Coinciding with my goal to collect all I can for my favorite games, I would like to start this topic to answer some questions that the Wiki cannot in its current state. While it provides basic information of what the different box art and cartridges look like, it doesn't provide information regarding other details such as which editions of the games came with what posters, registration cards and such. If there are people here on Retro who have bought these games new and kept everything since breaking the seal, they will probably be the most helpful in figuring these things out. This topic is meant to be picture heavy because I intend to save the pictures I come across for posting on buy/sell/trade forums to explain exactly what I am searching for and intend to buy. This would benefit me as well as others because #1 it allows me to get what I'm looking for without paying top dollar for sealed copies (and then shamelessly opening them & making sealed collectors mad) and #2 in the process other people will become knowledgable about the history of the items' packaging and be made aware of any guides or extras they might not know about. If it would keep the forum cleaner to just provide links to pictures rather than embedding them, we could do that. I will start out with pictures and edit them to become links once I move onto the next game in question. As of now, no US REV 01 carts have been found in the copies I've added to my collection so far. I have learned that different posters have come with this game, but now I am starting to wonder if certain minor variants always came with a certain poster and whether or not you can match up a loose poster with the correct copy of the game just by checking the printing variations on the box, manual and cartridge. I would like to start with questions about the US Version of Sonic the Hedgehog for Sega Genesis. I have pictures of particular posters to identify and other questions. First off, we know that the most common variant of Sonic 1 in the USA is the NOT FOR RESALE that was bundled with the Genesis Model 1 in 1993. Do all of these have the REV 00 rom without the parallax scrolling effects? So this should be familiar to everyone: EDIT: I don't own the one in this picture, but this one looks like a Printed In Japan variant. It may or may not be though. According to an unboxing video I found on youtube, a teenage guy opened a shrink wrapped copy of the game and all you see above is what came in the box. That means while technically the following posters came with this game via the Genesis bundle, they were actually packaged in the plastic bag that contains the Genesis system manual. According to most unboxing videos it seems like each Genesis came with up to three ads: one poster with Genesis games, one poster with Game Gear games and one Sega Classics sports ad. So far these are the five possible posters that me and other people have found within Sonic 1 Genesis bundles.: Poster #1 (Sonic 1 art on front/ToeJam & Earl poster on the back): Poster #2 (Sonic on front, folds out to Golden Axe II poster): Poster #3 (Game Gear on Front, Jurassic Park poster on back) Poster #4 (Game Gear "Get a Grip" on front, Joe Montana Football poster on back) Poster #5 (Batman on front, Sonic the Hedgehog 2 "Are You Up 2 It?" poster on back) Has anyone found anything different than mentioned here when buying a Sonic 1 Genesis 1 bundle? Next up we have the Sonic 1 plain: EDIT: This looks more like the Printed in Japan variant I have, but unlike mine it has patent info below the address on the back of the box. I am assuming this variant of the game is the less common original release? Were these still produced in this form after the bundled NOT FOR RESALE version came out? Did all of these come with the same posters inside? And does anyone have any pictures of the extras that came inside this box along with the manual? Do all of these also have the REV 00 rom (no parallax scrolling effects), or do some of them have the REV 01 rom (parallax scrolling effects added to clouds and water)? Or is the REV 01 rom only found in the "Classic" version? Which brings me to this: What do the cartridge and manual bundled with this version look like? Do they say Not For Resale just because Sega quit printing the regular version of the label or did they keep the non-bundle Sonic 1's plain? I have seen 1 opened copy on ebay, but the cartridge is the Not For Resale version which makes me think it's just an incorrecty repackaged copy. Why would it say Not for Resale on the game when it's in a Classics box? Does this come with any posters or inserts? If so, what kinds have you found? Again, are any of these cartridges REV 00 still or is this the point at which they changed to REV 01 in the US? This guide covers four games: Sonic the Hedgehog (Genesis), Sonic the Hedgehog (Game Gear), Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (Game Gear) and Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (Genesis): Are there any other branded guides for these