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EspañolSONIC THE HEDGEHOG (VIDEO GAME)
(Redirected from Sonic the Hedgehog (16-bit))
is a platform game developed by Sonic Team and published by Sega for the Mega Drive/Genesis system. It is the inaugural game in Sega's flagship ''Sonic the Hedgehog'' video game series, and was the first title developed by Sonic Team. It was first released on June 23 1991 in North America, and the next day in Europe. The Japanese Mega Drive version was released on July 26 1991.
This game propelled the Genesis into mass popularity in North America. After it was released, it eventually replaced ''Altered Beast'' as the game bundled with the console, and was later replaced with its first sequel, Sonic the Hedgehog 2. The game featured many novel elements which contributed to its popularity and helped to promote the uptake of 16 bit consoles.
''Sonic the Hedgehog'' added the element of speed to the standard platform formula and introduced other unique elements as well, such as the loops, springboards, high-speed devices, and the rings now permanently associated with the game series.
In the game, Sonic has to prevent Doctor Robotnik from collecting six of the Chaos Emeralds in an attempt to rule South Island. He must traverse six "zones", each comprised of three stages or "acts", until he confronts Robotnik for the last time in the Final Zone.
The gameplay centers around elements that exploit the increased performance of the 16-bit console over its 8-bit forebears. It is notable for being both simplistic and engaging for players.
At the time of its release, ''Sonic the Hedgehog'' was one of the fastest platformers that had yet been released. Sonic could run, jump and roll at significantly higher speeds than most platformers of the time. Unlike other platformers, the game's levels were designed to encourage the player to progress quickly. Springs, slopes, high falls and loop-de-loops were all available to both boost and challenge the player to reach high speeds. This was all accomplished without any slowdown in framerates, adding to the experience.
Sonic's method of attack was also novel. As a hedgehog, he can curl up into a ball by either jumping or by rolling along the ground, a state in which he can damage most enemies by simply colliding with them. This was a change from most other platform games, where the player could damage enemies only by shooting or jumping on top of them. While rolling along the ground, Sonic can roll down slopes, gaining speed as he goes. Most slopes are irregular, as opposed to the fixed angles seen in previous platform games, and the game has the physics to match. Sonic's acceleration down a slope depends on its steepness; if travelling fast enough, he can run up and around 360° loops; and he suffers from drag underwater.
Essential to the gameplay are the golden rings Sonic collects along his way in each level; a feature which would become one of the defining characteristics of the series. These items are regularly placed around the map and serve multiple functions. First, Sonic collects rings to protect himself. As long as he has at least one ring, he will not die when injured. Instead, when he's hit, all rings has Sonic collected will fly outward and scatter around the immediate area, some of which can then be retrieved before they disappear. If Sonic runs into an enemy without a single ring, he will die and lose a life. If Sonic manages to collect 100 rings he will gain a life, and gain an additional life for every 100 rings after that, provided he doesn't lose his rings in the process. If Sonic has at least 50 rings at the end of an act, a giant golden ring will float above the finishing sign which Sonic can then jump through to enter one of the special stages. At the end of each act, the total number of rings Sonic has is multiplied by 100 and added to the player's score. During the score tallying Sonic can also jump through the air to find hidden emblems which can range from 100 to 10,000 points. This was the only console Sonic game until ''Sonic Adventure'' where Sonic could get more lives by collecting over 200 rings (if he gets 300 rings in the later 16-bit titles, he gets nothing).
Also scattered throughout each act are monitors which, when broken, reward Sonic with one of a variety of bonuses. These include a shield which will protect Sonic from a single hit, a 10-ring bonus, an extra life, temporary invincibility (accompanied with a temporary change in music), and "Super Sneakers", which give Sonic a temporary speed boost (and increase the tempo of the music for the duration). The item monitors have become another long lasting feature in the series, though they have changed to bubble-like containers in later games.
Despite the various types of protection available, neither the shield, rings, or invincibility will protect Sonic against instant death by getting crushed (by a trap or between a wall and a moving platform), drowning, running out of time (each act has a ten-minute time limit), or falling into a bottomless pit. Originally there was to be a big boulder to chase Sonic, as a homage to ''Raiders of the Lost Ark''. This was cut, but the boulder became part of the boss for the first zone. The
Progress through the game is made easier by lamp posts that act as checkpoints. When Sonic passes a lamp post, its color changes from blue to red, and the next time he loses a life, he will restart at that point rather than at the beginning of the act. However, unlike later 16-bit ''Sonic'' games, if Sonic touches a checkpoint and dies as a result of running out of time, the time at the checkpoint will reset to 0:00.
