The Supreme Topic of 'Other' Knowledge.

That's what I figured, it was most likely a way of warning the player of an incoming boss, like the WARNING message in some Mega Man games. They probably scrapped it because it looked too goofy and confusing, especially since most player wouldn't attribute sneezing with danger.

 

Perhaps this is also connected to sound FM NO.66?

 

Not sure. Maybe? It plays the signpost sound when the monitor is destroyed.

 

Because Sonic Retro's old bulk uploader miraculously works (spoilers: none of the others do):

Category:Sega Media Portal files

Have 2700+ official Sonic screenshots, covering games from 2004-2014 (although I think I forgot Sonic 06... though we had quite a lot of dev screenshots ehh). Of those, 624 came from Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games for the Nintendo 3DS, so you better like 10-year old track and field games.

Anything interesting? Uh..



There's PSP screens rendered at four times the size of the handheld's actual screen resolution, because you want that.



... Sonic Generations screenshots rendered at 5K, because you want that.



... The first demonstrated build of Sonic Unleashed, where Sonic always has 99 lives and no score.



... Sonic Chronicles builds with crappy HUD graphics..

And probably a bunch of little details. It's not a period of Sonic I have much interest in.

 

Where is the bulk uploader?

 

https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:UploadLocal
It's a sysop-only thing, because it also requires FTP access and bypasses a lot of the important sanity checks. Luckily Sonic Retro is running an older version of Mediawiki - we used to have this feature on Sega Retro but it died many years ago with a software update.

It's flaky as all hell and shouldn't work at all, but it does.

 

It's a great tool, I used it all the times when I was a Sysop. I kinda miss those days.

 

this always happens - I dismiss something and then:



This would explain why there are so many CG production companies involved in Sonic 2006 - it looks like there was (at least) a second pass over the introduction between announcement and the final product.

 

And some real mysteries:



We've a small handful of Sonic 06 shots in 5K (despite the game being optimised for 720p). I'm curious to how they made these - it looks like they took a 720p source, nearest-neighbour scaled it, did some things, and somehow swapped in Sonic's model with a higher resolution one (which might still be using lower resolution lighting data?).


As a promotional shot it's just weird. Surely all it does is highlight the inadequacies of the engine - it's not remotely representitive of the final product (and that's before you take into account the camera angle and stage management).

 

Minor addendum but the cuffs on Sonic’s shoes are also slightly taller, it appears to be a different model, not just higher res. Textures appear slightly different too, he almost looks scaly.

This is really weird as a promotional shot though I agree, Sonic’s hand is even clipping through his quills lmao, and the lighting in this area isn’t very flattering or good looking for a promo even in the final game.

 

Sonic gets stuck in that ice from the blue flames in Wacky Workbench, so perhaps the animation would play after you escape it and set foot on solid ground again?

The issue would be however that Sonic hits solid ground when he jumps on those spinning platforms, so perhaps it didn’t work well?

 

No, it was a leftover. The code existed since at least the v0.02 prototype in the main version of Sonic's object code (used in most levels). They just forgot to take it out of the Wacky Workbench copy of Sonic's object code after removing it from the main version. Other code that existed since v0.02 is also leftover in Wacky Workbench, including a super early routine for handling the shallow water pool splashes in Palmtree Panic that was removed in the final main version of Sonic's object code.

 

Sonic has a weird mouth there. Pretty sure his in-game model never shows any mouth. Also, are his shoe buckles reddish/orange, or is it just the lighting?

Btw, didn't we discuss these before? I pointed out that they look like upscaled pics with Sonic pasted over them, and people went "Nah, it's natural that they would look that pixelated because the engine was optimized for 720p. Sonic just looks sharper because his model was given higher priority"

 

Yes I remember, but that shot doesn't have the weird "sub-pixel" artefacts or the wonky lighting.

 

Some of these are elsewhere but watermarked or stuck as JPGs.

A nice note about the first one is that the machine that looks kind of like a coffee maker is referenced in the dialogue and a pretty crucial detail to the plot, it's actually an Eggman device you need to track down being stuck in a pawn shop since it was sold to the guy that owned it as... a coffee maker.

That's just straight up never there in the final game, and I'm not sure it's in the files for backgrounds either. It might be one of the items that they wanted to turn into a 3d model but just never got to it.

The development of this game is way crazier than I think anybody actually knows it was, myself included.

 

His in-game model always shows a mouth during gameplay. It's a simple texture drawn in the side of his muzzle. Of course it's missing in the cutscenes however.

 

Yesterday I found out Tails can do this in Sonic 3 & Knuckles. I was shocked. Several people just told me they had no idea this was possible in Sonic 3 & Knuckles.

 

Without checking your vid, just by the thumbnail I suppose you mean Tails can push the block on the opposite side and fight your own pushing. I already knew that 25 years ago because that's my luck when playing videogames. XD

 

Part of me wonders why Tails has more strength than Sonic when it comes to pushing boulders. Sonic looked like he really struggled to push the boulder, where as it looked effortless for Tails.

 

That object is the exception, not the rule. Usually Sonic is stronger - either Tails can't push things at all (the rocks in Angel Island Zone, spikes in Flying Battery Zone) or will be overruled by Sonic's inputs (Sandopolis).

In fact he's more well trained than I remember. I thought for sure he could spindash against you with the lifts in Lava Reef (or the screws in Metropolis) but no - the game flips him to face Sonic's direction. It's only when the second player takes control that the forces are cancelled out.

I wonder if the behaviour is matched in Sonic Mania...