[Persona mobile]

I've been throwing this question around in my mind ever since the 3d Remaster version by M2 was released: which is the definitive version of Sonic 1? There's several ports out now, from the edition in Sonic Jam to the excellent IOS version and finally now a 3d remaster. I'll throw up the best aspects of each and maybe we can finally come to a consensus on this. I'm going to ignore the various versions that came in what are basically emulator packs though (unless an argument as to why that particular version is the best is brought up).


Sonic 1 in Sonic Jam (1997, Sega Saturn):
- Added Spin Dash
- Added Normal & Easy Modes with redesigned levels, more rings, and less acts required to clear the game
- Allows you to remove Time Over
- Has International and Japanese versions + game manuals
- Has some classy music
- Has Bugfixes

Sonic the Hedgehog HD (iOS/Android 2013)
- Added Spin Dash
- Added Widescreen support
- Online Leaderboards
- Enhanced Debug Mode
- Added unlockable/playable Tails, Knuckles, and Super Sonic
- Has International and Japanese version
- Has some classy menus
- Has an extra Special Stage so Sonic can get 7 Emeralds and turn Super
- Remastered music
- Has more bugfixes + exclusive areas for the extra characters

3d Sonic the Hedgehog (3DS 2013)
- Added Spin Dash
- All stage graphics have been laid out to maximize 3d effect
- Has a display filter that looks like a CRT screen
- Added toggle to hear Mega Drive or Mega Drive 2 style sound
- Has International/Japanese version
- Has Level Select without a code


Looking at it just from the features alone, the iOS/Android Sonic wins. The only downside is that it's only on mobile devices. On the other hand, 3d Sonic the Hedgehog is a more faithful port of the original but presented in a way that could only be done in the modern era, so maybe that's the more definitive version? And from another point of view, the Sonic Jam version is the most definitive because that was the last time all the original creative staff in charge of the first game had a hand in its presentation/new features.

What are your thoughts on this, my brothers?
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[QUIMDUNG]

SANIC: GOTTA GO FAST
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[Kitten ClanClan]

i hate sonic so i can't weigh in, reallllllllly


but i feel like kirby's adventure 3d classics is the definitive way to play it (make sure if you play it you check the 3d options, consider turning off background dimming). holy goddamn it is so crazy pretty. i'd probably maybe think i would say the same for sonic if i gave a toss.
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[Teflon]

I'm in camp retrogrouch on this one. Sonic 1 has aged rather poorly but backporting all the improvements from later games or modern bells and whistles like 3D and 16:9 doesn't result in the definitive Sonic 1, you end up building a different, arguably superior game that happens to use Sonic 1 assets. For me it's got to have that sludgy feeling of Sonic conquering inertia for the first couple of steps from a standstill. The game's designed around the idea that your velocity is something you had to build first and putting in a spindash that provides instant acceleration anytime at the press of two buttons strips it of an important risk/reward speed management aspect. Which was the only reason I'd play Sonic 1 instead of its successors to begin with.

Also the video signal needs to be a hot mess of wavy, bleeding RF and I want the ring noise to punch out half the BGM to make it feel like I'm doing so well the sound hardware can't even handle it.

[Brooks]

It's kind of odd that there isn't a spindash on/off toggle

[Schwere Viper]

Probably the 3DS port because of the unobtrusive extras and the on-the-go factor. I think the Android/HD remaster is awesome if you've already played the game inside out, but if we're talking a "definitive" version I think one without a lot of extraneous stuff is best. Also, touch screen controls? Yuck.
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HeavyViper@Twitter ~~~ HeavyViper@Soundcloud
Blog: Machines That Sing

[Brooks]

While I'm here - Megadrive VGM-format music editors? I want to try something out with a couple tunes but I'd like to turn the drum channels off

[Schwere Viper]

[Swimmy]

[Kitten ClanClan]

can i hijack the thread and ask for details, information and opinions on each of the 3d classics ya'll have played? particularly the new sega ones?

hearing there is a spindash toggle on the 3d classics is pretty goddamn neat - that's a really cool attention to detail that i think shows the people handling the port are lovers of the game. i've noticed that game gear virtual console games also have things like mappable turbo buttons and remappable default buttons, which is something the nintendo console vc games don't have on ANY console (fuck nintendo).
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[Brooks]

[Schwere Viper]

For weekly posts of me freaking out over how good the 3D Sega AGES ports are, check out "Cool Kids Sega Club."

