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Please note that this site is no longer being updated or maintained; as a result, there may be design issues, and links to images and other media may be broken.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.
Many of you will now be aware of the magnitude 8.9 earthquake that has caused major damage across the north coast of Japan. The Tsunami has already killed many, and shown us incredible scenes of cars, boats and ships being swept away. Like many of you, I have a strong connection with Japan and people living there, and I’m sure the images being shown have been incredibly distressing to watch.
I have been in communication with SEGA composer Jun Senoue and SEGA of America community manager Aaron Webber, who are both in Tokyo at the moment; you will be relieved that both are safe and unharmed. Aaron recently updated his facebook status: “We’re stranded right now, but alive. We’ll make it.”
TSSZ have also updated their site on the current situation and have also been in touch with their Japan based reporter, Danny Russell. “We have just touched base with him, and we are happy and lucky to report he is safe and all right.” TSSZ also have several useful links if you are concerned about any friends or relatives near or in the affected areas.
I’m sure I speak on behalf of the community in sending our thoughts to Jun, Aaron, the SoA team in Japan, and all of those affected by these events.
[UPDATE 4:00AM GMT from Jason Berry]This TSSZ article comes a bit of a surprise out of the current Earthquake news. In what appears to be a case of bad timing, this was the week that the Sonic 4 Video Contest winners finally arrived at the Sega offices in Japan. They were chaperoned by Arron Webber. Some have posted on their Twitter accounts that they and everyone else are safe and sound.
As always, our thoughts and prayers are with all the victims of this tragic event.
[UPDATE 5:00PM GMT from T-Bird] Yuji Naka has placed a message on facebook to let everyone know he and his family are safe and well.
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Many of you who have set foot in a Summer of Sonic event will know Kevin “AAUK” Eva. If you’ve read the SEGA blogs or have dealt with SEGA, you will have no doubt dealt with him at some point along the way. Unfortunately, as of today Mr. Eva is hanging up his Sonic shoes and parting ways with SEGA.
Kevin has, amongst a plethora of feats spearheaded many of the community related events over the past four years, most notably creating the Summer of Sonic convention with TSS creator Dreadknux, which has gone from strength to strength over three years.
AAUK talks a bit about what he hoped he would achieve at his time at SEGA:
My initial goals of being here have been realised; SEGA is now very much aware of the Community and has a great deal of respect for it, other matters I’ve been fighting for over the years have been realised too and I think it would be fair to say the direction Sonic is going is most assuredly upwards. I’m stopping as I’d like to try my hand at some other things, so it’s hardly that I hate that hedgehog, what exactly I’ve yet to really decide on but things that don’t involve hedgehogs 24/7 would probably be nice(!) You’ll not be completely rid of me within the community, I’m still the main organiser behind Summer Of Sonic for this year anyway and I’ll probably still be active on Sonic Wrecks and other places. This, is who I Am.
You can read the full sign-off on the SEGA blognik. I for one would like to thank Kevin on behalf of the community for going above and beyond the call of duty, and for the many sleepless nights involved in mobilising Summer of Sonic. SEGA has surely lost a valuable asset.
If you have any farewells or messages of thanks for AAUK, please do post them in the comments.
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Web podcast Destroy All Slackers get down to the nitty gritty with Howard Drossin, sound composer for Sonic & Knuckles, Sonic Spinball and Sonic and the Black Knight (along with some other amazing titles like Comix Zone!) in their latest podcast released.
Drossin gives a very frank account of working for SEGA, putting the Spinball theme in two hours and the big question that seems to still be on everyone’s mind of Michael Jackson’s involvement in Sonic the Hedgehog 3 – it’s a fantastic interview, so do go check it out!
Oh…and if like me you’d eat your own hat to hear a Howard Drossin compilation CD (with unreleased stuff!), let your voice be heard in the comments!
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Loads of you are dying to know details about Summer of Sonic 2011 and are inundating our inboxes with questions – I can assure you we will be bringing you details on this year’s event as soon as we can! So while you patiently wait, you can watch the retrospective episode of last year’s Summer of Sonic courtasy of the Sonic Show, right here on TSS (its nice an interactive too!) Enjoy!