Hazards Sonic comes across along the way include a wide variety of "badniks" - animals trapped inside mechanical bodies which are released the moment Sonic hits them. Each badnik takes one hit to destroy, but they vary greatly from Zone to Zone; some will walk in a set path, others will try blasting Sonic, and some can't be avoided at all, such as the Bomb enemies in Star Light Zone. Sonic also has to look out for rows of sharp spikes, cliffs, and elaborate death traps. There is also the threat of drowning, as he can only survive 30 seconds underwater without drawing breath, either from the surface, or from the large air bubbles that regularly seep out of the ground in certain places.
The game features no game saves or passwords. This means that the game has to be restarted from the beginning when the player runs out of continues or turns off the system. However, a cheat exists that allows the selection of any zone or act.
At the time of its release, ''Sonic the Hedgehog'' boasted impressive 16-bit graphics, with richly animated sprites and varied colors, fully utilizing the Mega Drive's enhanced colour palette. Flowers moved, rings spun, lights blinked, and water shimmered in the background.
The game also takes full advantage of the on-board Zilog Z80 and Yamaha synthesizer sound chip, and is filled with sound effects, chimes, bops and beats following the player through the levels. Many sounds play on top of one another and most of the game's sounds were unique and of higher quality than earlier 8-bit sounds.
Besides detailed sound and animation, ''Sonic the Hedgehog'' is especially known for its dynamic music, composed by Masato Nakamura, a member of the popular J-Pop band, Dreams Come True. Using 8-bit stereo sound, the music is rich and varied throughout each level. Particularly notable are the game's recognizable main theme and the music to Green Hill Zone. ''Sonic the Hedgehog's soundtrack is still highly popular in remixing communities on the Internet, such as OverClocked ReMix. Similarities to the Green Hill Zone theme can be found in "Dreams of an Absolution", the theme for Silver the Hedgehog in the 2006 Sonic game, also called ''Sonic the Hedgehog'', though the song's composer Lee Brotherton claims that this was an unintentional coincidence.
Development for ''Sonic the Hedgehog'' began in April 1990, after Sega ordered its AM-8 team to develop a game featuring a mascot for the company. After choosing a hedgehog as the main character, the 15-man group changed its name to Sonic Team and started working on ''Sonic the Hedgehog''. The main minds behind the game were character designer Naoto Ohshima, game programmer Yuji Naka and designer Hirokazu Yasuhara.[1]
The game originally had a different kind of sound test (as opposed to the one which appears in the same cheat menu that features the level select), but the short schedule meant that the originally envisioned version had to be scrapped. Yuji Naka decided to replace the test with the "SEGA!" chant used in TV advertisements, which took up 1/8 of the 4-megabit cartridge.[2] This sound-test would have featured a "Sonic Band" that would, presumably, be animated while the songs played. The Sonic Band consisted of Sonic (lead vocals), Sharps Chicken (guitar), Max Monkey, (guitar), Mach Rabbit (drums), and Vector the Crocodile (keyboard/synth); Vector was later re-designed and re-used for the games ''Knuckles' Chaotix'' and ''Sonic Heroes''.
This is the only Mega Drive/Genesis ''Sonic'' game made entirely in Japan. Although ''Sonic the Hedgehog CD'' was made in Japan as well, ''Sonic the Hedgehog 2'', ''Sonic the Hedgehog 3'', and ''Sonic & Knuckles'' were produced in North America at Sega Technical Institute, albeit with almost exclusively Japanese staff members. ''Sonic the Hedgehog Spinball'', however, was produced almost entirely by Americans, the only ''Sonic'' game to date to do so. ''Sonic 3D'' featured Japanese staff, but much of the work was done by the UK-based video game company Traveller's Tales, who also produced ''Sonic R''.
If Sonic finishes the first or second act of any of the first five zones with at least 50 rings, a large, spinning ring will appear. If he jumps into it, he will enter a "Special Stage" that hides a Chaos Emerald. In these stages, Sonic, in ball form, falls through a series of rotating mazes. If he can avoid the "GOAL" signs along parts of the stage's walls, he will eventually find the Chaos Emerald encased in colored diamonds; touching the diamonds repeatedly will cause them to change color and eventually disappear, allowing access to the Emerald. The stage will end when Sonic either touches the Emerald or hits a "GOAL" sign.
Acquiring all six Chaos Emeralds will allow the player to view the game's "good ending" upon defeating Robotnik in the Final Zone. The good ending is a shot of Robotnik angrily jumping on the words "THE END." The bad ending is a shot of Robotnik happily juggling the Chaos Emeralds the player did not obtain, over the words "try again."
It is not generally known if there was ever a beta version of the game, but if so it has never been released on the Internet in the form of a ROM dump. However, early publicity for the game shows some key differences between early versions and the final commercial release:
★ The "RINGS" gauge was originally named "RING".
★ Instead of leaving the screen at the end of each act Sonic would jump around and punch his fist into the air with joy.
★ At first, in Green Hill Zone the sky was much darker than in the commercial release, the mountains looked different in the background, and a WELCOME sign was visible. However, this was in very early stages and only old magazines have similar shots.
