Welcome to the Archive site of The Sonic Stadium (2008-2023)
Please note that this site is no longer being updated or maintained; as a result, there may be design issues, and links to images and other media may be broken. Links to posts may redirect you to the same article on the current Sonic Stadium website.
Founder of The Sonic Stadium and creator/co-organiser of the Summer of Sonic convention. Loves talking about Sonic the Hedgehog in his spare time. Likes Sonic Colours a little too much for his own good, apparently.
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It’s hard not to pay attention to SEGA’s official Sonic the Hedgehog social media channels when it looks like the poor bloke running it is having a meltdown every day. In today’s episode of Meme Watch, we see the Sonic Tumblr account drop some crazy clues regarding a game that SEGA may (or may not) be making. Continue reading Meme Watch: Sega is Making a Game, Probably About Sonic
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If you’ve been enjoying Phantasy Star Online 2 despite the lack of a formal Western release, then you’re going to be in for a treat this June as SEGA has announced that there will be a special Sonic-themed celebration ready for you. Continue reading Sonic Invades Phantasy Star Online 2 in June
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Why hello there! The site’s looking a bit different today, isn’t it? Allow me to welcome you to this new version of The Sonic Stadium, modernised for today’s discerning blur blur fan! Incidentally, it’s the first design change for this website since 2013, making this the longest time time it’s taken for a layout refresh. I think you’ll agree that it was totally needed though. Continue reading TSS UPDATE: Welcome to the New Look 2016 Sonic Stadium!
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Did you know that The Sonic Stadium houses its very own collaborative music remix project? Well, now you do! Starting life on the SSMB Forums as The Sonic Stadium Music Adventure and evolving (thanks to the co-ordination of DJ EAR) into a sub-brand called Sound of The Sonic Stadium, ‘SoTSS’ is a twice-yearly album series of Sonic (and SEGA) remixes, all crafted by our enthusiastic community. Continue reading #BLACKOUT is the Name of the New Sound of TSS Album
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A new interview with credited musicians of Sonic 3 have added more weight to the age-old theory that the late pop star, Michael Jackson, was deeply involved with the Mega Drive classic’s soundtrack – and that his work was in fact left on the cartridge, not removed. Continue reading Sonic 3 Composers: Michael Jackson’s Music is in the Game
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If you live in the UK’s capital city of London and fancy drinking to the surprise PC release of Sonic Lost World, then make sure you clear your schedule this Hallowe’en Saturday. SEGA Europe is hosting a community party in the city’s prominent gaming-themed pub, Loading Bar from 2pm.
The event will give the community a chance to see and play the game running on non-Wii U hardware for the first time before it hits Steam on November 2nd. You’ll be able to play for prizes, win goodie bags on the door (if you’re one of the first to turn up) and meet SEGA Europe’s new community manager, Dan Sheridan.
Tickets are free, but are most likely limited in number, so make sure you grab yourself one at the Eventbrite page. You’ll need to be able to get to Loading Bar (97 Stoke Newington Rd London, London N16 8BX, United Kingdom) on Saturday 31st October 2015 and be 18 years old and over (they serve alcohol there). The party starts at 14:00 and ends at 20:00.
We’re planning to make an appearance there too, so be sure to say hello to Dreadknux & Hogfather on the day too!
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This is part of an ongoing series of features that looks back on the history of The Sonic Stadium, written by Dreadknux. You can find out more about how this website changed the Sonic community, what it looked like back in the day, and even special images and update notes from the archive.
Sonic Stadium News Group
TSS’ 2002 can largely be summed up by the launch (and subsequent un-launch) of the Sonic Stadium News Group. SSNG was a merger of the Sonic Stadium and another fansite, Sonic News. The idea was, that I would provide the information pages and web design and Sonic_Hedgehogs (Sonic News’ owner) would provide the rolling daily updates and news.
We went through a number of designs before we landed on the right one – the home page in particular would undergo a couple of format alterations, as you can see below. For SSNG, we wanted to give our merged site its own colourful-yet-atmospheric feel. The Sonic Stadium would end up hosting the project, with a lot of content from Sonic News moved across. The SSMB Forums also got design and name changes, which were not well received from long-time users.
The site was launched close to Sonic the Hedgehog’s 11th Anniversary, in June – and lasted approximately two weeks before the entire thing was shut down and thrown in the proverbial bin. One of the major reasons for this involved allegations of plagiarism from users of another Sonic fansite, Sonic HQ. It turned out that the source of some of the Sonic News material had been called into question. It didn’t help that many of the pages on SSNG used backgrounds that were already being used by, or were created by, Sonic HQ as well – a design snafu on my part.
