Sonic CD

[Data]

For one month out of every year, a tiny planet appears in the skies above Never Lake. The mysterious "Little Planet" holds seven gems that control the passage of time, bending the barriers between past and future. Intrigued by the unusual power of these stones, Dr. Robotnik descends upon Little Planet and hatches a new scheme to take it over.

Fortunately, Sonic the Hedgehog has caught wind of Robotnik's plot and resolves to beat him to the Time Stones at all costs. However, to complicate matters Dr. Robotnik has kidnapped the young lady hedgehog Amy Rose, and uses her to bait Sonic and keep him off his trail. To that end, he deploys his most sophisticated and diabolical machine to date, a robot duplicate of the hedgehog hero, designed to match Sonic's every move and even match his own trademark speed.

The main innovation of this chapter in the Sonic series is the manner in which the player can travel to four different versions of each zone, each a different time period of the same location: Present, Past, Good Future and Bad Future. This is accomplished by speed posts scattered around the level, bearing the labels "Past", and "Future". After running through one of these posts, the player has to run at top speed for a few seconds without stopping, to travel into the respective time period.

The only way you could see the good ending is by collecting all 7 time stones and destroying Eggman's machine from the past.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XrG6wcbqJio

[atik]

I remember reading all the coverage of Sonic CD in EGM and being really impressed. The screen shot's looked so good and you had the whole time period's thing, plus the music was meant to be amazing too. My favourite game in the series is Sonic 2 but I can see why a lot of people think Sonic CD is the better game. Hopefully I will get to play the game sometime and find out for myself.

Enjoyed looking at all the screen shot's but I didn't watch the Sonic CD Full Ending video, just in the vain hope that one day I may be able to see the ending for myself after beating the game on my newly bought Mega CD.

[E-Day]

Robotnik, not Eggman., especially when referring to the older games when they used his proper name (Robotnik!)

On a side note, what is with the atrocious music in the video for the Ending video? Absolutely terrible. And if that is the good ending, then it's just like the non-good ending. Because I have been it when I beat the game, and I didn't have all the emeralds and didn't destroy all the machines in the past. The animations run during the credits. I always loved the animation techniques they used, especially the animation for the sequence of Sonic and Metal Sonic racing along.

[Data]

Robotnik, not Eggman., especially when referring to the older games when they used his proper name (Robotnik!)

On a side note, what is with the atrocious music in the video for the Ending video? Absolutely terrible. And if that is the good ending, then it's just like the non-good ending. Because I have been it when I beat the game, and I didn't have all the emeralds and didn't destroy all the machines in the past. The animations run during the credits. I always loved the animation techniques they used, especially the animation for the sequence of Sonic and Metal Sonic racing along.

Your right about the music. If you listen to the tracks on the cd, you will be pleasantly surprised by the quality. I had to use this youtube video for reference because I don't have a Mega CD anymore and Youtube doesn't allow high definition audio.

When I play this on the emulator with my original game disc, the game crashes right after I fight Dr. Eggman (Dr. Ivo Robotnik) for the second time on Metallic Madness 3.(last level) Amy hugs Sonic then the screen turns white... and nothing else.

Destroying all Machines in the past or collecting all time stones will unlock the good ending. I do this but my game still crashes.

[Mister Zero]

This is my favorite Sonic game. The levels weren't always laid out the best for speed, but it was a great game, anyhow. I'd like to see an updated version with the original Japanese music in place and an updated sprite for the spin dash. The figure-8 move is to this day my favorite Sonic move, it was so badass looking.

[Data]

This is my favorite Sonic game. The levels weren't always laid out the best for speed, but it was a great game, anyhow. I'd like to see an updated version with the original Japanese music in place and an updated sprite for the spin dash. The figure-8 move is to this day my favorite Sonic move, it was so badass looking.

To an untrained eye Sonic CD looks so much like all the other Sonic games on Genesis. But to someone with a half-assed decent stereo will notice the slammin rock music included on the cd. If you put your Sonic CD into your computer's drive, you'll see the size of the game is 100 Mega bytes with the songs weighing in at over 500 MB. If you check the size of a game like Sonic 3, the whole thing is 2 Mega bytes.

Besides the awesome music, which is better in the English version, the game file is bigger because of the 3D bonus levels and more complex textures.

What they should have done was compress the audio tracks from wav to an exclusive format like Grand Theft Auto San Andreas did. That would leave 400 MB's of space on the CD for a 3D Sonic game. I think they could have done it just by playing the bonus level.

They released a version of Sonic CD for PC in 1996 which was inferior to Sega CD's version. I'm only guessing now but I think they have re-released this for Wii or something like that.

[E-Day]

The North American version of the game had the music done in Q-Sound, which made it sound awesome if you had your stereo speakers set up properly (level to each other and an equal distance from you). The good thing about Sega CD games is that you could play the music tracks in a regular CD player. So I would listen to the music on my portable stereo and take advantage of the Q-Sound. Not as awesome as Surround, but still pretty awesome.