same games or is this THE one? If anyone can clear up any of these questions, I'll thank you to answer any ones that you can. In the edit I will rephrase the questions into statements saying "This IS what comes with this" and such. After a bit of buying copies of the game and saving pictures of ebay auctions, I have actually been able to confirm the existence of many minor variants within each of the three US releases. Most of these differences seem to depend on whether the copy of said variant was manufactured and printed in Japan or USA. Examples of what I have in my possession: Sonic 1 Original (Printed in Japan) 1991: box front has: black SEGA GENESIS 16-BIT CARTRIDGE logo at top. official SEGA GENESIS seal of quality larger TM to the right of the game title box spine has: black SEGA GENESIS 16-BIT CARTRIDGE logo larger TM to the right of the game title box back has: smaller barcode box a more purple tint than blue in the pictures 1 player box is a 1 in solid square "Sega, Genesis, and Sonic The Hedgehog are trademarks of Sega of America, Inc. c 1991 Sega. P.O. Box 2167, South San Francisco, CA 94080. Printed in Japan." cartridge front has: black SEGA GENESIS 16-BIT CARTRIDGE logo cartridge top has: larger SONIC THE HEDGEHOG TM at the bottom between SONIC and THE HEDGEHOG cartridge back has: SEGA MADE IN JAPAN Caution information at center; no Patent info manual front has: black SEGA GENESIS 16-BIT CARTRIDGE logo at top. larger TM to the right of the game title inside front cover of manual is blank manual back has: "Sega, Genesis, and Sonic The Hedgehog are trademarks of Sega of America, Inc. c 1991 Sega. P.O. Box 2167, South San Francisco, CA 94080. Printed in Japan." Sonic 1 NOT FOR RESALE (Printed in U.S.A.) 1992: box front has: blue SEGA GENESIS 16-BIT CARTRIDGE logo at top. official SEGA seal of quality (no GENESIS) smaller TM to the right of the game title box spine has: blue SEGA GENESIS 16-BIT CARTRIDGE logo smaller TM to the right of the game title box back has: larger barcode box a more blue tint than purple in the pictures 1 player box is a 1 in a circle in a rectangle with blue on the left half and white on the right half "Sega, Genesis and Sonic The Hedgehog are trademarks of SEGA. c 1992 SEGA, 3375 Arden Road, Hayward, CA 94545. Printed In U.S.A. <670-1470-01>" Patent info at the bottom cartridge front has: blue SEGA GENESIS 16-BIT CARTRIDGE logo cartridge top has: smaller SONIC THE HEDGEHOG no TM at the bottom between SONIC and THE HEDGEHOG cartridge back has: SEGA ASSEMBLED IN U S A Caution information at right; Patent info at left manual front has: blue SEGA GENESIS 16-BIT CARTRIDGE logo at top. smaller TM to the right of the game title inside front cover of manual has Epilepsy Warning manual back has: "Sega, Genesis and Sonic The Hedgehog are trademarks of SEGA. c 1992 SEGA, 3375 Arden Road, Hayward, CA 94545. Printed In U.S.A." Came with the green poster that has the "Game Gear Get a Grip" page.
I can't really say much about the US copies of the game, as I come from the UK. I do however have that book. If I remember correctly I have a separate Sonic 3 & Knuckles guide which goes with it. (I'm not at home right now, so I can't check unfortunately) EDIT: I think this is the Sonic 3 guide book I have:
It's good to know that Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles had a guide as well, especially with all the hidden giant rings in those games. From a couple youtube unboxing videos, so far it seems like there were at least 4 possible posters that came with Sega Genesis Model 1's that were packed with Sonic the Hedgehog. The only one I haven't seen in an unboxing video yet is the first one that is shown with the Sonic 1 box in my pictures. It seems as if Poster #4 (not shown yet): Batman cover/Sonic 2: Are You Up 2 It? poster apparently came in the Genesis box, not Sonic the Hedgehog 2 as I had thought. And the Game Gear: Get a Grip poster came in boxes that had that one. So this must be from the 1st half of 1993 revision box. A second video was strange as the guy had both of the above posters, plus the other Game Gear poster and the Sonic the Hedgehog/Golden Axe II poster shown above. I am guessing that the second combo was from an earlier revision box from 1992 - which would have been the one my mom's ex tried to give me. I believe we kept 1 controller and all the paperwork from it, which explains how I ended up with all four posters instead of just two like one of the youtube unboxers. Or am I wrong? Did all Genesis 1's packed with Sonic come with all four posters? None of the unboxing videos had sealed systems so it is possible one of the two guys was missing some ads. But the way the condition was I doubt he was missing anything. It looked like new. But that still doesn't explain the Sonic the Hedgehog poster shown inside the Sonic 1 box. How do you get that? Were any of these posters packed inside the Sonic 1 game case or did they always come in the plastic bag with the system manual as I saw in one of the videos?
