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Please note that this site is no longer being updated or maintained; as a result, there may be design issues, and links to images and other media may be broken.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.
It’s a strange time to be in the Sonic community at the moment, particularly if you run a fansite. For years, we’ve been able to post – as webmasters on TSS, Retro, SFGHQ, CulT or any other site – our thoughts and feelings of being Sonic fans, and not have to worry about possible tabloid ramifications in doing so. Running a website such as this is a hobby, nothing more, so personal feelings are surely going to be thrown into the mix. But these days there’s less of a feeling of community due to nobody talking to one another – perhaps as a result of such prejudicial fear.
It’s been harder for the poor guys behind the Sonic Amateur Games Expo this year, who are now the new targets of such unwanted gossip. With festivities kicking off tomorrow, there have been fangame creators who have had some trouble in getting demos online, or in other cases pulling out of the show entirely. Such activity isn’t new; as a dedicated (and at times, official) coverage-provider of the SAGE event, I know that such bad situations are part and parcel of a hobby activity that dedicated fans undertake in their spare time. Sometimes work gets you down, you have a kid, money’s tight, or some social event happens in your life, and you just need to put your fan project on hold for a bit. With such trivial matters being highlighted as headline news though, it’s even less fun for those fangame creators involved.
This next week is all about celebrating Sonic fangames, and the people behind those projects who put their free time into it all. They don’t owe us anything. They’re hardly obligated to even finish their games (and many who set out to make a fangame seldom do). SAGE was created to be a structured exposition on the year’s best fangames, but again it’s not an obligation to show your game. Fangames aren’t a business, it’s a hobby. Some of can forget that we’re only in this community to have some fun.
So when SAGE opens, people should all just kick back and enjoy that hobby, whether those people be the creators showing off screens, videos and demos of their labours of love; or the visitors that play, watch and get impressed with the work that one or two people at home are capable of achieving.
Tomorrow, TSS will be covering SAGE, and we’ll be in it to have some fun. Come and join us, or play the games yourself when the site opens at http://www.sagexpo.org/
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It’s about time I started adding back some of the really old content TSS used to have on here, and I’m making some progress now by relaunching the Comics Zone. It’s not hard to miss on the sidebar – look for the flashing ‘new’ icon. It aims to be a vault of information on the Archies, Sonic the Comics, random Japanese Manga and all sorts of other miscellaneous books that get discovered.
At the moment, you can view information on Fleetway’s Sonic the Comic from Issues 1 to 11. Now that the section’s relaunched, I’ll find time every now and then to add a few more issues to the archive. So for now, enjoy a Fleetway blast from the past while I get more stuff together for you.
The Games Archive is requiring a little rethink before I fully relaunch that – having said that, you can see full-view boxart of M&S at the Olympic Winter Games by going to its archive directly here.
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There are many reasons why The Sonic Show, the video podcast that’s hosted on the TSS Network, is incredibly awesome. This is merely one of those reasons – a trailer for ‘Shadow the Hedgehog 2’. Note my incredible journalism skills and AAUK’s special detective skills. And T-Bird screaming like a girl.
In other news, TSS (and the Network) will be moving servers quite soon, which is also the reason we’ve not made much progress on the Summer of Sonic website. Updates are incoming, we swear. Oh, and remember – The Sonic Hour returns thus Sunday, 6pm GMT/BST.
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SEGASonic Radio will see the return of its flagship LiVECAST very soon! The Sonic Hour has been a weekly comedy podcast that covers the week’s events in Sonic the Hedgehog, with the presenters (Dreadknux and Roareye Black) generally getting off topic and talking about random things in the process.
The plan was to bring back TSH in time for Sonic the Hedgehog’s 18th birthday (which, given the show regularly broadcasts on a Sunday evening, would have made that tomorrow night) but there’s another birthday sitting in the way of proceedings. Svend’s very own one!
So while Dread celebrates his 24th birthday, you can relive classic episodes of The Sonic Hour with the brand new podcast feed! Click here to find the feed, or you can find the listing on iTunes (due to a technical hitch we have had to change the iTunes feed URL, so you may still be getting a 404 error if you subscribe that way. Should be fixed in a while).
TSH has been going for as long as SEGASonic Radio’s been doing live broadcasts, so we’re periodically adding episodes over the next week. You can already catch the entirety of Series 1 and 3, with Series 4 being populated and the elusive, rare Series 2 coming very soon. The SSR website will also be getting updated soon with a page dedicated to TSH and all it stands for – keep an eye on SSR’s website for details.
Series 5 will begin on SEGASonic Radio, on Sunday 12th July 2009 at 6pm BST (11am US Pacific time). Make sure you keep the date booked for listening to our live feed, and visit our live IRC chatroom at irc.surrealchat.net to chat while we relaunch the LiVECAST! See you then!
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You might have noticed me going on about a Twitter account that I use every now and again. I’ve been dabbling with the thing for a while now, for personal use and all that. But then it hit me that I could use it to update you guys on site happenings and what-have you outside of TSS. If that makes any sense. The bonus is, I can send news posts and everything onto my Twitter for you to be updated with, and I can ticker it – as a result, it has replaced the News Feed ticker, which was proving to be a headache/drain on site resources as it is.
