Wierd...

Elusive · Feb 15, 2005

Everyone's seen the Japanese game of Sonic 1 - you know, the incredibly colourful cartridge, box and manual:

Box
Manual
Cartridge
^ Links to Hivebrain's Sonicology site

What's wierd is, I just ordered Sonic 1 off an eBay Store that had the European box, manual and cartridge design; however, things of note include the scrolling cloud effect in GHZ, the rippling water effect in LZ, a correctly-ordered Level Select screen, and the copyright on the reverse of the manual mentions 'Printed in Japan', not 'Hong Kong'. If this is worthwile, I can capture live video and screengrabs. So, is this interesting enough to warrant further investigation?

EDIT - Hivebrain, not Overlord x_x Oh, and there's no 'spikebug' fix.

Flare · Feb 15, 2005

Mmm... sounds interesting (mabey an older version of the japanese version)
Im not realy sure myself, but it does sound weird

Elusive · Feb 15, 2005

Another point: The thing where you hold ABC in the demos to stop Sonic jumping don't work; also, the game only responds to the UDLR-A-start, not the other Japanese code.

For the record, this is on an unmodded European Mega Drive II

Elusive · Feb 15, 2005

Images:

^ Title screen (duh)

^ Level select screen (reordered!)

^ 'Ripple' effect in Labyrinth

^ The Green Hill Zone...

^ and its scrolling clouds!

All taken directly from the TV card I keep my Mega Drive hooked up to. The thing is, there's no serial number that I can find, and the labelling is all clearly European. I'm just at a loss how a Japanese version of the game got inside the European cartridge & packaging.

Am I making an unneccesary fuss over this? :unsure:

Kles · Feb 15, 2005

Meh. Either it totally changed for the Japan version or you have a very late beta. Let's see what the experts say.

Quickman · Feb 15, 2005

I'd guess someone changed the ROM so it's a European cart by changing the header and replaced the ROM. Not difficult to do given the level to which the technology is known.

Elusive · Feb 15, 2005

Like erasing the contents of a floppy disk and replacing it with a different file. I see, although it still doesn't account for the EU packaging, unless it's a bootleg or something. If it was plain-vanilla Sonic 1 (J), surely it wouldn't play on a EU Mega Drive due to region lockout?

Also, what does the text say on the back of the Sonic 1 manual? On this copy, it simply says '© SEGA Enterprises Printed in Japan'. But on the other EU manual I have that came with Sonic 1 SMS by mistake has a serial number and 'Printed in Hong Kong'. Which is correct?

The packaging and manual and cartridge are exactly the same as the EU game, save from the back manual cover as said above.

...I'm thoroughly confused here. I need a coffee. =/

ICEknight · Feb 15, 2005

This sounds like a late re-release, it would be interesting to dump it and check the header.

By the way, my Sonic 1 manual also says "Printed in Japan" and the back of the cartdrige says "Made in Japan". No serial numbers in there, either.

Qjimbo · Feb 16, 2005

Well feel free to post it to me and I'll dump it, just contact me if you're intrested!

Quickman · Feb 16, 2005

Elusive said:

If it was plain-vanilla Sonic 1 (J), surely it wouldn't play on a EU Mega Drive due to region lockout?
Click to expand...

As I said - change the header and voila, no lockout.

LOst · Feb 16, 2005

Elusive said:

^ 'Ripple' effect in Labyrinth
Click to expand...

Damn, the water color is too bright for me to see how your PAL border react to the HBlank palette change.

Can anyone see if the border is changing backdrop color at the water level?
Or does is only change the PAL border when you are completely under water?

Can you try to make a screenshot from your TV when playing Scrap Brain 3 (purple water) with Sonic at the water level, and with Sonic completely under water?

LOst · Feb 16, 2005

Ketsuban said:

Elusive said:

If it was plain-vanilla Sonic 1 (J), surely it wouldn't play on a EU Mega Drive due to region lockout?
Click to expand...

As I said - change the header and voila, no lockout.
Click to expand...

The header is WORLD! (JUE) for the Version 2 of Sonic 1. So actually it will work on any Megadrive or Genesis!

You people are refering to the japanese level select cheat and all that, like the credits cheat and the ending demo cheats, but these only work when the Megadrive is a Japanese Megadrive!

Elusive · Feb 16, 2005

Is this OK? [link goes to ImageShack]

EDIT -

ICEKnight said:

By the way, my Sonic 1 manual also says "Printed in Japan" and the back of the cartdrige says "Made in Japan". No serial numbers in there, either
Click to expand...

Yes, it's the same with this cart. But then again, my Sonic 2 cart was assembled in China, and my Sonic 3 cart in the U.K. Bit of a mixed bag ^_^

And yes, all I need is some postage information from QJimbo and I can send it off to be dumped, it's pretty cheap 2nd class.

ICEknight · Feb 16, 2005

Elusive said:

ICEKnight said:

By the way, my Sonic 1 manual also says "Printed in Japan" and the back of the cartdrige says "Made in Japan". No serial numbers in there, either
Click to expand...

Yes, it's the same with this cart. But then again, my Sonic 2 cart was assembled in China, and my Sonic 3 cart in the U.K.
Click to expand...

Mine was made in Japan, just like all (?) the other PAL partdriges of that time... Maybe you should send that one too, just in case.

Oh, and it looks like Sonic 3 PAL hasn't been verified yet according to GoodGen. The country code was possibly the only difference, but until somebody verifies it we won't know for sure if there were any other differences in the header.

Elusive · Feb 16, 2005

I guess I could do that, if QJimbo's willing. hint hint

Qjimbo · Feb 16, 2005

OK, I've just send the details! Lets get this stuff dumped

Tweaker · Feb 16, 2005

You want to dump everything now. :P

I'm not saying that's a bad thing -- It would be great to have new and interesting things to mess with. You just seem to be taking advantage of it, that's all.

ICEknight · Feb 16, 2005

By the way... Qjimbo, have you dumped any other games already? It would be nice to verify as many games as possible, you never know where will you find a new undumped revision.

Elusive · Feb 16, 2005

Right, I'll send the games tomorrow, as sadly my P.O. isn't open 24/7.

IIRC, so far QJimbo's dumped an Australian Sonic 2 cart; this'll make a guaranteed English version of Sonic 2 and 3 as well as an unknown (?) Sonic 1.

magraimon · Feb 17, 2005

Elusive said:

Right, I'll send the games tomorrow, as sadly my P.O. isn't open 24/7.

IIRC, so far QJimbo's dumped an Australian Sonic 2 cart; this'll make a guaranteed English version of Sonic 2 and 3 as well as an unknown (?) Sonic 1.
Click to expand...

He's now also done

Sonic 1 (EUR)
Sonic 2 (EUR)

Sonic 1 (USA) (with, interestingly enough, every other byte missing <game won't play on either gen or MD>)

Sonic & Knuckles (EUR) (I've had problems after recombining the files, although my cart could just be borked)

Greendog (EUR)
Eternal Champions (EUR)

Wierd...

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