The Sonic Stadium and all its hosted sites suffered two more days of downtime, less than two days after the Sonic Site Awards opened for voting.
Earlier in the month, the recently released next-generation Sonic promotional video made available on the main site, caused a short downtime for overuse of bandwidth, as a result of it unexpectedly not being protected from hotlinking. Direct links on a multitude of sites and blogs resulted in 220 GigaBytes – over half of the Stadium’s quota – being transferred, of that one file alone. Continue reading Sonic Stadium Sites Hit By Bandwidth Problems
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The Sonic Stadium’s Sonic Site Awards opened for voting by the public Friday, after two weeks of delays.
Organizers planned to open the voting phase, dubbed “Phase 2”, around or before the start of September, but head administrator Dreadknux’s holiday clashed with this plan. A problem with naming the “MIDI Composition” award badly also meant that only one nomination was made, and so the judges selected four prominent 2005 sequencers at the last minute to join last year’s winner EspioKaos.
Anyone can vote in the SSA at the voting section of the site, assuming they have registered a Sonic Stadium account. This policy was designed to avoid repeat voting amongst unscrupulous voters. Voting ends on October 21st.
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The Sonic Cage Dome announced on the 7th they are holding a Sonic the Hedgehog 2 online tourney on Saturday.
Currently all eight places are taken, but due to expected drop-outs registration is still open to take places if this happens.
All competitors are expected to use an official version of Gens and a specific ROM of the game. The competition is scheduled to start at 4pm EST (9pm GMT) Saturday.
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Surely it sounds to good to be a true, a short playable demo of the Sonic title that captured the imaginations of fans across the world before disappearing into obscurity has finally resurfaced, and at a price.
An anonymous seller via the ASSEMblergames forums has this very item up for offer, a demo of the ill-fated title, wielding a few images of the prototype and a four figure minimum pricetag. TheRedEye writes on the ASSEMblergames forums for the anonymous seller:
Yes, it’s legit, and no, it isn’t mine. Read on, there’s a little bit of explanation in order here. Continue reading Sonic X-Treme Prototype Under the Hammer
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If you fancy watching some fanmade Sonic television on the Internet, then you won’t have long to wait for your latest fix. Fastfeet Media, producers of the popular online show “SEGASonic:TV”, have today announced that their fourth episode is due for launch on Friday 26th August.
“SEGASonic:TV” released its first episode in November 2004, and the gap between the third episode and this latest edition has been a gruelling six months for fans of the show. But under the direction of producer ManicVJ, this time has been used effectively to revamp the show and give it more potential. Continue reading SEGASonic:TV Episode 4 Release Date
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The Sonic Kingdom, host to a number of Sonic fansites including SonicAnime.net, Sonic United and The Sonic Stadium, suffered a week of downtime, making all sites inaccessible.
The problems started early Wednesday 3rd August when problems with the hard drive brought the server offline. According to Sonic Kingdom’s administrator, the providers delayed installing a replacement hard drive to the extent that he decided to move Sonic Kingdom to a new host. All services are now available since being restored sometime Tuesday 9th.
As a result of the server downtime, all Sonic News feeds were also unavailable. This resulted in problems for all sites using the feeds, which may have ranged from missing news to error messages. Our apologies to anyone who was adversely affected by this. To combat possible problems in the future, Sonic News may implement a feed backup.
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Sprite comic and Shadow fansite Sonic Wrecks released the final results of its Sonic Wrecks Awards on Tuesday. Twelve awards were contested, ten for Sonic-related Websites, accompanied by fictional Sonic Wrecks comics about the awards.
Among the awards, Sonic News won the “Most Essential Service or Feature” award, and parent site The Sonic Stadium received the “Best Sonic Resource” and “Best Overall Sonic Website” awards.
The “Most Underrated Website” award was tied in votes between ShadowGrounds and Sonic Vegemite, so both sites received this award.
A full list of awards and their results is available on the Sonic Wrecks Awards page.
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The Sonic Stadium’s annual awards ceremony, The Sonic Site Awards, has launched its website, with a brand new design and some promised new features. Official starting of the event will happen this Friday (15th July).