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It’s 3am on Thursday, the 3rd of February, and fortunately for me Groundhog day won’t be repeating itself for me (although today seems to have gone on forever!) However for many of our American fans, their local groundhog will have predicted whether or not they will be having 6 more weeks of winter, of if early spring is on it’s way.
However the tradition of calling the 2nd of February “Hedgehog Day” was a tradition continued by SEGA since the announcement of Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 1 a year ago. The SEGA America Blog is celebrating Hedgehog day in a very mysterious way…and no, I don’t mean the hedgehog weather-sensing facts either!
Keen-eyed fans will notice that certain letters are highlighted throughout the blog, and in order, spell “Berlin”.
Is SEGA giving us a hint as to a possible announcement that could take place soon in Berlin? Are the SoA employees enslaved to write the blog trying to tell us the city in which they have been locked in a dungeon and chained to a laptop? Is Sonic changing his name to Hans and moving to Germany? No doubt many fans will find this too much of a coincidence, and with two or three Sonic titles in the works this year, this is bound to get the fans talking.
So what’s going on? Answers on a back of a postcard…or let’s hear your conspiracy theories or know-how in the comments!
UPDATE: LordSpeed has a pretty convincing theory:
“Isaiah Berlin with his essay called “The Hedgehog and the Fox” takes the hedgehog as the type of the person who knows “one big thing”, as opposed to the fox, who knows many things. This was taken from a poem by Archilochus -> (image of Sega Blog) (Wikipedia).”
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Well, here’s a story that will warm your heart up and maybe even bring a tear to your eye. ArchangelUK over at the Sonic City Blognik has posted up a touching story about a young boy with a life threatening illness who recently turned 4 called J-Jay. J-Jay is a huge Sonic fan and his biggest wish was to have his hero Sonic share his Birthday with him. Thanks to the combined efforts of the Make-A-Wish Foundation and SEGA Benelux the lad’s wish came true. A special Sonic themed Birthday party with Sonic himself in attendance was thrown to celebrate brave little J-Jay’s big day.
Check out the full story with loads more photos over at the Sonic City Blognik.
For more details about the Make-A-Wish Foundation, head over to their official website.
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Newgrounds animator Egoraptor returns, this time with another Sonic-themed videogame parody, this time of the 32X title Knuckles Chaotix (if you haven’t seen the original Awesome the Hedgehog, check it out here). Expect lots of street talkin’ , a totally stacked Espio the chameleon, and an Oscar award-winning performance from Knuckles at the finale. Get your hankies ready.
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Doctor MK, the man behind the successful Sonic Relief fundraiser has kicked off this years event at the SSMB today with the below details of what’s happening and how you can get involved. Take it away, Doctor MK! (Rhyme unintended :p)
Sonic Relief is back at last for its third and final year of fundraising antics! Following the success of the previous two campaigns, Sonic Relief 2011 aims to be bigger and better than ever so as to make it a swansong to remember. Our target for this year is £500+ as it would mean over the three years of Sonic Relief we will have raised over £1,000 for charity – quite the achievement to bow out on! That’s not to say we don’t want to reach for the stars though… let’s give the Sonic Marathon a run for its money if we can, and regain our crown as the most successful Sonic fundraiser!
Entry Submissions
Show off your creative talents in aid of a good cause! Simply create your own piece of humorous Sonic fan art/music/video/etc (the possibilities are endless!) and every one we receive will go towards raising money.
You can either post your entries in this designated topic on SSMB or alternatively e-mail your entries to sonicreliefuk@hotmail.co.uk – the best entries will be in with a chance of winning some goodies! (prizes yet to be revealed)
The theme for entries this year returns to “something funny”, but we’d love to see some entries that incorporate our new Blue Noses to help promote the campaign. So once you’ve made your masterpiece and entered, share it with the world and help to spread the Sonic Relief love across the interweb!
A different kind of entry we will also accept this year comes under the heading of ‘Sonic Relief DIY’, for which we want to see you going out into the big wide world and doing your own spot of Sonic fundraising! Have a sponsored day in blue, participate in a fun run dressed as our favourite ‘hog, make a calendar with your friends, literally anything you can think of – and then pass the proceeds onto us! Simples! Details (preferably with some photographic evidence) of your efforts should be posted in this here topic and the money raised donated via our JustGiving page.
