Going by the regular structure of the level alone, time travel appears to be almost impossible because there are few open stretches of ground where you can barely get a decent start of a time warp, let alone complete one. Fortunately though there is one place (two in the Futures) where you can zip back and forth between two horizontal springs, available in all timezones, providing you take the correct route. If you wind up on the lower routes, you'll have to proceed across most of the zone before you're able to backtrack, which is a pain.

In any timezone, from the start, leap on past the first gap and hit a red spring to ascend up the high wall with a shield item at the top. Do NOT fall down past this high ledge to the area on the lower right of it because this leads directly to the lowest route, and getting back out is impossible at that time. Plenty of Future posts down there in the Present, but completely useless for warping anywhere. What you want to do is leap straight over the gap to the other side, which is just visible when you stand at the right edge, and this will take you to the higher routes. Here, carefully avoid a series of red diagonal springs up a slope, which will send you sailing back towards the start if you touch them, and you'll find a Past post immediately after them, when in the Present. In the Futures, there's an additional pair of horizontal springs here that you can use for time warping, but not in the Present or Past, where you should instead continue until you find the red vertical spring on a wheel, shortly afterwards. This spring allows access to the very top route and also the upper middle route, just below it. The time warping location that you seek is on the upper middle route, but you can get to it from the top route too, which might be the easier option. Just use the vertical spring to go straight up when it's on the left side of its path. Carry on along this top way until you find an open gap containing two of those odd see-saw/catapult objects. Rather than using them, drop directly below them to land in the time travelling area, which consists of a pair of horizontal springs that are available in all timezones, although a grabbing badnik will need to be disposed of first. To get to this area coming along the upper middle route, which contains an additional Past post, you need to use the moving spring to just pass carefully underneath a set of hanging spikes on the ceiling. Try walking towards the spring by coming from the left, when it's on the right side. In the Past, there's a Future post right at the start of the highest route.

In order to get to the machine in the Past, you'll need to follow the bottom route, and head to the end of it. Below the area where a chain of spinning blue platforms leads you upwards, there is an entrance into an exclusive area that no other timezone can access. In the Present, the room that contains the machine is visible to the right of the chain, but completely blocked off. The route to this room in the Past begins at a small, internal area where two springs move back and forth on wheels, on two separate bits of path. Proceed past this and follow the heavily spiked route below, and quickly climb a vertical arrangement of disappearing/reappearing blocks. The machine is just a vertical spring away, but this route is a dead end, so you'll have to go all the way back through it afterwards.

This entire situation is very complicated to sort out (hence this excessively long section), but I will do my best in explaining it. Time travelling back and forth between the Past, Present and Futures whenever you want, using relatively easy to access time travel points, is usually not beyond achievement in other levels, and I have based my previous explanations on the ability to do this, so you can choose where you want to go at any particular point. This zone, however, is designed in a very complicated manner, with lots of routes that are closed off from each other, and there are worlds of differences between their exact structures across the timezones. Furthermore, it all takes place entirely within the first half of the zone, as the moment you begin to explore the long, winding route of the second half, you've gone too far and will find that backtracking is difficult. In fact, it's only possible at the very end of the zone, as explained in Point #4. Essentially, if you want to go into the Past, find the machine, then travel to the lovely Good Future successfully, you'll need to pretty much follow step-by-step instructions, as they're very hard to figure out by yourself because of many areas that deny backtracking at certain points, and limited time travel opportunities. My research also suggests that Mega CD users are at a slight disadvantage compared to Sonic Gems Collection and PC users of the game. In the MCD version (though possibly just the emulated version of it, I cannot yet confirm), it doesn't even seem to be possible to get all the way through the zone in the Past without having to return to the Present (see Point #1). Let me say that without assistance, this will probably be your toughest time travelling challenge, but luckily, you have me and my wonderful guide to help you..