The event, which has grown to be one of the biggest attractions of the online Sonic world, will this year have its awards divided into categories. These categories neatly seperate the awards up so they are easier to take in, while providing more specialised ones. In association with Sonic Fan Games HQ and The Sonic Stadium’s close affiliation with the SAGE event, there is a “SFGHQ Category” that focuses on fangame commendation, for example. Continue reading The Sonic Site Awards 2005 Launches
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The Sonic Amateur Games Expo (http://www.sagexpo.org/) has kicked off once again, but is currently recovering from a server problem that occured during the first day.
SAGE had a big awareness level attached to it, through support from sites such as The Sonic Stadium and Sonic HQ. Fans United for SatAM and organiser “PerfectChaos0” organised a chatroom event featuring Ben Hurst, writer for the SatAM cartoon series. Continue reading SAGE 2005 Opens!
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If you’ve been bouncing around internet rumours the past few weeks, you may have heard of a company called ‘Panovation Studios’, a brand new games developer that was reportedly creating an “online Sonic the Hedgehog RPG”.
But the confusion is finally cleared, as Panovation Studios have shut down their online website – the “unofficial-but-official” Sonic the Hedgehog online RPG was never in development.
The Sonic Stadium contacted Mark Greig, chairman of Panovation, for a statement after noticing the studio website had been taken completely offline for several days. According to Greig, the Sonic Online RPG was a complete fabrication by “somebody” that has yet to be caught. It would appear that whoever started these mass rumours played on the studio’s history to make it sound more believeable. Continue reading Panovation Not Making Sonic MMO
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Sonic fans in America and Japan have been getting the dedicated Sonic micro-site treatment from SEGA as of late, and Europe has just seen the launch of their own official “Sonic City” source.
Unfortunately, the micro-site isn’t very respective of monitor resolutions – 1024×768 is required, but 1152×864 is apparently the size for optimum surfing. Design-wise, it doesn’t lend much to Sonic the Hedgehog at all, aside from the somewhat iconic corkscrew feature around the city heights. In fact, you wouldn’t even believe it was a SEGA or Sonic site if the corporate logos weren’t present (depending on your resolution of course). Continue reading Europe: Sonic City Goes Live
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Some days ago TSS reported on a confirmed Sonic online project, although it was not to be revealed by SEGA or SONICTEAM, but rather a small starting company called Panovation Studios.
A special interview on the SEGA Boards, a complete denial of a project existing by SEGA themselves and masses of rumours fired up by fans turned what was assumed as an “official” title to be slammed as nothing more than vapourware, and even stating that such a project does not exist. Continue reading Sonic ORPG: Panovation Explained
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Australia is set to have a nice surprise come Sonic’s birthday – an official SEGA exhibit all about Sonic the Hedgehog! And leading fan website, The Sonic Stadium, is being profiled as an example of Sonic fan culture at the event.
The exhibit, taking place and organised by the Australian Center for the Moving Image (ACMI) will be the second ever video games event the establishment has held, and is fully supported by SEGA-Europe and THQ Australia, who distribute SEGA games in the land down under.
In an agreement between ACMI and The Sonic Stadium, video footage will be recorded of this website, with added voiceovers and information detailing what the site provides in context of fan culture, and displayed in a special section of the Sonic the Hedgehog exhibit. It will be accompanied by a text panel discussing the fan culture surrounding Sonic the Hedgehog, which mentions fangame development such as the popular ‘Neo Sonic Universe’.
Continue reading The Sonic Stadium in Official SEGA Exhibit
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The Sonic Fan Games HQ is gearing up the opening of it’s latest Sonic Amateur Games Expo (SAGE) event, and the organisers are currently setting up hosts for ‘Workshops’, a recent addition that debuted in the last show.
To further cater for and cover all aspects of the Sonic Fan Gaming community, the aim of the ‘Workshops’ is for experienced fangame creators to tutor others in a dedicated chatroom in real time, about certain elements of fangame creation that usually prove troublesome for the novice.
The ‘Workshops’ first arrived at the last SAGE event, but recieved little attention. TSS and SFGHQ hope that this time the feature will be more appreciated – by more novice fangamers attending for help, and more experienced people to host these chats.
Continue reading SAGE Seeking Workshops
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Exciting news, guys. I have been approached by the Australian Center for the Moving Image (ACMI) in Melbourne, AU for permission to take movie footage of The Sonic Stadium. This website will then be profiled in a Sonic the Hedgehog exhibit they plan to launch in late June in their dedicated “Games Lab”.