I have the Sonic 1&2 guide book, though I haven't seen the cover in YEARS. I was rough on books back in those days. It's actually really cool -- it covers the Game Gear versions of both games too. I have the Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles books as well. The S&K one has constant pop-ups from Knuckles, who says "mon" all the time. And the Sonic 3 book, for some reason, doesn't bother to tell you how to get past the Carnival Night barrel, probably just so I'd HAVE to call into the Sega Tips Hotline to learn how. (And yes, that is seriously how I found out.)
I've been able to identify some things here, so the first post has been edited to reflect these learnings. It seems that the posters that came within certain games or system bundles changed as time went on. I would still like to figure out which posters never came with certain games so I don't buy incorrectly re-packaged games people put together just by finding a loose cart, case, and manual separately. Regarding questions about USA Sonic 1 for Genesis, I just need to find out more information about the original non-bundled release and the Sega Classic re-release. I also need information about rom revision details such as "which packaging styles will allow you to find the elusive US REV 01" I have never found a REV 01 inside the NOT FOR RESALE version, but maybe someone else has? My intent is to buy multiple copies one at a time for whatever type of package has that revision rumored to be inside it until I find one that does have the change. So I don't want to buy unnecessary extra copies of the wrong one.
Regarding the posters, I have the suspicion that were just put inside the cases when the games were taken out of their warehouse, so if they found a few old Sonic boxes in 1994, they'd come with whatever catalogue there was in that year. Just a theory.
I have this one. The manual and cart for this one are just the regular ol' manual and cart sans NOT FOR RESALE. The back is also lacking any design and is plain white with plain black text and three images. It came with no poster, from what I remember. I don't remember if there's a way to check what version a cart is other than the spike "bug".
No Sonic 1 cartridge has a different behavior for the spikes, as far as I know... The Title Screen and Green Hill clouds will scroll in the other version.
A poor "pending member stuck in pending status hell" as he called himself messaged me on youtube with his knowledge of the Classic edition that he bought brand new sometime between 1995 and 1997. He said it still had a Rev 00 (no scrolling clouds), so he's guessing that maybe we didn't get the REV 01 with scrolling clouds until Majesco took over Sega Genesis game distribution. What do you guys think? He suggested maybe trying to find out if there is a Classic edition box that has the GA rating changed to an E rating. Anyone ever seen one like that?
On a similar note, I have never seen an Australian Gold Collection issue of Sonic 1, either back in the day or recently when I was collecting them. Anyone have any visual proof of its existence?
I have this, it's easily the best sonic guide there is. Full hand drawn stage maps for every act in the game, great tips like how to get 9 or so 1-ups in act 3 of GHZ, cheats, etc. I remember it was super helpful in me getting all the emeralds in Sonic 2 GG. It also has a merch section which is awesome. Sonic the board game, a sonic starter jacket, sonic the card game, etc. I have the other guides too, Sonic 3+CD, and Sonic & Knuckles. They progressively get worse.
I just bought complete in box copies of all three versions of the US released Sonic 1 and at least one of them comes with a poster. I'm pretty sure it's one of the ones I've had before as the back looks familiar. I bought an extra of the classics version because one of them used a stock photo while the other did not. I want to increase my chances of finding a cart that has a plain label and the US REV 01 rom. A not for resale copy of Sonic 2 missing the manual came with my original release Sonic 1. The missing manual is of no concern because I can probably find a Sonic 2 manual for a buck. If you haven't noticed, there seem to be at least two label variants of Sonic 2 Not for Resale version. One of them has "not for resale" inside a circular image while the other is just a horizontal white strip toward the bottom of the cartridge art. I have seen these variations on both the carts and the boxes so it's easy to match them up. The manuals are always the same. Does anyone know the difference between the two Sonic 2 Not For Resale variants and perhaps the age/time period one was used rather than the other?
