The Supreme Topic of 'Other' Knowledge.

Having found our Sonic Spinball proto page is missing a load of content, I've been playing the game a bit to get some comparison foundations in place (although spoilers: I won't be getting all the screenshots - it's awkward to work with).

Anyway, a feature:

if you trap Sonic in these areas, you get the message "How about a ride?" and the camera pans down to show the "ride". In the prototype, it doesn't pan down.



However, both the prototype and final game have the same behaviour for the flippers further up, where this message will never make sense (not that it was immediately obvious to begin with - it takes a few seconds to pan and I find most pinball beginners don't trap balls).

(see, anyone can become an expert and find undocumented bugs)

I've only checked the first revision of the game (the one with the classic Sonic theme... which tbh might be a proto as well but nobody has ever worked that out). There are three other "final" ROMs, and the Game Boy Advance port to check. Bonus points if you get there before me (or indeed finish this job - faffing around in The Machine is not a top priority after a day of work).

 

No points for you - this is still a thing in the Japanese and PAL versions. So I'm going to class it as bug.


Unfortunately this exercise revealed a much bigger omission on Sonic Retro:

Lads, the Japanese version is localised. As in, more than the games made by Japanese developers. Most of the text is still in English, but I just assumed a straight copy of the game (as was often the style at the time) - instead they actually did it properly. Or at least "more-properly".

I might even suggest it's the best version of Sonic Spinball out there. It doesn't fix the options screen music, but tons of sound effects are changed (including obvious ones like jumping and the spindash rev), and it has a new death jingle. This was only a footnote on the development page of Sonic Retro.

 

I see what you did there

 

The one where Sonic pulling the switch to activate the flipper is flipped from Comix Zone/The Ooze?

 

I almost feel guilty for not mentioning it sooner as I already knew this since it's a main feature of the Mini and assumed everyone knew about it already, but yes they polished the crap out of the Japanese version. There's various sound differences like you've mentioned, but it generally has a better presentation.

 

this is the "Sonic Retro wiki = common knowledge, if it's not on the wiki, it's not common knowledge" post

Although okay this time it was on the wiki, just not really in the right place and only a couple of sentences.

 

I decided to play Sonic 2 Tiger and noticed something strange. It makes me wonder just how the assets for these were handled.

 

Today on the game that sold millions but nobody care about:


Sonic doesn't like walls. He'll only push against some of them (unless it's the Japanese version where this bug is fixed). This actually worked in the prototype version (although you can clip through if you're messing around so it's clearly not a full solution).

 

I believe that's known, the 100% TAS abuses the lack of wall physics for some sneaky shortcuts. I know Mega Drive Spinball pretty well, so might take a look as time allows. Infinitely preferable to all the time I spent working out the cheats on the 8 bit version!

 

https://xcancel.com/Arunotaku/status/1701298633331851576

Spoiler: Images from the tweet

well these (used in a 1988 Sony demo) sure look familiar

 

Sonic1's Special Stage BG might've been based on those?

 

It was. This is Sony's Infinite Escher, a promotional VHS tape used for demonstrations and stuff. This particular birds/fish illusion is fairly common (you can find it in those old "illusions" books), but the way it appears in Sonic is a direct reference to the Sony video. Shoutouts to Dupreedraws for some of this info.

Here's Metamorphosis (1990). It has the same illusion from Infinite Escher (at 01:56). You can find a bit more info on the Sonic 1 Development page.



edit: date

 

Alright I've just noticed something really bizzare:
I was playing the Backbone Entertainment version of Sonic 2 on my PS3 and unlocked 2 trophies relating to Super Sonic:

Notice how neither of these are the original sprites. The left is the Sonic 3 transformation sprite... with the top quill pointing down, like his Adventure-era design. The right is the Sonic 2 good ending sprite with a completely redrawn hell.

I've no idea if these were fan sprites accidentally stolen or were something new created by Backbone/Sega for some mysterious reason, but either way it's weird.

Also sidenote for anyone here who cares about cheevos as much as me: The Xbox 360 version came out much earlier with a different set of achievement icons and used Sonic Advance Super Sonic sprites

 

Yes. They've been on the wiki for years: https://info.sonicretro.org/Sonic_the_Hedgehog_2_(16-bit)/Achievements

Also: https://info.sonicretro.org/Category:Achievements

 

Your suspicious were right: Both sprites look they were taken directly from this custom sprite sheet.

I just searched for "Super Sonic sprite" on Google image search and that sheet was the third result, so...pretty obvious how they found it.

 

Meanwhile people freaked out when origins used a few rotation sprites from a fan hack as a base by accident lol

 

Do you guys remember when they accidentally used fanart of Sonia in Sega All Stars Racing in a level

 

What it's going to take for supposed professionals to stop copying random stuff off Google Images? Jesus Christ.

 

To be fair, it's not like it was much different back in the 90s. Just look at the many times Greg Martin was made to paste the same exact Sonic head on his paintings.

 

Some reuse makes sense especially if it’s your own work, but ya stealing ain’t great.