I was going to make a new account for this, but I figure it’ll be more colourful and interesting to use my current account instead. So if you want to follow my antics and keep up to date on when TSS is maintained then click the links in the scrolling ticker there and be my friend. 🙂 I like friends.
Oh, I’m aware that the SSR (and to an extent, the SoS) site borks in Internet Explorer. Sigh. I’m going to get right on that today — and Sega very kindly sent me a copy of Let’s Tap. Is Naka-san back? I’ll review it for you guys soon enough.
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.
SEGASonic Radio was about the third Sonic the Hedgehog-themed radio station to hit the ‘Zone Radio Network so many years ago, but it easily became the world’s best-loved. With the recent server wipes and whatnot, progress on SSR has been slow, but I can happily announce that the new website is back online, and resident DJs are currently populating the pages on the site with details on their shows. I’m working on guiding them through on-site podcast publishing too, so you’ll be able to subscribe to a specific LiVECAST to listen to whenever you want. Check out the new SSR site now!
Related to that, it’s been a while since Roareye Black and myself have done an episode of The Sonic Hour, hasn’t it? Well, the wait for Series 5 is almost over, as I can tell you that The Sonic Hour will be returning to SEGASonic Radio on Sunday 28th June, 6pm BST! Save the date in your calendar, kiddies. We’ll probably have breadsticks to commemorate the occasion.
Now, the other big news this Summer is the return of the real-life fan convention known as the Summer of Sonic. Yes, it’s still happening, and yes it’ll still be on August 29th, 2009 in London, UK. We’re very close to finalising the venue, and we’ll be able to announce loads soon (in the meantime, I may tease some bits on my Twitter account!) – in the meantime, check out the new Summer of Sonic 2009 website! Click here to visit SOS 09!
All good stuff, yes? Yeaaaah it is. I have one or two more announcements left to give you guys, but I’ll wait a few days before I let loose on details there. 🙂 Enjoy listening to SSR, check out the IRC Chatroom and get psyched for the return of The Sonic Hour, and get doubly-excited for the Summer of Sonic 2009!
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One of the more surprising announcements to come out of E3 for Sonic fans, perhaps swamped by all the news of motion controllers and revamped handhelds, was the announcement of Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing. I think a lot of people were wondering, after a few attempts at tacking the hedgehog onto a racing game, when exactly SEGA were going to try and go for Mario Kart’s crown as multiplayer king. It certainly seems to have some quirks to it, when you watch the gameplay videos that have gone online. It could well be the manic, fun and non-super-hyper-realistic-epic racing game that Sonic Riders never really was.
As much as I’m dying to get my hands on the gameplay to make a final judgement, I’m most impressed with the design of the game. A lot has been borrowed from Sonic’s past, including the Green Hill/Seaside Hill fusion that brilliantly has some loops and other crazy things involved. But a lot has been spent towards other ‘Superstars’ in SEGA’s lineup too, including a Bill Hatcher stage which I heart. Because Billy Hatcher is awesome. It just seems like, while games such as Sonic 06 and Sonic Riders had a premise which didn’t fit Sonic’s style whatsoever, this racing game just gels with the character of Sonic perfectly.
SEGA put up a load of high-res screenshots recently, so we’ve taken the liberty of putting them on TSS for you to download. They’re from the 360/PS3 versions of the game, and they’re quite large. Use them as a wallpaper or something. That’s what I’m doing with that gorgeous Green/Seaside Hill track screenshot there.
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Well, I’ve spent a good two weeks in Tokyo with a bunch of close pals (including T-Bird, who came home with a truckload of Sonic merch – check out his latest article here) and had a real blast. Again, it seems Sonic the Hedgehog isn’t quite at the forefront of gamer’s minds in Japan as he is in the West – it makes for a bit of a strange culture shock. We’ve had many funny looks from otherwise courteous Japanese store assistants every time we asked for some ‘Sonikku za Hejihoggu’ merchandise. I guess they’re more into their Pokemon and Dragon Quests there.
Either way, it’s good to be back in Blighty, and my first port of call is to grace TSS’ guest editor, Paul Street, with a huge chunk of special thanks as he rode the site through an awesome Mario and Sonic exclusive for you, as well as keeping you up to date on the latest blue blur happenings. Many thanks to the rest of the TSS team as well as they kept about their business and filled in the blanks for me. You guys are great!
I’m spending the week re-couperating from the holiday so to speak – friends to meet, timezones to adjust to, work to catch up on – but I’ll be whipping up a few more TSS skins for you guys, rebuilding the SEGASonic Radio website and working on a few new pages in the Music Zone as well as working hard on an information page for a few games.
I’ll write in detail my Tokyo journey at a later date. For now, it’s a ‘hello again’ and a business as usual sign. A little reminder by the way that the Xbox 360 competition is now CLOSED and I will be showcasing all the entries (and picking a winner) in a few days time.