THE DEADLINE FOR ENTRIES WILL BE FRIDAY 18TH MARCH 2011.
Donations are not compulsory alongside entries this year, however they are obviously encouraged if you have money to give.
Donations
Want to do your bit to help but don’t necessarily fancy having to make an entry, or want to accompany your entry with a donation? Then we’ve got you covered! Simply head on over to www.justgiving.com/sonicreliefuk and you can pledge as much as you want to our cause – and all the money goes straight to the charity! You’ll need a credit/debit card to use JustGiving, but it’s simple and safe!
THE DEADLINE FOR DONATIONS WILL BE FRIDAY 18TH MARCH 2011.
Sonic Relief is branching out into all-new horizons with the Blue Noses, our most ambitious and exciting feature to date! We want each and every one of you to don one of our Blue Noses on your avatars, signatures, profile pictures, etc to help spread the word about our campaign and hopefully provide some laughs in the process!
The process is simple, as demonstrated here by Sonic the Hedgehog himself:
You can get your hands on a Blue Nose in a variety of sizes to suit every purpose here:
XS (20×20)
Small (30×30)
Medium (50×50)
Large (100×100)
XL (150×150)
Feel free to resize the Noses to suit your images as necessary, or if you need us to slap a Blue Nose onto your avatar for you then just let us know!
We’d love to see some of your entries incorporating the Blue Noses and don’t forget to post any of your Blue Nose images here in this topic – perhaps we could make a collage out of them all at the end of the campaign!
There’s plenty more to be excited about during the course of Sonic Relief 2011, with many creative projects already underway!
Sonic: The Age of Steam, the steampunk Sonic fan-fiction being written by yours truly, kicked off earlier this year and you can look forward to reading the rest of the story in the coming weeks! We’ve had some great steampunk badnik designs too, amongst other support – this is truly turning into a real community project! You can read the story and check out all the artwork so far at the official blog. We’d love to see your The Age of Steam inspired entries, also!
RadioSEGA DJ Gavvie is also returning to help out with Songs For Sonic 2, which follows in the vein of the original album from last year, but this time featuring originally mixed tracks exclusively for Sonic Relief 2011! The album will be available to download soon.
Sonic Relief and RadioSEGA are also planning to team up at some point during the campaign for Blue Nose Day, a radio-thon of musical and fundaising fusion! Stay tuned for futher details.
These and many other individual projects are going on right now as well, such as Glenn Scully’s The Shadow of a GUN fan-fic, so please show your support to each and every one of them and pledge accordingly!
Let’s make this the Sonic fundraiser to end all Sonic fundraisers!
For more information about Comic Relief, head over to the official website.
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Over five days playing through a hundred games, SDA smashed their donations target to raise over $52,000 for the Prevent Cancer Foundation. But you’re here to see Sonic, surely?
One top guy taking part was Joe Stanski, one of – or perhaps the – top Sonic 2 player on the net. He had a simple remit – plug the game into a Sega Genesis, and get through the game as fast as possible in one attempt. On the Player 2 side providing somewhat questionable (but capsule-hitting good) assistance was MercuryZelda, who “won” a donation battle against everyone else at the marathon.
[youtube width=”640″ height=”265″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBZMEJtRrRk#t=4m35s[/youtube]
Gameplay starts at 4:35.
Here’s the level results:
Emerald Hill: 0:22, 0:39
Chemical Plant: 0:24, 0:53 +0:10
Aquatic Ruin: 0:23, 0:59
Casino Night: 0:31, 1:12
Hill Top: 0:44, 1:06
Mystic Cave: 0:38, 0:47
Oil Ocean: 0:42, 1:04
Metropolis: 1:13, 0:20, 1:40 +1:23 🙁
Sky Chase: 2:06
Wing Fortress: 2:00
Death Egg: 0:51
SDA are uploading all the game runs from AGDQ right now, at http://speeddemosarchive.com/marathon/schedule/, so check it out. There’s a number of good runs on there: Funkdoc’s demolition of the (S)NES Castlevania series; Kareshi taking on the ultra-hard Ghosts ‘n Goblins series; four people destroying four copies of Ocarina of Time; an Expert and Master mode run of Super Monkey Ball; Mike Uyama and Funkdoc one-credit clearing Streets of Rage 2 Mania with default lives…
Just… pretend Halo doesn’t exist.
