The Supreme Topic of 'Other' Knowledge.

3 years ago, I posted about a mysterious Sonic Statue in the woods in the Mie Prefecture in Japan.

A random motorcyclist came across it while testing his new bike and since then we have been trying to figure out where it's located and who can go see it now.

the location was found a year ago and now, the mystery is over. The Wiki sysops should get on this making a wiki article for this thing:

 

Eeek I hope this isn't a commonly held view - my job is to moderate the wikis - it's your job to give them content!

 

I can make one. Kinda fitting since I'm the one who found its exact location.

 

https://xcancel.com/makoosa/status/1093094280275456006

More Harmony newsletter covers.

 

Not sure if this has been posted before, but "Sega Announces “Extraordinary Loss” Of $55 Million Due To Decline Of Existing Mobile Game" - which mentions Sonic Mania as part of their 'comeback'

 

I spy Sonic Adventure-era Knuckles.

Which means there are probably more issues than we thought!

 

That's essentially it, but there's some more info. Here's a rough translation:
—
NAKA: Speaking of Sonic CD, Amy first appeared there, but from the point of view of those of us who went to America, it seemed like he picked her up. As for Sonic's girlfriend, we had previously created a glamorous human woman, Madonna. Because of that, I remember feeling really uncomfortable.

OSHIMA: We designed her that way because the licensing business at the time's character section said “We want a girl character like how Mickey has Minnie.”
But Amy inherited elements of Madonna.
—

I'm not 100% sure on some of it, like the line about Sonic picking up Amy. They use “nanpa” which is essentially a pick up artist, or someone who picks up random girls off the street. The sentence uses “are” (“that” in Japanese) though so I'm not sure if I got it right.
The Oshima part is paraphrased a bit to sound more natural but I'm pretty confident in the translation.

I'm sure someone like Windii can do a better job but there you go!

 

Thanks for that!

Naka's reaction to Amy is really interesting. The America/Japan, Sonic 2/Sonic CD divide was such an odd scenario, I can't think of anything else quite like it in video game history. In the same interview, Ohshima says that he mailed Metal Sonic's design to America after he heard about Sonic 2's Mecha Sonic, and that he had to phone Yamaguchi to ask whether Tails was a boy or a girl.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTVRvrOdVhY


Rekishi Taisen Gettenka (歴史大戦ゲッテンカ)


send your answers on a postcard to; PO Box ??, London W1A, I have no clue.

 

https://xcancel.com/YmPXden33UUYCF3/status/1094031222567628801

Apparently, early versions of the Japanese Sonic 1 Game Gear cartridge mistakenly had "VS" (2 player) labels on them.

Also, I've just noticed that the code in the corner is 670-1947. Does anyone know the methodology of how these codes were assigned? It's probably a coincidence, but it's mildly amusing, because 1947 was the year Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier, which was part of the "real world" Sonic story at the time.

 

Is it possible that the Japanese manual for Sonic Gameworld has as yet untranslated expository bits? The proceeding page has character bios at the least, surely.

 

Not major, but a picture has surfaced of a prototype of Sonic the Fighters I had not seen before using the old style health bars and a different version of Aurora Icefield:



Source

 

I can make out Sonic crouching but what is Tails doing?

 

Lying dead on the floor because of the K.O. that's very clearly displayed at the center of the screen?

 

https://retrocdn.net/index.php?title=File:Edge_UK_031.pdf&page=8

For the record.

 

Oh, jeez, I missed Tails on the other side and thought he was the K.O. letters in the middle. Gotta love screenshots from the '90s!

 

Christ Retro, you didn't even have a page:

Sonic the Fighters/Development

It's a good job this came up in discussion, although now I'll have to look up 15 years-worth of better scans.

 

If you mean a story or anything then nope, not really. There's just the bios, which are super basic.

 

https://retrocdn.net/index.php?title=File%3ASSM_JP_19960412_1996-06.pdf&page=226

There's your AOU build.

It appears once upon a time, player 1 had a blue health bar, and player 2 had a yellow one. Aurora Icefield had its walls and floors* replaced. Neither Bean nor Bark had been announced at this point so I'm doubting they were on display. Espio and Fang also aren't in any screenshots, but they were in the following issue...



...introducing...



BARK SMASH

https://retrocdn.net/index.php?title=File%3ASSM_JP_19960426_1996-07.pdf&page=231







*though seeing the floors are black in the final game, I'm wondering if this was intentional. Reflecting the sky I guess, yes, but it doesn't look as nice to me.