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Sonic Retro

Community, Site News

TooManyGames 2014: “Surviving the Dreamcast Apocalypse” & “The Secret History of the Hidden Palace Zone”


SEGAbits and Sonic Retro made our very first convention appearance together this year at TooManyGames in Oaks, PA. In addition to walking the convention floor, Barry the Nomad, Patrick aka Kori-Maru (Website of the Dead), Sonic Retro’s own David the Lurker and A.J. Rosa (My Life with SEGA) held a panel discussing the life and death of SEGA’s swan song, the Dreamcast. The same panel also included a presentation from Retro, covering the history of Sonic the Hedgehog 2‘s Hidden Palace Zone – with rarely seen footage of Sonic 2‘s release and early efforts to remake the lost zone. We also met with several fellow SEGA fans, gave away a pile of rare SEGA swag, and did we mention the panel was standing room only? SEGAbits (and Sonic Retro) Does.
Also featured in this video is a convention walkthrough with the crew, and a one-on-one bout between Patrick and A.J.
Like this video? Subscribe to the SEGAbits YouTube channel!

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Community, Site News

Rest in peace, Polygon Jim.

The following was written by forum member Hinchy, who was a personal friend of Polygon Jim.

Cody “Rick ‘Polygon Jim’ ‘Pegleg Jimmy’ ‘Grand Master Jimmy’ ‘PeglegPolygonGrandmasterJimmyJimJimmy’ Fields” Lawrence
April 10, 1992 – May 18, 2013

DVj52Kt

This is the picture I took the last time I was ever with him. I’m still amazed that he managed to make that domino tower while drunk.

What can you say about Jimmy? He had a goofy sense of humor, hilarious to some, aggravating to others, but I don’t think anyone would deny that he was a man of charisma and fun. He was the most reckless guy I’ve ever met in my life, that’s for sure. He lived and died with the spirit of fucking around.

I’d known Jimmy for a good 5 years. During the lead-up to Sonic Unleashed, he was 50% of the reason I decided to check out Sonic Retro in the first place. Last fall, in the span of about 24 hours, he drove to Louisiana and became my roommate and hang-out buddy. There were ups and downs, but we had the time of our lives. Unfortunately, he couldn’t maintain the rent and moved back to his home in Pennsylvania. My chief concern about it a couple weeks ago was that he and I didn’t get to go see Iron Man 3 in theaters like we had planned… now that he’s dead, I have to get it through my head that I’ll never see him ever again.

Though he leaves this world today, he will live on in the Sonic community through the best hack ever and the phrase “assface Sonic”, which he coined.

Rest in peace, you magnificent bastard.

Read the local news report on the incident here.

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Retro Contests, Site News

Retro Giveaway: Sonic Franchise Bundle on Steam

Seasons greetings, dear Retro readers! Last night, jolly old Santa Claus visited the Retro HQ, ate all our cookies and milk, and didn’t leave us a damn thing. Fortunately, we managed to pull his bag off his sleigh as he tried to escape from our armed pursuit, and in his wonderful bag of gifts, we found a hundred pounds of solid gold ingots. We promptly sold all the gold, and I’m happy to report that all of the Retro staff slept on mattresses made entirely out of cash last night. In the spirit of the Christmas season, we thought we’d pass our frankly tremendous fortunes on to you, so today we’re holding a giveaway for a Sonic Franchise Steam Bundle. This bundle includes every single Sonic game available on Steam (see complete list below), and only one lucky reader is going to walk away with the whole thing. To enter, simply leave a comment on this post before 11:59 PM Eastern Standard Time on December 31st, 2012, and include an email address we can contact you at in case you win. Make sure to read the rules below as well. Good luck, and may you enjoy these games as much as we are enjoying our endless pits of money.

Complete List of Games Included:

  • Dr. Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine
  • Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing
  • Sonic 3D Blast
  • Sonic Adventure DX
  • Sonic Adventure 2 (with Battle DLC)
  • Sonic CD
  • Sonic Generations (with Casino Night DLC)
  • Sonic Spinball
  • Sonic the Hedgehog
  • Sonic the Hedgehog 2
  • Sonic 3 & Knuckles
  • Sonic the Hedgehog 4 Episode I
  • Sonic the Hedgehog 4 Episode II

Contest Rules

  1. Sonic Retro staff are barred from entering. Yes, me, that means you.
  2. You must not already own more than three of the games on Steam. We will need permission to view your Steam profile to verify that you meet this requirement. This is so that people who don’t already own these titles have a chance to get them.
  3. Entries must be submitted by 11:59 PM EST on December 31, 2012, and must have supplied a valid email address.
  4. Only one entry per person. Trying to skirt this rule may result in all of your entries being disqualified, not just the additional entries.
  5. The winner will be chosen whenever we feel like it between January 1st and January 7th, 2013.