Firstly, in terms of time travel opportunities, things are very similar to the situation in Zone 1, in that there are only a couple of fool-proof places to time travel using two opposing horizontal springs, but this time you can also use a zone-exclusive object to your advantage. These are the rotating wheels suspended in the air, mostly found in a tall open room right at the start. If you land on the top half of one of these wheels, Sonic will start to run around its circumference, preferably if you leave the left or right buttons alone, otherwise he tends to fall off. Instead, press down once and Sonic will spin in a ball with increasing speed as he goes round and round, and this is perfect for when you've got a warp activated. Otherwise, if you jump off with your speed increased at the right time, you should be able to gain more height upwards. Using these for time travel is not necessary, but it is an option open to you.

Now, the step-by-step guide to time travelling and Good Future-earning in Zone 2.. Starting from the beginning in the Present, you'll proceed upwards into the tall room filled with rotating wheels and various platforms etc. This room continues off to the right at a couple of exits on the way up, but what you want to do is use the techniques described above to ascend to the very top route, using the spinning wheels to propel you. A short way along this top route as it begins to the right, you'll find a pair of horizontal springs and a Past post to go with them, so you should have no trouble there. There is a Future post on the way up through this initial room, and I suppose you could accidentally activate it using the wheels, but in the Futures, you can easily use the same mechanisms to return to the Present, at this point. All being well though, you'll arrive in the Past, and you'll find there are no horizontal springs at the same point, and you cannot return to the tall room because a high ledge on the left prevents it. Go to the right and press the button to open up the hatch into the transportation tubing network. When you arrive at the four-way junction, press left to be taken to the bottom route. When you reach the exit hatch, you need to drop down to the area below on the right but be careful, as there's a small gap in the floor that you're going to land on, and if you fall through it, you'll miss your opportunity at the machine. Try and drop close to the wall, so that you land by a Future post. Leap over the gap and go to the right to find a slow moving crushing block, and the machine is in a room just above this.

Ok, so the machine is destroyed, but this is where things get really complicated. For me anyway, as I've got to explain it all to you. If you're playing the Sonic Gems Collection or PC version of Sonic CD, you can either continue to frolic in the Past for the remainder of the zone, or you can return to the Present, and there's a slightly less than fool-proof opportunity to do this very soon after the machine. If, however, you are playing the original, Mega CD version of the game, it seems you will be unable to complete the zone in the Past (see Point #1 to find out why), and will have to return to the Present, but only via a time travelling opportunity that appears later in the zone. It's also worth noting that a much easier alternative option exists if you've got plenty of lives to throw around and won't mind sacrificing one by topping yourself. This will allow you to go straight to the start of Zone 2 Past where you can use the spinning wheels to time warp into the Present, and then from the Present, you can use the options available in that area to head on into the Good Future, as the destruction of the machine is saved, even though you lost a life. Bear in mind of course that Zone 3 is hard as nails, so you might need all the lives you can get for it! If you'd rather play it safe and honest, continue reading, as there are long ways around the problem.

For Gems and PC users only, ensure that you've touched that Future post on the left side of the gap I told you not to drop down to, near the machine, and then.. drop down it. Down a short slope, you'll find a long stretch of open floor. There's a spring on a wheel at the very end of it, but it's just long enough for you to run right across it, obtaining your required three seconds for time warping, if you start from the slope and you DON'T use a peel-out or spin dash this time, as these are too quick for this amount of space. Just pick up speed as quickly as you can while running normally and you'll probably need to jump over the spring at the end - should be just enough room. If you're on the Mega CD, or if you tried that time warp and failed, you can continue on to the next, slightly hidden opportunity that is pretty much a guaranteed success. To get there, head onwards, into a straight section of shutters. Use the revolving device to go behind the shutters and run to the far right end. You'll fall through an invisible collapsing floor to another shutter area below, and you can continue the zone from here. Eventually, you'll reach the area explained in Point #1, with the diagonal spring that lacks enough power in the Mega CD version. Use it, or the moving spring below it, to enter the in-built ledge on the left-hand wall, below the highest ledge, and this consists of a transport tubing entrance that takes you to the second four-way junction in the zone. You'll come in from the right side, and should choose to go down at the junction, which delivers you to a large, but ultimately dead-end area further back. Use the first long moving spring/crusher thing you come across to ascend to the ledge on the upper left. Carry on left, then drop down below and just to the right, you'll find a sight for sore eyes; a lovely pair of horizontal springs and a Future post between them. Get your ass to the Present, pronto.

