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Sonic CD: chasing the generators

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I had some questions before, and I have now answered them.

  • Do I need to travel to the future after destroying the machine in the past, or is it sufficient to just explode the generator? No, you don’t need to travel to the future; you can finish the act in the past, and you’re still told you created a good future. However, if you can travel to the future (through two future lampposts in sequence) there are no enemies in the way of you getting to the end.
  • Do I need to create good futures for both acts, and if so do I then have to fight the boss? Yes, you have to create good futures for both acts, and if you do then the third act takes place in the good future – but you still have to fight the boss.

I know this, because I have spent quite some time exploring levels and working out where to time travel, where the robot generators are, and planning routes to get there; I’ve now managed it on the first five Zones, and have at least located the generator in the present on Stardust Speedway Act 1 (though I have no idea how to get to it, and this is a rare example of a 16-bit Sonic level being pretty poorly designed). Luckily I’ve built up a stock of about 25 lives, and it’s fairly easy to collect 100 rings to gain another, since I keep running out of time when exploring.

I have often thought of Sonic CD as intimidating, because I thought you needed to get everything perfect. Back in 2011 I threw caution to the wind, and played through the game on the Xbox 360, not trying for the good ending but just hoping to get to the end. It was relatively easy to do that, though levels were sometimes a bit disorderly and prevented a fluid run throughout. The race with Metal Sonic was particularly difficult.

Having plugged in my PS3 (because I wanted to test a copy of Crashed that I found), I saw Sonic CD on the list of installed games, and immediately got the sense of being overwhelmed again, because having completed the bad ending I felt I would need to try for the good one. Back in the 1990s I had time to devote to a game, and to this day I have a complete picture of all levels from Sonic 1 and 2 in my mind, crowding out information which might actually be useful. That came from playing the games over and over; by the time I got my Mega CD from Pink Planet in Bristol, I had many other things to be doing.

But in recent months I find myself wanting to spend time dedicated to specific games again, hence returning to Mario Odyssey, playing through GTA3 and Vice City, and progressing through Wreckfest. Taking time to appreciate a game in its entirety – exactly what has been holding me back from Sonic CD.

So I’ve been taking my time, exploring levels, working out routes to take, where to find time travel posts and then build up speed, trying to find the machines in the past. It’s been a very different experience, very unlike other Sonic games, but it’s been very enjoyable. I fear I may need to resort to looking at some level maps, though, if I don’t work out how to destroy the generator on Stardust Speedway soon.

Oh, and the special stages are still pretty rubbish.

Out Run GB: a valiant effort

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I previously wrote about Hero GP, a fun little Game Boy Colour game I bought which is pretty difficult given its speed. I have played it on occasion since, since it’s ideal for a very short play session (which can turn into a much longer one with just one more go). The maker of that game has wondered “what if OutRun came to the Game Boy Color?”, and despite his misspellings of both “Out Run” and “Colour”, it’s a valid question. Luckily, he has answered it.

Yes, there are limitations. No branching paths, limited roadside furniture, blocky cars. But it feels like Out Run, with undulating tracks and traffic getting in the way, and if you hit another car or a tree with enough force, the car somersaults in the classic advert for seat belt wearing.

It feels slower than Hero GP, which is probably a good thing given the tighter feel to the track space. The controls are very precise, other than the brake which seems to have too much of an effect. Hitting other cars slows you down a little too much, meaning that two hits is almost enough to mean you fail the first stage, whereas that’s not usually the case until the second stage at least – depending on DIP switch settings, of course. It’s a very accomplished bit of coding, and while it can’t be released commercially for obvious reasons, I hope that Sega keep it available as a curio – it’s free to play from the link above.