★ The "spike bug:" landing on one set of spikes and bouncing to another would cause Sonic to die, ignoring the usual invulnerability that he has after injury. This made it through to the final (commercial) version, but was fixed in a later edition.
★ The Green Hill Boss's ball once had an orbiting sparkle on it as shown in a Portuguese Mega Drive commercial.
★ Marble Zone featured strange UFO-like objects in the sky. These objects can be seen tilting in the film ''Wayne's World'' during an advertisement for Noah's Arcade (shots of ''Sonic the Hedgehog'' are shown in the background while he talks to the camera). Also, according to one early image, the zone included badniks that are only present in other zones in the final version, such as a snail-like badnik from the Spring Yard Zone.
★ Spring Yard Zone was originally named "Sparkling Zone" and featured a slightly different background and neon signs (which were possibly the inspiration for ''Collision Chaos'' in ''Sonic the Hedgehog CD'')
★ Scrap Brain Zone was originally named "Clock Work Zone", although due to the lack of a W in the title cards, the only existing Beta screenshots show it as "Clock ork Zone". It also had a different background in Act 1 and had diagonal conveyor belts.
★ The original order of the zones was Green Hill Zone, Labyrinth Zone, Marble Zone, Star Light Zone, Spring Yard (Sparkling) Zone, Scrap Brain (Clock Work) Zone. Early versions of the game showed this order in the level select (see Versions below).
★ In early development stages, before programming began, the main character was going to be a rabbit who used its ears to pick up objects and throw them at enemies, similar to ''Super Mario Bros. 2''. This sort of gameplay was later revisited with ''Ristar''. The character Silver The Hedgehog ended up using psychic abilities in a similar manner.
The first version, released in North America and Europe, lacked some graphical enhancements that were added to the later Japanese release. The Japanese version included clouds that moved independently of the scrolling background (even when the main character stands still) in the Green Hill Zone and two water graphical effects in the Labyrinth Zone, which consisted of a rippling effect on the foreground and a swirling effect on the background. This effect was only applied to the areas that were under the water line. Also in the Japanese version, all levels of the game had many more layers of parallax scrolling in their backgrounds.
The first version also gave the player an enormous 250,000 point bonus if a stage was cleared in less than 30 seconds. Subsequent revisions cut the bonus down to 50,000.
The later Japanese version 2.0 fixed the "spike bug" (a bug in which Sonic would instantly die if he "bounced" from one set of spikes to another due to him not gaining temporary invincibility until his feet touched the ground). Also fixed in both Japanese versions is the level select cheat, which listed the game's levels in an erroneous order, likely from an earlier version of the game (see above for more details).
In addition to this, due to differences between standard PAL and NTSC refresh rates, the European version of the game played at about 83% speed of the NTSC version[3] (which also slows down the music to the point of notice), a problem that has been fixed for the remaining Mega Drive Sonic games, but not for ''Sonic the Hedgehog's'' appearances in some of the collections (e.g. ''Sonic Jam'') or the Wii's Virtual Console version of the game.
There was also a version of ''Sonic the Hedgehog'' released for the Sega Master System and the Game Gear, which loosely followed the design of the 16-bit version, although with new stages, some different zones and a level map. The Sega Master System version was the final title for the console released in the U.S.
A pirated version of ''Sonic the Hedgehog'' that was widely released in Asia has all of the SEGA logos removed, and starts the player off with 40 lives instead of 3.
The game was later re-released for the Sega Saturn in 1997 as part of ''Sonic Jam''. Like all of the four games included in ''Sonic Jam'', the title was given "easy" and "medium" options (as well as an "original" option, the game as it was) that removed acts, bosses, enemies, spikes, traps and pits. These "easy" and "medium" options were not included with any other versions of the game. In addition, the Spin-Dash, a move that did not debut until ''Sonic 2'' the following year, was implemented in the first game. It is interesting to note that the spike bug from earlier versions of Sonic the Hedgehog can be triggered if Spin Dash is turned off.
It was later released for the Nintendo GameCube in 2002 as part of ''Sonic Mega Collection'' (including all three revisions), and on the PlayStation 2 and Xbox in 2004 as part of ''Sonic Mega Collection Plus''. This would mark the first time many North American and European players were able to experience the final Japanese version of the game. Note that despite being based on the Japanese version, the version of ''Sonic the Hedgehog'' in the
US version of ''Sonic Mega Collection'' still does not have the feature of giving the player an extra life for achieving 50,000 points, which happens in the Japanese Mega Drive version of this game. The PAL edition of ''Sonic Mega Collection'' for the Gamecube supports a 60 Hz option, which not only allows the game to be played full-screen and at its original speed, but also allows either the US or Japanese version 2.0 iterations to be played via a cheat code (the first Japanese version is the default).[4] If the 50 Hz option is selected, these cheat codes do not work and only the PAL edition of the game can be played.