Right, so now you've destroyed the machine, and returned to the Present. You can now complete the zone as normal, but you don't want to do that, do you? You want to take a gander at the Good Future, don't you? That's the spirit, and it's still possible, regardless of which of the two time travelling methods you took, described in the previous paragraph. The area with two opposing springs is actually still there in the Present (and Futures for that matter), but you can't really use it, and here's why: it's got both a Future post AND a Past post in between the springs. Obviously, you have to touch them both and you'll come in running into them, so whichever one you touch second is the one you're stuck with. In my tests, the second one you touch as you appear into the Present often seems to be the Past, unfortunately - the one time we DON'T need it! If it happens to be the Future for you though, then you've struck very lucky indeed, and can safely time travel away between the two springs, and there's also a ten ring box there too, so you could get caught in front of that, then have your choice of posts (remember to get the one you don't want first, then the one you do). Otherwise though, you'll need to get out of the area and continue your quest, as there are no other posts in the vicinity that will allow you to return to these springs. Unfortunately, if you took the alternative time travel method listed above by running across the straight ground just after the machine, these springs are also useless to you because you've appeared on the lowest route. Right above you, the route splits into a higher one that allows access to the area with the springs, but unfortunately, it's too high to reach from where you are now.

I mentioned it in the Time Travelling Tips section, but here it is again for easy reference. The machine in the Past is located at the start of the bottom route, accessible by going left at the first four-way junction in the first set of transport tubing, early on in the zone. When you arrive out at the other end, you'll have to drop down into a lower section, but be careful, as there's a hole in the floor below, and if you fall down it, it'll make life harder for you. Either perform a Peel-Out off the top ledge to land on the right side of the hole, or stay close to the wall as you drop down it, to land on the left of it by a Future post. Having successfully avoided the gap, go to the right, toward a crusher and three sets of 10-ring boxes, and the machine is located in a room above the crusher, accessible by a diagonal spring. If you do fall down that hole before destroying the machine, it may be possible to leap back up as it drops down to a small slope and long, straight area to the right. Dash quickly across the straight area, toward the slope, and leap up as you hit the slope and you might be able to jump high enough. Failing that, you'll have to go all the way back around the first half of the zone by making your way to the second set of transport tubes, and backtracking across the very top route.

In the Past, whether you initially take the top or bottom route, you'll wind up in this tall, open space, which leads up into the beginning of the second half of the zone. At the bottom of the room, there is a tall moving block in the floor that can be used to spring yourself up onto one of several ledges on the right, the bottom of which contains a moving spring on a wheel, and there's a large bomb robot looming on the next ledge up. The idea is that you use the moving block to spring up to these ledges, hit the moving spring and then move right while in the air, to find a diagonal red spring on the wall that is supposed to catapult you up to the high left ledge, where you can resume the zone. This works fine in the Sonic Gems Collection and PC versions of the game, but for some bizarre reason, it doesn't seem to work in the original, Mega CD game, perhaps due to slightly different physics. Bear in mind though, I have only been able to test it on the PC emulated version of the Mega CD game, and cannot yet confirm whether or not it works on the console original. Either way, hit the diagonal spring, don't touch any directional buttons, and see if you make it to the top ledge or not. If not, you will have to return to the Present, in order to complete the zone. Do this by entering the room below the top ledge of the left wall (might be easier if you use the moving vertical spring rather than the diagonal one), which takes you into the tubing network, and choose to go down at the four-way junction. In the area you come out to, use another long moving block to spring upwards and left, then find a pair of opposing horizontal springs and a Future post nearby.

