Has there ever been a trick to that notorious Sonic 3 cheat?

Now done it twice, this time on a PSP.

 

Also interestingly, what Tweaker said applies to regional/TMSS lockouts as well. I own a Japanese copy of Altered Beast (found at Goodwill, oddly enough) which I have transplanted into an empty cart to fit my Genesis 1 (I believe a broken Bram Stoker's Dracula was the donor, also Goodwill). It won't start normally. However starting any other game, ripping it out, inserting Altered Beast and doing a soft reset will start the game. This leaves the previous game's RAM variables in place though, if I try this using a Sonic game I tend to end up starting out with only one hit per life (but infinite lives) and an astronomically high score. The only game I've been able to start it and have it behave properly with is Paperboy 2. Random, I know.

 

These. I used to do the code all the time back in the day, like repeatedly... I never thought it was that difficult. o_o just takes a little practice.

Definitely easier on a real Genesis than an emulator though

 

I've done it on a generation 3 Genesis. I've had it for easily 12 years now, last time I gave enough of a shit to do the swap trick was probably 4 or so yrs ago, worked just fine for me.

 

Offset: 000042CA

01 = up
02 = down

iirc, if you simply set a single "01" and the rest "00", you only have to press up once or twice..

 

Hey, Goodwill is great for finding rarities. I bought SA:LE for 2 dollars there, complete. And a Genesis with tiny toons in it for $10 just last month.

 

I think I am seeing a pattern here.

Some people (like me), can do it on their 1st Try.

Others have problems getting it to work at ALL.

I have a feeling...what are you using to accomplish it, and how many times did it take on it?

I am using a Sega Saturn USB controller with the latest version of Kega Fusion. Worked the 1st time.

The reason I am saying this is it may be an issue with the hardware or the controllers themselves.

 

Using KEGA Fusion and my keyboard I can usually do it 1st time Everytime.

PSP and Picodrive sometimes takes me a few resets.... same as it did on my real Mega Drive.

 

I remember doing it through cart swapping, but I always thought the down-up thing was bullshit, because I'd never heard anything but anecdotal stories to back it up. Interesting to note that it's real.

 

I tried the whole switching the cart thing and it didn't work at all... >.> I still can't get the damn code to work! D: Though, like many people said just lock on to S&K and listen to the music that way (since left x3, right x3, and down x3 on a vine is much easier than Sonic 3's method.) But there are a few differences between S3 and S3k, the S3 has the horrible mini boss them IMO, and then two objects in Debug Mode don't even exist in S3K. (Surfing Sonic and those weird red spheres don't exist in Debug Mode in S3k...)Though I am tempted to try the cartridge swap method again.

 

I remember being able to do it flawlessly at least a decade ago, but I can't do it all at anymore.

 

I was never able to do it on my Genesis (and concluded it was bullshit too) and I just spent half an hour trying it in Fusion and nothing. I only managed to see the damn cheat working after hex-editing the ROM to change the code to just "UP".

 

I've done it a few times. It's a bitch but is certainly possible. Never seemed worth it though, as I've always had a s&k cart to accompany my s3 carts.

 

I was never able to do it on my Genesis because the controllers were all sticky so the buttons did not go down fast enough. Plus, the reset button was literally stuck by pancake syrup so the alternate cheat was impossible.

I was able to do it with a newer controller with good buttons though.

 

Man. Im with these people. I tried LOT of times with 3-button genesis pads, 6 button pads, keyboards... pirate cartridges, non-pirates, roms, diferent emulators, systems. And FUCK. I could never get that thing working...

I never tried "recently" but It should be that "hard" Im sure its just a timing issue with me there.

 

Never in my entire life I was able to do this code. Was able to do it twice, thanks to the above advice. Did it on my first try, then thirty times after that was able to do it a second time...... It was fun to finally see the code work after all these years. But it is not worth it. It just tempts you and laughs at you much like the barrel. I can just hear it laughing now, as it moves up and down..........

That is exactly what this level select code is, a evil UP UP DOWN DOWN UP UP UP UP UP UP UP UP UP.... joke by the barrel!

 

When I do it on Sonic Mega Collection + I always mash the up key more than four times after the up up down down has been done.. sometimes it can take as much as 8 up's (allbeit fast hits) before I hear RING and thats shortly followed by a Cheer from me

Until I don't save the savestate and have to do it again! DAMN!

 

It's not a lie, you have to hold down A from before you pull out the Sonic 2 cart until the Sonic 3 title screen has displayed...then just scroll down.




If this was said somewhere in the previous 6 pages, I didn't feel like reading those, but this is how the code works. I loved how the "Sound Test" coding thing worked. I still don't know how they did it, but it was great. Seeing Mushroom Valley was the best thing ever.


As for the UP UP DOWN DOWN, Etc....Screw that!