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Those of you with a good memory will remember last week I mentioned something about a little surprise I had for you all. Well today I’ve gone and let the proverbial hedgehog and plumber out of the bag as I’ve posted a hands on Preview of Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games. Oh yes, it’s right up there, to the top right hand side of the site for you to have a read over. Believe me when I say that game is worth getting excited about if you were a fan of the previous game. It’s probably time to start planning who’s sitting where in your imaginary Bobsleigh, made up of a row of chairs.
The entire event was great fun and I want to thank Dreadknux for offering me the experience, as I only went on his behalf because he was on holiday, and ArchangelUK for smuggling me in with an ace dude from Digital Spy to sit and play the game with some Swedish journalists, flown in especially for the day. In fact I was quite annoyed to hear it’d only taken them two-and-a-bit hours to get to London from Sweden while I’d been sat on a hot, sticky bus for four hours travelling down from Leeds.
As well as an excellent people smuggler I learnt AAUK is awesome at opening doors for people, going to find food for guests (I was too late though, Sega had eaten it all, even the fruit!) and synching Wii Remotes to a console.
The boss and T-Bird are back in a number of days but to try and ease my jealousy of their Japanese adventure I managed to track down some ‘Pocky’ in London. While it didn’t help in the slightest it tastes nice. I’ll be sticking around until then at least and maybe beyond if they like. This has all been great fun and a huge learning experience. It helps that 99% of the people who post comments or in the forum greatness. Thanks for all the words of support and I’ll do my best not to nuke the community in my final days!
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Hi people. It’s the start of a new week here at TSS and now that Dreadknux and T-Bird have been gone for a few days I’ve decided it’s time to introduce myself properly and explain the plan of action while the boss is away.
As a lifelong Sonic fan I’ve been an admirer of TSS for a while now but first started visiting the site regularly when I heard about Summer of Sonic last year. A few of you might have seen me stumbling around there in a daze; I’d driven down from Leeds to London and was overwhelmed by the 200 or so other people at the phenomenally successful event. I met Dreadknux and some other TSS staff members properly for the first time at the Sonic Unleashed Community Day a few months later, hosted by the always awesome ArchangelUK at Sega’s London HQ. Everyone was very friendly and it was encouraged to see so many people of a similar age as passionate about a speedy blue hedgehog as I am.
So when I received an e-mail from Dreadknux asking if I would look over TSS while he was on holiday I jumped at the chance to help him out. I’m fairly sure I offered my services to help any way I could but never expected anything like being a guest editor so it’s all quite exciting. You should see no change in the website while the boss away and it’s very much business as usual. Shadzter and Brad have already been posting as normal and I might chip in from time to time should I feel the need.
Oh, and you might want to keep your eyes peeled towards the end of next week here for something a little bit special. I’m not going to say too much about it right now but you’ll like it, I’m sure.
Anyway, I’d like to thank Dreadknux for trusting me with his baby and I’ll see the rest of you in the forums and maybe at Summer of Sonic this year!
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Hey guys, this will be my last update in quite a while – I’m off to Japan to enjoy the sights of Tokyo and Kyoto for two weeks! The last time I went to the land of the rising sun, I covered the Tokyo Game Show (in 2007) as well, which was awesome buy kind of rushed the rest of my time there (which was my actual holiday).
But who will look after the coop while I’m gone? Well, T-Bird’s going with me, so he won’t be here either, but Shadzter, Bolt and Brad will still be on call to cover Sonic happenings. Overseeing the whole site will be our Guest Editor, Paul Street. You might have met him if you went to Summer of Sonic last year, and also writes some excellent stuff for TSSZ News too. Give him a warm welcome – no doubt he will write a few update columns in my place if he fancies getting to know you all.
I’m due to leave the house tonight, and my plane will leave tomorrow afternoon. Wish me a good 12-hour flight (well, at least it’s better than 14 hours with a connecting flight – never doing that again). In my last day of ‘not-really-here-but-rather-packing-and-leaving-the-computer-to-do-stuff’, I’m uploading the last missing pieces of Soundtracks to the Media Portal. I’ve also created a few new pages to the Music archive on the website, so you can look at Sonic Boom, Sonic the Fighters and a few others now.
So it’s off to Nippon I go – land of vending machines, noodles, Super Potato (!) and Bubble Man drinks. Although we probably won’t dress as a vending machine like the chap in the picture, there. See you guys in two weeks!
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How’s this for an Easter treat? We’re teaming up with SEGA Europe to give away an Xbox 360 Elite console, along with a copy of Sonic Unleashed and some other goodies too! I also have an Xbox 360 copy of Sega Mega Drive Ultimate Collection to give away too, so I’m chucking that in there too. Monster prize, eh? It’s just what we do. Wanna win it? Head to the contest page right now!
As we’re getting through the Media Portal updates, I’ve been working hard to get a few more music pages online at TSS. We’ve just added the Face to Faith vocal soundtrack from Sonic and the Black Knight, and an information page on Bentley Jones’ debut Japanese album, TRANS//LATION. It’s some pretty good stuff, and I urge you to use the links provided on the page to import the albums if you like what you hear (although for the record, we won’t be providing downloads of Bentley’s album – sorry).