Immediately after Point #2, in any timezone, you'll soon arrive at the infamous shrink ray, a red beam of light being emitted from the ceiling and making a lot of noise. Jump into it and Sonic will fall backwards and shrink down to something that roughly resembles his "Continue" sprite, which appears as an icon in other games where you earn a Continue. He's much shorter, and can squeeze through tight gaps in corridors that regular sized Sonic cannot, yet he retains all of the physics and abilities that he had before, and look at him! He's so much cuter too!.. He can jump just as high, move just as quickly, and still perform the patented spin dash and peel-out moves, so there aren't really any disadvantages to this form, but it will only last across the following corridor area. Read the following paragraph carefully, as the route through the corridors contains many sneaky trap doorways or tunnels that simply return you to an earlier point, and you'll be unable to go back through them.

Follow the path along into a tall, thin room with various ledges, springs, small platforms and in the Past, conveyor belts, which you can use to ascend. Might get a bit fiddly in some places, particularly where a downward-facing diagonal spring sets you back a bit, but solutions are usually just to alter the direction you travel in off of vertical springs. At the top, follow the winding route to the left and then right, past a crusher and then a vertical series of conveyor belts with another crusher amongst them. Get on the crusher as it's moving down to get off at the conveyor belt below. As you drop to the area below this, you will have the option of taking an opening doorway to the right, if in the Present or Futures. Do NOT go through this door, as it's nothing but a trap that will simply take you back to the first tall room and you'll be forced to re-trace your steps, as you will not be able to go back through the door. Instead, keep going left until you arrive at another shrink ray which will return Sonic to his regular size. In the Past, do not get distracted in the area just before the shrink ray, as at the bottom right of this room, there is a separate curving tunnel you can drop down that will also return you to an earlier point, and you cannot go back up through it. After returning to normal size, simply hop into a transportation tube entrance. At the other end of the tube in the Past only, you'll immediately be enticed again by an opening doorway on the left. Unless you really need to time travel, and have a Future post already, or maybe need some rings for the Special Stage, you definitely do not want to take this, as it leads you all the way back to the area just before Point #2! If you do go through, jump straight across the gap for a time travel opportunity. Otherwise, go to the right instead, and when you take the following spring, beware of the ceiling spikes it can easily force you into above.

Before taking on Eggman for the final time in the game, you'll first have to make your way through a couple more trials of your abilities, the first one being about as tough a challenge as any. It's the only appearance in the whole entire game (hope you're reading this, modern Sonic level designers) of a death drop, whereby Sonic will fall to the bottom of the screen and die on impact if you're not careful. A common tool that's otherwise completely absent in Sonic CD, but it makes up for it quite well here by spreading itself widely at the bottom of a huge open gap in the level, with a variety of precarious objects held above it, and it'll more than likely take you a few tries to complete.

Firstly, you're given two options for where you want to enter this large room of death, a higher and a lower route. For the lower route, you simply proceed on from the start and drop down the gap, and you'll then be trapped inside another room featuring long, descending spiked platforms for which you'll have to jump through the dull gaps each time, as you did at the end of Zone 2 (don't forget there are always FIVE of them). For the following crushing block in the corridor, jump over it as it's moving down. The upper route skips out all this crushing business and allows you access to an extra life that you can keep getting each time you return to the start of Zone 3 after dying, so providing you can always get to it, you'll essentially be able to take on this fiendish zone with infinite lives. To take the upper route, hit the moving red vertical spring you see shortly after the start, roughly when it's in the middle of its platform, in order to be sent up through a narrow shaft in the ground. Be careful though, because there are ceiling spikes on the far outer sides, and just next to the gap that you're aiming for, there are downward-diagonal springs that will force you back down, and could send you into floor spikes or down the drop towards the lower route, from which you cannot get back out. If you hit the moving spring when it's in the middle though, you should be sent sailing through the narrow shaft above. At the top and to the left, past more spikes, you will find the handy extra life that's definitely worth picking up every time you restart the zone. When you head to the right, some collapsing floor will drop you below, but as you drop, you should stay as close to the left wall as possible, in order to avoid dropping straight down to the low route again. From the left ledge you land on, leap the gap, pass the circular saws and you'll enter the large bottomless room at a higher point on the left side. Though the upper route is good for avoiding the crushing hazards of the lower one, it does add confusion to the following large room, as it's not obvious to see where you should go when you enter it...