Sonic the Hedgehog was also released as part of Sega Mega Drive Collection (known as Sega Genesis Collection in the USA) for the Sony PlayStation 2 and PSP. The US and European releases of this collection contain the US version of Sonic the Hedgehog; the Japanese release is the only one to contain the Japanese version of this game.
A version of the game, which was entitled ''Sonic the Hedgehog Genesis'', was released for the Game Boy Advance in November 2006 as part of the celebrations of the original game's 15th anniversary. The game is a remake of the original game as opposed to a port. It includes a new save feature and a special "Anniversary Mode" featuring the Spin-Dash move that was added in later games. In addition, the view is slightly zoomed in and adapted for the GBA's widescreen aspect ratio,and the level select and debug codes have been left out, the former due to the fact that there is already a zone select screen.[5] Despite the popularity of the original ''Sonic the Hedgehog'' game, ''Sonic the Hedgehog Genesis'' is widely considered to be very poor, due to the low frame rate, poorly-remixed sound, and numerous glitches.
The original game was converted into a Famicom game called ''Somari'' by a group of software pirates in Hong Kong. The game, which is mostly playable, replaces Sonic with Mario wearing Sonic's shoes.
A J2ME conversion for mobile phones running Java was released by I-Fone in 2006. This version, ''Sonic the Hedgehog Part 1'', includes only the first three zones, with the remainder to be released as ''Sonic the Hedgehog Part 2'' at a later date. This version mostly follows the Mega Drive version, but some features have been removed, most notably the Special Stage. There has also been a second, not as widely known version the game for Verizon phones, that has everything the original version did, although strangely removing all sound effects from the game.
''Sonic the Hedgehog'' is available for Nintendo Wii's Virtual Console service from launch.[6]
At an Xbox 360 press conference at Grauman's Chinese Theatre on May 9 2006, Peter Moore announced that ''Sonic the Hedgehog'' will be available on Xbox Live Arcade by the end of the year. The game's working title was ''Sonic the Hedgehog High Speed''.[7], however the game was finally released on the Xbox Live Arcade as Sonic The Hedgehog Arcade on July 10, 2007.
The game is simply a ROM that is run through emulation like the version on the Wii's Virtual Console with a few key differences. Firstly, 12 Achievements have been added in line with all XBLA titles. The game also uses an Xbox based menu system meaning it is actually impossible to directly access the title screen and thus also impossible to input the level select and debug mode codes. This is probably to prevent people simply using these cheats to earn the achievements. It is also possible to save and load current progress in-game. Unfortunately, the ROM used seems to be the first American version of the game, thus the improved Japanese graphics are absent and the Spike Bug is also still present. The game also comes with options for graphic smoothing and to resize the gameplay window.
In the development of ''Sonic and Knuckles'', SEGA tried to implement Knuckles the Echidna into the original game, but decided to leave him out. According to several programmers and hackers, the reason why Knuckles could not be placed into ''Sonic the Hedgehog'' like he was in ''Sonic the Hedgehog 2'' was that the palette colors of Knuckles' sprite would have, in fact, completely altered the palette scheme of the entire game. Therefore, instead of a Knuckles in Sonic 1 feature, fans were treated to a full version of the ''Blue Sphere'' game.
Compilations that include the game are ''Sonic Compilation'' (1995) and ''Sega 6-Pak'' (1996) for the Sega Genesis; ''Sonic Jam'' (1997) for the Sega Saturn; ''Sega Smash Pack'' (1999) for the Sega Dreamcast; ''Sonic Mega Collection'' for the Gamecube; ''Sonic Mega Collection Plus'' for the PlayStation 2, Xbox and PC, and ''Sega Genesis Collection'' for the PlayStation 2 and PlayStation Portable (2006).
Sonic 1 (and most of the classic Sonic games) are available on ''GameTap''.
Danger also re-released the game on the Sidekick 3.
Sonic the Hedgehog has also been released on the Xbox Live Arcade on July 10, 2007 for 400 MS Points as stated earlier in the article.
The game is also available on the Gizmondo.
Was on the RealOne Arcade service while it was still running.
★ Game Plan: Hirokazu Yasuhara (credited as Carol Yas)
★ Program: Yuji Naka (as YU2)
★ Character Design: Naoto Ohshima (as Bigisland)
★ Design: Jinya Itoh (as Jinya), Rieko Kodama (as Phenix Rie)
★ Sound Producer: Masato Nakamura
★ Sound Program: Hiroshi Kubota (as Jimita), Macky
1. Sonic Boom Sam Kennedy
2. Sega's Yuji Naka Talks! Heidi Kemps
3. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0llsb77Esc
4. CCG: Sonic Mega Collection Cheats]
5. News Article: Sonic on GBA for 15th Anniversary Jonathan Metts
6. Sonic the Hedgehog (Virtual Console)]
7. Sonic the Hedgehog: High Speed Sarju Shah
★ Sonic Central Official American website
★ Sonic Channel Official Japanese website
★ Sonic City Official Europe website
is a platform game developed by Sonic Team and published by Sega for the Mega Drive/Genesis system. It is the inaugural game in Sega's flagship ''Sonic the Hedgehog'' video game series, and was the first title developed by Sonic Team. It was first released on June 23 1991 in North America, and the next day in Europe. The Japanese Mega Drive version was released on July 26 1991.