On this Easter holiday, you might want to kick back and relive some of your younger days. Sega Mega Drive Ultimate Collection may be right up your street, and we have a review online now to help you decide whether it’s worth a few bob of your money and time.
Finally, we have yet another old/new addition to the Skin Selector. Rounding off the Triple Threat, I’ve gone ahead and remade the ‘Knucklehead’ theme so you can see red whilst you browse TSS.
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As you’ve probably noticed in the last day or so, I’ve been sneakily adding a few more bits to TSS. Preparing for the ‘big beef up’, if you will. Firstly, I’ve added another new skin to the deck – Two Foxy makes a return to the skin selector. Now all we need is ‘more Tails fans in here’, and we’ll be complete. The Sonic News section has been tweaked too – it looks like a proper archive for news now, instead of the generic blog type theme we had going on. I’ll be doing the same to the other relevant sections too, don’t worry.
Now for the great return of some content. Yesterday I brought back the ‘Screenshots’ section, which can technically be considered a brand new section considering in past years they’ve been compiled within the Game Archive. As a separate section, it will be easier to track images for your favourite games, and when you click on a Screenshot page you’ll notice that it still ties in with the Game Archive in its own little way, linking to information pages and media sections where available.
Today we can welcome back the Music Zone too, which is basically a more decorative way of presenting music downloads via the Media Portal. This section isn’t finished yet, clearly – I’m going to go through it in the next few days and slowly add information pages and tracklists to all the OSTs and game rips we have. At the same time, I’m re-uploading a large chunk of the Media Portal content we actually lost during the recent server wipe (links in the Music Zone lead to files in the Media Portal). Continue reading A Visual Treat For Your Ears
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So a guy died for our sins once, but then he got better. And as a result, we celebrate this occasion with copious amounts of chocolate eggs and hot cross buns. I thought I would treat you guys to a brand new skin for The Sonic Stadium so you can get fat on choccies in style! And who better to be the face of Easter than Cream the Rabbit?
Yes, it’s the return of the skin selector, which last made a gracious appearance in this form a good few years ago. All part of bringing TSS back to its former glory. ‘Creamed’ is now the default skin for the website, but if you don’t happen to like it you can change it back to ‘Sonical’ using the drop down menu on the left hand sidebar. It’s just underneath the login/account details.
I’m working on more stuff behind the scenes too – at the moment I’m finishing up on the new Screenshots gallery, which will be a place to see still images of Sonic games past and present. I’ve had a huge archive of old ones from 2005 and beyond, so there’s a good few of them. Any new screens (that are good enough) will be added to this gallery too. I should be done with this, and a few more things, during this week.
Oh, and in case you didn’t notice, we got the new ticker up and running. What do you think of it? Enjoy the coming Easter!
EDIT: Looks like this website is getting into the spirit of things by periodically dying and reviving. Hmm. We’re looking into it guys, sorry for the inconvenience (Turns out it was our new ticker borking things up. Why people can’t make decent plugins that don’t result in database floods is beyond me but needless to say I’m not impressed with the person who wrote the ticker code).
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A few weeks back, we set you guys the task of sticking a crazy barnet on the heads of your favourite Sonic characters. We received a whole barrel load of entries, and they’ve certainly given us a laugh! So, before we get to our winner, we’ve got some other noteworthy entries and some runner-ups too!!!
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We’ve only got a few days more until our Perms for Herms contest draws to a close – if you want that mega-awesome signed Matt Herms sketchbook then get a Sonic character and slap a hairdo on them sharpish.
Behind the scenes I’m working on a few revamped Game Archive pages. I’ve been inundated with work this week so things may move slowly for now, but it looks like the first game to go online will be Sonic and the Black Knight. I’m currently filling in blanks for that – what I’ll probably do is do a quick roundup of each game, relaunch the Game Archive and then slowly go over them, inputting more detail as I go. Or I might just do one game and sod all the rest until I find time to dedicate myself to them. Who knows?
Seems the new design TSS is a bit of a hit – I’m glad. 🙂 We’ve changed how we present our content, and you’ll soon see a change to how we write our stuff. Opinion pieces like Brad’s will find a home in the Community Blog section, so there’s no confusion as to whether fact is being clouded by opinion. News and Articles will only feature factual stuff and previews/reviews (with an air for starting healthy discussion of course!), including celebrity interviews that you won’t find anywhere else. We have a few real cool chats coming right up, so you don’t want to miss this space.
Speaking of cool up-and-coming things, we may have another giveaway for you lovely lot soon too, to celebrate the revamped TSS. That and Easter’s coming up fast. Hm, I wonder if we can do anything to celebrate that too…….
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I always used to think that there’s a stigma with The Sonic Stadium that I had real trouble shaking off. The perception that myself and the writers here are ‘retrofags’ and that we bash on every new game that comes out without a word of reason. Seeing some comments fly around over the last few days, I’ve come to realise that it’s not me, or TSS, that has the problem. It’s a group of people that are otherwise known as ‘trolls’.