You'll need quite a bit of luck on your side here, as this bit is flat out mean, but with a bit of practice and fearlessness, you can do it, and don't forget that you can always reclaim a lost life, as described above. It's a wide, bottomless room, and there are strings of small, rotating blue platforms stemming from the exit of the lower route, some in lines of three or four, all rotating in unison within the line, others on their own and rotating separately from those nearby. If you come in from the upper route, it's actually harder to tell where you should be going, so it seems the best thing to do is simply to drop down onto these platforms and hope that they're not spinning. They tend to remain sturdy for about 3 seconds, allowing you to stand on them, and then they rotate for a second or so, at which point you'll drop through so I suppose the odds are technically in your favour, especially as some of them are stacked vertically. Without enough time to wait around and study them though, you just sort of have to leap from one to the other and hope for the best, considering that they don't all rotate at the same time. If you stay on your toes, you should be better off. At the far end, you need to leap to a right hand ledge, but there's a large crusher moving up and down on the very edge of it, which makes matters far more difficult than they need to be. Don't be afraid to jump over to the ledge anyway if the crusher is already down, because Sonic will just about be able to stand precariously on the very tip of the edge, until the crusher finally lifts and you can pass through. Just be careful not to squeeze in under it as it's coming down. In the large room, there are also several other objects dotted around, some more helpful than others. Should you fall off the rotating platforms, there are steps of collapsing ledges leading downwards in the bottom right corner, with a vertical spring at the bottom and a diagonal one at the top, and these are usually quite successful at saving you, but of course the collapsing ledges can only be landed on once. The diagonal spring will send you up to another higher one on the left side of the room, which subsequently bounces you towards moving bumpers above. The very same bumpers from Collision Chaos, but not seen anywhere else in this level. There are some at the top and bottom of the room, either moving left to right or up and down, or completely stationary, but they tend to be more of an obstacle than they are helpful.

Enter into a dark room that closes off behind you, but you might want to leave the single ring hanging in the air, just in case. In here, three small badniks that look exactly like the flying light bulb bots from Stardust Speedway will emerge, but with completely different attack patterns from those in the previous level. One will appear in the room first, and when you've destroyed it, two more will pop in together, and only after destroying those will you be allowed to continue to the boss. They appear in the form of a yellow circular light that you cannot touch, and will dart from one random location to another, within the room. Between each movement, they will appear in their regular, destructible form for just a couple of seconds and fire a yellow laser beam down to the floor, before darting off somewhere else. Hit them in this vulnerable form, but you can only reach them if they're low enough, which they frequently aren't. Can be a little hard to nail them down, but nothing particularly life-threatening.

This is it, the final battle of the game, and fortunately it's not too hard, providing you maintain rings throughout, as getting hit is almost inevitable, early on. As you exit the room described in Point #7, there are a couple of rings above that you'll want to get hold of, so even if you've lost your shield and all your rings, you'll still be given a chance. Remember that should you die while fighting this boss, you can always head up to the top route described in Point #5 and essentially refund your lost life with an extra one. Proceed forward, past some closed shutters to reach a column in the middle of the screen. The two sides of the column will draw backwards, pulling away the shutters to reveal Eggman sitting in a large spherical machine as the rather smashing opera style final boss music hits (if you're on the JP soundtrack that is).

The spherical machine features four large square blades protruding from all sides, and Eggman uses them in a variety of ways to attack you, as they are always dangerous to touch. When you hit the main machine, one of the blades will detach from it, and he'll then use a slightly altered set of attacks, depending on how many are left. He is defeated when he loses all four blades, so although a measly four hits doesn't sound too difficult, this is still quite tough and enduring.