This game propelled the Genesis into mass popularity in North America. After it was released, it eventually replaced ''Altered Beast'' as the game bundled with the console, and was later replaced with its first sequel, Sonic the Hedgehog 2. The game featured many novel elements which contributed to its popularity and helped to promote the uptake of 16 bit consoles.
''Sonic the Hedgehog'' added the element of speed to the standard platform formula and introduced other unique elements as well, such as the loops, springboards, high-speed devices, and the rings now permanently associated with the game series.
Gameplay
Overview
In the game, Sonic has to prevent Doctor Robotnik from collecting six of the Chaos Emeralds in an attempt to rule South Island. He must traverse six "zones", each comprised of three stages or "acts", until he confronts Robotnik for the last time in the Final Zone.
The gameplay centers around elements that exploit the increased performance of the 16-bit console over its 8-bit forebears. It is notable for being both simplistic and engaging for players.
At the time of its release, ''Sonic the Hedgehog'' was one of the fastest platformers that had yet been released. Sonic could run, jump and roll at significantly higher speeds than most platformers of the time. Unlike other platformers, the game's levels were designed to encourage the player to progress quickly. Springs, slopes, high falls and loop-de-loops were all available to both boost and challenge the player to reach high speeds. This was all accomplished without any slowdown in framerates, adding to the experience.
Movement
Sonic's method of attack was also novel. As a hedgehog, he can curl up into a ball by either jumping or by rolling along the ground, a state in which he can damage most enemies by simply colliding with them. This was a change from most other platform games, where the player could damage enemies only by shooting or jumping on top of them. While rolling along the ground, Sonic can roll down slopes, gaining speed as he goes. Most slopes are irregular, as opposed to the fixed angles seen in previous platform games, and the game has the physics to match. Sonic's acceleration down a slope depends on its steepness; if travelling fast enough, he can run up and around 360° loops; and he suffers from drag underwater.
Features
A typical in-game screen-shot of ''Sonic the Hedgehog'', taken from its first level, Green Hill Zone.
Essential to the gameplay are the golden rings Sonic collects along his way in each level; a feature which would become one of the defining characteristics of the series. These items are regularly placed around the map and serve multiple functions. First, Sonic collects rings to protect himself. As long as he has at least one ring, he will not die when injured. Instead, when he's hit, all rings has Sonic collected will fly outward and scatter around the immediate area, some of which can then be retrieved before they disappear. If Sonic runs into an enemy without a single ring, he will die and lose a life. If Sonic manages to collect 100 rings he will gain a life, and gain an additional life for every 100 rings after that, provided he doesn't lose his rings in the process. If Sonic has at least 50 rings at the end of an act, a giant golden ring will float above the finishing sign which Sonic can then jump through to enter one of the special stages. At the end of each act, the total number of rings Sonic has is multiplied by 100 and added to the player's score. During the score tallying Sonic can also jump through the air to find hidden emblems which can range from 100 to 10,000 points. This was the only console Sonic game until ''Sonic Adventure'' where Sonic could get more lives by collecting over 200 rings (if he gets 300 rings in the later 16-bit titles, he gets nothing).
Also scattered throughout each act are monitors which, when broken, reward Sonic with one of a variety of bonuses. These include a shield which will protect Sonic from a single hit, a 10-ring bonus, an extra life, temporary invincibility (accompanied with a temporary change in music), and "Super Sneakers", which give Sonic a temporary speed boost (and increase the tempo of the music for the duration). The item monitors have become another long lasting feature in the series, though they have changed to bubble-like containers in later games.
Despite the various types of protection available, neither the shield, rings, or invincibility will protect Sonic against instant death by getting crushed (by a trap or between a wall and a moving platform), drowning, running out of time (each act has a ten-minute time limit), or falling into a bottomless pit. Originally there was to be a big boulder to chase Sonic, as a homage to ''Raiders of the Lost Ark''. This was cut, but the boulder became part of the boss for the first zone. The
Progress through the game is made easier by lamp posts that act as checkpoints. When Sonic passes a lamp post, its color changes from blue to red, and the next time he loses a life, he will restart at that point rather than at the beginning of the act. However, unlike later 16-bit ''Sonic'' games, if Sonic touches a checkpoint and dies as a result of running out of time, the time at the checkpoint will reset to 0:00.