[Data]

Okay it's bugging me that my game crashes right after I beat Dr. Robotnik no matter what I do.

And I cannot find a good enough recording to demonstrate the sonic bliss that is in this game but I'm going to repost the good ending next to the bad ending just so you can see the difference in the anime.

The race against against Metal Sonic is my own recording sans the sound and I cheated a bit but it turned out good as I kicked his butt.

[E-Day]

Yeah; there is one 15-second or so spot that is different. You either blow up Robotnik with a rock, or the other planet glows like Sonic's head and then explodes into a shower of sparkles. And an additional 5 seconds at tthe end of the good ending where the sparkles fall and turn into flowers.

That is the one thing I never liked about Sonic games; the bad ending and good ending were never all that different. Not enough to make it worth the hassle of getting all the emeralds or whatever else you needed to do.

[unknown3125]

Sonic CD is still the best sonic game i have ever played, along with the other genesis sonics. I would have loved if Sonic 4 took more after the sonic cd game, but it still looks good the way it is. Can' wait for its release.

[Thor]

Wow I was just playing that game yesterday on my new Sega CD. I love that game.

[Eikigou]

Oddly enough, the Japanese soundtrack grew on me, even the police sirens and crazy Eggman singing in the Starlight Speedway zones. And, of course, there's the "you can't do better than that so don't even try, get some help" mocking from Eggman in Metallic Madness Bad Future. What the devil at the opera singing during the final battle music, though...

[Mister Zero]

Dammit guys, now I have to lug out my Sega CD... ...things so heavy...

[Areala]

Dammit guys, now I have to lug out my Sega CD... ...things so heavy...

Heavy? Dude, it's a Sega CD. Even my fully-loaded Genesis + Sega CD + 32X doesn't come close to weighing what an Xbox does.

Wait...do you have one of the early ones that sat under the console and slid the CD tray out instead of attaching to the side of the Genesis and top-loading the CD? Then I will grant you...that is heavy.

*huggles*

Areala

[Mister Zero]

Yeah.. it's two systems mating, with a CD bun in the oven. Quite large and in charge(of my power outlet). I almost scored a CDX at a flea market, but the guy said it had to be serviced and wouldn't sell it OR the sweet game collection he had with it.. Debated stealing Snatcher..

I never had an original XBox, that thing literally was too huge for me to own, I just didn't want it. The controller was really a turn-off for me too. A few of the games I wanted for XBOX eventually ended up backwards compatible for 360, though.

[brewahh]

Oh man, this is my favorite Sonic game of all time. It's a shame it doesn't quite have the reputation it deserves- it's considerably better than Sonic 1, but develops those ideas in a slightly different direction than Sonic 2 did. And of course, as has been mentioned, the music totally rules.

[azuritereaction]

Easily the best Sonic game ever made, one of the best game soundtracks ever made (both the USA and JPN versions), one of the most beautiful 2D games ever made and just a legendary/classic game overall. Easily in my top 50 games of all time.

[Thor]

Dammit guys, now I have to lug out my Sega CD... ...things so heavy...

Ah you must have Generation one Sega CD. I so want to get one of those again. I have model 2 and my bro just bought a CDX.

[Mister Zero]

Ah you must have Generation one Sega CD. I so want to get one of those again. I have model 2 and my bro just bought a CDX.

Whichever is the one that connects via the side port on the Gen 1 and 2 and uses a little metal slat to do so. I want a gen 1 Genesis with the headphone jack again, I loved that thing. I have two 2nd gen.

No way I'd ever get rid of my SCD though. I had wanted it since I first heard of it and finally got it around 6th grade(1996-97 for me) when I found it clearanced at Kay*Bee toys for $30. Good memories.. It did take forever to get the few games I wanted for it though.

[Thor]

This is the Model 1 Sega CD

It was not very sturdy, prone to damage if knocked about. This is the one I'm looking for but usually they have issues. I've got model 2

And this is the CDX that my brother just got

These have issues too.

[E-Day]

I had two model 1 Sega CDs a couple of years ago; one got sold and one stayed with me. I also have two model 2's, one still brand new in the box. One day I will play them again.

[Mister Zero]

That's what I thought, I do have model 2. It's held up really well, even if I hadn't really put it to use until about 4 years ago.

I wish I had some sort of s-video cable for my Genesis. I don't like how unclear it is on my big HDTV. I'm debating on buying one for my Saturn, as I just got a 3D analog controller for it and I'm itching to play NiGHTs with it..

E-Day, this topic is pushing me closer and closer to breaking mine out.. I just dread the cleanup.

[Thor]

If you don't like the xbox controller you can always use the Street Fighter pads that look like the old Saturn controllers.