On top of this, Sonic_Hedgehogs had been absent throughout the ordeal, and updates were not as frequent as originally planned. Having dealt with the fallout almost on my own, there was little that I could do to salvage the project other than kill it entirely. I took a short break due to the exhaustion, and later decided to revive The Sonic Stadium instead of letting the story end on such a low note. I changed the SSNG design slightly, making sure to remove all the offending content, before starting work on a proper reboot of the site.
Jan 2002
Jul 2002
The Sonic Stadium Reboot
Before the launch of SSNG, The Sonic Stadium saw another design change, with a rounded content area and navy-blue corners and a three-column design on the homepage. The second image above is what TSS looked like during the aftermath of SSNG, with various hijacked elements of the merged site design and a removal of various other things.
But, things started picking up after SSNG’s demise which led to a reboot and complete design refresh in October. Zifei, the founder of Sonic HQ, offered to host the reborn TSS on his personal server, telling me that he believed in my vision for this site to become the best resource for Sonic the Hedgehog online. That’s some high praise indeed. After officially quitting and retiring Sonic News, Sonic_Hedgehogs came back and offered to write for the new Sonic Stadium, and I found a renewed focus to make the best site I possibly could.
Below was the result.
This was the point where I started to build a team to work on the site, to assist me in creating content – although I would still end up doing the editorial content, the Sonic Fan Club segment got some assistance in the form of Fastfeet (Fan Games reporter) and Biafra Republic (Fan Art maintainer). With Sonic_Hedgehogs on news, the presence of the team allowed me to broaden the site and cover other high profile Sonic Team games, as well as go full pelt on Sonic Advance 2 and Sonic Mega Collection coverage.
Ultimately, the redesign did the trick – TSS’ reputation went up massively upon the relaunch and with a steady stream of content, there was a huge surge in visits and popularity from November onwards.
Unofficial SEGA Magazine
This year saw the introduction of the Unofficial SEGA Magazine, which was a digital fanzine created by SonicVerse Team. It was originally exclusive to the fansite Sonic News, but since the launch of SSNG became a part of The Sonic Stadium. It was a valiant attempt at re-igniting the fire of SEGA fans, but due to the huge task of building each issue with limited resources the project only last for three (and a half) issues.
Sonic Battle Stadium
The SSMB Forums saw the start of a brand new interactive game, called the Sonic Battle Stadium. I created a basic ruleset for a text-based battle adventure, where forum users could create characters and pick an ‘element’ (similar to Pokemon) as well as a set of moves that they could assign damage points to. Battles would be manually moderated, with referees taking hit points away based on the various conditions that affected play throughout the topic.
Ultimately, players would fight one another and obtain points, with the ultimate goal being the ability to challenge ‘Grandmaster Dreadknux’ at the end of the Season and become the true winner by defeating him. Awards were given out to the overall winner and runner-ups. The Sonic Battle Stadium ran for two years/seasons, with the second season introducing changes to the gameplay in order to make moderating easier – these changes weren’t well received and the lack of activity brought the game to an eventual and early close.
Other Notable Developments
We may have ended up discovering something new in Sonic 2 – some remnants of Wood Zone that can be found on any retail cartridge.
It was the year of fan creations for sure: TSS was the official home of coverage for the Sonic Amateur Games Expo (which led to our first ever contest), as well as the Sonic Comic Con in late 2002; the Sonic Hoaxers Club brought about many doctored images of classic Sonic games; we went big on fan game reviews and previews; and there were even fan animations in New Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog and Fight 4 Freedom to talk about.
The SSMB Forums moved away from its old ezBoard home and onto a specialist forum software. It was initially moved to YaBB, before making a permanent home with Invision Power Board.
The Sonic Site Awards returned for a second year following the success of the 2001 online event. More awards were on offer and the reception was even greater.
The Sonic Stadium announced a ‘partnership’ with fellow fansite and creative portal SonicVerse Team this year. SVT’s upcoming online event Sonic Comic Con would be covered by TSS, and we would also have the exclusive on publishing new pages from flagship comic Sonic Shadows.
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Yes, on this day fifteen years ago The Sonic Stadium opened its virtual doors to the World Wide Web (that’s what we called the Internet that back in 2000). And over the years, I and a trusty team of awesome Sonic fans have done our best to entertain, inform and excite with news, features, columns, podcasts and videos of anything involved with everyone’s favourite hedgehog.
We started life as a simple fansite, formed of a collection of HTML pages. After several failed attempts, we added a successful forum in the SSMB. We grew to build a streaming radio station (which later introduced Sonic-themed podcasts), an annual awards ceremony, a fangame development team, a massive video/music depository and a network that included a fan showcase, video podcasts and competitive Sonic gaming. We also kick-started a series of events in the Summer of Sonic that led to the establishment of a number of fellow fan-run conventions.