Trolls are people who try to ignite flamewars for no apparent reason other than the fact that they want to get a rise out of you. Their arguments make no sense, and they lower themselves to swearing and incessent idiocy. When you argue back, they argue more, causing a massive flamewar. If you do anything else, they’ll complain that you’re not allowing their opinion or voice to be heard.
Well, after having a brief influx of trolls on this website, I have decided to knock it on the head here and now. Anyone trolling on this website will have their comment removed and their IP blocked. This is a website that celebrates the Sonic series, and we don’t want anyone destroying the atmosphere for the rest of the Sonic fans that enjoy this place. Don’t confuse this with disagreeing with an opinion or review on TSS; you’re still allowed to voice your thoughts. Trolls don’t have opinions though. They have flamebait, and the mind of a basement-dwelling child.
Take our recent review of Sonic and the Black Knight. Apparently, I should not have written anything at all, despite the fact that I am obligated to write a report on it (for one thing, I’m a games journalist as well as a Sonic fan; for another thing I received a copy from Sega on the grounds that I reviewed it). Trolls think that the problem of awkward games will just go away if people stop talking about it. But if you’re not enjoying a game, why should one say it’s good?
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For the last couple of years, The Sonic Stadium has been romanced with this idea that the Sonic Community and SEGA could be much closer than it was back in, say, 2004. And that idea certainly had a happy ending – SEGA are more receptive to what people are saying than they were before.
But when I first approached SEGA Europe and opened those metaphorical doors, I figured (maybe as a selfish concept of ‘reward’ or something) that TSS could be the ‘vessel’ that helps cross the gap between official and unofficial. That was a notion that formed some sort of success throughout 2005 to 2008, but today it’s different.
Sonic City’s Blognik now speaks directly to the fans and holds the official competitions, while Sonic Wrecks picks up any off-cuts/unused material and puts that in its Depository, making TSS’ role in the ‘gap-crossing’ venture sort of pointless.
Instead, this website appears to have become less of a fansite by definition (with information and substance) into more of a disposable news blog, and while I’ve tried to shirk that by introducing new writers which have brought new regular features, it’s something that still sticks in my mind.
So as you may have noticed, the site’s changed. Again. We’re taking it back to the old school a little bit here – some of you oldies will recognise the majority of this design as TSS’ layout in 2007. I’ve taken that and upgraded its resolution while changing some bits about to keep it fresh. Hit the jump for a full explanation of what’s in the pipeline (as you can see, some bits are still a bit janky, like the header image repeating itself etc) and let me know what you think so far of these changes. Continue reading The TSS Spring Clean
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So, you fancy winning yourself a copy of Matt Herm’s Sketchbook? Not only has this renowned Archie comics artist signed this book of sketches, it’s also got a hand-drawn sketch of Sonic on the back page too!
Not too shabby a prize eh?
So, if you would like to add this cool-ass comic to your collection, get yer pencils out!
Sonic and the gang feel like their hairdoos just aren’t hip anymore – they’re just too nineties! So, what we want to do is to give your favourite Sonic character a new haircut, as our resident Roarey Raccoon demonstrates!
You don’t need to be an artist! Points will be awarded for style and originality! Closing date for entries is the 27th of March…so get scribbling!
Send all your entries to permsforherms@googlemail.com.
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The sporadic downtime and eventual nuking of TSS prevented me from announcing the winner of my stupid contest, “Wear Papercrafts, Be A Tool.” Now that we’re back, I can get on with the show. The votes are in and the $10 goes to…
Evan Stanley!
I will be getting in contact with Evan and her brother to arrange how they will receive my $10. Thank you to all who entered. I’ve never seen such toolin’ in my life.
Stick around here at TSS for more ridiculous shit and Sonic news.
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So crap went down with TSS’ servers, and we lost a whole lot of stuff. Read the SSMB Topic to find out just what happened. Considering the servers had been randomly crapping out every now and then the week leading up to the wipe, I’m obviously annoyed that I was dumb enough to not make regular backups up until the fateful incident. To be fair, I did have backups for both TSS and SSMB from the 15th February – but alas, when Apple says Time Machine ‘works’, what it really means it ‘selectively works’. Those backups were indeed lost, and it was by good fortune that I was using a copy of the TSS backup actively on my localhost that we avoided total meltdown.
While I’ll happily call myself an idiot for not taking necessary steps, you can call it karma or whatever you want, I must extend my thanks to those who wished us well (and still do wish us a speedy recovery), be it other sites like Sonic Retro and TSSZ or individuals that visit them. I guess the majority of the Sonic community aren’t total retards to a fellow fan’s tragedy, despite whatever views they may hold of each other. For example, I can’t say we’ve had the best relationship with TSSZ as of late, but I’d like to say this event has forged a new-found respect for one another in the very least.
