The Supreme Topic of 'Other' Knowledge.

Interestingly, when looking closely at the back of the "SEGA Classics" version's box, only one of the screenshots have "RINGS" in the HUD while the others read "RING". Said screenshot of Marble Zone also seems to have a different palette than the others, (and is also different from its counterpart on the original N. American case). This one has a palette closer to the final game.

After taking a look at the other releases, the Korean box also has this inconsistency. The Brazilian box has one screenshot that says "RING" in the HUD (the others were HUD-less shots, one of the Title Screen and one of an oddly HUD-less Special Stage).

Though these things are probably already well-known, I just noticed this. Was Sonic 1's release that rushed to the point of using pre-final screenshots for the boxes?

 

It's not so much a matter of being rushed as it is an oversight. And it's not even uncommon today. The box for Rush shows beta screenshots in areas that don't exist in the final game. Nintendo made the same mistake with Twilight Princess on Wii

 

Sonic 2's US box back has beta shots, too (look at Sonic's running animation). Heck, so does its manual. The alternate title art in the manual always confused me as a kid.

 

Did we know about this?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=JmWgcM0CkKw#t=37s

Who would have waited this long in the first place?

 

I've seen this before.

Apparently its a glitch but I'd like to think of it as an accidental Totaka's Song

 

yeah, we had known this for a long time. I tried this in real hardware ( PAL model 1 Mega Drive modified to Jap region/ 60 hz mod, with a japanese Sonic 3 cart) at my boyfriend's home a few months ago and recorded it:

 

Probably old, but a patent exists for some stuff from Sonic 2 plus the split screen competitive mode which was filled by Yuji Naka and Masanobu Yamamoto (assistant programmer on the game). Contains some cool figures, figure 19-a and 19-b has raw code for the labels sloopdirtbl and slooptbl. You can find these labels as strings in the Sonic 2NA rom.

http://www.google.com/patents/EP0680776A1?cl=en&dq=ininventor:%22Yuji+Naka%22+sega&hl=en&sa=X&ei=z3pHUdfiHpSj4APBq4CQDQ&ved=0CDkQ6AEwAg

There are a few other patents filled by Naka as well, including one for "Data processing system, method thereof and memory cassette" (looks like lock on?) and splitscreen multiplayer.

 

I remember reading about patents way back on SWS2B: http://info.sonicretro.org/S2Beta:Sonic_2_Algorithms_%26_Specs_Patents

 

lol SWS2B

I knew these were old, but couldn't place my finger on when I saw them last. At least it's up on the wiki though, I was gonna ask about that next...

 

I don't think this was widely known, though:

It's the first time I read about it, that I remember.

 

Yeah, and I just remembered that the two labels are included as data files for the mobile phone port:

http://I.imgur.com/sjl7Eqx.png

The data in both look similar to the data on the patent.

 

So, I'm being dumb, but what does this potentially mean?

 

They used the original source just like happened with the Sonic 1 mobile port.

 

So I recently got a hold of this book:



There's a Yuji Naka interview in the back of the book. Has it been translated yet? It would be cool if it were new.





The above are just sample images so I don't have to spam Retro with the huge versions. For the whole thing, go here.

 

Did you know in Sonic Adventure 2 Battle's namesake versus mode, all the regular characters have different start/win taunts, depending whether it's the first round or not? Maybe. Well, did you know that Amy also has alternative taunts, and in fact, has four different end taunts depending on whether it's the first round or not, and whether the player's ring count was above 100 when clearing the stage? Well neither did I until I just found it in the disassembly.

I also found out Eggman has some mystery taunt if a certain condition is met, but I don't know what it is and it's not anything obvious like opponent character or alternate costume.


EDIT: Never mind that, she has another set of taunts based on whether or not the opponent has at least 20 rings! That makes six taunts total! To sum things up:

• In round 1, if Amy has less than 100 rings and her opponent has less than 20, she'll say "Yaaay! All right!"
• In round 1, if Amy has less than 100 rings but her opponent has 20 or more, she'll say "Awesome!"
• In round 1, if Amy has more than 100 rings, she'll say "Yes yes yes!"
  
• In round 2, if Amy has less than 100 rings and her opponent has less than 20, she'll say "All right!"
• In round 2, if Amy has less than 100 rings but her opponent has 20 or more, she'll say "My name is Amy Rose!"
• In round 2, if Amy has more than 100 rings, she'll say "Wow, I'm good!"

Might be different in Japanese, I play in English, gtfo my lawn

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nasWG8g9y3I#t=358s
(5:57) Tails' Tails can reflect projectiles in Sonic 3 (& Knuckles). Somehow I think I knew that already, deep down, but my mind was still blown, hard.
This video also made me realize (5:35) that when you start Hydrocity 1, you begin by falling, but in this scenario and in this scenario alone, Tails is allowed to fly. I can only imagine the devs' faces when they thought "hey, what if two people are playing this for the first time, fall down, and in a panic, Tails' player decides to rescue his buddy?" I cannot think of any other scenario in any other game that matches this.

 

Double-jump-move projectile deflection in S3(K) is pretty interesting. I have a feeling I've written about it here before, but what the heck.

Projectiles get deflected when the double jump state is set to exactly 01. This means different things to different characters.

• For Knuckles, this means he deflects projectiles whenever he's gliding, which is fairly well known. There's no consideration of directions or angles or anything - a projectile can fly up his rear and it'll still deflect.
• For Tails, it's screwy - he can deflect projectiles while he's gaining height, roughly speaking. Again, angle and position is irrelevant, unlike hitting a badnik or boss with his tails, for which Tails has to attack from below. It also works while swimming too, not just flying. So this is pretty confusing really. (Sonic 3 Complete makes this work more like attacking works - he can only deflect stuff that lands on his tails, and only above water, but he can do it regardless of whether he's gaining height.)
• For Sonic, it doesn't do anything, because:
  • With no shield, 01 corresponds to insta-shield being in effect, but the invincibility status it affords is checked first, resulting in projectiles passing through Sonic rather that being deflected.
  • With a shield... who cares? Shields always deflect projectiles anyway.

My personal opinion, based only on the fairly irrational way that all works, is that only insta-shield was meant to deflect projectiles, and nobody really took much care over whether it worked out that way or not. But that's just conjecture; there is nothing solid to say that was the intention.

 

On that note, I'm sure you've answered this in the past, but does Sonic 3 Complete change the behaviour of projectiles hitting Sonic so that they bounce off instead? I'm pretty sure it's a yes, but your post makes me wonder. This shows how long it's been since I played it and/or how I didn't think to test it for myself, assuming the latest version I played had that functionality.

 

I did give Sonic's instashield deflection powers as of the last release. Tails is changed to be more logical as I mentioned in the previous post. Everything else is the same, including letting Knuckles keep his glide deflection - although the classic abilities patch will prevent Knuckles' glide from deflecting, and the classic shields patch will prevent shields from deflecting.