Hazards Sonic comes across along the way include a wide variety of "badniks" - animals trapped inside mechanical bodies which are released the moment Sonic hits them. Each badnik takes one hit to destroy, but they vary greatly from Zone to Zone; some will walk in a set path, others will try blasting Sonic, and some can't be avoided at all, such as the Bomb enemies in Star Light Zone. Sonic also has to look out for rows of sharp spikes, cliffs, and elaborate death traps. There is also the threat of drowning, as he can only survive 30 seconds underwater without drawing breath, either from the surface, or from the large air bubbles that regularly seep out of the ground in certain places.
The game features no game saves or passwords. This means that the game has to be restarted from the beginning when the player runs out of continues or turns off the system. However, a cheat exists that allows the selection of any zone or act.
Graphics and sound
At the time of its release, ''Sonic the Hedgehog'' boasted impressive 16-bit graphics, with richly animated sprites and varied colors, fully utilizing the Mega Drive's enhanced colour palette. Flowers moved, rings spun, lights blinked, and water shimmered in the background.
The game also takes full advantage of the on-board Zilog Z80 and Yamaha synthesizer sound chip, and is filled with sound effects, chimes, bops and beats following the player through the levels. Many sounds play on top of one another and most of the game's sounds were unique and of higher quality than earlier 8-bit sounds.
Besides detailed sound and animation, ''Sonic the Hedgehog'' is especially known for its dynamic music, composed by Masato Nakamura, a member of the popular J-Pop band, Dreams Come True. Using 8-bit stereo sound, the music is rich and varied throughout each level. Particularly notable are the game's recognizable main theme and the music to Green Hill Zone. ''Sonic the Hedgehog's soundtrack is still highly popular in remixing communities on the Internet, such as OverClocked ReMix. Similarities to the Green Hill Zone theme can be found in "Dreams of an Absolution", the theme for Silver the Hedgehog in the 2006 Sonic game, also called ''Sonic the Hedgehog'', though the song's composer Lee Brotherton claims that this was an unintentional coincidence.
Development
Development for ''Sonic the Hedgehog'' began in April 1990, after Sega ordered its AM-8 team to develop a game featuring a mascot for the company. After choosing a hedgehog as the main character, the 15-man group changed its name to Sonic Team and started working on ''Sonic the Hedgehog''. The main minds behind the game were character designer Naoto Ohshima, game programmer Yuji Naka and designer Hirokazu Yasuhara.[1]
The game originally had a different kind of sound test (as opposed to the one which appears in the same cheat menu that features the level select), but the short schedule meant that the originally envisioned version had to be scrapped. Yuji Naka decided to replace the test with the "SEGA!" chant used in TV advertisements, which took up 1/8 of the 4-megabit cartridge.[2] This sound-test would have featured a "Sonic Band" that would, presumably, be animated while the songs played. The Sonic Band consisted of Sonic (lead vocals), Sharps Chicken (guitar), Max Monkey, (guitar), Mach Rabbit (drums), and Vector the Crocodile (keyboard/synth); Vector was later re-designed and re-used for the games ''Knuckles' Chaotix'' and ''Sonic Heroes''.
This is the only Mega Drive/Genesis ''Sonic'' game made entirely in Japan. Although ''Sonic the Hedgehog CD'' was made in Japan as well, ''Sonic the Hedgehog 2'', ''Sonic the Hedgehog 3'', and ''Sonic & Knuckles'' were produced in North America at Sega Technical Institute, albeit with almost exclusively Japanese staff members. ''Sonic the Hedgehog Spinball'', however, was produced almost entirely by Americans, the only ''Sonic'' game to date to do so. ''Sonic 3D'' featured Japanese staff, but much of the work was done by the UK-based video game company Traveller's Tales, who also produced ''Sonic R''.
Levels
Special Stages
If Sonic finishes the first or second act of any of the first five zones with at least 50 rings, a large, spinning ring will appear. If he jumps into it, he will enter a "Special Stage" that hides a Chaos Emerald. In these stages, Sonic, in ball form, falls through a series of rotating mazes. If he can avoid the "GOAL" signs along parts of the stage's walls, he will eventually find the Chaos Emerald encased in colored diamonds; touching the diamonds repeatedly will cause them to change color and eventually disappear, allowing access to the Emerald. The stage will end when Sonic either touches the Emerald or hits a "GOAL" sign.
Acquiring all six Chaos Emeralds will allow the player to view the game's "good ending" upon defeating Robotnik in the Final Zone. The good ending is a shot of Robotnik angrily jumping on the words "THE END." The bad ending is a shot of Robotnik happily juggling the Chaos Emeralds the player did not obtain, over the words "try again."
