I'm assuming there's no difference in the data and the top one is just a later print to cut costs. Seems like other regions have a similar artwork, but the second one matches up with Sonic and the Secret Rings' disc artwork. Pretty much every disc you get these days are monotone even though they could have really cool art on them, just because DVDs don't make the same money they used to unfortunately.
Having collected imports on Saturn and Dreamcast for a while, it’s interesting to see how many more games released in Japan use color printing compared to NA and PAL. In many instances, the JP release will have lovely full color discs whereas the other versions get the sad monotone print. I get why they do it, but when you look at it in conjunction with the crappier box art, the flimsy and ugly cases, black and white manuals, etc., it really turns you off from buying the western releases. You have to wonder whether it’s American and European execs trying to maximize profit or Japanese headquarters not caring about foreign markets. Maybe a little of both?
I’ve played this level countless times, and I’ve always played with surround sound too. I can confirm that this is wishful thinking on the part of the writer - I am 110% certain there are no background sound effects for the biolizard in this level.
I think there's a perception that Westerners are more likely to just throw the boxes away, although I'm not totally sure where that comes from. It was either this year or last, but the physical releases of Football Manager were using their recyclable boxes as a selling point. To which the response is... why would you recycle the box? If you didn't want the packaging you wouldn't buy the physical edition!
My crappy S&K box survives and it's preseved as well as it came except for slight usage consequences that I fought back the best I could. And that's the only case easy to break. So does the Dreamcast box despite that one having had a harsher time travelling to the technical support service and not being useful to keep the console inside (got a big footwear box for it).
Does anyone know what this bug is caused by or how to replicate it consistently? I can't find any other info about it online besides this video.
So, some of you may recognize this stab sample from Collision Chaos' past music as the "James Brown Is Dead" stab. (0:55) However, did you know that James Brown Is Dead actually sampled the ending synth from "So Fine" by Electric Light Orchestra?
I wouldn't recognise the "JB is dead", but ELO is one of my favourite bands and I've never thought that sounded like So Fine. Not sure of that's good or bad on my part. EDIT: Checking out the sounds, the part you're referring to sounds to generic to me to be of relevance. Btw, ELO had fun with synthesizers constantly, you can listen to that kind of sounds and effects in a lot of their albums.
To be fair, I can see why it would be missed. The original was a long drawn out synth that then pitched down towards the end. James Brown Is Dead only uses the part where it starts to pitch down and uses it as a stab.
In Sonic Adventure 2, Sonic wears Soap shoes. Which soap shoes? These soap shoes: https://web.archive.org/web/20010623083332/http://www.soapshoes.com/sonic.asp These are "Scorchers", and were "slightly modified" for use in-game. Slightly modified. Just slightly. In 2001 the company was apparently offering 13 different shoe styles in 49 colours, all designed to let the user grind on rails and almost certainly hurt themselves. Why aren't they in Sonic Heroes? Because legal issues, bankruptcy and general stupidity. You can't actually buy new Soap shoes today (and haven't been able to since about 2006)- the brand was bought by Heelys (who made the shoe with a wheel in the back) who made a mess of things.
There are also a pair for Shadow's shoes that are gray. Was it because of legal issues or because they didn't want to? The shoes were featured in Sonic X during the Metarex saga in an episode that was aired (in the U.S.) on October, 15 2005.
I don't think it's ever been an issue of rights. The shoes themselves are so removed from anything that SOAP actually produced that they're basically new designs that were once sponsored by the brand. They probably didn't return in Heroes because Heroes was trying its best to evoke the nostalgia of the old games, and after that there's not much reason to keep using them because then it's just an inconsistent design choice.
So, in the classic games, did you know that if you jump on the exact frame Sonic steps on a flatter surface after running up a slope, you can achieve a higher jump than what was intended? Let's take this section from Collision Chaos Act 3 Under normal circumstances, that jump should not be possible. So, how is it? Let's deconstruct the 2 blocks involved The left block has an angle of 0xF0, which translates to 22.5 degrees. The right block has an angle of 0xF8, which translates to 11.25 degrees. Normally, the left block would allow you to jump that high, but not that quickly horizontally, and the right block would do the opposite. What allows you to do that jump has to do with how Sonic updates his speed on the ground and when he checks for jumping. Each frame, the first thing it does is check if Sonic should jump. If he should, it exits out of the update routine completely. The next major step involved in this is that Sonic's X and Y velocity get calculated from his ground speed and angle, and then that is added to Sonic's position. Towards the end, it handles collision, which will update Sonic's angle value. So, with that, let's break down how the jump occurs. It starts on the frame that Sonic moves from the 0xF0 block to the 0xF8 block. First jumping will be detected. For this frame, Sonic should not jump, so it continues on. It'll then calculate Sonic's X and Y velocity based on his ground speed and his angle, which is starting off at 0xF0. The new velocity values will then be added to his position, and in this case, he will be shifted over to the 0xF8 block, where the collision detection will pick up on and set his angle to 0xF8. Now, let's go to the next frame. This is the frame that Sonic should jump on. Because of that, it'll jump and then stop updating for that frame. If you were keen, you would have noticed that the X and Y velocities are still based on the 0xF0 angle. It never got updated because the jump action prevented it from doing so. The way Sonic's jump trajectory is calculated is that it takes whatever velocity he already has, and add the angled jump speed. In this case, we're starting off with the more upward-right trajectory established from the 0xF0 block. The jump trajectory is calculated from Sonic's current angle value, which has been set to 0xF8 in the last frame. Since that is a more flat angle, Sonic's jump trajectory will be more straight upwards, so it'll only just barely work against the established horizontal speed, while being boosted even further upwards than normal. The remake actually fixes this by updating the X and Y velocities before checking for jumping, and thus making this jump impossible without modding.
I have no skin in the game so to speak, having only casually played a few Sonic games in my life, but I am constantly amazed and impressed with the way the various minutia pertaining to these titles are analyzed on these boards. While I would expect to find a bunch of fans, it rather seems that everyone's a scholar of sorts. So even though I didn't read all of the above post, you have my sincerest respect.
Even so, that's an expression of passion that's hard to ignore. Not the kind likely to impress a date, sure, but passion nonetheless.