The Supreme Topic of 'Other' Knowledge.

I thought for a minute that they were referring to Amy…

That would have been a cool little detail.

 

Ever wondered how Sega of Japan drafted music for their projects in the late 80s/early 90s? We know that they had their own internal sound driver that they would often license out to other developers in Japan, but how the driver was utilized was up to the respective developers.

However, Sega of Japan apparently had a standard sequencer and tool set in place for writing scores and SMFs (simplified midi files) for conversion. According to IPPO in a Kotaku article (https://archive.ph/xNIMD), she mentioned that they used a "proprietary" sequencer called "Prelude". However, this software isn't propretary at all, and was actually commercially available software developed by Dynaware Corporation that was available for the PC9801 series of computers sometime around 1986.





According to those who worked at Sega, the software was difficult to use since it could do quite a lot but didn't have a lot of screen real estate to work with. However, the sequencer itself is what made its very preferable for a while at Sega. It wouldn't be long before people would go on to buy their own PCs and buy software that they preferred to use. For instance, Hiroshi Kawaguchi would move on to using Cubase after using Prelude, and Koichi Namiki would go on to use (Opcode?) Vision 1.0.0 on a Macintosh Plus. In fact, you can thank Koichi Namiki for Sega adapting Prelude as their sequencer of choice since he was the one that brought it to the attention of others working at Sega at the time. This led to the development of tools that would convert the SMF data into macro'd assembler that would work with their internally developed sound drivers (SMPS).

Ironically, Prelude was not a preferred sequencer at the time as many people outside of Sega would utilize the more popular Recomposer.

Unfortunately I don't think I can find a copy of this software anywhere to have a better look at it. Unlike game preservation, application software for the PC98 is pretty scarcely preserved. But at least this gives us some clue on the work flow involved with Sega of Japan at the time.


Sources:
https://xcancel.com/k_namickey/status/1057197880400723969
https://xcancel.com/hiro_h10th/status/1091630847243935744

 

Seems to be for sale here for around $150 https://teaeggsmilky.top/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=20626

 

RE: Sonic Jam

The "out of bounds" bug in Sonic World. There's a few videos online and some vague instructions, but I was struggling to get it to work. Then I used the PAL version. Also I think you need to run into a weird bit of collision first.

From my tests, it's a very difficult, if not impossible trick to perform in the NTSC versions. Not that there's any reason to do this at all, unless you want juicy hot pics of that misplaced path:



Ooh matron.

 

I remember doing it once or twice on my US copy of Jam. I'd say it's not really "nearly impossible", just tricky.

 

So I posted some scans in the manga thread but something caught my attention in one of the promo materials that came with the contest package.




Do we know or have that island image? Or is it something else? You can find the PDF here (under promo material) if anyone wants to have a slightly better look at it.

 

The image suggests it's an article in Time Out magazine:



This is on our list of "things we know exist" but we don't have scans.

Obviously we'd very much like scans.

 

I'll keep an eye out for it and see if I can find it.

 

I unlocked a piece of Sonic CD concept art in Origins that indicates usage of sound effects. Amy’s in this case.
But what is interesting is that this suggests that Amy was supposed to follow Sonic into R2 as the text next to the first image states that Amy falls into a pitfall in R2 and has a squealing voice clip as a result.

She was also intended to have been kidnapped in R2. Something that happens in Collision Chaos in the final game.

 

How's this for a coincidence:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-61907597

The very last print edition went into circulation today.

 

Since this is so annoying I thought I'd make a thread dedicated to fixing the glitch.

When Tails falls behind Sonic in Sonic 2, he gets stuck and repeatedly jumps off screen. It's very annoying.

To fix it press up and jump at the same time. This will force Tails to fly and he will be forced to respawn.

You'll have to do this every time he glitches unfortunately. It's not perfect. But better than nothing until a patch comes out.

 

THANK YOU!

 

Since we're in a Sonic 3 mood at the moment, I did my bit and scoured our scan archives for contemporary reviews:

Sonic the Hedgehog 3/Reception

(usual caveats: don't get hooked on the numbers, lots of missing scans, etc.)

At 20, it's overtaken Sonic 2 for "number of silly publication awards".


There's half a narrative that Sonic 3 was dismissed for its relatively short length, and that people were bummed out until Sonic & Knuckles made the story complete. That is not true - the base game received universal praise from across the world, and while it might not have matched Sonic 2's sales numbers (you can probably blame that on its release date more than anything), people were very satisfied with the product. So the "ooh it's glitchy" and "ooh it's unfinished" (and more recently, "ooh the music") weren't significant issues at the time.

There's a measurable shift with Sonic & Knuckles though, almost certainly a mixture of releasing two similar games within an eight or nine month period (without the full understanding that it's two halves of the same game), a growing apathy for so-called "mascot platformers" in late 1994, and next generation consoles (not least the Sega 32X) on the horizon, but I've yet to look deeply into it. It's the difference between 8.5/10 and 9/10 anyway - it might be hard to draw solid conclusions.

 

It doesn't have a lot of consistency. Sometimes you need to make him fly a bit. Sometimes you just press the buttons. But it definitely had an effect.

 

I think a big part of that had to do with the intense marketing push leading to Sonic 3, versus S&K which had considerably less marketing behind it and was released a mere 8 months later. It was basically DLC disguised as a new game with a marketing gimmick that required you to have already bought Sonic 3, and as @Black Squirrel said, the market was beginning to shift as the next generation of consoles were hitting the market.

Another thing to consider is that Sonic 3 was initially not released in Japan - Sonic 3C was meant to be the Japanese release, but that plan was abandoned after pirated copies of Sonic 3 began circulating online and it was hastily released in May 1993 in Japan. S&K ended up having a global release in October, so there was only 5 months in between the releases in Japan!

 

Just a heads up, via the Hidden Palace discord

 

this has no right being this funny yet awesome at the same time

 

Apparently Yuji Naka (and others) visited Michael Jackson at Neverland Ranch:
https://mobile.xcancel.com/nakayuji/status/1539953249762979842?s=21&t=xCiHzYoDKObt2szsQWwA-g

Edit: Oops. Looks like this was already discussed in a locked topic.

 

Because it got buried: Sonic & Knuckles Collection MIDIs:

I was sidetracked by something on Twitter and came across this post:
https://xcancel.com/lebrickster/status/1494396712558936064

Which might actually suggest the GM set came first, and were created by Masaru Setsumaru of Sega. Theory is they were written with this in mind:


The Roland Sound Canvas SC-88



Something like that. Doesn't save Carnival Night Zone Act 1 though.

so in essence:

GM: SC-88
FM: Sound Blaster 16

 

I got my friend to translate the Japanse Sonic family picture in Origins. Its in Katakana.

Brenda is Sonics mother (the well endowed one lol). Sonics father is the one on the very left Harry. The two small hedgehogs are his brother and sister. The one who looks like Amy is called Amy and is called his girlfriend. The two apes are called friends.