S&K one actually has walkthroughs. The Sonic 3 one is barely a step up from information available in the manual, and weirdly padded out with only like 1-2 pages for each round in Sonic CD mostly focusing on boss strategies (ask me how I feel about the fact they didn't include a strategy for the collision chaos boss). A lot of the Sonic 3 pictures are poor-quality and have very strange placement. There's compression/composite artifacting on the S&K screenshots but at least they capture most of the full screen, and lots of information is given about the individual features of each stage like badniks and mechanics (like the pump elevators in MHZ or sandfalls in SZ). The Sonic 3 guide to get was probably the Prima one, which had full level maps with tips at important areas in walkthroughs. Sadly that one has a few layout errors here and there but at least it's mostly right??
Hydrocity Act 2 is completely messed up, half of the map is act 1 again. At least, that's what it's like in my copy. All pages are full-color at least. It also gave par ring amounts for each map.
Are they? Have they really been throughly scanned and compared? Also, boxes sometimes have tiny differences that might not be documented anywhere because nobody even suspect they exist (speaking of Mega Drive games in general).
While people here have been providing me with valuable information, I'm thinking some of these details I'm checking out might end up being first documented by me. The reason I had decided to go after variants in my collecting process is that since I am only going to be collecting games I have totally beaten and enjoy the experience every time, am trying to keep it down to only up to a few games a month to keep costs low, and some of these games like Sonic 1 and 2 are very cheap it gives me more money to throw at each game and I might as well pay close attention to detail and condition. If I spot any differences I'll save those copies for research purposes and resell any duplicates in lots with those Genesis systems I always find at Goodwill. It will give those abandoned units some purpose and whoever buys them will get what I recommend as the best of the best. Today I bought a third copy of the Classic edition of Sonic 1 to increase my chances of finding the revised rom. It was another really cheap auction that had no bids but mine. I'll let you guys know if I ever see any instruction manual revisions. I know the old Atari 2600 catalogs that came in game boxes had print variants even though they look the same on the cover and have the same product code on them. Some of them have the estimated release months for upcoming games of the time while others don't have them typed below the titles yet. You are right in saying I better check the inside of the manuals for differences first, even though the front covers always seem to look the same.
Thank you, I hope you can find any differences there might be. Perhaps somebody here already owns the different revision and can tip you on at least the cover it had (normal or "Classic edition")? Also, didn't somebody here own a Sonic Spinball with Dreams Come True title music? I don't think I've ever seen it really documented anywhere outside of saying that it exists.
Somebody in that rumored Sonic 1 Beta thread that ended up being a pirate cart from Telegames' store has that revision rom on a regular cart without the "not for resale" but I believe theirs is a cart only copy. So it doesn't answer the question of regular or classic box art. It was actually that thread that made me interested in starting with Sonic 1, the first game I owned rather than an NES RPG. It would be cheaper to buy bulk amounts of Sonic 1 cart only copies to search for the revision, but then it wouldn't solve any questions regarding where it came from in the first place. The way I think about it is this. If the revision is something that didn't happen till later, it makes me think that Classic is the latest possible release to get, other than the 6-Pak and Sonic Classics which just use the original rom. Those two compilations being released late doesn't necessarily mean that the revision didn't happen before them, because being compilations Sega could have just stuck whatever rom of the two was easier to access and stuck with it. Another possibility is that they stuck with the original version for the compilations on purpose rather than the new version because maybe the lack of parallax scrolling effects caused the original version to take up less space on those carts, reserving more room for the other games.
You were right. Even the manuals have differences that usually match the same differences as the cart and box. I've added some pictures to the bottom of my first post and details I noticed differences with between just two copies of the game. I haven't even written down the difference on the Classic version, but that one has variants as well. Color manual cover vs black and white manual cover being one of the differences. Who knows how many different variants there are. Tracking down which box matches which posters and which box contains the elusive REV 01 US cart might become easier for people if we can single out all these variations and rule out certain boxes.