Sonic the Hedgehog is a franchise primarily for kids, so it stands to reason that a lot of those in the community today are in fact children or young teenagers. I guess it stands to reason that there was a bit of negativity towards us when word got around of our troubles. When they get older they’ll understand that we do in fact love Sonic and indeed his later games too – I’m playing Sonic Unleashed while writing this update (I’d be playing Black Knight, but it’s not out in the UK yet) in fact.
The whole “TSS hates modern Sonic 100%, SSMB hates anyone being critical of the franchise” is a misconception that has captured the mind of the young, and it’s something I hope we can use this opportunity to show that this is not the case. We’re just a bunch of adults that grew up with the blue blur and still love to cover his franchise, for better or worse. We may be critical at times, but who isn’t? That’s human nature.
So to rebuilding TSS and SSMB it is – I hope those that have enjoyed our fan coverage will continue to enjoy it, and those that see us negatively get the opportunity to maybe see us in a different light. After all, we may not like one another’s opinions, but it’s silly to outright hate someone for it. We’re all fans, in this community together. Let’s make the most of it.
I’ll use this as a chance to say that old articles, reviews, previews and (hopefully) news that were written by TSS staff before the change to WordPress in 2008 are being added to the archive, extending our information database to cover the rich history we have enjoyed online. I am also working on revamping the site design, with an aim to return the site to it’s 2007 information-heavy glory days. All the while, we’ll be trying to recover our most recent articles that we lost (we’re prioritising with big-hitters like our interview with Archie legend Matt Herms and other articles).
TSS will be truly back baby! Just give us a second.
… Give us another second. We’re not that quick.
Also, the sidebar’s not working properly. I’ll get on that.
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.
If you’re one of these hip, cool people who loiters on the Global Networking / Distraction from work site facebook, you can have yourself an opportunity to snag yourself a nice bit of SEGA Megadrive history. Many of you will know that SEGA have produced a limited run SEGA Megadrive Ultimate Collection LP, featuring 6 tracks from SEGA titles such as Ristar and Golden Axe (for those of you who are too young, an LP is one of those big black disc things that your Mums and Dads have at home in the dusty cabinet – usually featuring Barbera Streisand’s hits and ABBA Gold).
Anyway, if you fancy having a crack at winning one of these, for purely aesthetic purposes or not, head over to the SEGA facebook page, and vote in the current poll that is going: “What is your favourite SEGA Megadrive/Genesis series?” To increase your chances, let the peeps at SEGA know WHY the series is your favourite in the comment box.
If you’re reading this, you are now by law required to vote Sonic…not that he’ll need any help mind you…
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Find and print a papercraft knight helmet (sword optional). Be sure to pick your favorite helmet.
Assemble the papercraft
Wear the papercraft
Do something absolutely stupid for comedic effect (i.e. pose, pose with complete strangers, make silly faces, wear a popped-collar shirt)
Take a picture of your tool action
Send it to: thesonicstadium AT gmail.com
Win $10
Simple enough. Be silly with paper knight helmets on and send in a photograph. The person who looks like the biggest tool wins. Pictures are due by February 21st.
I’ll be waiting.
EDIT: OH MY GOD PSYGUY I LOVE YOU. VISIT FIREBALL20XL.COM.
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.
It’s taken a while for us to actually bother with setting up the comments system on TSS. The main reason being is that we wanted those who had signed up on our SSMB Forums to be able to simply log in and comment on stories posted on the main site. Integration, and all that. Turns out that pipe dream’s going to take a bit longer than expected, due to the fact that we need a new version of our forum software to actually start creating our own integrations and what-have you.
So for the time being, you can comment on any of our stories without waiting for any of that forum-linkup nonsense to take place. You can even register an account if you want the site to remember you, if that’s what you’re into. So go do it, and be the coolest Sonic kid on the block, or something.
Also, and we’ve had this for a while but we never really made it obvious – if you have a news tip or anything you would like to submit to The Sonic Stadium for coverage, we have a ‘Send Tips’ page where you can fill in a little form and we’ll respond in kind. It doesn’t matter what it is; whether it’s info on the latest game, your new fan project, a piece of merchandise you’ve spotted (past or present) or some random Sonic video you’ve spotted on Youtube, we’d love to hear from you!
Use this story to let us know what you think of TSS so far in 2009! We’ve got a few more awesome surprises coming your way, so stay tuned to us, as we’ll be getting special features and community updates that you won’t see anywhere else.
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.
Just a quick’un guys – remember we just released a new look for TSS? Well, it’s awesome and all, but not for Internet Explorer. Sorry about that. I’ll get it sorted soon as possible. Until then, er, use Firefox! I’m away from the TSS Tower right now so can’t really do anything about it for a few hours.
UPDATE: This is a quick fix for now, forcing the design to Narrow Hedgehog with a shoehorned design. I’ll fix it properly a bit later. Sorry guys! Least you can read stuff now 🙂
UPDATE 2: Everything’s working peachy now, so enjoy widescreen Sonic reading in Internet Explorer. Even if it does suck is the most popular browser.
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.
