Zone: 0

Scrap Brain Zone by Ricky Earl | Summer of Sonic 2010 | Carnie Folk

Scrap Brain Zone by Ricky Earl

Monday, 26th July 2010, 7:55am (BST), 8 Comments

One word.. whoa! My favourite so far I'd say, for that amazing Blade Runner-esque background.

Ricky

Comments 8 Comments have been posted.

#1. Comment posted by Meph on Monday, 26th July 2010, 10:50am

WOW! Yes, that's certainly the best one so far.

#2. Comment posted by SpeedingHedgehog on Monday, 26th July 2010, 2:31pm

"Woah" is right! Is it just me, or do I spy the egg-dome-thing from SatAM in the background?

#3. Comment posted by Tricky E on Monday, 26th July 2010, 3:10pm

might be ;)

#4. Comment posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, 27th July 2010, 11:49am

In a word, brilliant

#5. Comment posted by Indigo Rush on Thursday, 29th July 2010, 12:59pm

This is incredibly detailed! 5 stars!

#6. Comment posted by Sonicfan32 on Saturday, 7th August 2010, 6:44pm

Cool! i've never pictured scrap brain zone quite like this!

#7. Comment posted by Anonymous on Monday, 4th October 2010, 3:16am

I always love seeing artistic renderings of the zones. Its pretty cool to actually imagine some 3- dimension depth to areas which I've only experienced as 2d for so many years.

This one is fantastic.

#8. Comment posted by Andrew on Wednesday, 22nd December 2010, 2:27am

That is true, best one so far!!!
It is truly 100% eggman tech!
What is with the fire stacks? Where is the sun? Co2 is on the go!

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Summer of Sonic 2010

Wednesday, 21st July 2010, 11:18pm (BST), 5 Comments

Just in case you've been living in a cave during the summers of the last couple of years (in which it'd be rather hot, I'd imagine), Summer of Sonic is the Sonic mecca when it comes to the real world. You know, the bright place with high res graphics that you see whenever you have to leave the house to buy food. Yeah, that one. Scary, innit? No? Ok just me then.

Anyway, SoS is a now annual Sonic fan convention held in the city of London, here in the UK, on 7th August. This is the third year it's been going, and for the first time, I can finally confirm my attendance! I've never really met anyone in person that's quite as passionate and knowledgeable about Sonic as I am - well not since about 1996 anyway, when those that were rather lost interest in the subject - so the prospect of meeting more of "my own kind" is exciting enough. But not only that, this also happens to be one hell of a show this year, perhaps improved only by the presence of Sonic himself for a quick Q&A or maybe a "take home your own chao in a goody bag" scenario (I'd quite like to experiment with exactly how far away from their heads you can pull that little bouncing bobble before they just magnetically fly back into place). Lets face it though, neither of those things are all that likely, so we'll have to make do with a live performance by Crush 40, playable Sonic Colours and, for goodness sakes, playable Sonic 4!!

That's ridiculously exciting, and the chance to play two new upcoming titles months before release could not have come at a better time for those of us lucky enough to be in the UK, or willing and able to cross the seas to our tiny island of Sonic delights. When I'm not shamelessly hogging playtime on these games, by all means pull me aside for a chat, I'd love to meet you! Look out for me, I look a little something like this, and my real name's Ollie, if for whatever reason you're uncomfortable with going up to a stranger and asking "are you LiQuidShade?".

I will be posting up a full report of the day, including my impressions of both games, which I am incredibly excited about! I don't think I'm allowed to post videos of them, but I might be able to collect some anyway, if a friend of mine is able to come along.

I'm aware that although this is a British site through and through, it attracts a lot of visitors from America and many other countries, and that this post might be rubbing it in a bit. My apologies! Still, if you can make it, I'd highly recommend coming along. Granted I haven't been to the previous two, but what could possibly go wrong? If you're even remotely a member of the Sonic community, you're bound to get something out of this!

Let me know if you plan to attend by leaving a comment!

Comments 5 Comments have been posted.

#1. Comment posted by Tricky E on Wednesday, 21st July 2010, 11:35pm

I MIGHT go if i can afford a ticket! I'll be in London for that date anyway....

#2. Comment posted by LiQuidShade on Wednesday, 21st July 2010, 11:48pm

You're in luck, I THINK they're free! I've got mine anyway, and I'm yet to pay anything. If not, it won't be much more than a few quid, anyway.