We’ve accomplished an awful lot, and yet none of it would be possible without the insane amount of contribution of TSS Network staff, past and present. So to celebrate The Sonic Stadium’s 15th Anniversary, I reached out to a number of our old and current staff and asked them to reminisce and talk about their favourite memories and moments of TSS history. Continue reading HAPPY 15TH TSS! Legendary TSS Staff Share Their Fondest Memories
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Strange Scary, isn’t it? In just four days, this little website about Sonic the Hedgehog will be a decade and a half old. I personally would have spent half my entire existence keeping this thing alive (actually, let’s not think about that bit). It was on that day, 24th October 2000, that The Sonic Stadium was introduced to the world via the wonder of Angelfire‘s then-generous 20MB hosting solutions.
I’m working on a few things to celebrate the week in style, largely involving heady walks down memory lane. Timeline updates, discussions with staff old and new about their favourite memories of the site, hopefully a contest… and a special project that, as you’d expect if you know me by now, is top secret right now (that might not be ready this week though, but definitely soon). It’ll be worth it, I promise.
No, it’s not Sonic Smash Cards.
I’ll be decorating the site soon enough to get everyone into the mood. While you’re here, if you’ve been visiting TSS for a while, feel free to share your memories of this place – favourite features on the site, SSMB threads, SegaSonic Radio podcasts, anything (and if you want to do that on SSMB, you can do it here).
And as always, we’re only here because of you guys. So from the bottom of my heart, on behalf of the TSS team (past and present) thank you so much for your support and for making us your home to talk utter bollocks about a cartoon blue hedgehog for so long. It’s humbling, and I hope to keep this place alive for as long as you guys want it around.
We’ve got some plans for you all. We hope to keep you entertained and informed for many more years to come.
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Yuji Naka, the master coder that was responsible for programming the original Sonic the Hedgehog, turned 50 years old yesterday. Doesn’t time fly!?
The former SEGA developer – left the company in 2006 to start his own independent studio, Prope – received a wave of well wishes on his social media channels. Naka-san spent the week enjoying Tokyo Games Show, where he has taken pictures of Sonic and SEGA merchandise available for sale at the event.
Although he has not been associated with the Sonic franchise for quite some time, he is regarded as one of the main ‘fathers’ of the blue blur, deftly creating a game engine in the early 1990s that allowed a character to use curved environments to reward players with bursts of speed. He became a spokesperson for the franchise during his time at SEGA, eventually leading the Sonic Team division during the Dreamcast era. For Sonic’s 20th Anniversary in 2011, he attended SEGA’s Sonic Boom event as well as the fan-organised Summer of Sonic convention.
His latest game, Rodea the Sky Soldier, is seeing a release on the Wii U later this year.
“Thank you very much for all the birthday messages,” he wrote in a message to fans. “I can feel all the love and support from my fans! I decided to be even a cool man in my 50s. I’ll do my best.”
With a seemingly undying love for Ferraris, we’re pretty sure Naka-san will continue to be cool for many years to come!
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If you want to make something better, Just Add Knuckles™. That’s particularly true when you’re talking about pop music, and one particular fan has taken the trouble of inserting the new porcupine on the block with the buff chest as the latest member of the Black Eyed Peas. Continue reading Mash-Up Monday: Knuckles Gets It Started
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One of the things we’ve loved about the Nintendo 3DS SEGA re-releases is just how much time and care has been placed into every title. Sonic the Hedgehog 2 is no exception, having recently landed on the Japanese eShop. It’s all down to developer M2, whose efforts clearly show that they care about the games they’re looking after. This is no more apparent than in this quirky credits sequence for Sonic 2. Continue reading Tails Can’t Handle This 3D Sonic the Hedgehog 2 Credits Sequence
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Former SEGA America producer Stephen Frost has called Sonic Boom a “huge success”, thanks to the project’s cartoon and toy licensing initiatives.
In an audio interview with SEGA Nerds, the producer – who has been at the forefront of all Sonic Boom-related developments, from the video games to the cartoon and merchandising efforts – said that the animated show in particular helped broaden the audience for Sonic the Hedgehog in the US. This also encouraged an explosion of toy sales, which Frost added initially sold out in 24 hours.
Speaking of his response to the fallout from the release of the Rise of Lyric and Shattered Crystal games, Frost was positive about the effect the licensing drive had on reaching a large audience. “Obviously there are pros and cons to Sonic Boom,” he said. “As a whole… for some reason I think people still focus on the game aspect of Sonic Boom. And rightly so because Sonic’s always been a game [character]. But you also have to think about the other things we tried to do with Sonic.
