The Supreme Topic of 'Other' Knowledge.

Jungle is Wood and I'm more than sure the city is just chemical plant!

 

He said he couldn't remember exactly the names of the levels they were based on, so yeah there's still a chance the city image is based on Chemical Plant. Will chat with him some more soon hopefully.

 

Incidentally, at first glace, I though that the art with orange-colored background represented Chemical Plant, largely because I automatically, unconsciously associate orange-ish backgrounds with Chemical Plant! :v:

The city art could be a representation of Chemical Plant, since Tom Payne said that the art for Cyber City Zone was never implemented in Sonic 2.

 

Been chatting with Duncan some more and he has been confirming some other art he did for Sega through an agency. Including Knuckles from the PAL Sonic 3 box art AKA this



as well as all the 1994 calender art as well, which includes the Sonic the Poster Mag issue 1 and 2 poster art such as this one:



He also produced a poster art for the Mega Drive Jurassic Park game (does anyone know of it? Can't find anything of it), a Streets of Rage image (but not the box art to 2, apparently it was set in a subway so maybe it was unused) and an Ecco one that was a redraw of the Ecco 2 box art for a Mega Drive 2 bundle sleeve.

He also confirmed that he illustrated this large sonic 2 promo board I own:

 

He seems to have been the 'B' artist for the Sonic series in the early 90s.

Also Tails' shoes are ridiculous. And people think Modern Sonic character's shoes are too big

 

(fill in the blanks).

 

True... I actually like the one with Robotnik in that spike-mobile, though. Has some good motion to it, and I like how "violent" it looks throwing grass everywhere and causing rabbits to ran away in a panic.

 

Hmm...I've just seen this



and I've never heard that SCD boss had any name, and not specially anything like that ( who sound nothing like any of the usual Eggman mech's names). Is that true, does anyone know about it?

 

Yeah, it has a name! Its name is stated in the japanese manual. They went out of their way to give this boss a name, but only this expecific boss (probably to avoid spoilers). However, the description implies that each of Eggman's mechs are numbered sequentially.

The are so many obscure details explained in the japanese manuals; they explain details about the games' stories, the relationship between games, chronology, why Eggman saves Sonic and destroy his own Antlion Mecha (???????) in Underground Zone (yes, they also have names, surprise surprise), what that shooting star which appears in Sonic the Hedgehog 2's title screen is, you name it.

One day I'll write a compendium of all information that was known in Japan, but unknown elsewhere in the world. The actual Sonic continuity (pre '98).

 

wow...that's awesome. Please do it for those who can't read japanese!

 

I figure this doesn't deserve it's own thread.

Mailed Chris Senn about two things we saw on the 2009 Sonic X-Treme leak that I was wondering about- the purported image of "Mips" and the gifs of two robots, Chaz and Gabby.

So yeah, in the end nothing to directly do with X-Treme.

Is there some sort of standard we usually follow in cases like this, btw? To verify I'm not just bullshitting? Posting a screenshot of the mail or something?

 

I'm interested. What is that shooting star on the Sonic the Hedgehog 2 title screen, may I ask?

Edit: Oh wait, it was Robotnik, right? Or a probe at least, iirc.

 

Here's something I noticed a while a go but turned up nothing when searching.

Was the secretary from Sonic Adventure 2 originally supposed to be Maria? Based on just appearances alone, the two look kinda similar to each other (hair color and I believe eye color are comparable). I do know in Shadow the Hedgehog they make her death a lot more apparent, but Sonic Adventure 2 was never really clear that she died. The only mention of her actually dying was from Gerald Robotnik, but he admitted to being driven insane by her death (signs of mental instability?).

But the reason I say "originally" is because of this cut dialog, which would've been her last line in the Last Story:

Which is similar to what Maria said to Shadow:

Of course, this is a pretty huge stretch. It would also explain why they bothered to give the secretary her own theme in the game if she turned out to be such a minor character. I'm not really into the whole story thing in the Sonic universe, so...

 

Hmm...

Spoiler

...I get where you're coming from.

 

Short answer, yes. It was Dr. Eggman. He followed Sonic to the island; the sparkle is him arriving and settling on the opposite end of the island. The manual states that Sonic saw the sparkle too, and that's why it appears in-game. It is relevant to the plot. Who knew!? :v: He believed that he could "obtain" Chaos Emeralds by following Sonic. But this generates lots of problems story-wise, however, because Sonic didn't know about the existance of Westside Island up to that point, and he stumbled upon it by complete accident, let alone know that this island also had Chaos Emeralds or not. Which means that Dr. Eggman's plan was entirely based on chance!? What?

Long answer: it is complicated. Mainly because the way it is worded makes it be one of two interpretations, which are entirely based on context. I'll get deeper into this some other time.


EDIT:

Eeeew. These are some ugly bitches, I'll tell you.

 

To be fair, South Island was the same. It's an island floating around the oceans (hence not appearing on maps) that no one knew about. Speaking of the original manuals, I'm curious about one thing: quoting the translation on the wiki:

• (Mary Yamasaki translation)
• " Sonic... This impertinent, this contrary hedgehog; he hopes that my bigger projects are always annihilated. But this time, my strength that resides in my intellect will crush him! Ha ha ha ha..."
  
• (SamIam translation)
• The evil mad scientist Dr. Eggman is up to his old nasty tricks again. "Sonic…that annoying, impertinent hedgehog. Thanks to him, my great plans are always laid to waste! Oh, but this time, I'm going to rub him out with the power of science! Ha ha ha ha ha…"

Both translations, so I'm assuming the original text, say Sonic and Robotnik are in another conflict. As in this has happened before. I'm incredibly curious as to what happened between the two that has Robotnik pretty much dreading Sonic's approach, maybe worthy of a prequel game if SEGA of Japan permit Taxman to use his Retro engine for something original.

The classic games do have some interesting plot ideas in the manuals, just no one bothered to look deeper into it (I did because I'm working on a project based on these stories: I have the Robotnik thing noted down, but I had forgot about it until I rechecked them: hence the edit later).

 

Except Sonic knew about South Island and its emeralds, and so did Robotnik. Neither knew about Westside Island though, because it was invisible. That's why I said the doctor's plan was based on pure chance: "I'll follow Sonic around until he settles in a place which may or may not house the Chaos Emeralds". There was absolutely no guaranty that it would in fact happen. Other than that, the only outsider who knew about the island's existance was Tails, which seems to already have acquaintances there.

I thought that that (h)role had already been filled by SegaSonic the Hedgehog Arcade and Tails' Adventures! :v:

 

"I'll follow the guy who's 6-for-6 on the whole Emerald locating business" seems like a legit plan, to be honest.

Was SEGASonic a prequel? I'm not sure and Tails' Adventures don't count since there's no Sonic or Robotnik :L

 

Endri, that's some interesting information you've posted. If you have the time, it would be great if you could post some translations. Like you said, there's so much about the 90s games that we don't know!

Tails' Adventures occurred before Tails met Sonic, so it's kind of a semi-prequel.