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French Sonic fansite Eversonic received a parcel from SEGA France yesterday revealing the company’s secret to keep Sonic looking young and hip in the years ahead …anti-aging cream. Yes, just 20 years old and already on the cosmetics. In all seriousness though, it’s a pretty funny piece of Anniversary merchandise. The cream inside the tub is even blue. Nice one, SEGA France.
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I don’t know how this took 6 years to hit international waters. Apparently the Middle East shares our love of Sonic, and for the release of Sonic Heroes in ’04, McDonalds in Pakistan duly responded with the same terrible LCD games the rest of us got in our Happy Meals.
…and by “our”, I mean “your”; I’m way too old for Happy Meals. Honest.
Thing is, it looks like the overworked and underpaid animators for the advert only had those games to work with, and left their glasses at home. The result is quite horrific.
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8-4.jp has posted up scans of various New Year’s postcards that they’ve received from various companies in the gaming industry and one such company is SEGA Japan, who sent out the above post card featuring new artwork of Sonic in a snazzy white tuxedo alongside the 20th Anniversary emblem.
What do you think of the postcard? Do you like Sonic’s posh threads? Should Sonic wear trousers? Speak out in the comments.
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Long-standing community member Psyguy has launched an initiative for a fan tribute to celebrate Sonic the Hedgehog’s 20th Anniversary. The plan is to create a digital art book featuring a collection of “some of the best artwork from around the globe.”
It’s a project that follows the lead that Udon Comics established with the Street Fighter and Darkstalkers Tribute books. Fanart old and new will be considered, but limited space means only the cream of the crop will get included in the 100 pages planned. There are no plans to actually publish the project when completed, but naturally Psy is open to anyone that might want to sponsor such an endeavour. Udon? Sega?
If you fancy getting your work included in the digital booklet (or have some additional questions to ask about the project) then you can find all the details – along with already-submitted pieces – on its website. If you have an SSMB account and fancy throwing your thoughts into the ring, you can go to the SSMB topic here too.
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Some of you may recall a Sonic Retro forum goer by the name of Sammybeany and his colorful opinions on the Sega community event held back in November. You may also remember the infamous clock he received as a gift for attending that he was not too happy with. Well, he sold that clock on eBay which was immediately purchased by Ben Kalough, another Sonic fan who was at the event.
After purchasing the clock, he sent it along with some candy and a card back to Sega. Sega has written an article all about it on their official blogs which you can find in our link down below. They seem to have a good sense of humor about the whole situation. Let’s hope they put as much effort into improving Episode 2 as they do joking with their critics.
Click on the photo to see Sega’s blog.
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Normally I’m not big on marathons, because, well, I kinda like to see games played well. What sets SDA apart from other groups that organise marathons though, is that, without exception, all the players are experts in speedrunning the games they play. This motley crew includes Super Mario Bros. world record holder Andrew Garkidis who will be playing said game blindfolded, a man called Joe Stanski who you can see plastered all over Sonic records portal The Sonic Center’s Sonic 2 time records, and The Speed Gamers‘ Kari Johnson, better known as the girl that speedruns Final Fantasy games without saving. This is a group you don’t want to #### with.
Unfortunately, Sonic isn’t going to be well-represented this time. In fact, it’ll only be Stanski on Sonic 2. But you guys want to see this game destroyed live on camera in less than half an hour anyway, surely? Joining Sonic from the Sega camp are classics like Moonwalker, Earthworm Jim, Rocket Knight Adventures and Streets of Rage 2, as well as not-so-classic but still awesome games like Super Monkey Ball and Bayonetta.
In addition to all this cool gaming, donations of $5 and up will get you into a raffle for small prizes related to that game, and the top donations will decide important, or not so important, aspects of the run like character and weapon choices, character names in RPGs etc. Finally, some games will be races between 2-4 top players, and there’ll be live piano accompaniment for a couple games as well.
Bound to be a fair bit of fun, so if you’re in, check out the schedule, and turn up at the SDA site starting on Thursday at 9PM GMT for a top marathon ending on Tuesday at 8AM.
