Sonic 1 made in America rumour?

Koosh Koosh! · Post by **Koosh Koosh!** » Sat Jul 22, 2006 1:52 am

Any idea where this came from? I've seen it banded about on the internet (mainly as "proof" for the Robotnik > Eggman name theory), but is there any actual basis for it?

Post by **Segaholic2** » Sat Jul 22, 2006 1:53 am

Do you have any examples? The only reason I can think of is a misinterpretation of the fact that Sonic was designed with an American audience in mind.

Koosh Koosh! · Post by **Koosh Koosh!** » Sat Jul 22, 2006 1:58 am

Segaholic2 wrote:Do you have any examples? The only reason I can think of is a misinterpretation of the fact that Sonic was designed with an American audience in mind.

PACHUKA from the Sonic Cult cites it as reason for the Sonic franchise not originally being Japanese in his 'article', "The Segasonic Myth".

"Sonic was a Japanese made product" - Because he was made by Japanese people? Sorry, but it was developed in the United States by Japanese people. If a game coming out of Japan was made by an all American team, it wouldn't be considered an American game.

http://www.sonic-cult.org/articles/segasonic/

It's also banded about on Wikipedia (snnrk) a lot for some reason. I just want to know where this fool-hardy idea came from and whether there is any truth to the matter.

Post by **Popcorn** » Sat Jul 22, 2006 7:49 am

I'm pretty sure if it was true we of all people would know about it. Interrogate the source.

Tsuyoshi-kun · Post by **Tsuyoshi-kun** » Sat Jul 22, 2006 8:00 am

I thought Sonic 1 was the only 16-bit Sonic game made entirely in Japan.

Shadow Hog · Post by **Shadow Hog** » Sat Jul 22, 2006 9:06 am

<i>Sonic CD</i> was, too. I'd already edited the Wikipedia article to mention that... hopefully nobody reverted it already.

Post by **G.Silver** » Sat Jul 22, 2006 3:53 pm

I remember a time when somebody popped up on some forum saying he worked at Sega of America and had a bit to do with how Sonic 1 was made, like he said it was his idea to have a 1up at 100 rings, and supposedly the US name Robotnik was an amalgamation of his wife's, daughter's, and pet dog's names all rolled into one, and some other stuff regarding localization (like how they weren't given a story to work from). The whole thing seemed pretty dubious but that's the extent of anything I know/heard about Sonic 1 having any US development, and it points to it being developed entirely in Japan.

Brazillian Cara · Post by **Brazillian Cara** » Sat Jul 22, 2006 3:56 pm

G.Silver wrote:...and supposedly the US name Robotnik was an amalgamation of his wife's, daughter's, and pet dog's names all rolled into one...

ROBerta, OTaria and NIKel?

Light Speed · Post by **Light Speed** » Sat Jul 22, 2006 4:04 pm

That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard, unless his wife, daughter and dogs names are Robot, Nik, and the dog had no name.

Post by **Green Gibbon!** » Sat Jul 22, 2006 5:53 pm

To my knowledge, Sonic 1 is one of the only 3 major games in the series (the others being Sonic CD and Adventure) that were developed mainly or entirely in Japan. I haven't seen any evidence to suggest otherwise.

FlashTHD · Post by **FlashTHD** » Sat Jul 22, 2006 6:01 pm

Pachuka was a tester for Sega for a little while, so I would guess he picked up that "Sonic 1 made in U.S.A" factoid from somebody while there. Not that i'm vouching for its' credibility.

Light Speed · Post by **Light Speed** » Sat Jul 22, 2006 6:05 pm

Well let's ask that one bloke. You know, the classy one.

Omni Hunter · Post by **Omni Hunter** » Sun Jul 23, 2006 3:06 pm

Light Speed wrote:That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard, unless his wife, daughter and dogs names are Robot, Nik, and the dog had no name.

I heard Robotnik was a russian word or inspired by a russian word. The idea of the name being an analgm of three names is obviously piss-poor.

Light Speed · Post by **Light Speed** » Sun Jul 23, 2006 3:15 pm

Why do people insist of making crap up when it is so obviously just the word Robot with an ending thrown on?

I'll kill them all!

Post by **Delphine** » Sun Jul 23, 2006 4:42 pm

-nik is a Russian suffix, so you're sort of right, Omni. One of <a href="http://www.randomhouse.com/wotd/index.p ... 80601">the meanings of -nik</a> is an "enthusiast of the thing indicated by the initial element", so Robotnik would be a robot enthusiast. And that's your language lesson of the day.

Shadow Hog · Post by **Shadow Hog** » Sun Jul 23, 2006 5:44 pm

Light Speed wrote:I'll kill them all!

Can't you just knock them all down?

Keith Stack · Post by **Keith Stack** » Mon Jul 24, 2006 12:44 am

From Wikipedia:

Robotnik is the generic Polish word for a worker. As such, it was used as a title by a number of leftist magazines throughout 19th and 20th centuries.

Omni Hunter · Post by **Omni Hunter** » Mon Jul 24, 2006 12:02 pm

Now that does sound familiar. It might be Polish I was thinking of and not Russian. I want a copy of that magasine though.
Either way, why go too deep into a name anyway, the only thing that really matters is what hit's you first, like Sonic refering to speed and Robotnik featuring the word Robot.

Brazillian Cara · Post by **Brazillian Cara** » Mon Jul 24, 2006 12:19 pm

I think it was also the name of a play from the same area. Something about a scientist creating robots, and being killed by them- the machines end up ruling the world. Sort of a predecessor to the Terminator series.

Sniffnoy · Post by **Sniffnoy** » Mon Jul 24, 2006 1:09 pm

Brazillian Cara wrote:I think it was also the name of a play from the same area. Something about a scientist creating robots, and being killed by them- the machines end up ruling the world. Sort of a predecessor to the Terminator series.

Rossum's Universal Robots, you're thinking of, the first use of the word "robot". Though I think it's safe to say that the name "Robotnik" comes from "robot" + "-nik" rather than directly from the Polish "robotnik".

Neo · Post by **Neo** » Mon Jul 24, 2006 8:21 pm

Robotnik rhymes with Sonic.

Post by **Delphine** » Mon Jul 24, 2006 8:39 pm

Robotnik is the name of a breakfast cereal in Malaysia.

Omni Hunter · Post by **Omni Hunter** » Tue Jul 25, 2006 1:22 pm

Robotnik is the name of my left testicle.

FlightPrevails · Post by **FlightPrevails** » Fri Sep 01, 2006 2:08 am

Neo Chaotikal wrote:Robotnik rhymes with Sonic.

Great, now I have a visual image of Hobbes saying that while Calvin plays Shadow while simultaneously throwing his controller of choice at the screen.

No, wait, let me rephrase that: while throwing his PS2 controller at the screen. The game was playable on the Gamecube, worth the storyline. On the PS2, it just plain sucked. I liked it on Gamecube, albeit its faults, however, on PS2, I wanted to bludgeon Yugi Naka with a metal pole.