Mental Metal
Saturday, 8th August 2009, 1:22pm (UTC), 6 Comments
Update: Sonic CD guide now fully complete! Metallic Madness page added.
Huzzah! Metallic Madness is finally here, thus drawing a close to the Zone: 0 guide to one of Sonic's most beautiful and complex adventures, Sonic CD.

Word of warning, this one's a real juggernaut, probably the biggest level guide that I've written. So much so that I feel that it earns the privilege of having some stats listed for it, despite the fact that I've already mentioned these previously. It weighs in at approximately 12,000 words (in context, Scrap Brain Zone is around 4000 and Wacky Workbench, 7000), 652 screenshots were taken (normally I only need about 200-300) and 128 of which are used on the page. Surprisingly the map making process was quite quick here - the page building one was not. Time Travelling Tips for Zone 2 is perhaps a bit on the lengthy side but I felt it was important to consider more than just how to get to the Past. Hopefully it's not too confusing. Point #1 still puzzles me though. Maybe, somehow, it's just me but I just can't figure out why I can't get to that ledge on the Mega CD emulated version, yet it's perfectly fine on PC/Gems. If anyone can at least confirm whether or not they also experience this problem, either on emulation or an original Mega CD, that would be very helpful. Just leave a note for me on Point #1.

So, all done now, at last! Despite its size compared to Sonic 1 and 2 pages, it's only taken about 6 months to publish, whereas those two ended up taking literally about a year each. But then I did have to make all their maps from scratch. Sadly, due to other things getting in the way, I haven't managed to do nearly as much Zone: 0 work over this summer as I had planned, as I think back to the slightly ludicrous prediction that I would have Sonic CD, Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles all published by next month. I at least thought Sonic 3 would be in the bag but it was only ever going to be possible if I did pretty much nothing else all Summer, and it didn't exactly pan out like that. Still, never mind, we're getting there, slowly but surely and hopefully with all the new writers throwing their names into the hat, who knows where we'll be in a year's time!.. Possibly not much further really, as I have my final year at Uni to spend my time on, but we'll see! I think I'm done trying to make accurate predictions in terms of months, of when things will be ready by though. They're done when they're done.

On that note, I had hoped to kickstart Sonic 3, with Angel Island Zone, on the 30th August, in celebration of the fifth anniversary of the birth of the whole Zone: 0 project. It might still happen, but I've probably got some other freelance work coming through between now and then, so we'll have to see. Keep an eye on my Twitter feed for the latest.

Hope you've enjoyed Sonic CD with me! It's been bumpy and fiddly at times but overall I'm proud of what I've done. The game needed a good clear solid guide for it, not to mention detailed maps, and I hope I've fulfilled that requirement.
Comments   6 Comments have been posted.
#1. Comment posted by Meph on Saturday, 8th August 2009, 2:27pm
Congrats! I can't wait to see Sonic 3 & Knuckles.
#2. Comment posted by sonictails1189 on Sunday, 9th August 2009, 11:57pm
Don't take this the wrong way. I love the guide and I know you put a lot of work into it. Are you, however, going to add a "Music" category to the Sonic CD "Downloads" section with the tracks from the game? You did for the other two games so I assumed you would with this one as well, unless, of course, there's some reason you're unable to.
#3. Comment posted by LiQuidShade on Monday, 10th August 2009, 10:16am
It's mainly a bandwidth and webspace concern at the moment really in that I don't think I have enough of it to offer all the Sonic CD tracks, since I'll need to cover both soundtracks. I may add them eventually though if I have to upgrade my server package, and there will probably be room for Sonic 3/S&K ones anyway. There's just not enough space right now for all of them, given that I also use my server for other things.

Thanks :)
#4. Comment posted by mercury on Monday, 10th August 2009, 7:51pm
Re the underpowered spring in the Past of Act 2, I confirmed that it's also the case on the real Mega CD. I dropped a more detailed explanation under the Point #1 notes on the MM page.
#5. Comment posted by healthyfood on Tuesday, 18th August 2009, 10:38am
Hey GREAT work here!!! I've just started to re-play sonic 1 and 2 and your site is the best one hands down! gonna play sonic 3 again soon so looking forward to your section!!
#6. Comment posted by supersonicsmash on Friday, 19th February 2010, 11:24pm
IT'S OVER NINETHOOOOOOUUUUSANND!!!
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