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Sonic the Hedgehog CD (2011)

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Title Screen

Sonic the Hedgehog CD

Developers: Sonic Team, Christian Whitehead
Publisher: Sega
Platforms: Android, Xbox 360, iOS, PlayStation 3, Windows, Windows Phone, tvOS
Released in JP: December 16, 2011 (Android), November 14, 2012 (Windows)
Released in US: December 14, 2011 (Android/360), December 15, 2011 (iOS), December 20, 2011 (PS3), January 19, 2012 (Steam/Windows), March 31, 2016 (Apple TV) [1]
Released in EU: December 14, 2011 (Android/360), December 15, 2011 (iOS), January 19, 2012 (Steam/Windows)
Released in KR: December 21, 2011 (PS3)


AreasIcon.png This game has unused areas.
GraphicsIcon.png This game has unused graphics.
DebugIcon.png This game has debugging material.
RegionIcon.png This game has regional differences.
Carts.png This game has revisional differences.


DevelopmentIcon.png This game has a development article
ProtoIcon.png This game has a prototype article
BugsIcon.png This game has a bugs page

The 2011 Sonic CD is not just a modern-day recode of just your average Sonic the Hedgehog game on a CD...and that's not what you're told (probably).

This is the first-ever published Sonic the Hedgehog title running on Christian Whitehead's Retro Engine, faithfully porting pretty much everything the original Sonic CD had to offer in a widescreen 16:9 aspect ratio, plus some extras and improvements such as an unlockable Tails to play as.

This, along with the iOS remakes of Sonic 1, Sonic 2, and a brand new version of Sonic 3 & Knuckles, is part of the compilation Sonic Origins.

Sub-Pages

Read about development information and materials for this game.
Development Info
Read about prototype versions of this game that have been released or dumped.
Prototype Info
Read about notable bugs and errors in this game.
Bugs
Soniccd 0.02 yousay.png
Changes from the Sega CD Version
What they didn't tell you.
Soniccdgoalpostfinal.png
Mobile Version Differences
A surprising amount for a mobile game.

Retro Engine Secrets

Developer Menu

As with future releases of the Retro Engine, there is a secret developer menu that allows the user to skip to stages and scenes throughout the entire game. Set byte 0xCCB (offset CAB in HxD) in the GameConfig.bin file to 1 to access this menu from the pause screen.

There is a mode in Sonic CD (RSDKv3) that allows the game to read object scripts as .txt files instead of the bytecode files. This is activated when the game can't find the file "Data/Scripts/Bytecode/GlobalCode.bin" (or "Data/Scripts/Bytecode/GS000.bin" on PC).

Unused Full Engine Rotation

All the animation files have an unused value, dubbed "Full Engine Rotation". It lets the object using the animation file rotate to any angle, instead of being fixed to multiples of 45 degres.

There is also a value that does the same as the default flag. The only difference is that it doesn't use rotated sprites, and instead lets sprites be freely rotated in-engine

An updated version of this effect would later be used in Sonic Mania, though more sparingly, as it does not trigger when going up or down slopes of less than 45 degrees.

Unused Graphics

Menu Sprites

Artwork Name Description
SCD11 Menu 1.png
SCD11 Menu 4.png
Swipe & Tap and D-Pad This appears to have been a cut feature from the Mobile versions, most likely being a manual toggle between the use of touch controls or a gimmicky new scheme where you would swipe to run and tap to jump.
SCD11 Menu 2.png
Final Fever While "Final Fever" is the title of the Japanese final boss theme, Christian Whitehead stated that during development this Final Fever was to be the name of a new boss stage. However, the level was cut due to Sega wishing to remain faithful to the original game.

This text can be seen in-game if the stageID is incremented past Metallic Madness Act 3 Bad Future on a save file.

SCD11 Menu 3.png
"Sega CD BIOS" Sonic A sprite of Sonic, most notably used during the Sega CD BIOS boot. As it is present next to Sonic's sprite for the character select screen, it is safe to assume this once occupied that slot before the newer sprite took its place.
SonicCD-2011-UnusedIcon1.pngSonicCD-2011-UnusedIcon2.png Unused RAM Data Icons
SonicCD-SegaCD-RAMDataIcons.png
Unused Sonic and Tails icon that was found in MenuGfx2_EN.gif. These icons were originally used in the RAM Data Screen. Instead, in the remaster, when a slot is removed, chibi versions of the character with "No" sprites are used.

Miscellaneous Sprites

Artwork Name Description
SonicCD11-upsidedowntails.png
Unused Tails Sprites Interestingly, while most of the Sonic sprites that went unused in the original game aren't present in the files, new Tails sprites based on originally unused Sonic sprites made their way into Sprites/Players/Tails3.gif. The third frame has no transparency whatsoever.
SheepStomped.gif
Unused Projector An animation of a sheep being stomped is found within the files for Metallic Madness. It's likely this would have been used for a Metal Sonic projector in Metallic Madness, which has none in both the original game and this remake.
SCD11 Placeholder.png
SCRIPT The default icon for level objects in the Retro Engine's Scene Editor. Obviously, this doesn't go used anywhere in-game.
SCD11 TA 1.png
Time Attack Placeholder A "?" placeholder graphic.
Unused Used
SCD11 TA 2.png SCD-MobileAboutVerisonIcon.png
Time Attack Exit The image that occupied the Exit selection of the Time Attack screen in the Sega CD, 1996 PC, and GameCube versions, but with the "Exit" text adjusted slightly to more closely resemble the title screen. This can be seen in the Xbox 360 version by pressing B to exit Time Attack, then pressing A to select any Special Zone just before the transition to the main menu. This takes the player to the hidden eighth Special Stage, with the giant Eggman head in the background.

This sprite is used in the mobile version of the game in the "About" section, though with the background removed.