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A group of gamers from Respawn-Point (namely Zack, Nathan, Dan and Damien) are holding a Sonic gaming marathon in which they are raising money for the Child’s Play charity by playing nearly every game in Sonic’s library non-stop for 7 days. The event kicked off on December 27th and will run until January 3rd in the New Year, so there is still plenty of time to tune in and get involved. For a donation as little as $3 you’ll be entered into a raffle to win a Sonic game, of which one of the titles being given away is Sonic Colours (PAL version).
The guys are hoping to raise at least $500 total and are already well on their way with $203 raised at the time of this article. To take part, head over to the website. You can donate via the widget on the page there using PayPal.
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Not much for me to really say here. If you’re just joining us, check out the first page and the primer that explains the Gran Gordo persona here. As for the little hints at romance below, well…they where originally suggested in the official Sonic X comic, and they where not taken much farther then they are here.
Tracy Yardley is the primary artist for Sonic Universe, and before that was the primary artist for the main book and did lots of work on Sonic X. Sonic Eggs is an ECC comic from Jason Berry, aka Jason the Jackass of Sonic Stadium. It is a continuation/parody of the Sonic X comic, and takes place within the X continuity, though is self aware enough of the continuity’s faults to make them the butt of many of the strip’s jokes. The first two issues of Sonic Eggs, as well as the Egg Whites strips and a variety of other comics, can be found at Emerald Coast Comics.
This is the final page in the holiday special. With this up, happy holidays, we’ll see you next Saturday when the regular Eggs story resumes.
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Tracy went above and beyond with this page. It’s rather large, but very well done, and he even added a nice action scene into the mix, at the expense if adding an extra half page to the comic. Our holiday tale has reached it’s climax now. Enjoy!
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Yes, this ones a little late today. It’s actually been up on ECC since noon, but I’ve been too busy to put it up here today. In any case, here it is!
This was was drawn, colored, and lettered by Archie Sonic artist Tracy Yardley. It was written by Sonic Eggs creator Jason Berry. You can see Yardley’s DA here.
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I like to think Aaron sits around in his dining room enjoying a glass of sherry, listening to uplifting Vivaldi overtures, and delivering gifts to children all over the world on Christmas day.
Who agrees with WebKitty and thinks the special dude being chased by the square man is so cute?
Answers in the comments box please…
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Angie at Crush40-fanclub.de had a chance to catch up with Sonic music legend and Danger Danger vocalist Ted Poley to interview him on his work past and present, as well as his collaboration work with Jun Senoue on tracks such as “Escape from the City” from Sonic Adventure 2 and “We Can” from Sonic Heroes.
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Sonic Eggs is a spoof/continuation of Archie’s Sonic X comic book series, which itself was an in continuity expansion of the first series of the Sonic X TV series. It’s written by TSS’s Jason Berry. You can find the series on Emerald Coast Comics, a repository of Sonic fan comics I suggest you all take a look at. It’s not all good stuff, I recommend you stay away from Staffers, but still check it out! This page continues on from where the last page left off yesterday.
This page was written by Jason Berry, edited by myself and drawn, colored, and lettered by the ever so awesome Tracy Yardley!
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Yes folks, as a special Christmas treat I have commissioned Tracy Yardley to do the art, colors and letters for a 5-page Sonic Eggs Christmas special written by Sonic Stadium editor Jason Berry. You may remember Tracy doing some work for the main Eggs late in the summer.
The first page is going up now, and it’ll be followed by a new page every day up to Christmas eve.
But first, I know some of you have never read the Sonic X comic and may not be familiar with one of the characters in this special, “El Gran Gordo”.
El Gran Gordo is basically Dr. Eggman’s “Good” persona. He was created by Ian Flynn around Sonic X #26 in which Eggman hatched a scheme to make extra money for his plots by posing a fake luchador wrestler. He used a form of trickery using heavy magnets and nanomachines to force his opponents to the mat. Chris Thorndyke (the snotty little rich kid in the anime XD) is a huge fan of El Gran Gordo while Sonic sees through Eggman’s disguise. Sonic challenged Egg-errr “El Gran Gordo” to a match and the two duked it out with Sonic as the victor. However, for the sake of Chris feelings, Sonic kept Eggmans persona a secret.