Naturally, I’ve agreed. The ACMI’s Games Lab is a section of the Center dedicated to discussing Video Game Culture – basically, the fan culture phenomenon behind some of the biggest game characters. And obviously, because Sonic is such a loved game character, with thousands of fan material and sites on the web, the ACMI would like to highlight the culture behind the character.
They approached TSS because it encaptures all the aspects of online Sonic fandom, from games reporting to news, to fangames and to artwork and fan creation – and of course, discussion. At the exhibit you can expect a video of footage of The Sonic Stadium, with some voiceovers and information about the site, and how the fan community express themselves through Sonic (i.e. fangames, online radio). Expect TSS, SEGASonic Radio, the Sonic Site Awards and other minisites to be included in the footage.
Continue reading TSS at Official Sonic Exhibit!
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Sonic Fan Games HQ administrator Smidge has reopened the SFGHQ site. The backend of the site has been improved, and a second site “skin” has been added.
In his returning update, Smidge affirmed that online games show the Sonic Amateur Games Expo is still planned for the week of July 3rd, and the SFGHQ is scheduled to return in time for it.
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Smidge, who heads the Sonic FanGame HQ, recently updated the site with an explanation of what happened involving the hack threats.
In mid-March, the SFGHQ forum was hacked by an individual called Manickillaz, who proceeded to make themselves an administrator and mess up the forum. After this, they threatened to hack the SFGHQ Website unless they were made an op at the unofficial IRC chatroom #srb2. Later Smidge refused the deal and deleted the entire site himself.
In his new update, Smidge estimates that rebuilding of the SFGHQ site will be complete towards the end of April. Importantly, the Sonic Amateur Games Expo (SAGE) is still planned for July, with the forum’s return scheduled to be in time for it.
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April 1st has come and gone, and many Sonic Websites got into the habit of tricking their visitors and members. This story provides a shortlist of Sonic sites that did their part in tricking their members. If your Sonic site is not listed here, be sure to give Dreadknux an email at dreadknux at yahoo dot co dot uk.
What remains humourous about both this list of April Fool pranks and a news report SONIC NEWS reported on March 31st, is the fact that each had their fair share of visitors who were not impressed, even stating to some websites, including Sonic Online and SonicAnime.net, that they should be ashamed of themselves. SONIC NEWS reminds the Sonic community of the age-old April Fool superstition; if a victim reacts to a prank in an angry or disagreeable fashion, they are conditioned with bad luck forever. Continue reading April Fool Madness
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Ah, April Fools, don’t you love them? Well, you would if you’re the “doer” and not the “doee”. But a whole day before the pranking festivities, a Sonic site has decided to get into the spirit of hoaxing already.
SonicAnime.net, well respected Sonic X resource, has today posted an unsourced news story, claiming that SEGA of America have plans to strip Sonic the Hedgehog of his duty as company mascot and replace him with angsty sour-faced git, Shadow. Despite the amount of Shadow fans online, all who fell for the trick were not pleased that Sonic seemed to have had his job removed.
Continue reading Beware of April Fools
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Want Sonic X screenshots from the latest Sonic X episodes? Look no further, as TeamArtail’s Artie has been adding the latest episodes in screenshot format, head to TeamArtail’s Sonic X section for the latest screenshots. He usually updates every week, and you can also find older episode screenshots.
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One of the best fan made comics ever made, which was created after the official Sonic The Comic died, has a new issue. Issue #234 has been released online.
SONIC THE COMIC #234
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For European SEGA fans, things have been up and down. One minute you start to think SEGA Europe cares about you, the next they tend to do something rather stupid that is equivalent to a spit in the face.
The recently revamped SEGA Europe website is an attempt to try and rectify the region’s ‘dampness’ as of late and return to the state many believed was SEGA Europe’s prime – the era of the Dreamcast.
For those fans who register to SEGA Europe, they get email notification of a special online bulletin magazine called SEGA City. It’s launch was sometime last month, and was an excellent start; featuring interviews with SEGA developers, and various competitions.
Continue reading SEGA City Unlocked Issue 2 Launched
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Sonic Fan Games HQ was shut down for reasons unconfirmed on Tuesday – whereas SFGHQ owners were unavailable for comment, the problem has been revealed by fans of the website.