“The goal of Sonic Boom, as I’ve said over the last year or so, is to reach a larger audience with Sonic – to make him relevant again. There’s a very loyal Sonic fanbase [out there], no doubt. But there’s no arguing that every year [the audience] gets smaller and smaller.”
Frost likened the dwarfing audience for Sonic the Hedgehog to other AAA video game franchises on the market. “Even if you have a [AAA budget title] every year, the install base is going to get smaller… So the attempt with Sonic Boom was to appeal to an audience that was not familiar with Sonic – or, were fans previously but weren’t anymore for whatever reason.
“I think from that standpoint it was a success. The audience for the cartoon is [healthy], the toys are selling really well. I remember hearing reports that in the early days, Sonic Boom toys at Toys R Us were selling out in 24 hours – that wasn’t just [sales] from fans, it was from people who were looking for something new.”
The reason for the interest in the toys, Frost noted, was because the “new direction” that the Sonic Boom series took allowed merchandising partners to create more interesting figures based on the new worlds, vehicles and character designs. For licensing partners, Sonic Boom presented “a breath of fresh air into their thinking process and ability to go in a [new] direction.”
Frost also added that Archie and the Sonic voice actors were also appreciative of the opportunity that Sonic Boom presented. For Archie, it offered a chance to create new stories and a new book based on the series, and for voice actors they were able to add nuance to their respective characters.
“I know of so many people who have not been interested [in the Sonic games] that now arbitrarily watch the cartoons and buy the toys, and that’s a huge success,” Frost said. “There are cases where people have come into the Sonic world for the first time, because of either the new toys, or the look of the characters (love it or not), or the cartoon. And that’s why I consider that a big success.”
Speaking about the video games themselves, Frost was pragmatic. “Could the games be better? Yes… [But] I see that we tried to do something different. I think the challenge is that – if you think about the fact that Sonic Team has been making Sonic games for 20-odd years. They understand Sonic and all the things that make a Sonic game.
“In a relatively short amount of time we had to teach new teams what Sonic is all about. But not only that — if I was to say to a team, ‘make a speed-based Sonic game’, they’d have to start from zero and catch up to 24 years of experience in one [development cycle]. Now imagine asking them to reinvent Sonic, to try something different – still capture the speed but also be different enough that when people look at it they know it’s a new experience. It’s really tough!
“We had very ambitious goals. We really wanted to deliver on something that people were excited about, that managed to capture speed but also add new gameplay components… I think that the failures of the game were [of] it being overly-ambitious initially, and the fact that not only were we trying to make a basic Sonic game but we were trying to add to it. We over-extended our grasp in some ways.”
Frost noted that there were a number of positive things that came from the development of the Sonic Boom games – for instance, the popular co-op mode, which he hopes will be a concept that Sonic Team will consider for future mainline Sonic titles.
Naturally, a lot of people have compared Sonic Boom to Sonic Team’s efforts, and Frost accepted that the project’s game development ended up being a victim of the team’s ambition. “There’s a reason why the Sonic games are relatively high quality – they’re basic in design,” he said, talking about how many Sonic titles follow a similar strand of gameplay design. “You have speed, homing attacks… but because of that [streamlined gameplay], and because Sonic Team have been doing that for so long, they can fine-tune that [with every game release].
“We were trying to add in bungee mechanics, combat, puzzles, vehicles, hopefully a more compelling story, and a bunch of different environments. It’s just a lot. And I think that’s the thing. If there’s any lesson that I’ll take forward with me, it’s that being too ambitious can be bad.”
There’s a lot more in the interview with SEGA Nerds – the discussion about Sonic Boom starts at 1:42:00.
Editor’s Note: This article originally offered a brief overview of points taken from the interview that were presented out of context. We have since rewritten the story in its entirety and removed all conjecture from the piece. We apologise for any confusion caused.
The Sonic Stadium may link to retailers and earn a small commission on purchases made from users who click those links. These links will only appear in articles related to the product, in an unobtrusive manner, and do not influence our editorial decisions in any way.
Earlier this week, The Sonic Stadium’s server decided to go kaput, leaving the entire site – including the SSMB forums and affiliates such as SegaDriven – out of action for a couple of days. It was not a malicious attack of any kind – the server simply burned out and the facility we had been using to make regular backups had failed us in a separate incident. We are working to bring the site back to its previous state, but there are likely to be a few hiccups along the way.
First of all, and this is immediately apparent, is that the site currently looks insanely out of date. We have a full backup from August, and a cache dating as recently as February 2015. We’re working from the cache to get the more recent posts live, but as a result we will have lost comments on the posts we are manually rebuilding. Apologies! We have restored as many articles as possible (one or two news posts appear to have been lost forever) and will now begin restoring images for posts dating from July 2014-Feb 2015. This will take some time, so apologies in advance. We will try to bring back a bunch of comments from the most popular articles, but we cannot recover them all. Sorry!