You might have woken up this morning and found your favourite Sonic the Hedgehog website to be looking a little different. We’ve decided to do some early Spring cleaning for the New Year, which means a more streamlined browsing experience for you, discerning reader. This new design allows for fullsize viewing, so if you have a massive monitor you don’t have to worry about trying to get info out of a narrow box. The background in the header will set itself to classic Sonic the Hedgehog stages – as it’s still Winter (and bloody cold) we thought Ice Cap was a good choice this season. Click the Sonic Head in the navigation bar (next to the RSS button) to listen to SEGASonic Radio as you surf – wouldn’t it be cool to hear Ice Cap as you’re reading this now?
If all this change is too much for you, then fret not. You can switch back to the old design by using the nifty new Theme Switcher in the right hand sidebar. It’s a little dropdown underneath the ‘Searcharoo’ box. It’s now called ‘Narrow Hedgehog’ – we’ve spruced up that design a bit too, so whatever you’re using to view TSS know that it’s fresh, B-Boy.
Expect more revamps over the course of the month – I’m currently responsible for redesigning Sonic Showcase Network (with a brand new Gallery in tow), the new SEGASonic Radio website, SSMB (once the new IPB software gets released, that is) and the 2009 edition of the Summer of Sonic website. Not to mention a secret project of mine… mwaha. Anyway, enjoy TSS in widescreen, or continue to enjoy in narrowscreen, if you like.
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.
You may have heard of Evil Doc as the geniuses behind the animated shorts seen in various episodes of The Sonic Show. Topics that have grabbed their attention include the ‘best’ cutscenes in modern Sonic games and the music that can sometimes muffle the voices of the main characters (whether that’s a good or bad thing we’ll leave to you, gentle reader).
Now Evil Doc have taken to the recent Halloween Sonic Unleashed movie, Night of the Living Werehog, and have recieved word that SEGA are in fact making a Christmas movie based on its success! Called Night of the Living Warhog: Christmas Edition, it features Shadow and Black Doom investigating a haunted house on Christmas Eve… shortly before the black hedgehog starts shooting everything down.
It’s a great jape on the classic Sonic Unleashed tie-in, and a perfect thing for you to watch on Christmas Eve as you wait for Santa/Father Christmas to come down your chimney. Hopefully he won’t meet any Rambo-inspired black hedgehogs on his way to your house, although that could be a good excuse for your parents to use for the lack of presents.
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It’s been a bit of a mental Christmas at TSS Towers. Despite the fact that I’m too poor to buy many presents this year, I seem to have come into a bit of a windfall of packages from Up North to the Land of Oz. I’ve had gestures of goodwill from AAUK/SEGA, T-Bird, Elson ‘Darkspeeds’ Wong, Jemnezmy, Hawkz, Urtheart and DiscoPonies so I figure I will share with you lot what came in the mail this week.
First, AAUK and SEGA Europe sent us this rather natty card, above. You’ll remember this design as it’s the same one on the promotional advent calendars we received during our trip to playtest Sonic Unleashed. “To The Sonic Stadium, Merry Christmas, From SEGA” it reads. Bless your hearts, guys. Continue reading To The Sonic Stadium…
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.
There can only be one winner for the prize pack of Sonic goodies, and all you guys had to do was make a present for Sonic the Werehog. Well, we had plenty of entries, and the simple fact of the matter is having one prize made the decision-making very difficult indeed. A whole bunch of you have such great Christmas spirit, and the entries we recieved ranged from the incredibly thoughtful to the insane. All of them made us realise how talented and dedicated the Sonic fanbase truly is – we might argue about the games, but man can we get together and make some good stuff when we want to.
So this post is not just a celebration of who won this contest, but one of all our entrants, and a showcase of just how varied and wonderful our submissions have been. Hit the jump to see them all. Continue reading Christmas Contest: The Winner and the Entries
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Christmas is all about giving, and in association with SEGA Europe we have a special present to give to one of our readers out there! Here’s what’s up for grabs:
A pair of Sonic X kid’s size shoes
Sonic Chronicles T-Shirt
Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Pinbadge
A Summer of Sonic 2008 T-Shirt (the one that TJ Davis said she really liked)
Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity T-Shirt
Sonic Unleashed Hoodie
Werehog Keyring
Sonic Rush Adventure Keyring/Compass
Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity Sticker Set
Sonic Rivals 2 on the PSP
A European Sonic Chronicles Nintendo DS Tin
Sonic Chronicles Stylus Pack
Sonic X Rouge Keyring (no, you pervs, Rouge from Sonic X, not… that)
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Am I going to let the flu get in the way of doing my duty to my fellow Sonic fans? Maybe. Your regular TSS service will likely start again come Monday when I’ll feel loads better, sorry about that chaps. In the meantime, check out our Christmas Competition that we’re having later today, where you can win a whole bunch of awesome goodies (if I held off starting this contest, ill or not, nobody would get anything, and that’s not very Christmassy at all).
So spare a thought for your friendly neighbourhood Dreadknux as he battles high temperature, a runny nose and massive headaches. Hope none of you are going through ill times either (some of our TSS writers are also getting the sniffles, as is the tradition for Britain every Winter), so if you’re feeling poorly get well soon!
