It would seem Generations combined the two names of the Sonic 2 final boss. Pretty weird it was originally given the same name as the place it was fought in, though. I guess it makes sense for Lego Dimensions to give unique names to the two different Mecha Sonic models to distinguish them. It probably wouldn't have been necessary if it had featured only one of them.
It's been a while since I've read either the Mega Collection or Jam books. The Mega Collection guide refers to the Master Emerald as the Super Emerald. I didn't realize that the Sonic Jam one did as well. Interesting. It's seems to be a common mistake at Sonic Team as the Sonic R website refers to the Chaos Emeralds as Super Emeralds! Out of interest, do you have a translation of the text that refers to 2nd Generation Mecha Sonic and Egg Robo being a subordinate? Thanks! />
I think we need to make scanning that official Sonic Jam guide a priority - it already turns up quite a bit. That Famitsu interview also needs mirroring on the wiki and translating. Four different sources is certainly enough of a confirmation for "Mecha Sonic"... but we really need scans to seal the deal otherwise this question will come up again.
I was always under the impression that every game robot Sonic that wasn't Metal Sonic (the character) was just given the "Mecha Sonic" as a 'label' rather than a name. Still it's good to have a refresh on the names. Does anyone remember 'Stone Sonic' being used at any point? I might be thinking of what old game magazines might have called the Game Gear Sonic 2 boss, but that always made me chuckle flex muscle.
For the record this is the second time over the last few months that something like this has been challenged - I ended up digging through half a dozen manuals to find that no official Sonic the Hedgehog game has "speed shoes". Everybody on the internet calls them speed shoes. But they're not speed shoes, they're Power Sneakers. There's a few of these - in the original games, it was never officially called "debug mode" for example. We have a page called Checkpoint but I don't know how many games actually refer to them as "checkpoints" (as opposed to lampposts or star posts or whatever). Little things.
Did that mode get an official name back then? I think that it was referred to as "debug mode" in the first Spanish magazine where it was published.
https://imgur.com/a/z4OIj Took some pics of Mecha Sonic related pages from Sonic the Hedgehog 2: Mega Drive Official Guide Book, Sonic the Hedgehog 1 & 2 Victory Walkthrough and Sonic Jam Official Guide. The quality isn't brilliant, but it's the best I can do for now. Shall I get pics of the cheat code pages from Sonic Jam?
That one seems justified, since the title describes the type/category of object. Since they functionally are all checkpoints with different names, it makes sense. EDIT: Maybe the title should be pluralized (as 'Checkpoints'), to denote this?
I remember that from many years back, but haven't been able to find it again. I think maybe there was the main Sonic R section on sonicteam.com and also a Sonic R page on the main Sega site? https://imgur.com/MCwDHk9 https://imgur.com/Ncki1ev The gist of the first seems be to "The boss is the 2nd generation Mecha Sonic created by Eggman". The second one is more complicated, seems to say Egg Robo became a boss, attacked Knuckles, was a subordinate of Mecha Sonic. Then something about taking or not taking the "Super Emerald", I dunno.
Here's yet another historical Sonic sales update! A very important one, too! For some odd reason, an Annual Report for Sega from 2006 does exist on the Sega archive, but for some odd reason, there is no link provided to it. I discovered it exists on the Sonic the Hedgehog Wikipedia page, can't thank the person responsible for sourcing it there enough. The hidden report also prompted me to check the fiscal year to see if there were some sources I overlooked, in which I found an Appendix report that posted largely similar results, so I can verify the results. It's a very good thing I found this as it reveals some things I got wrong / didn't expect. The most important thing to note is that the Fiscal Year report stated the sales of Sonic Riders, for the DS. At the time I originally found the report, I presumed the game recorded was actually Sonic Rush, with the report getting the name of the game wrong. The Appendix and Annual Report however instead reference Sonic Riders with the same sales figures--meaning the game recorded in the Fiscal Year was Sonic Riders, and it was the platform release that the FY got incorrect, rather than the game title. In addition to the Riders/Rush clarification, the 2006 Annual Report and Appendix also includes sales numbers for Sonic Mega Collection, Sonic Mega Collection Plus, and Sonic Heroes; none of which are covered in the Fiscal Year. The appendix also prompted me to check the appendix for the 2006 year (which covered the Q2, Q3, and Q4/FY), which I discovered to have included additional / pre-existing sales numbers for Sonic Rush, Shadow the Hedgehog, and Sonic Gems Collection (which previously had no numbers to speak of). Here are the results: Appendix for Q2 2006: Sonic Gems Collection (Overseas [Outside Japan]): 200,000 Appendix for Q3 2006: Shadow the Hedgehog (Overseas): 1,450,000 Sonic Rush: 410,000 Reminder: These numbers cover the first quarter of both game's release, as both were released in November. Appendix and Annual Report for 2006 FY (the Appendix was released at the end of the 2006 FY in March; the Annual Report meanwhile was released in