Early version
The Sparkling Zone
It is not generally known if there was ever a beta version of the game, but if so it has never been released on the Internet in the form of a ROM dump. However, early publicity for the game shows some key differences between early versions and the final commercial release:
★ The "RINGS" gauge was originally named "RING".
★ Instead of leaving the screen at the end of each act Sonic would jump around and punch his fist into the air with joy.
★ At first, in Green Hill Zone the sky was much darker than in the commercial release, the mountains looked different in the background, and a WELCOME sign was visible. However, this was in very early stages and only old magazines have similar shots.
★ The "spike bug:" landing on one set of spikes and bouncing to another would cause Sonic to die, ignoring the usual invulnerability that he has after injury. This made it through to the final (commercial) version, but was fixed in a later edition.
★ The Green Hill Boss's ball once had an orbiting sparkle on it as shown in a Portuguese Mega Drive commercial.
★ Marble Zone featured strange UFO-like objects in the sky. These objects can be seen tilting in the film ''Wayne's World'' during an advertisement for Noah's Arcade (shots of ''Sonic the Hedgehog'' are shown in the background while he talks to the camera). Also, according to one early image, the zone included badniks that are only present in other zones in the final version, such as a snail-like badnik from the Spring Yard Zone.
★ Spring Yard Zone was originally named "Sparkling Zone" and featured a slightly different background and neon signs (which were possibly the inspiration for ''Collision Chaos'' in ''Sonic the Hedgehog CD'')
★ Scrap Brain Zone was originally named "Clock Work Zone", although due to the lack of a W in the title cards, the only existing Beta screenshots show it as "Clock ork Zone". It also had a different background in Act 1 and had diagonal conveyor belts.
★ The original order of the zones was Green Hill Zone, Labyrinth Zone, Marble Zone, Star Light Zone, Spring Yard (Sparkling) Zone, Scrap Brain (Clock Work) Zone. Early versions of the game showed this order in the level select (see Versions below).
★ In early development stages, before programming began, the main character was going to be a rabbit who used its ears to pick up objects and throw them at enemies, similar to ''Super Mario Bros. 2''. This sort of gameplay was later revisited with ''Ristar''. The character Silver The Hedgehog ended up using psychic abilities in a similar manner.
Versions
The first version, released in North America and Europe, lacked some graphical enhancements that were added to the later Japanese release. The Japanese version included clouds that moved independently of the scrolling background (even when the main character stands still) in the Green Hill Zone and two water graphical effects in the Labyrinth Zone, which consisted of a rippling effect on the foreground and a swirling effect on the background. This effect was only applied to the areas that were under the water line. Also in the Japanese version, all levels of the game had many more layers of parallax scrolling in their backgrounds.
The first version also gave the player an enormous 250,000 point bonus if a stage was cleared in less than 30 seconds. Subsequent revisions cut the bonus down to 50,000.
The later Japanese version 2.0 fixed the "spike bug" (a bug in which Sonic would instantly die if he "bounced" from one set of spikes to another due to him not gaining temporary invincibility until his feet touched the ground). Also fixed in both Japanese versions is the level select cheat, which listed the game's levels in an erroneous order, likely from an earlier version of the game (see above for more details).
In addition to this, due to differences between standard PAL and NTSC refresh rates, the European version of the game played at about 83% speed of the NTSC version[3] (which also slows down the music to the point of notice), a problem that has been fixed for the remaining Mega Drive Sonic games, but not for ''Sonic the Hedgehog's'' appearances in some of the collections (e.g. ''Sonic Jam'') or the Wii's Virtual Console version of the game.
Sonic the Hedgehog (8-bit)
Sonic the Hedgehog's Master System box art.
There was also a version of ''Sonic the Hedgehog'' released for the Sega Master System and the Game Gear, which loosely followed the design of the 16-bit version, although with new stages, some different zones and a level map. The Sega Master System version was the final title for the console released in the U.S.
A pirated version of ''Sonic the Hedgehog'' that was widely released in Asia has all of the SEGA logos removed, and starts the player off with 40 lives instead of 3.
Title screen of Sonic the Hedgehog on Game Gear.
It was later released for the Nintendo GameCube in 2002 as part of ''Sonic Mega Collection'' (including all three revisions), and on the PlayStation 2 and Xbox in 2004 as part of ''Sonic Mega Collection Plus''. This would mark the first time many North American and European players were able to experience the final Japanese version of the game. Note that despite being based on the Japanese version, the version of ''Sonic the Hedgehog'' in the
Green Hill zone in Master System Version
Sonic the Hedgehog was also released as part of Sega Mega Drive Collection (known as Sega Genesis Collection in the USA) for the Sony PlayStation 2 and PSP. The US and European releases of this collection contain the US version of Sonic the Hedgehog; the Japanese release is the only one to contain the Japanese version of this game.
Sonic the Hedgehog Genesis
Game Boy Advance box art.