Second of all, the SSMB forums will be out of action for around a week. This is so we can get the old server hard drive delivered to us and see if we can scrape a most recent backup of the forum’s activity. If we can’t get anything off of it, we’ll revert to an August backup. We’ll have an update on this next week.
Thanks for your patience – this whole thing hasn’t been very convenient, given that we were actually preparing to migrate to a new server very soon anyway. We’ll be back and fully operational shortly.
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Two more arcs end with a shattering bang, while the new comic picks up steam with its second issue!
Midtown Comics has the covers and solicitations for the comics coming out in the holiday month, but these issues are going to be anything but peace on earth! In Sonic the Hedgehog #267, Sonic is still trying to get his wild side under control, but he’s got to do it quickly because he’s still under fire from the relentless Egg Boss Thunderbolt! The other Freedom FIghters are being attacked by several E100s, so they’re just as hot under the collar in “Ambushed”: part 2.
SONIC THE HEDGEHOG #267
(W) Ian Flynn (A) Jamal Peppers, Terry Austin (CA) Evan Stanley, Terry Austin
The thunderous conclusion to the latest Sonic story arc crashes to a close at lightning speed! ‘Ambushed!’ Part Two: Sonic’s gotten himself into a hairy situation! The savage Werehog threatens to erupt from within, and the vengeful Egg Boss Thunderbolt attacks from without! What’s a cursed hedgehog to do? Unfortunately he won’t get by with a little help from his friends; the Freedom Fighters are far too busy fighting for their lives against three killer E-100 robots! Don’t miss the explosive ending featuring cover art by Stanley, Austin and Hunzeker, plus a hilarious new ‘Holiday Havoc!’ variant cover with pencils by Sonic artist extraordinaire Jennifer Hernandez!
In Sonic Universe #70, Eclipse has joined the list of individuals that have nabbed the Master Emerald, and it’s serious enough that Shadow and Knuckles need to stop fighting and get it back. But with the full force of the Dark Arms now on their backs, there might only be one thing left for Knuckles to do, and he won’t like it one bit. This is “Total Eclipse”: part four.
SONIC UNIVERSE #70
(W) Ian Flynn (A) Jim Amash, Tracy Yardley (CA) Tracy Yardley & Various
The first ever Sonic universe trilogy reaches its stunning conclusion in ‘Total Eclipse,’ Part Four! Knuckles and Shadow must end their duel because Eclipse has escaped with the Master Emerald! Can the two chaos-fueled warriors stand up to the power of the Dark Arms? Knuckles may be forced into the one choice he doesn’t want to make! Don’t miss the sense-shattering finale that will change the shattered world crisis and the Sonic comic landscape as we know it! Featuring stunning new cover art from Yardley, Amash and Hunzeker, plus an awesome SEGA art variant featuring two of the biggest ‘Total Eclipse’ stars: Knuckles and Rouge!
Finally, in Sonic Boom #2, we rejoin our heroes in this new continuity for more shenanigans, but there might be a traitor amongst their ranks. Guess who, and perhaps why, in “Knucklesduster”.
SONIC BOOM #2
(W) Ian Flynn (A) Evan Stanley, Rick Bryant (CA) Patrick Spaz Spaziante
Get ready for the BOOM, baby! The new hit ongoing Sonic comic book series from Archie Comics continues here with issue #2, ‘Knuckleduster!’ Race along at Sonic speed with the blue blur and his pals Tails, Knuckles, Amy Rose and the newest edition to the team – Sticks! But is there a traitor in our heroes’ midst? Say it ain’t so! Find out in this sensational second issue, featuring explosive new cover art from Sonic art legend Patrick ‘SPAZ’ Spaziante, and a super-special ‘Sonic Spotlight’ variant cover by artist T.REX!
We’ll have more on all of these issues closer to the time of release.
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Our deep sea dive is due to surface in the final part of the oceanic arc! Our look at the city of Meropis and its plight draws to an end in this month’s issue of Sonic the Hedgehog, and Newsarama
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Hey, did you know that in 2003 SEGASonic Radio pioneered the very concept of live internet radio broadcasts among the Sonic and video gaming community? One of the first ever shows to use the term ‘LiVECAST’ was called The Sonic Hour, a (sometimes) weekly, (sometimes) hourly programme that featured myself and Roareye as we discussed the Sonic news of the week.
The Sonic Hour went on to become a massively successful show, becoming the flagship SSR broadcast in the station’s live programming and running for something like six ‘seasons’. Which is all the more crazy when you consider that half the time we just spouted any old nonsense that came out of our mouths. Most of it not even Sonic-related.