July at the earliest, as it includes both a letter from chairman Hajime Satomi as well as a hierarchy structure of Sega's executive board, both dated from that month). Reminder: Both reports cover FY sales for both the then-current 2006 FY and the previous 2005 FY. Sales of Sonic games lister per year will be recorded in accordance to this. (for FY 2005*) Heroes: 1,290,000 (Apx) > 1,570,000 (AR) (for FY 2006) Shadow the Hedgehog: 1,590,000 (same as FY report) Sonic Riders: 930,000 (same as FY report, albeit we also know it is Riders, rather than Rush, as the game they were referring to) Historical sales update: Heroes: 2,040,000 (combined efforts of 2004 FY, 2006 Q1, 2007 FY combined) + 1,570,000 (2005 FY result) = 3,610,000 Riders: 930,000 (2006 FY) + 560,000 (2007 FY) = 1,490,000 Rush: 410,000 (2006 Q3) + 360,000 (2007 FY) + 930K FY 2007 = 770,000 (Personal) conclusions: A: The Riders/Rush clearup significantly dials the total/cumulative sales of Sonic Rush down to 770K; a far cry from the original number I thought it was (1.29M). While these sales are still better than the sequel, Rush Adventure (378K), they aren't too far ahead. In a general sense, this also shows the combined sales of both Rush games (US and EU) at just 1.148M, which isn't too great (and further served as evidence for Sega to give up on original handheld titles). This also leaves Advance 1 as the only handheld Sonic confirmed to have sold over one million units overall. B: On the flipside, the Riders/Rush clearup also significantly increases the sales of Riders. The FY sales numbers put the first Rider titles as a (cumulative) million seller, which arguably explains why Sonic Team followed it up with two sequels. These cumulative sales also make Riders ahead of both the individual sales of both of the All-Stars Racing titles. C: When counting its cumulative sales, Heroes' newly-established 3+ million sales put it ahead of Sonic Adventure (Gamasutra source) and Sonic Unleashed as the best-selling mainline game since Sonic 2 on the Genesis. *NOTICE: The 2006 Annual Report and FY Appendix also has sales for Sonic Mega Collection and Sonic Mega Collection Plus from the 2005 FY. However, the sales numbers for MCP do not match with the numbers provided in the actual 2005 FY Results and Annual Report; and their sales for Mega Collection also contradict each other, which is why I'm hesitant to add them to the wiki: 2005 FY Annual Report and FY Results: Mega Collection Plus - over two million units / 2.19 million 2005 FY in 2006 FY Appendix: Mega Collection: 980K > 860K 2005 FY in 2006 FY Annual Report: Mega Collection Plus 680K > 1M These 2005 FY numbers from the 2006 FY reports are actually less than the 2005 FY reports. The 2005 FY in the 2006 Appendix also makes the editing error of describing Sonic Mega Collection as being available on the PS2 and GameCube (despite the original being a GameCube exclusive). This could mean that the 980K reported for GC Mega Collection might have actually been meant for the PS2/XBOX Plus version, and vice versa. Would like to hear some thoughts / guidance on whether these numbers should override the original 2005 FY numbers or not. I would greatly appreciate it. Will be sending these all to the Retro Wiki, and updating my previous Sonic sales posts with them eventually!
There was a book called Stay Sonic which I'm pretty sure I remember referring to Mecha Sonic as "a Sonic made of stone" when talking about Death Egg Zone. Unfortunately my copy's long-since disappeared, so I can't verify this - anyone else have a copy they can double-check?
I was referring more towards adding the sales number themselves, rather than the IR reports they are sourced from. Black Squirrel has said that I should also upload copies of the reports themselves when I first started documenting Sonic sales though. EDIT: By the by, another sales update of even more sales figures; from the press releases for the first two Mario and Sonic pages (which are hosted here on the site, right under our noses I guess). The Winter Olympics PR page states the first Mario and Sonic game sold over ten million. Not too surprising there. Will add later. The more interesting one is the original Mario and Sonic Olympics PR page, which stated that the original Sonic Adventure on the Dreamcast sold over six million worldwide. For comparison's sake, the best-known sales record is a 2003 Gamasutra source (later updated in 2006) that says the game sold 2.5 million worldwide. Anyone else curious about this record as I am? Unless any red flags can be spotted, I may add this to the wiki as well.
"Edit mode" I believe is the official Japanese term. There are other places where this is mentioned, but that's what Sonic Jam calls it. Pretty much every non-Japanese magazine calls it "debug mode" though. You could probably sift through the archives and find the early adopters, but we were definitely calling it debug mode by the late 90s.
The source code fragment in the Sonic 2 Nick Arcade prototype ROM calls the main routine for debug mode "edit".
Here are the cheat code pages from the Sonic Jam guide: https://i.imgur.com/WnAoFq9.jpg https://i.imgur.com/YmMXsoG.jpg https://i.imgur.com/fi7LdqD.jpg https://i.imgur.com/BDLz6by.jpg https://i.imgur.com/pg60Cs2.jpg https://i.imgur.com/cHewvgx.jpg
A Sonic made of stone? Damn. What's with official western Sonic material from the 90s always getting things wrong?
Regarding the Debug Mode and Mecha Sonic talk. From the Sonic the Hedgehog 1&2 Sega's Official Player's Guide (sorry for the glare, taken with my camera):
