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Up Up Down Down Up Up Up Up

Discussion in 'General Sonic Discussion' started by saxman, May 9, 2023.

  1. Ok but

    How many of you mastered it on Sonic Classic Collection on the DS?

    Granted, I can do it on basically any port on any system, but something about having that unfinished level select in portable fashion is unreal to me. :eng99:
     
  2. Beamer the Meep

    Beamer the Meep

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    You know, until I read this comment, I had totally forgotten I did the same thing as a child. For years afterwards I assumed I had done it wrong. What a strange memory to "unlock".
     
  3. Josh Cristan

    Josh Cristan

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    In the time it takes you to master the bastard cheat, you could've played all the way to Launch Base 2 and cabbaged Big Arm.
     
  4. MarkeyJester

    MarkeyJester

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    I've had an edited copy of Sonic 3 on my computer where pressing a single Up is sufficient. I don't need it to enjoy the game, but it's nice to have it quickly if I need to check something out, because fuck pressing that combination perfect all the time...

    I've done the cart swap trick a few times in the past on hardware, it's also interesting hearing the DAC sounds being produced. A side thing to do on hardware (not really to go off topic too much, but...), if you switch the console on and time your reset press right, you can skip the TMSS screen. I've only done it twice but, it's really hard and probably not good for the hardware. ...mind you, the cart swapping isn't good either hahahaha

    I'm wondering if the up up down down up up up up... was actually supposed to be for the menu on the title screen. It's very close to the Tails/Miles name swap trick in Sonic 2.
     
  5. saxman

    saxman

    Oldbie Tech Member
    The evolution of this, as I see it is as follows:

    Sonic 1 rev 0:
    U D L R

    Sonic 1 rev 1:
    U D D D L R

    Sonic 2 prototypes:
    U D D D D U

    Sonic 2 final:
    U D D D U

    Sonic 3:
    U U D D U U U U

    I suspect they simply modified a previous code each time.
     
  6. MainMemory

    MainMemory

    Kate the Wolf Tech Member
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    But there's a Restart Game option right in the menu bar.
     
  7. Felik

    Felik

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    So... why did nobody just give up and use Angle Island code?
    I sure as hell did, once I've learned about it later on.

    Funny thing as a kid I had some kind of corrupted version of Sonic 3 so when I did manage to do the title screen code and access level select, when I went to any of the stages, it would have some sort of crazy glitch happen to it. From corrupted graphics to somehow spawning me out of bounds, etc. That was really fun.

    Edit: Does the AIZ code only work on S3K?
     
  8. GoldeMan

    GoldeMan

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    From my memory it does only work in S3K
     
  9. Felik

    Felik

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    Oh, in that case it makes sense. I myself probably only used it on emulators too.
     
  10. HEDGESMFG

    HEDGESMFG

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    I recall the Sonic and Knuckles code not being a well known fact until the late 90s. Does anyone else know if they were discovered at the time of release?
     
  11. Chibisteven

    Chibisteven

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    I use a Game Genie for the level select (AA6T-AAXC) if I really need to access it. Easier on the hardware (no cart swapping) and a time saver (no repeatedly trying over and over again).

    I've done the cart swap trick a few times. Makes me uneasy doing it.

    I've also managed to do the Level Select code successfully a few times after trying repeatedly over and over.
     
  12. saxman

    saxman

    Oldbie Tech Member
    I was a cheat code fanatic back then. I had lots of cheat code books, and I knew all the best cheat code resources online (SegaSages.com was a BEAST of a website for this stuff). Heck, I went by the name Sega-Master in part because of this obsession!

    At no point did I ever see a single level select or debug cheat for Sonic & Knuckles. Like you, I noticed this being knowledgeable with people in the late '90s. So I imagine it wasn't discovered until long after the game's release.
     
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  13. Billy

    Billy

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    I think putting in cheat codes on the title screen was the most common method (think Konami code), so I don't think a lot people would've thought to hang in-game and then put in a cheat. Was S(3)&K's level select listed in Sonic Jam? That's how I assume a lot of those cheats got out there. (Like, did people know to put Yuji Naka's birthday into Sonic 2's sound test before that?)
     
  14. RDNexus

    RDNexus

    Member
    In my case, I think my friends got the cheats through gaming magazines way before Sonic JAM came to be ^^"

    We usually played only S1 or S2 (they didn't have S3). Another friend, later, got S&K but not S3.
    Only by the 2000s did I and my brother manage to play S3K in all its glorious quality.
    Both S3 and S&K's cheats, only after that did we find them throughout the net.
     
  15. kazz

    kazz

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    Yes and the Genesis also had a reset button on it. It's not how you're supposed to go back to the title and get to the level select. The original cheat would unlock a soft reset function while you're paused but S&K Collection only had a weird overlay thing for a pause screen IIRC.
     
  16. big smile

    big smile

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    Yeah, I've always wondered about why the S&K level select cheat didn’t appear in the magazines. I used to read Official Sega Magazine UK, which was later superseded by Official Mean Machines Sega. Both these publications would get cheats directly from Sega, but they never got the S&K cheat. I'm 90% sure that even after Sonic 3D came out, the S&K cheat still wasn't known to them. I think they even answered a readers' letter where they said it looked like S&K had no level select cheat.

    I am also 90% sure that the S&K cheat wasn't in Sonic Jam. It's almost like Sega forgot about the code, and then it somehow made its way to the internet.
     
  17. MainMemory

    MainMemory

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    It is how you're supposed to do it in S&KC. "Restart Game" acts as a soft reset like pressing A while paused did on MD.
     
  18. kazz

    kazz

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    Well I guess I was just a dumb kid because I swear I remember trying that and it not working. Might've just messed up the inputs. Weird too cause I also remember how relieved I felt when it just worked the first time I tried it with a Genesis rom. Whatever.
     
  19. Xilla

    Xilla

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    I've always had a half-baked theory that they made the S3 code difficult to enter on purpose so we had less chance of hearing the S&K music/seeing the zone names and realising the game wasn't actually finished :V
     
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  20. RibShark

    RibShark

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    I've always thought this too, alongside the fact that the level select screen is very glitchy on its own if you press A+Start to return to it after hitting a checkpoint, or try to enter a VS stage, or Special Stage 1; the entire thing just feels unfinished. I do remember seeing a magazine scan with the cheat listed though, and IIRC they claimed that SEGA sent them the code and they were unable to get it to work themselves, so that kinda shuts that theory down. On a related topic, though, it is strange that the level select code also enables debug by default despite there also being a sound test code (1, 3 ,5, 7) that also does so.