To sum it up, though, the ports are so great because they are about more than the game itself. Things like making virtual recreations of the original arcade cabinets, complete with motor noise and button clicks, or an equalizer function that lets you make the game sound like its playing through old, blown-out speakers. Even the option to give the screen a CRT look, complete with colour blurring and convex distortion. So many little things that just emphasize the joy of playing the game - not just a save state function and a 3D render of a console.
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HeavyViper@Twitter ~~~ HeavyViper@Soundcloud
Blog: Machines That Sing

[notbov]

the definitive version is the original cart because it doesn't mess around with any added cruft

yes, even with the spike bug. play around it, dammit.
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[Felix]

I actually like the Android/iOS version a lot -- the touch controls are oddly decent, and the main reason I would've played Sonic 2 or 3 over Sonic 1 in the first place is for all of the (mostly fun) cruft that got added in later installments. That said, it's still cruft + touch controls, so I'd feel strange calling it "definitive."

[CONSUME_PRODUCTS]

there isn't a 'definitive' but both the smartphone and 3ds port-things were obviously made with ~love~ so you can't really lose

(btw, there was a very quiet release of chris whitehead sonic 2 a few days ago with a 'fleshed out' hidden palace zone and some other stuff which is probably cruft)

[misadventurous]

[notbov]

anything iOS/Android is immediately suspect because, even in spite of controller support, the assumed input is touch controls and Sonic is very much a game from an era when the no nonsense and immediate nature of digital input was not only assumed, but prefered.

there's also the fact that you could literally remove everything those ports add to the game and you still have fucking Sonic. it's not like how it was back in the 90s and early 00s where arcade and computer games got multiple ports and each version could vary wildly because of things added or taken away or changed and we have to comb over all the different revisions and point at one and elevate it; Sonic is Sonic and it got around just fine for the past 20-odd years without having playable Tails in it.

also also, Sonic Jam fucked up the music looping and changed the jump sound to the Sonic CD sfx and that's Not Okay.
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[Lick Meth]

[evnvnv]

[remote]

and then you see it in 3d and go, oh
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letterboxd | last.fm | steam

[notbov]

changing my vote to Sonic GBA, if only because it shows how horribly wrong Sonic as a concept and sets of interacting mechanics and physics could go with even a slight few modifications, like a It's a Wonderful Life Sonic except less populist.
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[Ronk]

[notbov]

it's not as though if you're playing on a Genesis/MD that it's even going to sound the same, what with different same-model revisions having different sound solutions. there's a version of the Model 1 before the Model 2 that has a YM2116 clone made by Sega instead of Yamaha and now there's these system-on-chip jobs and there's the off chance that if you plug in to a Model 1's headphone jack, you'll get ass output and, hell, even some emulators sound off (or, like the DC Smash Pack, wrong).

more to the point, does the 3DS version emulate composite noise so you get the rainbow effect on waterfalls? because 7-year old me doesn't want to live in a world with rainbow-less waterfalls.
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[cassievania]

argh its hard because when i think definitive version of something in the context that persona is talking about, i think of something thats a mixture of all 3 ports here. something like the SEGA AGES ports that M2 did: they not only had updated the game's presentation a little because they had the tech to do so, they also included a lot of extras like extra modes that die hard fans would love (System-16 version of Fantasy Zone II!) and also included scans of manuals, box art, and a lot of promotional materials (Dynamite Deka fans!). hardly any port has all three, but they'll all great things to have. and each port of sonic 1 listed here has a little of each one.

Sonic Jam: there isn't much here that it's added that i want, really. the MOST IMPORTANT thing here is digital scans of the japanese and english manuals. I know scans of stuff like that is often seen as no more then extra fluff because you can easily just look it up on the internet, but its still convenient and still shows extra love and care and gosh the little sonic scribbles in the japanese manual are so god darn cute. i wish more games included at least the boxart and manuals of the original copy of the game, it's a nice extra touch and it's a shame that the iOS/Android port and (prolly?) 3DS port just have very boring "how to play" instructions.

the rest of the stuff that aren't in the other ports i can easily do without. they're all geared to make the game easier, aimed at first time players. they're not really put there to make the game more enjoyable or give fans of the game a little more joy in replaying the game again.