Eggman ended up loving the adoration of the crowd and would then go on to show up in a few more issues. Even playing the good guy! Errrr…sorta. Even to the point of teaming up with Sonic and making him his new sidekick “El Rapido Azule”. In Sonic X #32, Sonic finally forced Eggman to give up his “El Gran Gordo” persona. Guess he’d a rather have Eggman as a villain than to share the spotlight of adoration with anyone. It should also be noted that Eggman has a huge crush on the Thorndykes heavy housemaid Ella (both of which are voiced by Mike Pollock in the anime). While Ella can’t stand Eggman, she does have a thing for El Gran Gordo.
And now, without further ado…
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It’s become a real pain in the old Butnik over the past few years with the Sonic the Hedgehog music market becoming flooded with bootleg CDs, and it’s really sad to see so many fans blowing their hard-earned dosh on CDs that aren’t the genuine article. Anyway, I’ve put together a brief youtube video pointing out some handy hints and tips that you can follow to identify the official CD releases and avoid picking up a bootleg!
If you guys have any questions, feel free to throw them out in the comments – we’ll do our best to answer them!
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Hohoho! It’s only just turned December,yet all of us here in merry old England are already snowed under! Don’t worry though; we’re all wrapped up warm at TSS HQ eating mince pies and drinking mulled wine. Christmas is coming though, and Santa will be loading his sleigh with merch! Unfortunately to make room for the new, and we need to get rid of it all on Sunday during Project 24!
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You probably thought that most of the Sonic Team Old Guard don’t really get on. Well, today Yuji Naka proved that this was not the case, as he posted photos on his Twitter account about an encounter with Sonic the Hedgehog designer Naoto Oshima! The artist, who left Sega shortly after Sonic Adventure to form Artoon, visited Naka’s PROPE studio and brought with him a little gift.
I think it’s fair to say we all want that picture. Yuji Naka then posted a Tweet with the following photo, adding that current Sonic Team boss Takashi Iizuka joined the pair for some dinner in a local grilled chicken restaurant. Beers in hand as well, it seems like. The Japanese work hard and dine hard as well, it seems.
This funky meeting of minds most likely served absolutely no purpose other than to have old friends sit down and have a few drinks – but no doubt the topic of Sonic will come up. We can just imagine Naka-san asking Iizuka how work is like, with Iizuka throwing his hands up and jovially exclaiming “oh you know, the same old. That crazy fanbase, eh?” followed by chuckles around the table.
All three developers have had a big hand in shaping Sonic into the gaming icon he is today – Naka-san programmed the original Sonic games, and led Sonic Team during the Dreamcast era, while Naoto Oshima designed the Sonic characters themselves. Takashi Iizuka, although he largely oversees development on modern Sonic titles, began his tenure at the studio working as a level designer for Sonic 3 and Knuckles, and was the lead game designer for NiGHTS into Dreams.
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Fellow merch-hogs like myself love our Sonic themed merchandise, and Summer of Sonichas over the past few years been the source of exclusive items both sold and given away, including archie comic page originals, Crush 40 merchandise and goodie-bags. But from what we have heard from you guys is that you can’t get enough – we couldn’t believe how fast we were wiped out of nearly all of our merchandise this year!
So, we want to hear what you guys want to see at Summer of Sonic next year! But please guys, realistic ideas are much more helpful! In order to submit your ideas, head over to the Summer of Sonic website and let Mr. AAUK know!
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Well, we’re nothing if not truly grateful for the number of people who pass through The Sonic Stadium and take the time to enjoy the content we offer you guys. But I never expected such an awesome response to our 10th Anniversary – you can see some creations already submitted to us right here and the banners at the top of each page have been created by someone in the community too.
I’ve been sitting on these other fantastic submissions for a while now, so it’s time I gave these guys some love!
Tobibrocki has drawn some fantastic art pieces for us in the past, but this one surely takes the cake. Tails is more than happy to engage in reckless vandalism in the name of TSS, and Sonic’s celebrating the occasion by wearing some Way Past Cool threads. Sally’s gone and had our site name sketched on her boots, and Amy is admiring the reaction on Dr. Eggman’s face. If only we were called The Eggman Stadium, eh? Bonus points for random bird in the background. Thanks Tobibrocki!