Firstly, he'll move back and forth along the top of the screen, spinning the blades as he goes. In the middle, blades still, he'll then slowly lower, and use the blades to roll towards you on the ground. This occupies a lot of on-screen space, and the only way to avoid him completely is by staying on the very far corner of the side he's moving towards. You can try and hit him at this point to skip right to the second phase of attacks (next paragraph), but you will take damage, as it's seemingly impossible to hit an exposed edge of the machine, without touching the blades. If you get hit anyway, make sure you use your temporary invincibility to hit him back, as well as ensuring you've picked up at least one fallen ring, as you'll need as many as you can get. If you'd rather play it safe, remain in that corner and allow him to roll back away from you, and then he returns to the space above. There, he will eventually remain in the middle, at which point the four blades will flip to their thin sides (don't stand in the middle, as the bottom one will get you) and disappear above him. They then fall down to the floor, one by one, either vaguely following your position, or falling in a variety of set places. These are fairly easy to avoid, and they'll disappear shortly afterwards, but the machine stays too high for you to reach during this attack. His next is slightly more ominous, as the four blades will return in their broader forms and Eggman will move towards you, the four blades stretching out to try and reach you. This can be a tough one to dodge, but it does leave the machine vulnerable to your attack, if you can manage to side step the blade closest to you, and leap up past it. The best method seems to be to stand in the middle as he's coming towards you, then move to the side before he gets too close. He'll remain in the middle, and the blades will stretch out to the top, bottom, left and right, allowing you to make your attack from either of the lower diagonal sides. The blades can also do the reverse and go in all the diagonal directions if you get trapped in the corners of the arena, and if you don't hit him first time, he'll give you another chance by repeating this attack, and then he'll repeat the whole phase.

When hit for the first time, one of the blades will fly off and he'll retreat back up to the top to plot his second phase of attacks, which funnily enough is almost the same as the first, only he now has three blades remaining, so his initial, rolling attack is going to be a bit different. He'll lower himself down onto either the right or left side of the floor (whichever one you aren't on), with the blades on all but one side, and positioned so that he can use them to roll across to the middle of the screen, then roll back. His top side is therefore exposed when he's in the middle of the floor, so if you want to go for a hit here, you'll have to leap nice and high and get him right on the noggin, but it's still very easy to lose rings (perhaps even unavoidable), as the blades on either side remain harmful to touch as he rises up after being hit, while the bottom one falls off. While it's a tempting hit, if you'd rather not lose your rings, you'll have to endure the following two attacks, which are exactly the same as those for the first phase. He'll fling the blades at you like missiles from above, then move towards you with the blades outstretched, which is the safer time to attack and make him lose that second blade.

Two down, two to go. After moving around a bit above you, he'll stop in the middle and perform the missile maneuver with the blades, whereby they fall from the ceiling, but this time they're on their broad sides as opposed to their thin sides, so to make up for the fact that there's only two of them, each is harder to avoid than before. They'll disappear and reappear, and he will then once again repeat the next attack, where he moves towards you and stretches out the two blades, which remain close to each other, rather than on opposite sides of the machine. Use the same strategy of remaining in the middle as he's coming towards you, then side step away and leap over the blades to relieve him of one more of them. The blades appear to only come down in diagonal directions this time.

With only one left, it's spinning all the more quickly, but this time Eggman's going to trying something a bit different, as I'm sure this is now becoming a bit of a nuisance for him. He'll stop in the middle one more time, but with no warning, the remaining blade will shortly emerge from either the left or right side of the screen, in a diagonal direction, heading right towards you. The side it comes in from is the one that you're furthest away from, so in order to best counter this attack, pick a side and stand over there so you have plenty of time to jump over it. And now for something completely different. Eggman will make his way over to the side furthest away from you and actually use the blade as a kind of pogo stick, as the huge machine bounces up and down, moving across to your side, then back the other way. The phase will repeat if you fail to hit him here, and it can be quite difficult to time, but you just need to jump at him as he's bouncing down on the ground. That'll see off the machine for good as the arena is overcome by the usual necessary explosions, and Eggman manages to hover away, now fully defeated. You no longer have control of Sonic as a short scene plays, while Amy Rose reappears from the left, jumping around happily and making her way towards you, just as the screen goes white. Congratulations! You've earned a good rest and a cup of tea with optional hobnob, while the superb anime ending plays, featuring a brief bit of story about Sonic and Amy escaping the Little Planet as it breaks its shackles and returns to the peaceful way it was, as well as a compilation of moments from the game's levels, in animation form!