Colliding with Chaos
Monday, 13th April 2009, 10:23pm (UTC), 3 Comments
Update: Collision Chaos added to the Sonic CD section
Sonic CD's insane, slightly drug-induced second level now graces the long corridors of knowledge that is Zone: 0. Managed to get through this one quite quickly actually, which bodes well considering how many more levels I have to cover. Thanks, once more, to mercury who, upon reading my tweet for help about counting rings in these Sonic CD maps, has whipped up a new version of his Sonic extractor tool that automatically does it for me. This has removed a massive headache of mine, since Sonic CD famously tantalises you with rings all over the place and embedded in the foreground, only accessible in a certain time zone. So they're easy to miss sometimes, and I was not really that surprised to discover that not one of my own ring counts for any of the time zones in Palmtree Panic or Collision Chaos were bang on accurate, compared to the correct, mathematically-calculated totals. Not even the bosses, which should have been easy, so I don't quite know what happened there, and it makes me wonder how accurate my ring tallies for Sonic 1 and 2 have been. Rest assured though, ring tally corrections to Palmtree Panic have already been made.

I've got about 3 months or so off over the summer so I've been looking at how likely it will be for me to get Sonic CD, Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles all done and dusted by the time I return to Uni (and from then on will have little time for numerous updates.) Ha! Impossible, surely. It's taken me two years (It was Zone: 0's online-birthday last week, don'tcha know) to get from nothing to not even half way to that point, how on earth am I ever going to finish the other half in five months? Well, you're probably right yes, it is a bit of a stretch, but it is also still very possible. You forget, my doubting friend, that everything is already written, and has been since 2006. I have eighteen more levels sitting in plain text format just waiting to go up online. Now that the mapping process has been made extremely easy by comparison, I reckon I could get most S3&K levels done within the space of about three full days each. I'll try my best to get as much Sonic CD done before my break starts too, hopefully at least Tidal Tempest and Quartz Quadrant, and then even if I only do typically one level per week, plus a little extra here and there, I could just about do it! ..I'm telling you I can!.. Fine, don't believe me. Oh well, even if I just get Sonic CD and Sonic 3 finished by September that will at least be something very significant. I know many of you, as am I, are looking forward to S3&K a great deal.

it's time I was honest with you though, the future of Zone: 0, after those five games, is uncertain. The plan, at first, was to cover absolutely every Sonic game ever, which currently stands at forty nine games.. In the space of four and a half years, I've written five, and published two and a bit. Sure, there was lots of site construction and planning going on there too, but if I write alone, I will never reach that target. Then the plan was to go as far as I could while I still enjoyed it and still felt it was worthwhile. While the site's been online, my web development and programming skills have increased dramatically, and I had a great time re-building the site. Now that I'm back to adding content however, I guess it's starting to feel like a little bit more of a chore than it did before. I'm absolutely going to publish online all that I have already written, it would be foolish not to, but after that, it remains to be seen whether I will still want to continue with Sonic Adventure 1 and 2.

Perhaps it's just Sonic CD. As much as I admire the beauty and complexity of the game, to me it doesn't strike the same nostalgic chord as the others, purely because, unlike those, I never played it in its own time. For that reason I'm expecting S3&K to be quite a bit more enjoyable for me to assemble, so hopefully that will kickstart my enthusiasm again, but for the moment, Sonic CD desperately needs a guide to be written for it, and that must be done.

So don't think of this as me throwing in the towel after five rounds. Think of it as me considering throwing in the towel after five rounds. The idea of beginning my research on Sonic Adventure is still an exciting one, but when I get to that point, which will probably be in about a year or so from now, I'll have to decide whether it's actually worth my commitment, given how much of my free time this place eats up, and whether I should move on to other things. I've got ideas and dreams of things to build, not least of all, my very own ideas for Sonic levels that I've always wanted to construct, supplied by the knowledge and conventions that I've learnt from my writing. There will come a time when I will have to move on - but Zone: 0 need not die. Not if I can find someone, or a group of people, very very committed and passionate people, willing to carry on where I leave off, and take the site into their own vision.

...Anyway, for now, I have screenshots to take, maps to make and layouts to organise.
Comments   3 Comments have been posted.
#1. Comment posted by Meph on Tuesday, 14th April 2009, 3:56pm
It's not surprising that Sonic CD is pretty boring when adding it to the site. Because the game has a past, present and future, it's like doing 9 acts rather than 2 or 3, so your writing about the same thing for a longer amount of time.
#2. Comment posted by 1963886 on Wednesday, 15th April 2009, 10:48pm
I really hope you can continue your work when you get to the Adventure series. It's understandable that you have a lot to do in "real life" but I'm sure a lot of people, including me, are very impressed with what you've done in relation to Zone:0.

I wouldn't say Sonic CD isn't nostalgic, it just has a different kind of nostalgia. I like Sonic CD.
#3. Comment posted by pokemega32 on Thursday, 16th April 2009, 7:12am
Well, if you do feel overwhelmed by the task of continuing past the original set of games, I would suggest finding others to help you. Even if you would like to write all of it yourself, there's no harm in having someone else format it all for you. Sites are always easier to maintain with multiple people!
Featured Posts
Sonic's latest Wii U outing turns away from the popular and well established speed dashes of recent games, in favour of a more traditional platformer approach. But does it work? Get ready for one of the most different Sonic games in every respect!
We've finally done it! The Zone: 0 guides have reached their last big update. Owner LiQuidShade has new projects on the horizon, but this site will always remain in his heart.