The show abruptly ended in 2011, but over the past Christmas holiday Roareye and I felt that, with December 2013 being the tenth anniversary of the show’s existence, we should give it one (last?) hurrah. And so here it is – The Sonic Hour 2013 Christmas Special, which in true Sonic Hour fashion, is late by arriving on January 2, 2014. As long-time listeners of the show will know already, it’s kinda NSFW.
Also, because Roareye is a weird tech-head, he has rather proudly mastered the episode in 5.1 Surround Sound, including the music tracks played on the episode. The WAV files that best represent this mastering total some 5GBs though, so we’re currently thinking of the best way to offer that to you. Check back soon for an update on this post with links to the beefy 5.1 version, if that sort of thing turns you on.
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I thought I’d just make a quick post about this. Normally I prepare a whole bunch of something to celebrate the site’s birthday, but with things in my personal life a bit out of sorts right now I’ve not really had the chance.
BUT. Let’s celebrate anyway. Today is TSS’ 13th birthday. It was on this day, 13 years ago, when I launched the original website on an Angelfire.com account… and was using catchphrases like ‘Stay ICE’… and… and, God, I feel really old today.
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After five amazing years of creating and organising the world’s best-loved Sonic the Hedgehog fan convention, I have decided to retire my position from The Summer of Sonic team. Effective immediately, I will have no involvement in the organisation of 2013’s event.
I have passed my duties and responsibilities in developing the convention to Adam Tuff (T-Bird) and Rory Joscelyne (Roareye). Having been key members of the Summer of Sonic team since its very first year, I have no doubt that they will continue to realise our vision for the show, and put on an amazing day’s worth of fun for Sonic the Hedgehog fans all over the world.
The Summer of Sonic convention is an event that will forever remain incredibly dear to me. I would like to thank everybody who’s ever been involved with the show’s development – volunteers, special guests, our collaborative partner SEGA and of course the fans that have attended and helped transform it into the international success it is today.
I will be cheering the Summer of Sonic organisation team on from the sidelines as I prepare to embark on a new adventure. Thanks again everyone – it’s been a fantastic ride!
~ Svend Joscelyne
Creator and Former Organiser, Summer of Sonic
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I say, this place does look rather fresh, doesn’t it? That’s no accident – this is the result of a looooong redesign process. It’s been a long time coming for a couple of reasons. The main one being that I’ve just been so busy with work, but also because there have been a lot of backend bits and bobs that have needed rejigging in order to make our long-in-tooth rebuilding process a reality. Yes, I know, I’ve said this loads of times before. But I mean it this time. Because… it’s June.
The Sonic Stadium has been truly lucky to have such a great team working behind it to get you the best Sonic news as and when it arrives. And now, they (as well as me, obviously) have the opportunity to quickly and efficiently get a whole heap of original written info and content back onto the site, without compromising our news reporting. You’ve probably already seen Jason’s great Archie comic reviews, or Hogfather’s impressive trips through obscure Sonic game features. Well, with this new design, we’re going to ramp up that quality long-form content for you.
It all starts with the new home page. We want our articles – the stuff that we have been spending more time on as of late – to stay on the front page and get exposure, long after they’ve been pushed off by a tonne of Sonic Lost World news. As we emphasise our video content and begin our journey to properly rebuilding our information section, you’ll find that we have dedicated space on the home page to these areas too.
At the moment, the entire site amounts to nothing but category lists right now. Except for the SSMB, of course. But in time, we will introduce new game, comic and cartoon info pages that won’t go old and mouldy within five minutes due to neglect. No! Neglect is not our middle name (anymore)! We kick neglect’s face into the dusty floor. Have it, neglect!
Ahem. The bottom line is, this new site design is just the first step in a number of ways we’re revitalising the site and how we present (and create) content to you. Also, we’ve finally got with the times and made a site design that suits bigger screens, innit. Enjoy! I’ll be around a lot more frequently, now that I’ve finally got part one of this project out of the door!
As is customary with these things, there’s bound to be a few weird things that occur as a result of the new look. If anything’s gone skewiff about the place, be sure to give us a heads up!
The Sonic Stadium may link to retailers and earn a small commission on purchases made from users who click those links. These links will only appear in articles related to the product, in an unobtrusive manner, and do not influence our editorial decisions in any way.
Update: Psyche. April Fool! Thanks for being such good sports – we will keep this page up for archival, but as we switch back to TSS’ ‘old’ (or… new… I don’t know!) layout once more, we won’t be able to preserve the 1997-esque design at this moment in time. I’ll hope to fix this as we archive a number of our past pranks – but for now, just enjoy the original post below in all its glory!
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Hey there and welcome to The Sonic Stadium. I’ve decided to give the place a little makeover for the new year! Hope you like it – it’s about time we updated the site’s design to take into account changing trends in internet use.
