Sonic and Sega Retro Message Board: Tralis - Viewing Profile - Sonic and Sega Retro Message Board

So, I'm sure a lot of this could be answered with debug mode but the debug mode cheat for Sonic 3 is F'in hard to do and I'm lazy.

How much of the extra content from S3K is on S3 cartridge?
I know that the level select has Mushroom Forest/Hill, Flying Battery, and Sandopolis. How much of these levels are actually on the cartridge?
Are the alternate paths for Knuckles patched in, or are they present on the S3 cart?

Little changes in the first six levels like the spike in Act 2 of Hydrocity that becomes a 1UP, these are patched by the S&K cart I'm sure, probably not present on the S3 cart.
Is the extra area of Mushroom Hills with the first super ring and everything present when playing S&K by itself, or is that only loaded as part of the level when S3&K?


Were Lava Reef, Sky Sanctuary, and Death Egg zone planned in Sonic 3 and just not present in the level select, or were they added to make S&K a complete game?
In other words, would a complete Sonic 3 if S&K hadn't been a thing ended with Launch Base zone?

Seeing Sonic Generations made me think about Chemical Plant Zone more deeply than I had ever before. Sonic games tend to escalate in terms of the urbanness and industrialness of each zone as the game goes on. Not a hard rule, but it definitely seems like a pattern. Chemical Plant Zone seems out of place so early in Sonic 2. It seems more at home around Oil Ocean and Metropolis than Emerald Hill and Aquatic Ruins. It's also a pretty difficult zone, with the unbreatheable mega mack. Why was it so early in Sonic 2? Did they just want to show off how fast the game could be?

So, I was perusing our fine wiki when I looked at the S3&K Level Maps page. On it, I noticed an eighth special stage for both S3 and S&K. WTF? Are these unplayable levels locked within the recesses of memory? What are they? Where did they come from?

For those interested:
http://info.sonicretro.org/Sonic_3_%26_Knuckles_Level_Maps

I have Gens all set up with bios and all. I downloaded a few ROMs from a website for Sega CD. The files are all zips with the first file called "Game XYZ - Track 1.iso" and all other "Game XYZ - Track N.mp3", replacing "Game XYX" with, for example, Sonic CD and Track N with some number. All the .mp3 tracks are obivously the game's CD-DA sound. The games play fine, the problem is all of the CD sound is not recognized nor played (Probably since they are in files other than the iso). How do I get Gens to receive and play them when apropriate?