‘Sonicismyhero’ took the time to do this brilliant sketch of Sonic partying next to a 10th Anniversary birthday cake. With the submission he wrote; “Though I am more of a lurker than a commenter, I browse almost every article you write up, and am always there for the latest news you post. Thank-you for all your hard work, and dedication you’ve put in through the years. I can remember the sites early years like it was yesterday.” Aw, well thanks for all the hard work for doing this awesome drawing, Sonicismyhero. I hope we can kick it for years to come.
This lovely picture was sent to me by CTOONfan1, who felt that the event was best marked by showcasing some of the most popular characters in the Sonic franchise. I’m not sure if Shadow really wants to wish TSS a happy anniversary – he looks like he wants to punch our heads in. Bad moods aside, we love this picture, so thank you CTOONfan1!
Kjeld told me that he went for a “new sort of [art] style” with this one. The result is above, and it makes me laugh for reasons unexplained. It might be the absurd stickman nature of the characters, or it might be Knuckles’ absurd grin, or it could be Tails’ absurd face. Either way, it’s delightfully absurd, and you’ll notice that Kjeld made a banner for TSS in this style too. Thanks for this mate.
Finally, TYoshi created this short video using Sonic Advance sprites to congratulate us on a successful ten years of existing. Blink and you’ll miss it, but it’s a great message and we really appreciate the time taken to make an animation for us. Cheers!
UPDATE: ProjectZuel was kind enough to create another image to celebrate TSS’ 10th birthday, and it features none other than Dreadknux himself, proudly standing tall with the =TSS= flag. I haven’t used the Dreadknux avatar in quite some time, so it’s pretty cool that someone remembers my neon green online persona. Many thanks, ProjectZuel, and we also wish you another 10 Way Past Cool Years. Erm, not that you’re not likely to see them, or anything… er… what I mean is, thanks.
We’ll be celebrating/catching up on more TSS content from the past over the coming weeks – particularly before the end of the year as it would cease to be our 10th Anniversary.
… it’ll be our ELEVENTH ANNIVERSARY, which is even COOLER! Aw yeah. Screw our 10th. Can’t wait for our 11th. Everyone knows 11 is the new 10. Thanks once again for all the well wishes from everyone – whether you made something to celebrate the occasion or not – and we’ll keep trying to be the best fansite we can be! Much love!
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SEGASonic Radio is gearing itself for another Project 24 event (Sunday 5th December 2010), and to celebrate I’ve finally found time to update the podcast feed to The Sonic Hour, the radio station’s flagship live show. Presented by myself (Dreadknux) and Roareye Black, TSH has been going for something like 6 years now – almost as long as The Sonic Stadium itself!
Since our very first episode in Christmas 2003, we’ve recorded a total of 93 episodes and at least 3 specials. We’ve had several presenter line-ups to join the ‘Dread x Roareye’ tag team, from Anarchy Rat in the early days to Jemnezmy most recently, and all kinds of special guests inbetween.
Project 24 will also mark the first episode of Series 6 of The Sonic Hour. As always, we will be live on air between 6pm – 7pm GMT every Sunday (please check your timezones for your area), with #601 broadcasting on the 5th December.
A sixth series, and the 100th episode right around the corner?! How in the hell did we ever get this popular? Is it our randomness? Our lame attempts at humour? Our insistent Sonic music playlist of awesome? Police Lieutenant Smith? Lyle the Bear? Rory’s Monologue? Dodgy Dread’s Emporium of Sonic Chintz? WongWatch? Or was it just Sonic Pants?
Either way, you can now catch up with every single episode of the show! Subscribe to us on iTunes (US Link / UK link, or you can simply crack open iTunes and search for “The Sonic Hour”), hit the raw XML feed here, or just download each individual track on our Media portal. If you’re already subscribed to us on iTunes, right-click the podcast and select “Show all available episodes” and the older ones will appear.
Due to popular demand as well, all Series 4 and Series 5 episodes have been re-encoded into AAC-HE format, cutting down filesize dramatically with just as much sound quality. The m4a files can be read in almost every music program – or at least, every music program worth using that’s for sure. If you’re struggling, use either iTunes or VLC.
If you’re new to the delights of the very first regular radio broadcast in the Sonic community, why not give The Sonic Hour a spin? I warn you right now though: it’s NOT for the faint of heart, and it’s pretty explicit in content. You will most definitely lose several brain cells as well.