Sonic The Hedgehog HD: ooohhhhhhh mannnnnnnnnn. the menus in this is SO SNAZZY, and the man reason why is 3D MODELS of THE BOX and THE GAME CARTRIDGE. seriously, it was so neat see the game box open up and bring up the game cartridge every time you start up the game. and it changes depending on the version of the game you pick, even showing the european box! unfortunately, unless i'm mistaken, you can't look at the models up close. it's such a sadness that you think you see the boxart on your fucking iphone, but you can't zoom in and look at every little detail or even read the text on the back. ;_;

but oh man the extras are pretty nice. like somebody else said (i tihnk?) in this thread, there's not much you can really add to sonic 1, so even though they're all pretty obvious additions aside from the enhanced debug mode (does anybody have a list about what's enhanced about it exactly?) they're still rather welcomed imo. widescreen support and online leaderboards are neat, and remastering the music is so out of the left field but also so nice. you can't really tell the difference unless you compare the music in the game to the original version, but it's there. being able to play as knuckles or tails is alright, even though sonic is still the best choice for the game, but it's a neat bonus that it has exclusive areas for both characters to explore. it does give somebody a reason to play as those characters, even though when you play as knuckles you'll prolly just spend most of your time gliding and not having too much fun. super sonic is more exciting then the other two tbh, but that's prolly just me. i like to fucking vroom vroom all over the place and i've never seen super sonic in the game before, even though im sure theres a romhack that adds him in somewhere. the enhanced debug mode is what i'm really excited about and what i think is the coo'est thing about the port, but i have no idea what exactly is changed. does anybody have a list?

oh and time attack is a pretty ace feature to add and great because it also serves as a level select. i've never checked out the leaderboards so im not sure, but i think it prolly doesn't separate people who have the spin dash on or off, which is unfortunate. :(

also yeah it's major problem is that it's touch screen controls. it's why i haven't played it that much, tbh, though the controls are fine for what they are. i just dont enjoy dragging my fingers along a flat surface that much.

3D Sonic The Hedgehog: i actually, um, don't have this yet. my 3D switch is broken and it looks unfixable. ;_; but the 3D sounds so nice! and what people are saying about the display filter sounds coo'! unfortunately it seems a little barebones compared to the android/ios port, so obviously the only reason to get it (besides having actual buttons to press) over the android/ios port IS it's 3D effect. so yeah it's pretty nice and coo' that it takes advantage of the hardware it's ported to.

im really tired and this took me way too long to type up so for now i'm just gonna rate sonic HD as 1, 3D sonic as 2, and sonic 1 jam as 3. also here's a quick list of features that i would like to see implemented in a non-existent ultra port of the game that would have all the posivite things about all 3 ports that's not in any of the 3:

-a choice in picking not only original & remastered music, but also being able to choice nakamura's demo tape version

-scans of each version of the manuals and boxart and cartridges and 3D models of the latter like in Sonic HD

-scans of various pieces of concept art and promotional materials. and include little blurbs on the bottom for each one! seriously that'd be so coo'.

-interviews! even if it's reprints of some interviews with the original creators it'd still be fun to read!

-superplays!! and the ability to save your own replay!

-being able to switch up the style of sonic's sprite like a few romhacks already do.

-level editor! seriously, the debug mode is coo' because it's fun to mess around with the levels themselves by placing various objects down, so why not take that a step further and let you place special level pieces down? make it like megaman powered up where you can pick a style based on the zones and you can upload and download custom levels

um i guess what i want is a suped up SEGA AGES style port of the game i-i guess

ok this is long and dumb and doesnt answer the question but i hope somebody enjoyed reading this bcuz i love sega and i love sonic and i love behind the scenes stuff and i love hearing about what it was like when the game came out and the latter two are sadly lost in this day and age with rereleases of classic games even though a lot of them are good ports with lots of love ok thanks and bye

[Persona mobile]

It's interesting because I feel like both M2 (3d Sonic devs) and the Taxman/Christian Whitehead (mobile Sonic HD) are approaching the development of the ports with utmost love but from two different angles. M2 has complete reverence of the source material and would only seek to most accurately convey the original in as perfect form as possible. Meanwhile, the Taxman/Christian Whitehead reveres the game as a Sonic fan, and so wants to put in features from the context of the series and from its development history.

Which is why 3d Sonic has all its stage graphics hand-remapped to look the same but work in 3d like this:


Meanwhile Sonic HD has in its debug mode the wrecking ball the Green Hill Zone Robotnik boss has and it has new programming so you can run on top of it, because that was a feature that was shown once in a screenshot from a magazine but cut from the actual game. Also in the underwater levels, you can set a goggle shield from Debug Mode where Sonic can breathe underwater because the goggle sprite was found in a sprite rip from the game and fans always theorized the true purpose of it.

Just absolute fan devotion.


Well, also M2 had the hurdle of trying to get the game to run on a 3ds while Sonic HD runs on mobile phones that's 10x more powerful than the Dreamcast at this point.



Anyway, if you want to read the cool stuff they added to mobile Sonic HD, check out this page: http://info.sonicretro.org/Sonic_the_Hedgehog_(2013_game)