People are using the World Wide Web a lot more, now that 56K Modems are becoming more mainstream. We went for a look that included images so that those on the cusp of modern technology will be able to truly take advantage of their new hardware. But we’ve not put too many images up there – we don’t want those with slower connections to suffer! We’ve basically only picked images that were absolutely necessary.
The new two-column structure means that a dynamic menu can be situated on the left hand side. Click on a link, and if you have been to a page before the font changes colour! We’ve also centered the content on the right hand column, making for an easier reading experience than ever before.
As we enter an exciting new era in internet technology, we hope this new design serves as one that can stay in step with the web’s evolution for years to come. Let us know what you think of the design using the (new look) comments section below. See you soon!
Stay ICE,
Dreadknux
The Sonic Stadium may link to retailers and earn a small commission on purchases made from users who click those links. These links will only appear in articles related to the product, in an unobtrusive manner, and do not influence our editorial decisions in any way.
Back in the 1990s, if you were any good at Sonic the Hedgehog, chances are you’d go straight to jail. To win $25,000, that is. MTV produced a special segment called “Rock the Rock,” in association with SEGA and Blockbuster, to promote the release of Sonic & Knuckles in 1994. In it, 25 kids from around the world were pitted against each other in San Francisco’s Alcatraz prison island to be crowned the planet’s best gamer. And to win a tonne of cash.
Once believed to be lost in the mists of time, YouTube user WaffleKogen has uploaded this rare video for everyone to see. Check out the hip-hop 1990s music that rocked during each link. If you like your history, there’s some nice segments involving the jail’s past, and there’s even a set of interviews with members of Sega Technical Institute and Sonic Team.
There are surely worse ways to spend your Thursday. If you were born in the 1990s, this will be a pleasant reminder of how much cooler things were ‘back in the day’. If you weren’t, it’s a fascinating window into 20-year-old music and embarrassing haircuts.
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Jamie ‘DiscoPonies’ Egge Mann and his band of mad Sonic fan videocasters are back. The Sonic Show has been officially relaunched this weekend with a brand new look, refreshed design and promising new features to boot.
The video show just celebrated its SIXTH anniversary on November 20 too, so consider this a birthday treat for both the creators and fans of the show alike. New animators have been brought on board to create new content specially for the show, including the talented Skyler King (aka SegaSky). Continue reading The Sonic Show is Back – See the New Intro Sequence
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Look at this! It’s two pictures of Sonic the Hedgehog. But what’s so special about them, other than the fact that they’re framed? Well, one is signed by Sonic Team artist, Yuji Uekawa, and both are going up for auction next week for charity. You could own these pieces of artwork!
The Sonic canvasses are part of a larger video game-themed art exhibition that’s currently taking place in London’s City Hall (that’s where the Mayor, Boris Johnson, works). It marks the opening of the London Games Festival, and aims to raise the profile of video games in British culture. Continue reading Exclusive Yuji Uekawa Sonic Sketch Going For Auction
The Sonic Stadium may link to retailers and earn a small commission on purchases made from users who click those links. These links will only appear in articles related to the product, in an unobtrusive manner, and do not influence our editorial decisions in any way.
Tomorrow, The Sonic Stadium will have officially served the online community for twelve years. Twelve years! It’s crazy to wonder where all that time has gone (actually, no – best not to wonder!). From the humblest of beginnings in a tiny little 20MB hosted Angelfire fansite, to the information resource of the late 2000s through to the news blog you see today, I hope you have all enjoyed what we’ve had to offer on TSS over the years, and I thank you all for your continued support!
I’m working on a couple of surprises that should be ready either this week or the next, but in the meantime there’s a few celebratory and visual things that can more than pass the time. I’m working on a new banner for the site, and aim to give the site a general decorating for tomorrow.
TitansCreed was kind enough to interview me to talk about the history of the website and how far it’s all come – the first part of that will come later today, with a second part tomorrow. There’s some more video content from the archives that I’d just love to drag up and show you guys too. Stay tuned for that!
Again, thank you so much for your support – we’re just a bunch of huge Sonic fans, like you are. Our official birthday is on October 24th, 2000. With TitansCreed’s interview kicking things off early, all that’s left to do is have something of a virtual toast to the site, the site staff, the forum and mods, SEGASonic Radio and its DJs, The Sonic Show (which is celebrating its sixth birthday at the moment), SEGADriven and its fantastic archive of SEGA info, and all of you who visit and help keep the site alive. Cheers!
~ Dreadknux
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TitansCreed has gone forth and released a brand new Community Spotlight interview, and this time the focus is on news site TSSZ News and its webmaster, Tristan (Oliver) Bresnen. Continue reading TitansCreed Community Spotlights TSSZ News
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SEGA is aiming for a November 2012 release for Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed. We can also reveal with certainty that the SUMO Digital-developed racer will be heading to Nintendo’s Wii U, with versions for PC, iOS and Android also in the works.