A version of the game, which was entitled ''Sonic the Hedgehog Genesis'', was released for the Game Boy Advance in November 2006 as part of the celebrations of the original game's 15th anniversary. The game is a remake of the original game as opposed to a port. It includes a new save feature and a special "Anniversary Mode" featuring the Spin-Dash move that was added in later games. In addition, the view is slightly zoomed in and adapted for the GBA's widescreen aspect ratio,and the level select and debug codes have been left out, the former due to the fact that there is already a zone select screen.[5] Despite the popularity of the original ''Sonic the Hedgehog'' game, ''Sonic the Hedgehog Genesis'' is widely considered to be very poor, due to the low frame rate, poorly-remixed sound, and numerous glitches.
Other Sonic the Hedgehog platforms
The original game was converted into a Famicom game called ''Somari'' by a group of software pirates in Hong Kong. The game, which is mostly playable, replaces Sonic with Mario wearing Sonic's shoes.
A J2ME conversion for mobile phones running Java was released by I-Fone in 2006. This version, ''Sonic the Hedgehog Part 1'', includes only the first three zones, with the remainder to be released as ''Sonic the Hedgehog Part 2'' at a later date. This version mostly follows the Mega Drive version, but some features have been removed, most notably the Special Stage. There has also been a second, not as widely known version the game for Verizon phones, that has everything the original version did, although strangely removing all sound effects from the game.
''Sonic the Hedgehog'' is available for Nintendo Wii's Virtual Console service from launch.[6]
At an Xbox 360 press conference at Grauman's Chinese Theatre on May 9 2006, Peter Moore announced that ''Sonic the Hedgehog'' will be available on Xbox Live Arcade by the end of the year. The game's working title was ''Sonic the Hedgehog High Speed''.[7], however the game was finally released on the Xbox Live Arcade as Sonic The Hedgehog Arcade on July 10, 2007.
The game is simply a ROM that is run through emulation like the version on the Wii's Virtual Console with a few key differences. Firstly, 12 Achievements have been added in line with all XBLA titles. The game also uses an Xbox based menu system meaning it is actually impossible to directly access the title screen and thus also impossible to input the level select and debug mode codes. This is probably to prevent people simply using these cheats to earn the achievements. It is also possible to save and load current progress in-game. Unfortunately, the ROM used seems to be the first American version of the game, thus the improved Japanese graphics are absent and the Spike Bug is also still present. The game also comes with options for graphic smoothing and to resize the gameplay window.
Knuckles in ''Sonic the Hedgehog''
In the development of ''Sonic and Knuckles'', SEGA tried to implement Knuckles the Echidna into the original game, but decided to leave him out. According to several programmers and hackers, the reason why Knuckles could not be placed into ''Sonic the Hedgehog'' like he was in ''Sonic the Hedgehog 2'' was that the palette colors of Knuckles' sprite would have, in fact, completely altered the palette scheme of the entire game. Therefore, instead of a Knuckles in Sonic 1 feature, fans were treated to a full version of the ''Blue Sphere'' game.
Re-releases
Compilations that include the game are ''Sonic Compilation'' (1995) and ''Sega 6-Pak'' (1996) for the Sega Genesis; ''Sonic Jam'' (1997) for the Sega Saturn; ''Sega Smash Pack'' (1999) for the Sega Dreamcast; ''Sonic Mega Collection'' for the Gamecube; ''Sonic Mega Collection Plus'' for the PlayStation 2, Xbox and PC, and ''Sega Genesis Collection'' for the PlayStation 2 and PlayStation Portable (2006).
Sonic 1 (and most of the classic Sonic games) are available on ''GameTap''.
Danger also re-released the game on the Sidekick 3.
Sonic the Hedgehog has also been released on the Xbox Live Arcade on July 10, 2007 for 400 MS Points as stated earlier in the article.
The game is also available on the Gizmondo.
Was on the RealOne Arcade service while it was still running.
Credits
★ Game Plan: Hirokazu Yasuhara (credited as Carol Yas)
★ Program: Yuji Naka (as YU2)
★ Character Design: Naoto Ohshima (as Bigisland)
★ Design: Jinya Itoh (as Jinya), Rieko Kodama (as Phenix Rie)
★ Sound Producer: Masato Nakamura
★ Sound Program: Hiroshi Kubota (as Jimita), Macky
References
1. Sonic Boom Sam Kennedy
2. Sega's Yuji Naka Talks! Heidi Kemps
3. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0llsb77Esc
4. CCG: Sonic Mega Collection Cheats]
5. News Article: Sonic on GBA for 15th Anniversary Jonathan Metts
6. Sonic the Hedgehog (Virtual Console)]
7. Sonic the Hedgehog: High Speed Sarju Shah
External links
★ Sonic Central Official American website
★ Sonic Channel Official Japanese website
★ Sonic City Official Europe website
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