Clarifications:

  1. You do NOT need to put your email address in the text of the comment, just use the email field provided for you.
  2. You do not need to put your Steam profile in your comment. We will email you and request that information when and if you are picked as the winner.
  3. DLC, such as the Adventure 2 Battle DLC or Generations Casino Night, does not count against the three game limit from rule two. Games will be considered as listed above.
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Community, Game News

Sonic 2 HD Alpha Release Now Available, Continues Development As Closed Project

You waited for nearly two years. You questioned whether this project was still alive and kicking.  But with time comes development, and to show you that things ARE getting done, the Sonic 2 HD team has released a new playable demo.

Being an alpha release, it’s understandable that not everything is perfect and things can (and likely will) go wrong. But what we do have is an impressive feat of love and creativity from a group of fans with a passion to give Sonic the Hedgehog 2 a visual spit shine and touched up music.

However, a small bit of controversy around the project is the nature of it being listed as a Sonic Retro Community Project, despite being a rather closed operation. Project Manager Canned Karma addressed this further by confirming the project will continue a closed development cycle.

“With the game’s Alpha Release, this means our involvement with Sonic Retro’s Community Projects also comes to an end as, in all honesty, S2HD hasn’t been a community game for a long time,” Canned Karma said. “In line with this, we’ve now closed out the topics in the Community Project sub-forum in favor of a single discussion thread here.”

Currently, the demo only supports Windows operating systems from Windows XP through Windows 7.

Updates and downloads on the project will continue to be posted on the team’s official website. For now though, big props go out to the team for all their work so far and we look forward to seeing the project grow and mature even more. Let them know what you think of the game so far in the comments down below.

Continue Reading

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Community, Site News

Join Us For A Sonic Marathon Generations In The Making

[UPDATE: 2006 is purposely missing from here. We have special plans for that one along with other titles… stay tuned!]

We here at Sonic Retro strive to bring you all the best in Sonic series and technical research through our gigantic wiki and humor through some of the strange discussions that go down in the forums (green eyes, physics, etc.) But all of this requires some pretty hefty “spondooli” to keep running.

So, to help along our efforts to have the rocket fuel to keep this big mother hubbard on its way to Mars on a collision course like a satellite out of control, we’re going to be holding a massive 12-hour gaming marathon of all things Sonic we’re lovingly calling “The Sonic Retro Generational Marathon” to ring in the release of Sonic’s big 20th Anniversary game.

Beginning Oct. 30 at 12pm EDT, forum member The Shad will be playing a plethora of Sonic games for your amusement. However, the games he plays are determined based on which “Generation” they’re located in. Here’s a small sample of what I mean:

GENESIS ERA: Sonic 1, Sonic CD, Sonic 2, Sonic 3

“DREAMCAST” ERA: Sonic Adventure, Sonic Adventure 2, and Sonic Heroes

MODERN ERA: Sonic Unleashed, Sonic Colors

With plenty more secret eras afterward. The Shad will be advancing through eras as more donations are raised. Along with that, beginning at donations of $5 USD, donators can also include tasks The Shad has to perform on air, such as singing along to certain songs or no use of the spin dash/homing attack, on a dollar-per-minute basis. Higher donations can request more complex things, in the event of needing to set things up. Donators will also be enrolled in our little program that top donors will receive special prizes in the mail, because we really do love you all that much.

Plenty of other Sonic Retro staffers will be on hand as The Shad trudges on through the best–and worst–the Sonic series has to offer. What sort of devious Eras have we concocted for The Shad to endure once the Modern Era passes? Tune in Sunday to find out!

And of course, if you can’t make it to the marathon, you can always drop off a little cash on the side on our donation page. Every little bit helps!

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Site News

Cheap Plug: The Official Sonic Retro Flickr

Sonic Retro has largely clung on to this whole crazy Web2.0 movement, what with our own Facebook page after much demand, a Twitter feed, and even our own little Steam group. And yet, it feels like there’s something missing…

So, being arbiters of shameless self-promotion, I’m happy to introduce to everyone the Official Genuine Imitation Sonic Retro flickr™!

Right now, there isn’t too much going on there aside from some of the photos we took while over at Sonic Boom this year, but please check them out! Maybe even friend us, you aspiring photographers out there? I’ve seen some of the work you all do in Creative Works.

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Community, Site News

Post-Sonic Boom Update: Media Soon!

You may have noticed your Sonic Retro Boom Crew has been a bit quiet with poor David stepping up and keeping this place from being a waste. We love you and you’re awesome.

Well, we weren’t strangers at Sonic Boom. To those who went, you may have seen us. We were that small group near the cupcakes and the 3D Generations station not wearing those Sonic hats. Some of you stopped by to say hi because you somehow know how Scarred Sun looks like or you wanted to chew out Slingerland before realizing he’s a behemoth of a man, and we thank you for all the kind words and support!

You’ll recognize me as that one dork in the brown overshirt with a blue shirt, a DSLR and the huge red backpack stuffed with eight Sonic hats flitting around the floor taking photos and talking to whatever Sega people showed up.

Now, most of of us are heading home today, so things are going to be a teeny bit slow on Boom content, but rest assured, we got tons of photos, video, and maybe some more goodies lined up for you as the weekend rolls on by.

Again, thanks to everyone who stopped on by us!

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