#3. Comment posted by sonictails1189 on Thursday, 22nd July 2010, 6:57pm

This is a British site?! I had no idea. =)
Anyway, I won't be crossing the Atlantic to go to the convention, but I'm looking forward to your report. Have fun!

#4. Comment posted by SpeedingHedgehog on Thursday, 22nd July 2010, 8:25pm

I wish I could come, but I'm on the wrong side of the pond... :( O well... I've yet to meet anyone who likes Sonic as much as I do in person. I've found some who are very passionate, but none as knowledgeable. Maybe I'll get some tickets for entrance and a plane and come over one year... though I'm kinda afraid of what I'll find! Well, look forward to hearing your analysis of the two games! I've read your reviews in the past, and we have a very similar outlook. Have fun!

#5. Comment posted by Tricky E on Friday, 23rd July 2010, 1:37pm

Yeah, I'm going.

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Carnie Folk

Wednesday, 7th July 2010, 10:32pm (BST), 4 Comments

Update: Carnival Night Zone added to the Sonic 3 section

The eagerly anticipated (I'd hope) Carnival Night Zone is finally here! This guide will be essential for all of you who are STILL stuck sitting on that rotating barrel in the enclosed room in Act 2. As such, Point #8 may be the single most useful point in the whole site. If you're not familiar with it, the bobbing barrel is an infamous object in Sonic folklore, due to the difficulty involved in figuring out how it actually works, and of course you receive no words of advice in the game itself. As I mention in the guide somewhere, I personally never had a problem with it, I was lucky enough to have it explained to me from the get go, but I understand the pain of those who didn't have such a luxury.

I'm sorry Sonic 3 has been taking me so long to get through, but now that I've finished Uni and settled into a full time job, although my schedule is still busy, it is at least much more compartmentalised. The thing about juggling personal hobbies when you're a student is that your coursework and your free time gel as one, but now my weekends and evenings are completely free, for the most part. This kind of schedule has worked much better for Zone: 0 in the past, so I'm hoping to make Icecap available to you much sooner. It helps that it's probably one of my favourite levels too.

Alongside the completion of Sonic 3, I'll also be beginning preparation for the next big Zone: 0 update soon, penciled for launch late this year. I'm thinking about a new banner, as popular as the current one is. However, it'll be very similar in concept - same colour scheme and idea of level art silhouettes, but better. Other than that, most of the changes won't relate to the visual design, but there'll be a number of improvements to make the site easier to use, plus new features, and I want to explore JQuery to see what kind of fancy transitions and effects I can work out. I've never been that competent in Javascript, but I want to change all that. There will also be a games homepage that lists every game in the series, whether it has a guide or not, and it'll be integrated with the writers wanted mission, as I've stated previously. A search function might be nice, and as a last appetite wetter I've got some really good ideas to enhance the viewing and browsing of level maps - it's going to be awesome!

I'll be back soon with another blog post about next month's Summer of Sonic event in London, which, at last, I plan to attend! Can't wait to finally meet fellow Sonic fans. But for now, a final treat. Ricky Earl's latest, mood-capturing Zone: 0 art, Star Light Zone:

Comments 4 Comments have been posted.

#1. Comment posted by Enedin on Thursday, 8th July 2010, 12:28am

In the Carnival Night section, in the 'Top Tips' section, the 2nd paragraph and the 3rd one are identical. Other than that, great stuff, as usual :D

#2. Comment posted by Mercury on Thursday, 8th July 2010, 6:45am

Oh, that art is nice! I think it's my favourite one yet. :) I've always loved Starlight Zone.

And consider my appetite whetted for those updates!

#3. Comment posted by MoDaD on Wednesday, 14th July 2010, 3:22pm

Another awesome update. I hate to admit it, but that stupid barrel stopped me at one point until I found out from someone what to do. Seeing as you're going to be playing around with some jquery, have you considered adding smooth scrolling, as you make use of a lot of anchors? I've found it helps out with usability, especially when there's large jumps across a long page. Here's an example in case you're interested:

http://css-tricks.com/examples/SmoothPageScroll/

Can't wait to see Ice Cap Zone :)

#4. Comment posted by LiQuidShade on Thursday, 15th July 2010, 7:23pm

Funnily enough I had the exact same thought about scroll-to anchors, and as pages seem to be getting longer and longer around here, they'll definitely be added to a new page scrolling system I'm working on that will hopefully make the site easier to browse than ever before.

And wyldcat, if you're wondering where your comment about Carnival Night in STC went, I've moved it to the Misc notes section of the Carnival Night page, where I thought it'd be more appropriate. Ta :)

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