Visit SFGHQ and a visitor is greeted with a page including the text: “For a ‘lose lose’ situation, it sure feels like I won…”. As dubious and confusing as it sounds, regular IRC #SRB2 Channel member Gerbilsoft (speaking to us yesterday at the TSS IRC Chatroom) has revealed to SONIC NEWS some information that may shed some light on the situation:
“Smidge [the current maintainer of SFGHQ] took the site down… some guy threatened to hack it unless Smidge either gave him ops in #srb2 or made him a mod on SFGHQ and apparently Smidge decided to just take down the site.“
Continue reading Sonic Fan Games HQ Shut Down
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Sega of Europe’s Official Website has recently added a short and straight to the point ARTICLE on Sonic, and about him being inducted into the ‘Walk of Game’. The article features some info, as well as some quotes.
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The Sonic 2 Remix Project recently released their Sonic the Hedgehog 2 remix album, “Hedgehog Heaven”. The group, made up of members of remix site Overclocked ReMix, worked on the album for over a year and a half.
The final album comprises 21 tracks from 18 artists coming to just over 75 minutes. It contains remixes of every piece of music in Sonic 2. The album is available to download for free in MP3 format from the Sonic 2 Remix Project site, but they ask that you use BitTorrent instead to save OCReMix’s bandwidth.
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Prower Power is planning a new summer event called ‘Chaos Con’, and it will be an exposition for all Sonic areas of fandom: Fanart, games, fiction and comics. Prizes are rumoured. The Sonic Stadium and Sonic News are set to cover the event when it begins in June.
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Early in the hours of this morning, a pleasant chap decided to hack into the servers of SonicAnime.net, which hosts TSS, and used it’s SMTP system to bulk mail several people that The Sonic Stadium and the Message Board was to close down. Naturally, the return sender was “Dreadknux” and the return address my email.
Let me say now that this is completely untrue. First of all the person who sent the original email types nothing like me, for starters he must have the IQ of 50 to spell and punctuate like he did (whilst trying to pass himself off for me). Second of all there is a way I tag my emails, and this was missing from “my email”. Nonetheless, it caused a minimal panic. Thankfully, some people realise that is was a hoax created by someone without two brain cells to humble themselves, and now I hope that the whole matter is dispelled.
As for announcements regarding TSS and the SSMB, they will always ALWAYS be announced on the site, be it the SSMB, TSS or Sonic News. They will NEVER be sent to you in an email. Always check the website for the official line on what is happening with TSS projects and status.
… Seeings as we have so much lined up for 2004 – new look Sega Sonic Radio, ‘Real Prize’ competitions, official press statements on Sonic games straight from SEGA themselves, and of course, Sonic Smash Cards, we’ll be here for a loooooooooooooooooong time yet.
And no amount of lowlife hermit ‘hackers’ (read: pre-teen 13 year olds who think it’s funny to perform pointless tasks to destroy sites in an attempt to make themselves jack off successfully) is going to deter me from keeping this site open. TSS is here to STAY!
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Gee, SAGE 7 over already? Although seeming fast, it’s perhaps the first time in ages that the doors have been open the full 2 weeks, which is an impressive start to a better SAGE at least. The SAGE events that had not been covered by TSS earlier this year and last year were hailed as souless, with hardly anybosy participating.
I’m happy to report that SAGE 7, although not setting the world alight, has been a massive improvement since we last covered SAGE in March 2002. Although he often gets a lot of flak for his work (and mostly coming across as a big-head: not my words), Luckett X has done an excellent job running SAGE this year. Continue reading SAGE Coverage Complete
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SSMB member, Mad Ad, talked exclusively to Dreadknux about the almost damn-near certainty of a Fighting Fan Game, including members of the SSMB. Dreadknux has given Mad Ad permission to use the SSMB and TSS name in this Fan Game, along with sprites of his character.
The plan for the fighting game is not one large game, it is lots of small instalment-like games, with each instalment being a match. Each game will be small, as it will be part of an ongoing fighting series. There is a league planned using this format style.
The way it is planned to play is very much like a basic form of Smash Bros. Characters will have a limited attack range, but scenery in stages will provide many inventive ideas for other methods of attack. Continue reading SSMB Fighting Game?
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