[The Growler]

I've been wondering this for a while now, and I found the wiki to be a little confusing.

What I'm actually referring to is Sonic Classics/aka. Sonic Compilation for the Genesis/MD (I'll say Genesis/Classics as it's easier to type).

Sorry [if] it's a novice question, but does a game like Sonic 1 "fill up" the whole cartridge (since Sonic 3/K had to be split into 2 to fit it all on)? If so, then how did Sonic Classics fit 3 whole games in to 1 cartridge? And if not, then why didn't the developers fill the rest of it up with extra levels, etc [I do remember reading about the "SEGA" chant filling up a load of space, but I forgot the background behind that]?

Or have I just got the basis all wrong?

[GerbilSoft]

Sonic 1 is 512 KB. Mean Bean Machine is also 512 KB; Sonic 2 is 1 MB.

Sonic Classics / Compilation has a 2 MB ROM, and uses some unused space from one of the games for the startup menu.

The maximum ROM size for a Genesis cartridge is 4 MB, assuming you don't use a mapper or the "8 MB trick" (which prevents the use of Sega CD).

EDIT: You might have heard about the "SEGA" sound filling up the space in Sonic 1 because they were limited to a 512 KB ROM chip at the time. Remember that ROM was expensive, and moving up to 1 MB would've cost too much. Sonic Compilation was released 4 years after Sonic 1, so the prices of ROM fell significantly.

This post has been edited by GerbilSoft: 13 December 2013 - 01:14 PM
Reason for edit: ROM costs

[The Growler]

Ah cool, that makes a lot of sense, thanks a lot