Difference between revisions of "Sonic the Hedgehog"

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[[Category:Games]]
 
[[Category:Games]]
 
[[Category:Genesis]]
 
[[Category:Genesis]]
[[Category:PlayStation Network]]
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= Categories =
[[Category:Xbox Live Arcade]]
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[[Sonic_the_Hedgehog/Sonic|Sonic]] - Beat the game<br />
[[Category:Virtual Console]]
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-- [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7g-GGqQeCQ Video tutorial]<br />
{{sda run|http://speeddemosarchive.com/Sonic1.html}}
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[[Sonic_the_Hedgehog/All_Emeralds|All Emeralds]] - Beat the game collecting all emeralds.<br />
  
==Categories==
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= Additional Information =
 
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[http://www.speedrun.com/Sonic_the_Hedgehog_Genesis_Mega_Drive Leaderboards] - All the best times to date, with videos where available. '''Please note the rules on this page, particularly those regarding emulators!''' <br />
There are two possible categories for this game; any% and all emeralds. Any% just entails getting through all the zones as quickly as possible, adding up all the ingame times individually (accounting deaths). All emeralds means that you need to collect all the 6 emeralds as well, but there's no consensus over how this should be timed. Some argue that level times should be added just like any% and that you later add the time it took to complete the special stages in real time. Others argue that the special stage times should be omitted completely or that the whole game should be timed in real-time for 100% runs. There are no known runs of all emeralds.
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[[Sonic_the_Hedgehog/Game_Mechanics_and_Glitches|Game Mechanics and Glitches]] - Some explanations about how the game works, specific techniques, and glitches <br />
 
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[[Sonic_the_Hedgehog/Casual_Speedrunning|Casual Speedrunning]] - Some adjustments to make speedrunning the game easier <br />
For individual act strategies and notes, refer to this page:
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[[Sonic_the_Hedgehog/Additional_Resources|Additional Resources]] - Links to other helpful resources
 
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[[Sonic_the_Hedgehog/Sonic|Sonic]] - Beat the game without collecting the Chaos Emeralds<br />
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==Version differences==
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As with all the 16-bit Sonic games, the PAL version runs 17% slower than the NTSC version. However, the in-game timer is slowed down by the same amount, so identical times are possible in both versions. PAL players may have a slight advantage due to the slowdown aiding players' reactions, but in general players in all regions can compete equally.
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== Terminology ==
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;Frame:1/60th of a second, the smallest unit of game time.
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;Frame window:the amount of these units you have to execute a particular action. A "frame-perfect" action has a window of just one frame, for instance.
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;Universal timer:There's two different timing properties of moving objects in this game. The universal timer is where an object starts moving the instant you start the level, and will therefore be in a certain position at a certain time, every time.
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;Camera timer:The other kind is this one, which only starts moving once it's brought onto the screen (or near the screen - when the object is first rendered, in any case). Knowing which objects have which timing properties is important to good times when you have to deal with them.
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;Ramp jump:Sonic's jump speed and height are dependent on both your speed going into the jump and the slope of the ground you jump off. Running up a slope causes your jump to become much higher, while running down a slope will make you jump quite flat to the ground, gaining speed. This applies even if the slope is very small.
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;Loop jump:Similar concept, but inside a loop. If you're moving through the loop from left to right, a loop jump is from the top-left to the bottom-left. It's kinda finicky because if you land at different angles you get different speeds, but in the best case it is faster, and it's also a very convenient way to switch from rolling to running.
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;Path switcher:This is an invisible item in the game that allows the levels to work as structured. There are three different levels of background/foreground and Sonic is always in one of them at any one time, and these items seamlessly switch Sonic from background to foreground and vice versa. This is especially necessary for things like loops to work, because if you didn't have them they would just be solid all the time and you wouldn't be able to enter it. Knowing where these are and how they work is key to some tricks in this game.
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;Speed cap:Oddly for a game designed and marketed around speed, there are certain situations where the game will actually limit your speed. If you hold the direction you're moving and you're above the speed cap, the game will knock your speed back to the speed cap. This can be circumvented just by not pressing right.
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;Zip:A zip occurs when Sonic is stuck in a wall somehow and presses left or right. Since collision detection is designed to stop you from going into a wall in the first place, pushing left against a wall makes the game push you back to the right so you aren't embedded in it. As a result, when you're already inside a wall holding left or right causes you to travel in the opposite direction much faster than you can attain by normal play.
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;Level wrap:This is what happens when a zip causes you to bypass the left edge of the screen. The game treats your X-coordinate in memory as a number less than 0 - but position coordinates are unsigned, so instead of a negative number it's a VERY large positive one - which correlates to the end of the stage.
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===More detailed information===
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TASvideos has a much more in-depth analysis, mostly dealing with the way the engine works. It can be found at http://tasvideos.org/GameResources/Genesis/SonicTheHedgehog.html (this covers all three games in the classic series).
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== In-game Time vs. Real Time ==
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In all of the classic Sonic games, completing levels very quickly (in Sonic 1, under 30 seconds) gives a 50,000 point time bonus. Completing a level between 30 and 45 seconds gives a 10,000 time bonus instead. On the act clear screen, the bonus ticks down at a rate of 100 points per frame, and cannot be skipped. What this means is, in real time it would in fact be faster to wait for the timer to tick over to 30, as long as the time you would otherwise get is between 23 seconds, 20 frames (0:23::20) and 30 seconds even. The Sonic playing community generally agrees that this is pretty dumb, and the time spent actually playing the stages is what matters, so these games are timed by taking the sum of the in-game times for each level.
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For a further explanation, [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RaMGf1V3MMM this video] does a good job of explaining why in-game time matters in certain games, particularly in the Sonic franchise.
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== Video Tutorial ==
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{{#ev:youtube|u7g-GGqQeCQ}}
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== Best Times ==
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The current best known times for Sonic 1 ILs are on The Sonic Center:
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http://soniccenter.org/rankings/sonic_1/times
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The current leaderboard for Genesis Sonic games can be found [https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Akoj-Wj2K-yndDktcy1NOTF1akV5TGd3LWhpRmh6Z1E&hl=en#gid=0 here]
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Revision as of 23:09, 23 June 2015

Categories

Sonic - Beat the game
-- Video tutorial
All Emeralds - Beat the game collecting all emeralds.

Additional Information

Leaderboards - All the best times to date, with videos where available. Please note the rules on this page, particularly those regarding emulators!
Game Mechanics and Glitches - Some explanations about how the game works, specific techniques, and glitches
Casual Speedrunning - Some adjustments to make speedrunning the game easier
Additional Resources - Links to other helpful resources

Personal tools