APB: twitchy siren

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Maybe it’s the conversion to the Xbox pad, but APB is incredibly difficult to control. In order to arrest someone you have to have your cursor over them and press the siren, because obviously criminals are only going to pay attention to a police car which is an exact distance away from them. The thing is that the cursor is not at a set distance from your car, but instead varies with the speed you’re going. In order to have enough of a gap between your car and the cursor to be able to arrest someone, you have to be going quite fast, certainly faster than the criminals you are chasing. For littering this isn’t so much of an issue, since you need to signal to them once. By the time you get to chasing down dopers, it’s much more difficult because you have to signal on them three times, meaning you are almost guaranteed to crash; too many crashes and you’re out.

I’ll have to see if there’s an original cabinet next time I go to somewhere like Arcade Club, because the concept of the game – a semi-open world, different criminals to find, extending time through fuel and doughnuts – is quite attractive. It’s just the controls which frustrate.

Mario’s Tennis: what a racquet

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I have only played on a Virtual Boy twice: once at a museum, and once at a UGVM meeting in honour of Owen. Both times were brief, uncomfortable, and underwhelming. I suspect there were some hardware adjustments which may have helped, but the screens were dim and blurry, and I had to sit at an awkward angle to use it. Nevertheless, the 3D nature of the console was very clever, and the games I played (3D Tetris and Golf, I believe) used that to good effect. I did once try Virtual Boy emulation on my computer, and it just seemed a bit pointless because of the fact it lacked the third dimension, meaning you are left with middling games in monochrome.

Having modified my 3DS, however, I now have access to a 3D screen which is perfect for trying out Virtual Boy games as they are supposed to be seen. The screen is, obviously, of a much higher quality as well, and there’s no restricted positioning. All good, yes?

Mostly. I started with Mario’s Tennis, having recently been playing the N64 game with Edward. It’s a pretty standard tennis game, but with a much lower viewpoint than normal. This would make it more difficult to place the ball, but of course the 3D is supposed to help with that. It sort of did, but it took some time to work out the best way to judge and also when to press the button. I lost my first match 6-0 to Toad, but by the second I was mostly keeping serve, and I narrowly lost to Peach after a very long game of alternating advantages and deuces. I won my third match, against Yoshi, quite comprehensively. Maybe I should move off the easy difficulty level.

Of course, I can’t really show the 3D nature of the games here

Things improved a lot when I investigated the options for the emulator and found that I am not constrained to the original red and black. You can set any colour you like, but there are two presets – red and grey – and the latter makes the games a lot easier to see and play.

I completely forgot about those options when I played other games.

Mario’s Tennis: what a racquet

Posted on Written by

I have only played on a Virtual Boy twice: once at a museum, and once at a UGVM meeting in honour of Owen. Both times were brief, uncomfortable, and underwhelming. I suspect there were some hardware adjustments which may have helped, but the screens were dim and blurry, and I had to sit at an awkward angle to use it. Nevertheless, the 3D nature of the console was very clever, and the games I played (3D Tetris and Golf, I believe) used that to good effect. I did once try Virtual Boy emulation on my computer, and it just seemed a bit pointless because of the fact it lacked the third dimension, meaning you are left with middling games in monochrome.

Having modified my 3DS, however, I now have access to a 3D screen which is perfect for trying out Virtual Boy games as they are supposed to be seen. The screen is, obviously, of a much higher quality as well, and there’s no restricted positioning. All good, yes?

Mostly. I started with Mario’s Tennis, having recently been playing the N64 game with Edward. It’s a pretty standard tennis game, but with a much lower viewpoint than normal. This would make it more difficult to place the ball, but of course the 3D is supposed to help with that. It sort of did, but it took some time to work out the best way to judge and also when to press the button. I lost my first match 6-0 to Toad, but by the second I was mostly keeping serve, and I narrowly lost to Peach after a very long game of alternating advantages and deuces. I won my third match, against Yoshi, quite comprehensively. Maybe I should move off the easy difficulty level.

Of course, I can’t really show the 3D nature of the games here

Things improved a lot when I investigated the options for the emulator and found that I am not constrained to the original red and black. You can set any colour you like, but there are two presets – red and grey – and the latter makes the games a lot easier to see and play.

I completely forgot about those options when I played other games.