The GHZ Forum

1up.com has posted a special on Sonic the Hedgehog as part of their "Classic Essential 50" feature. I don't know if there's anything we don't know there (and there probably isn't), but it might be worth the read anyway. I haven't read it yet.

<A HREF="http://www.1up.com/do/feature?cId=31340 ... 3134008</A>

Not a bad little historical presentation. There were a few tidbits I wasn't aware of, such as the comparative speed of the Genesis console at the time.

"Mr. Needlemouse the hedgehog"
Yeah, I can see why they switched to Sonic...

Some of the information sounds a lot like Green Gibbons

Not to mention the pictures and captions... is it coincidence?

I just wonder where they did their research... ahh, there we go.

"Resources: Wired Magazine, Green Hill Zone"

Hah! Go Gibbon!

There is one bit of info in there, be it correct or incorrect, that I hadn't heard before. It says that during the initial character design faze, one Sega of America exec was hell bent on making Sonic a squirrel. I know we've all heard about the rabbit idea before, but this one was news to me. I have no idea where they got that information, but if it was true, it would probably explain where Ray came from.

Meanwhile, the "Mr. Needlemouse" fiasco continues. None of these guys ever seem to realize that it should be translated "Mr. Hedgehog." It's like calling a french Mr. Potatohead doll "Mr. Groundapplehead." :P

Hah! Go Gibbon!

Yeah. I wish I'd be famous for something that mattered.

Well, what are you waiting for. Find some dicks to suck.

Man, NT must've gotten an extra dose of smartass pills this week. Popcorn, check your medicine cabinet...

That doesn't make you famous. It just makes you happy.

Zeta wrote:That doesn't make you famous. It just makes you happy.

We make each other happy!!!

Let's all hug!

Urge to kill...<a href="http://nekothekitty.keenspace.com/d/200 ... >rising</a>...

You know that line is originally from 8-bit, right?

If you don't count that 8-bit took from The Simpsons, then yes.

If I watched the Simpsons, I'd have known that. ;P

You should have known that anyway.

By the time Sonic 2 came around, Sega had come up with the buzzword for another bit of technology that the Genesis used to speed up its games: Blast Processing. Technically, it was to describe the way the Genesis could display one image while loading another into memory -- something the SNES couldn't do -- but few knew that.

And here I always thought it was how the Genesis "turned off" the tracking of objects off screen. (IE - if a Badnik gets too far off Screen, the game "forgets" it exists, thus freeing up CPU - thinking back on that now, it doesn't make much sense, since most games do that anyway)

I'm pretty sure "Blast Processing" was actually when the system disabled parallax scrolling and animation (except Sonic's) whenever the blue guy got going really fast.

Blast Processing -- It's whatever the hell you want it to be.

Why the fuck do these people not get the fact that "Needlemouse" was a (rather stupid) joke by a UK Sega Saturn magazine?

The only thing the Sonic character was called before "Sonic" is "HEDGEHOG". Jesus, these people...

It's a joke with a basis on truth, needlemouse being the literal translation of haironezumi and all that. But you're right, he was just called HEDGEHOG (which would have confused a fair bunch of people, I'd have thought).

Was Sonic ever actually known as Haironezumi No Sonikku or anything, or have they always just called him Sonic The Hedgehog (albiet in Engrish)?