to switch between the music in the acts via the pause menu etc.

 

This whole presentation seemed like it was made too early.

Heres's a new sonic game with a 1 minute vague CGI trailer, more information next year.

Here's a collection of Sonic 1-Knuckles and Sonic CD, we'll have more information next year.

Here's all the 30th anniversary toys, we don't have anything to show you right now but instead listen to a guy talking about toys for 5 minutes.

This all just felt like it was undeserving of a large video presentation. As a Sonic fan I feel the presentation was pointless and a waste of my time. They shouldn't have had a big video when they had very little / nothing to show.

 

I've said this countless times, but people make many assumptions about the issues around the Sonic 3 OST. They discuss the Sonic and Knuckles PC Collection and lack of 2010s re-releases of Sonic 3 as if they are part of the same problem, despite both issues being separated by over a twenty year time span.

There are many reasons why Sonic and Knuckles PC Collection used different music. Perhaps it was a botched 'port' incorrectly using prototypes, not uncommon for PC adaptions of the time. Perhaps SEGA had the rights to the OST in Genesis format but not MIDI, and so they had to change the music or pay more money. I think it's implausible that SEGA had no right to the music at all at this time, considering Sonic Jam came out the same year (a port) and they continued to sell Sonic 3 in emulated form throughout the 2000s.

I think the most likely scenario is that the massive legal headaches started around the 2010s, which is why SEGA just stopped re-releasing Sonic 3 altogether. It's for this reason that I think they have probably sorted out the legal issues now for a re-release, because I think the fact they were so careful suggests they wouldn't have even risked re-releasing the game with an altered soundtrack. People say they may have decided to use the Beta soundtrack, but I think that's irrelevant really, since they always had the option to replace the music with some new other tracks. The fact they didn't suggests they might have thought new music tracks would be jarring and ruin the product or that it was too risky even replacing the tracks. The Beta tracks are more 'legitimate' now than they were in the past, but only a select few even know about the Beta tracks. This is a product for the mass market.

 

I remember a common theory at the time was that they made "new" tracks because the ones used in final Sonic 3 relied heavily on sound rips and would have been harder to replicate the 'punch' for, especially in more basic MIDI format of the time.

 

They are probably making the compilation so they can still release a game this year. Pretty good deal I think.

 

You're wrong. I don't like doing this but you're just flat-out fucking wrong. There had been such absurd radio silence from Sega that they absolutely needed to inform the fanbase that they are working on something. If you hadn't eaten in two weeks, and I offered you a sandwich, would you eat the sandwich, or would you scoff and say "This is it? I expected a buffet! Fuck you!"?

Me too, but that doesn't explain the prototype having those tracks. IIRC the PC version didn't come out until 1997, so that wouldn't have been a consideration in 93. Of course we couldn't know that at the time.

Not to mention that the PC version still managed to butcher the proto tracks.

 

I think you can both be right. As a fan it's disappointing to get the news that, "we're working on stuff, goodbye", but at the same time, everyone was getting restless that there *was* nothing. I think they totally could've planned out their announcement distribution a bit better, for sure, but at this point there's nothing they can do if they don't have a lot to share. I don't believe this was their original plan at all, COVID has thrown everything out and as such, I'm a little more forgiving about how awful it is. That, and we don't know whether more news is imminent, it might be.

As for Sonic Origins, yeah, it did feel as if that announcement was rushed. I understand there's not much you *can* say about a game compilation at the end of the day, but at the same time, I feel as if the idea was to get people excited, if it *was* the RetroEngine versions, they would've mentioned it. Fans would be screetching to non-fans about how the best versions of each of the games are finally on their way, and probably would've increased hype. I dunno, seems like a missed opportunity.

 

Did everyone just forget E3 is almost here?

 

I doubt we’ll hear anymore about the collection at E3. Seems to me that if they had anything else to show with it they would’ve done it there and then. Colours Ultimate will likely be there and in focus and MAYBE we’ll get a proper trailer for Sonic 2022, but I’m not banking on it.

 

Still though, I'd guess that SEGA have made a considered effort to have multiple Sonic releases in the space of a little over 12 months. We've got Colours in September, Origins in early 2022, the second movie in April, Prime at another point in 2022 and Rangers at the end of 2022 (technically we don't know when Rangers is coming, although it'll likely be a holiday period release based on history). The release of the movie and Prime are pretty much out of SEGA's hands, but they can certainly plan games around them.

The first movie, oddly, did not have any games releasing around it. I was really surprised that they made that choice. But it seems that they're going the whole hog this time, and 20 22 is going to be a really big year for Sonic (plus Colours Ultimate). Origins, along with Colours Ultimate, seems like a really smart idea. Those games will introduce many new and returning fans to a collection of popular games from the series history. Like it or not, Colours is a very approachable game. It's such a simple entry point to the series, both for the gameplay and the story/world. And Origins is literally going to be the series' beginnings, hopefully repackaged with a few modern conveniences and enhancements (widescreen, spindash, more playable characters). I guess that the double hit of Origins and Colours Ultimate feels to use like two portions of filler, but I think it may be a sensible move for SEGA.

I just sincerely hope that Origins is worth it for us oldies. If it ends up looking like it did in the trailer (emulated S3K whilst the other games are the remastered mobile versions) them I'm sorry to admit but I'd do be very tempted to buy it. I really want as many Classic Sonic games in my Switch as possible. But I think that SEGA could (although probably won't bother) go the extra mile by further enhancing all of the games. I'm not bothered very much about supplementary content like Mega Collection had, just the quality and content of the main games. I'll be waiting more news on this. S1 and S2 already exist twice on the Switch, once in Mega Drive Classic Collection and again as downloads in the SEGA AGES series. The inclusion of S3K and SCD might be enough for some to double or triple dip, but they really ought to sweeten the pot. It's taken SEGA far too long to get S1 and S2 off mobiles.