Animations

Sonic and Tails' animation files (as well as their Mini versions) have unused animations that are mostly empty, except for Sonic's Corkscrew H, which actually has 12 frames that use values from one of Whitehead's Sonic fan games, Retro Sonic. Because the animation values were made for Retro Sonic's sprite sheets and weren't updated for the CD sprite sheets, they appear as just random parts of Sonic's sprite sheet. The animations relating to ledges, climbing, and sliding could be leftovers of Knuckles' inclusion, either from the Retro Engine or a scrapped plan to include him.

   Sliding
   Gliding Drop
   Gliding Stop
   Climbing
   Ledge Pull Up
   Corkscrew H
   Corkscrew V
   Finish Pose

Manual Sprites

The final game uses PNGs in .arc files, but .gif sprite sheet versions of the pictures the manual uses exist for some reason. These are used in the mobile versions, as they don't use .arc files.

Unused Used
SonicCD2011DrEggman.gif
SonicCDMetalManual.gif SonicCDMetalEggUsed.png
SonicCDAmy.gif SonicCDAmyUsedManual.png

Pictures

Located in the .arc files.

Artwork Name Description
SonicCD2011OnanGames.png
SonicCD2011OnanGamesAlt.png
Onan Games Logo Confusingly, this port doesn't appear to be any official connection between Onan Games outside of this image in the .arc files. Also, in the console versions of the game, there is an alternative version of the logo, but with a white background.
SonicCDWallpaperUnused.png
Wallpaper A simple wallpaper that was used as a loading screen on older versions, but was later removed and has been unused since then. However, if you use the "Download Latest Compatible Version of the App" feature on iOS 6-7, you will get an older version of the game that has this wallpaper when you open the game. For Android, you'll need to find an older APK (Android package file) of the game. Also, this image is stored in all versions of the game.

Regional Differences

In all Western locales, the non-highlighted palette of the menu text is a grayish hue. In the Japanese locale, it's red instead. In the mobile version and Sonic Origins, all locales use red.

English (2011) Japanese English (Mobile)
SonicCD-2011-TextSpriteENOriginal.png
SonicCD-2011-TextSpriteJP.png
SonicCD-2011-TextSpriteENMobile.png

Platform Differences

There are multiple differences between the various versions of the game:

  • The mobile releases include some additional logo animations that other releases lack.
  • All FMVs are cropped on the console and PC releases, while the mobile release is instead letterboxed.
  • Arrows on the menus have the text "FLICK" in the mobile release.
2011 Remaster (PC/Consoles) 2011 Remaster (Mobile)
SonicCD-2011-Flick-PC.png
SonicCD-2011-Flick-Mobile.png

Options

  • The mobile release lacks any control options.
    • The settings screen reuses the main menu background on mobile.
    • The mobile version has no screen filters, but does feature haptic or "rumble" feedback.
    • The "Back" button, which works in the Mobile version, but does not work in the PC version because there is no mouse and cursor support.
2011 Remaster (PC/Consoles) 2011 Remaster (Mobile)
Sonic-CD-2011-PC-and-Consoles-Settings.png
SonicCD-OriginalMobile-Settings.png
  • In the Apple TV version, the Help screen has been changed into Help Apple TV. The biggest difference is the control sprites; instead of an in-game touch joystick, it shows how to use the Apple TV Remote Controller and Apple TV Game Controller to play. The PC/console version has a similar setup, only accessed through Help & Options/Controls instead. In both the Apple TV and PC/console versions, it is impossible to change the control scheme.
  • In the Fire Stick version, the help page uses a webpage to show the help information.
  • Also in the Fire Stick version, the game asks for confirmation before you exit or restart the game.
  • In the Fire Stick version of the instructions menu, instead of using the background from the mobile version, it seems to use the one from the PC version but brighter.
Standard Fire Stick
SonicCD-2011-MobileHelpScreen-Control.jpg
SonicCDFireStickControlsBetter.png
Apple TV PC
SonicCD-2011-Mobile-AppleTV-HelpScreen.jpg
SonicCD-2011-PC-Controls.png
PS3 PS3 Help Screen
SonicCD-2011-PS3-MobileElementsHelpScreen-Control.png
SonicCD-2011-PS3-Controls.png
PC Help Screen with Mobile Elements
  • In the PC version of the game, the Help Screen uses the icons of the mobile version of the game, but the Control Screen already uses the Xbox 360 controller with buttons on the PC instead of Xbox buttons.
  • In the PS3 version of the controller menu, instead of showing a Xbox 360 controller for the PC version, it shows the PS3 controller.
  • Additionally in the PS3 version, the help screen uses the icons of the PS3 controller instead of the icons from the mobile version of the game.

In-Game

  • The in-game pause menu is more simplistic in the mobile release.
2011 Remaster (PC/Consoles) 2011 Remaster (Mobile)
SonicCD-2011-PausePC.png
SonicCD-2011-PauseMobile.jpg
  • The underwater palettes in Tidal Tempest differ between the mobile and console/PC versions; the mobile release uses a shader effect to darken the colors and add a green tint, while the console/PC versions use a proper underwater palette just like the original game.
Present Present (Mobile)
Sonic-CD-2011-TidalTempest1PC.png Sonic-CD-2011-TidalTempest1Mobile.png
Past Past (Mobile)
Sonic-CD-2011-TidalTempest2PC.png Sonic-CD-2011-TidalTempest2Mobile.png
Good Future Good Future (Mobile)
Sonic-CD-2011-TidalTempest3PC.png Sonic-CD-2011-TidalTempest3Mobile.png
Bad Future Bad Future (Mobile)
Sonic-CD-2011-TidalTempest4PC.png Sonic-CD-2011-TidalTempest4Mobile.png

References