I don't know specifically, but there's a flag somewhere in RAM that, whenever set, updates the ring counter with the value stored at $FFFFFE20, the RAM value that stores the current number of rings. For whatever reason, hitting the S monitor as these other characters wasn't triggering the code that normally sets this flag, and so it didn't update until another ring was collected, which DOES trigger that flag. I think it's the same case with the routine that decrements the ring counter when you're super. It must be checking for Sonic before branching to these routines, and as a result they won't execute with any character other than Sonic.
I think I can explain that. The S monitor itself, as it seems in this builds, triggers the transformation for the three without updating the rings counter flag. However the subroutine which subtracts the rings is only present in the sonic object, thus his counter gets updated inmediatly after 1 ring is subtracted, while the others don't until they get another ring. So yeah, it is somehow a side effect of the "super" subroutines missing in the other two characters.
Wait a sec, I thought somebody said Lock-On was planned from the beginning? The name "Sonic & Knuckles" may not have existed until they scrapped Sonic 3C then since the combined game could no longer be called "Sonic 3: Limited Edition" and "Sonic 3 Parts 1 and 2" is obviously a bad choice.
Sonic 3C wasn't meant to "replace" the lock on, but rather, it would be released as a special edition for those who didn't own Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles. Thus, for some time the development went parallel with the lock on (3B) and the stand-alone (3C) version of S3&K. My guess is that the very very early concept was to release three games without lockon, then quickly realized it would be a ripoff for those who owned the first two and added the lockon to the concept, and finally discarding the C version after realizing it didn't make sense anymore with the lock on. But that's just my thoughts.
It somewhat makes sense: probably a 3MB ROM is cheaper than two 2MB ROMs, a 256KB ROM and the lock-on device. So those who didn't buy Sonic 3 before would prefer to get 3C, as it would be a lot cheaper. But yes, from the gameplay viewpoint it's useless. EDIT: what the fuck there are 175 users in the page right now! Would the server resist at the release time? EDIT 2: ignore me, it seems like five days ago there were 484 users X_X
From developer point of view, assuming S3B and S3C were started as "separated" projects using the same resources, it wouldn't make sense to maintain S3C after lockon were introduced in S3B, since from that point the development would follow virtually the same for both. But again, that's just a guess. Also, in response again to Blue Streak, the fact the lockon wasn't implemented in the first place doesn't mean that Sonic 3B (what would later be known as S&K) didn't existed yet. Just because the concept about the lockon was on their mind before the release of Sonic 3A (Sonic 3 final), that doesn't mean they got it already implemented and working early too. Thus, my guess from drx's words is that Sonic 3B was first started without lockon.
The German article talks about lock-on in the same part where it mentions S3C, so I don't see how it was planned when S3C was scrapped.
And it probably was. I don't think they wanted to implement the device without having something to get it working with :P
Notice that they could have planned early, with the actual implementation coming way later, even later than the release of S3A. My guess there is that they planned it early but it wasn't until they got it working, when they realized it wouldn't make sense to maintain S3C, and scrapped it then. Edit: typo.
Does anyone in the UK remember GamesMaster on Channel4 previewing Sonic 3? I clearly remember them making a big deal about the memory on the cart needing to be much bigger (3 times?) than usual due to the levels being so much more vast than in Sonic 2. I remember the cart was not actually a cart, just the PCB with the EPROMs on it sticking out of the MD and it looked pretty huge, nearly as tall as S3+S&K.