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Thanks for all of your entries, guys! We received a huge number of applications – seems many of you are enjoying the E3 show, or live in the Los Angeles area! Well, only five pairs of tickets are up for grabs, so who’s impressed us with their Sonic soundtrack suggestions? We list them below, in no particular order:
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Hey, you! Are you going to be in Los Angeles next week? Video Games Live, the awesome orchestral extravaganza dedicated to video game music, is going to be playing at the Nokia Theatre on June 6th – and thanks to our friends Tommy Tallarico and SEGA of America, The Sonic Stadium has five pairs of tickets to give away!
These tickets are extra-special, though. Not only do you get to see the show with a friend or loved one, but you get VIP backstage party passes which will also give you instant front-of-the-line access to the post-show meet and greet! Which will involve Sonic Team leader Takashi Iizuka among other “special guests” from SEGA. Continue reading WIN Tickets to Video Games Live in Los Angeles!
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TitansCreed continues to showcase the cream of the Sonic Community crop by interviewing Lewis Clark, also known as SonicYoda, the webmaster behind general SEGA fansite SEGADriven (and also the one man who disappears whenever Sonic is seen at Summer of Sonic conventions…). Continue reading TitansCreed Community Spotlights SEGADriven
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French book publisher Pix’n Love has contacted us to announce that the English version of The History of Sonic will be published, and made available “at the end of June.” Just in time for the blue blur’s birthday!
The company has also responded to reports that customers were not yet getting their orders on the original French book dispatched. “The book is indeed available on the French Pix’n Love website,” company spokesperson Olivier Braillon told TSS. “Orders have started being dispatched on Monday and the Pix’n Love team is working day and night to send all the orders placed (and there were many!). So if some readers haven’t received their order yet, it is entirely normal.
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Prominent Sonic community interviewer TitansCreed is best known for his rather interesting and insightful Community Spotlight discussions at Sonic Wrecks. With this, his latest interview, TC goes for the multimedia angle – in more ways than one. Not only is this a recorded audio chat on a YouTube video player, but the interviewees in question happen to be none other than flash animation studio Sonic Paradox.
Listen to TC chat with the members of this hilarious troupe, known for their comical antics with the Sonic Shorts and various other spoof animations. BoozermaN, GameBuddy, Cyberlink420, SSF1991, RocktheJake, Celestorion, Lithuania and Hieifireshadow are among the guys facing questions in this special interview.
Give it a listen and show your support/give your reactions in the comments area, why don’t you?
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Happy Easter everyone! I hope you’re all enjoying the festive weekend and getting stuffed on a number of chocolate eggs! We have a number of cool features coming up on The Sonic Stadium, as well as a bunch of awesome changes to boot. Call it Spring Cleaning, if you like. The first stage of this, is the arrival of some new writers to the TSS Writing Team. Continue reading Introducing Our New Writers!
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Roareye Black is back! The creator of community creation talent pool The Sonic Showcase Network is settling down to The Sonic Stadium, and he’s spending some time to give you some unique video reviews on all sorts of Sonic gear. First on his list? The Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog.
This cartoon series ran from 1993 to 1996, and was the more comical, less… serious of two different shows that DiC produced starring the blue blur. Roareye intends to do individual video reviews for each episode of AoStH, but for now he’s created an ‘overview’ of the series in general. Never got to watch AoStH? Check out this video to get the heads up – in a way that only Roareye can.
Let us know what you think in the comments box below – more are coming soon. These videos will be released as part of a big rebuilding initiative of TSS’ Information pages – when new video reviews arrive, episode pages will be created in the currently-limp Animation section of this website. Enjoy!
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Every die-hard Sonic the Hedgehog fan should have a list of things to see and do in their lifetime. Visiting SEGA’s offices in the US, meeting Yuji Naka, attending Sonic Boom or Summer of Sonic, ‘experiencing’ Sonic 2006… But, undoubtedly, the ultimate pilgrimage for the dedicated fan is traveling to the blue blur’s birthplace – Japan. For many reasons.
One of those reasons is SEGA Joypolis, a three-floor indoor theme park that’s packed with arcades, sit-in rides and exclusive merchandise. When I visited Japan for a holiday with SEGADriven’s Lewis Clark last year, this was on the top of my hit-list. As the venue is built with couples in mind though, we both decided to pair up – so we enlisted the help of our good friend Jess and another friend who would be able to give us a special tour: sound director for the Sonic series, Jun Senoue. Continue reading Tourist Guide: SEGA Joypolis, Tokyo
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