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So, who’s got Colours DS? Playing it right now? If you are, then stop what you’re doing immediately.
Mahzes over at the SSMB was happily swimming running (this ain’t the Wii version, kid) through Aquarium Park 2 when he discovered a horrifying side-effect of respawning Wisp powerups.
Misjudged the angle of a Laser Wisp. Instead of bouncing off the angle, I hit the vertical wall and bounced back… into the same Laser Wisp power-up I just got. I kept bouncing. And bouncing. And OH GOD WHY WON’T IT STOP?! D8 D8
(Thanks to Mahzes, and to Gnasher for originally exposing the Wisps’ agenda to the world.)
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Tyson Hesse who does the hilarious strip Boxer Hockey has put together another another hilarious Sonic comic. This one dealing with Sonic Colors. Where does he get the ideas for these drawings?!
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Since the first screenshots and gameplay footage was shown of Sonic Colours on Wii there have been some fans craving an HD version of the game. While that doesn’t seem to be happening, we can at least now have a glimpse at what Sonic Colours might look like with high-resolution 1080p graphics thanks to screenshots and video from JADS, who ran the game through the Dolphin emulator and shared the images and video at NeoGAF.
What do you think of the pics and video? Share your thoughts in the comments.
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Microsoft’s new Kinect sensor for Xbox 360 is hitting U.S. stores shortly and what better way to help grab interest than for Microsoft to show all Xbox 360’s Xbox Live users the launch game line-up in an Inside Xbox video, what could possibly go wrong? Well, it appears the Inside Xbox team haven’t paid too much attention to SEGA’s Sonic Free Riders, because they seem to have it confused with the original Sonic Riders title on Xbox, PlayStation 2 and Gamecube. When Microsoft’s Bridget O’Neill gets to the game at the 02:34 mark, a trailer for Sonic Riders is on display, logo and all. Before the end of the video the Sonic Riders logo (seen below) is shown again and O’Neill refers to the title as Sonic Riders, too.
You have to wonder, how does the company behind the Xbox 360 confuse an original Xbox title with an Xbox 360 game, especially one that’s launching the next day, only on their new Kinect peripheral? Now, I wonder what SEGA would have to say about this comical promotional failure…
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Rally’s also come up with a fresh new design this year, Rouge the Bat.
Cutting out a pumpkin and roaming the streets this year, or locking yourself in and switching the lights off so it looks like no-one’s home, like I am? >_> Either way, let us know in the comments.
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A while ago, Brad and I asked for some of you guys to get creative for The Sonic Stadium’s 10th Anniversary. We’ve had a couple of cool submissions since then – the fantastic banners from syaming-li and Roarey Raccoon notwithstanding of course!
First, here’s a nice art piece drawn up by lozfoe. Sonic and Tails throw a party, with the blue blur about to scoff some birthday cake. Tails looks like he’s having a mad time as well, even if it does look like his temperature’s being taken. A cute piece of artwork, and really appreciated lozfoe, thanks!
The second thing we got in our mailbox was this short video from FTA, one of the chaps behind Find the Computer Room. Sonic, Tails, Knuckles and Shadow all opine on their favourite Sonic fansites. Apparently, this place is Sonic’s #1 site to chill out at. That’s quite some praise, coming from the ‘hog himself. Is it your favourite too?
Many thanks to lozfoe and FTA, and thank you all for supporting the site in all sorts of different ways! Let’s see if we can get through ten more years together! If you want to send in something to add to this post, send an email to dreadknux@gmail.com with your submission!
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Although I have a fair amount of Sonic the Hedgehog loot sitting in the merch lair, there are some folks out there who I think could probably put my collection to shame. Some of you youtubers out there might know a channel called Pete’s Game Room, which is a fantastic showcase of video games and video games merchandise, old, new and rare.
Anyway, last week Pete reviewed an item which is probably known to all you serious collectors out there; the 10th anniversary wine glass – for those of you who want to know more about it and see it outside of the occassional photo online, this is your chance!
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It should also be noted that Eggman has a huge crush on the Thorndykes heavy housemaid Ella (both of which are voiced by Mike Pollock in the anime). While Ella can’t stand Eggman, she does have a thing for El Gran Gordo.
