The Eternal Tech Member | Polygon Jim – Cody Lawrence | A Posthumous Tribute To A Fan In Sonic Mania

Hello folks of Sonic Retro! I have completed my fifth article now. This one is on the Eternal Tech Member of Sonic Retro, Cody Lawrence or rather Polygon Jim.

https://zedm256.wordpress.com/2025/04/06/sonic-polygon-jim/​

I felt that there was not as much coverage that could be done about him as all I saw were articles from gaming news sites that briefly went over him by just linking to his user page on Sonic Retro and that’s pretty much it.

Here is just some of the things you will learn about from this article:
-Several references that were put in Sonic Mania whether you may already know them or not.

-How Cody chose the username of Jim/Jimmy and in turn the “Polygon” part in his username as well.

-Some of the works and contributions that Jim did for the community.

-The many stories from other users on Sonic Retro on the kind of person Jim was within a thread offering their condolences when Jim passed. This was a thread that could not be seen unless you had an account so I don’t think many have seen it.

-From that same thread some words from Sonic Mania developers Brad Flick, one of the level designers, and Christian Whitehead were given on the inclusion of the reference to Jim’s Motobug ROM hack.

-Aaron Webber, who was involved with the official social media community side of Sonic, would also give their own words on Jim.

-See the kind of jokes Jim made throughout his time on Retro.

-Some of the opinions Jim had on certain Sonic games especially with Sonic 4 in particular.

Hey @Harmony Friends (Hinchy) and @Chimpo I know you both were friends with Jim so I hope I did well in going over the kind of person he was.

If anyone feels I need to fix something about the article on him or add more about him please let me know. I am open to critique and would also be glad to add on more about Jim if I can.

If you're interested in reading more of my articles on Sonic then check them out here
https://forums.sonicretro.org/index...oshi-okano-his-influence-to-the-series.41046/

https://forums.sonicretro.org/index...a-collaborative-oc-from-the-mania-team.41884/

https://forums.sonicretro.org/index...nsight-into-the-animations-of-sonic-cd.42132/

https://forums.sonicretro.org/index...dragon-ball-influences-and-inspiration.42912/
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I am glad to see a response from you. I strive to make all my articles as extensive as possible, packing them in with as much information as I can find. I am always eager to share information with others. That is why my articles can get so long.

I appreciate what you said about the effort in memorializing him as I did put a lot of time into the article. I took about little more than an entire month making the article as I started around the last days of February. I felt that Polygon Jim deserved to have more extensive coverage done on who he was than what was already out there as there really wasn’t much. That is why I made the article as I have already said and that is why I am really happy to have finished it just days before his birthday which will be on April 10.

I really would like to know what you thought about the article after you have finished reading it.

Overall it was fascinating and fun to go through all his forum posts to learn more about him like why he chose the name of Jim/Jimmy and the stories from other users while they were giving their condolences illustrating what he was like. I was amused seeing the kind of jokes that he made on his time in these forums and I really enjoyed reading his opinions on some of the Sonic games. He really did hate Sonic 4.

Some of the impressions that I read about him were that he was rather abrasive but once someone managed to click with him and get to know him more he was a guy with a particular sense of humor who was able to make some great Sonic fan works. In some way it makes me wish that I would have gotten the chance to know him.

It really was nice of the Mania team to put in a reference to him in the game and the digital manual. That is actually how I first knew about Polygon Jim when people were posting about the references to him.

I’m glad to see a response from you Chimpo. I would also like to know what you thought about this article when you have finished reading it.

Thanks for providing more information about his username change. This is very enlightening. So the “Polygon Jim” username really was forced upon him and that is why he initially objected to it.

Would you happen to know if the profile picture he had of the pokemon Porygon was also given to him or did he choose it himself?

That 3D model of Classic Sonic really was done excellently. It does look very official. In the article I did link to the Youtube video where he showed a rotation of that 3D model and it had the upload date of April 18 2010.

So it was at least around the time shortly after the trailer for Sonic 4 was released. I neglected to mention this 2010 date of the video within the article which I feel is important to point out so I will add that into the article.