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.
I was bored one day and decided ‘Hey, why don’t I make the site somewhat accessible for people who like to browse stuff on their consoles?’ So, ignorant to the fact that it probably wasn’t worth my time to work on something like that for the kind of person who does that sort of thing (which includes, er, me), I’ve tweaked the design of The Sonic Stadium for Sony PlayStation Portable users.
Accessing the site is now a piece of piss, as I was made aware that it was bone-grindingly slow today. Upon recognising the PSP Browser, TSS auto-switches to a custom made theme that suits the 400-odd pixel wide screen. There’s no sidebar, and a lot of the heavy duty stuff is cut, but the exact same content and stuff is all there. So if you fancy a little fiddle, crack open that PSP and let us know what you think in the SSMB (although the forums are still PSP unfriendly at this time, so use your PC for that).
You can also sign up to the RSS on your Sony handheld too, by clicking the RSS link at the footer of the page. Swish.
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 afternoon, (most of) the TSS crew will be lounging it up in Sega Europe’s HQ in London, getting back rubs from ArchAngelUK and Vodka Martinis from the female crowd. Or should that be the other way round..? We’ll be there for one thing and one thing only. Except for seeing AAUK. To play Sonic Unleashed, preferably on the Xbox 360, but possibly on the Wii as well. Who knows what fun and random shenanigans we’re in for. What we do know is, it’s cause for another Community Day; so watch this space come tomorrow night (when I actually get back) where I’ll be posting photos, comments from the guys at the event and random PR speak from the AAUK himself. Oh, and we’ll be putting down our impressions of the game here too. It’ll be a joyous occasion. Stick around. Not all day and night mind, you’ll make yourself ill. Take a break.
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Remember that Sonic Unleashed theme song? What was it called? Endless Possibility or something? That track you all went nuts over when it was played at the Summer of Sonic Convention in London this year. Yeah, that one. How would you like to hear to full version? Oh, I know you do. Just so happens we have it for you to listen to. Click on the link to TSS’ Media Portal and be forever Reddick’d.
Oh, if you’re also into all the music in Unleashed, Sheza has an awesome topic right here, give it a look if you want more for your music player.
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.
Sorry for taking so long to reveal the results of our latest competition, but I’ve been away for a week and hadn’t had time to run through all of our entries. Thanks so much for everyone that took part – I got a whopping 57 submissions for this contest, and if anything it’s proven that the whole lot of you are proper little thieves in the making. Almost all of the entries involved a Sonic character assaulting or otherwise managing to outright steal candy off of the poor residents of this world.
I’ve had a whole range of characters sent in from Sonic to Big to Metal Sonic and Charmy. Even Marine had an entry. As a fun fact, it will be settling for all of you to know that nine entries featured Shadow holding the homeowner at gunpoint. That’s not slightly worrying at all.
But I have five sets of prizes to give away – a Sonic Chronicles tin and stylus set, plus an additional goodie bag for the entry I found the greatest. So hit the jump to see the winners, and a list of people that took the time to enter… Continue reading Who’s Won Our Hallowe’en Contest?
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It’s generally understood that you only submit one entry into competitions. The case is no different with our currently ongoing Hallowe’en Competition for some Sonic Chronicles goodies. We can understand that one or two people may send two entries – be it accidentally (dupe-entries) or on purpose just to see if they can push their luck. But this is a bit excessive.
‘datkross412‘ decided that one of the best ways to get our attention is send in a whopping eighteen entries, featuring almost every Sonic character under the sun. The guy even did Sonic twice. I guess the plan was to see whether one of them was our favourite character or something. There was an entry for, in order: Sonic, Chip, Werehog, Tails, Rouge, Blaze, Shadow, Knuckles, Silver, Super Sonic, Eggman, Vector, Espio, Big, Amy, Metal Sonic, Elise, and Sonic again.
So yeah. Obviously, that’s taking the piss. We’re not going to pick the best one for his entry, much less look at them, so ‘datkross412’ here’s your challenge – pick one. Pick the entry you want to enter for this contest. If you don’t, we’ll bin them all and disqualify you. Usual contest email address, just give us the name of the character you want to keep.
And that ends today’s lesson in “Don’t give Svend a headache”. Thanks for playing.
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Those of you with a good memory will remember last week I mentioned something about a little surprise I had for you all. Well today I’ve gone and let the proverbial hedgehog and plumber out of the bag as I’ve posted a hands on Preview of Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games. Oh yes, it’s right up there, to the top right hand side of the site for you to have a read over. Believe me when I say that game is worth getting excited about if you were a fan of the previous game. It’s probably time to start planning who’s sitting where in your imaginary Bobsleigh, made up of a row of chairs.
For the last couple of years, The Sonic Stadium has been romanced with this idea that the Sonic Community and SEGA could be much closer than it was back in, say, 2004. And that idea certainly had a happy ending – SEGA are more receptive to what people are saying than they were before.
