Two things about the odd title of this blog: a) No one has actually reported of my death, it just sounded funny in my head and b) despite the fact that its publish date falls on April Fools Day, it doesn't pertain to any sort of obvious April Fools joke, as has been customary on Sonic sites for as long as I can remember.
No, I just wanted to highlight that I haven't done much on Zone: 0 since the last update to be honest, but to assure you that I will, and that the coming months will see it finally reach its completion. I've just been involved in a couple of other unrelated projects, day-to-day work, social interactions (yeah I know, hard to believe isn't it?) and sadly any other time I've had in the last couple of weeks has been decimated by a sudden increase in eye-strain from all the excessive computer use. It's a recurring problem, so I have to remember to take it easy from time to time, but I'm sure I'll be fine. Oh, and I've been on Netflix a lot as well. Sorry.
As far as the schedule goes, we're very close to the end. I have started on the Other Modes page of Sonic & Knuckles, which will be followed by the Misc page, and both will be released together in the coming weeks as the penultimate update. Finally, my last ever level guide, Death Egg Zone, plus Doomsday and other stuff like Downloads and the game endings and all other bits and bobs will complete the Sonic & Knuckles guide, and the Zone: 0 pentalogy of Sonic game guides, after eight years of work.
Well, I say complete. There's a lot of maintenance I need to catch up on and tweaking here and there across all guides, adding in things people have suggested and accounting for ports or discoveries that have occurred since, but as far as significantly new content goes, that'll be it I'm afraid. However, as I've said before, everything will remain available for as long as it's still needed, and I do have interesting ideas for what the site might also evolve into alongside. I'm still not definite as to whether those ideas will actually become of anything, but hopefully you might find out more about them anyway around the time of completion.
Start getting excited! Or mournful, whichever seems appropriate.
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Zone: 0 is a Sonic the Hedgehog game information site aiming to provide reference and strategy guides of more depth and clarity than ever before. With screenshots, maps and incredibly thorough descriptions for every level, Zone: 0 is an unofficial Sonic site like absolutely no other..
Sky Sanctuary Zone Sonic & Knuckles
It doesn't take Eggman very long to throw the Master Emerald into the Death Egg and launch it once again. Sonic and Knuckles' best strategy is to intercept it on the way up, so they come here, to Sky Sanctuary. This is a collection of crumbling ruins, once a grand Echidna metropolis, that now hovers precariously in pieces high above the island, thanks to the Master Emerald's power. The ruins are beginning to collapse without it though, plus Eggman has an ace up his sleeve, sending an old, but revamped nemesis to hinder our hero throughout the level. Knuckles doesn't have a stage to play here, instead, this is the battleground for his final boss of the game.
3rd February 2012
Sky Sanctuary Zone added to the Sonic & Knuckles section
Sky Sanctuary Zone added to the Sonic & Knuckles section
14th December 2011
Hidden Palace Zone added to the Sonic & Knuckles section
Hidden Palace Zone added to the Sonic & Knuckles section
28th October 2011
Lava Reef Zone added to the Sonic & Knuckles section
Lava Reef Zone added to the Sonic & Knuckles section
10th August 2011
Sandopolis Zone added to the Sonic & Knuckles section
Sandopolis Zone added to the Sonic & Knuckles section
17th May 2011
Flying Battery Zone and Gameplay page added to the Sonic & Knuckles section
Update history
Flying Battery Zone and Gameplay page added to the Sonic & Knuckles section
Rumours of my death have been greatly exaggerated |
Egg in the Sky |
Sonic Generations Soundtrack Edits |
Ricky Earl Returns to Zone: 0!
Update: Sky Sanctuary Zone added to the Sonic & Knuckles section
Iconic level Sky Sanctuary Zone now has the full Zone: 0 treatment! It is, of course, the original inspiration for the Sonic Generations level of the same name, and I've added a little bit about that in the Misc Notes section. And yes, before you ask, I will be going back to do the same for Green Hill and Chemical Plant, and I guess, the 3DS version's Casino Night and Mushroom Hill. There's loads of things like that, along with new downloads and of course many little amends suggested from user notes that I will go through after S&K is complete, I promise.
The map was definitely a tough one this time. I normally use tools to extract the layout and object placements to make the job as easy as possible, but as you've probably noticed, this level has some of its pieces constantly moving up and down a little way, and these pieces, for whatever reason, could not be extracted. So I had to do it the old fashioned way and reproduce them myself through lots and lots of screen shots in debug mode. Painstaking, but definitely worth it in the end, as it's a fascinating thing to look at. I'm not sure I was actually aware that, rather than it being really tall, it instead loops back to the bottom, so the highest platforms are below the lowest ones. As I note on the guide though, trying to exploit this by deliberately dropping down at any early point won't work, of course. I wondered if I should signify that on the map too somehow, but as I've never actually had to mark out a death drop in a map before, I was unsure about introducing a new annotation feature so late on in the project. In hindsight, I can think of a couple of other previous levels that could use it actually, so maybe an addition for later.
View the full blog page or add a comment...
The map was definitely a tough one this time. I normally use tools to extract the layout and object placements to make the job as easy as possible, but as you've probably noticed, this level has some of its pieces constantly moving up and down a little way, and these pieces, for whatever reason, could not be extracted. So I had to do it the old fashioned way and reproduce them myself through lots and lots of screen shots in debug mode. Painstaking, but definitely worth it in the end, as it's a fascinating thing to look at. I'm not sure I was actually aware that, rather than it being really tall, it instead loops back to the bottom, so the highest platforms are below the lowest ones. As I note on the guide though, trying to exploit this by deliberately dropping down at any early point won't work, of course. I wondered if I should signify that on the map too somehow, but as I've never actually had to mark out a death drop in a map before, I was unsure about introducing a new annotation feature so late on in the project. In hindsight, I can think of a couple of other previous levels that could use it actually, so maybe an addition for later.
View the full blog page or add a comment...
Hope you've been enjoying the recently released Sonic Generations OST as much as I have. It's a nicely made one, much clearer than the rips that have been available since the game's release, and many of them come to nice, exclusive conclusions rather than fading out, which I often find disappointing. Plus, it's brilliant to finally get the tracks from the 3DS version! But that said, there are a few things that I thought could be improved upon.
Perhaps because I've come to music in general oddly quite late in life, I'm usually more of a fan of having a big shuffled list of various things together rather than listening to albums in sequence. I have an ever growing Sonic iTunes list which I've been adding to for a decade now (in fact the initial building of it was kind of a personal pre-Zone: 0 Sonic project of mine - my own emulator recordings from it are the same ones I add to the downloads of this site's game guides), and all OST tracks get thrown in and often renamed according to certain consistent patterns.
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Perhaps because I've come to music in general oddly quite late in life, I'm usually more of a fan of having a big shuffled list of various things together rather than listening to albums in sequence. I have an ever growing Sonic iTunes list which I've been adding to for a decade now (in fact the initial building of it was kind of a personal pre-Zone: 0 Sonic project of mine - my own emulator recordings from it are the same ones I add to the downloads of this site's game guides), and all OST tracks get thrown in and often renamed according to certain consistent patterns.
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First of all, Happy New Year everyone, I hope you had a good break with family and/or friends, and are ready for the return of Zone: 0's resident artist Ricky Earl! It's been about a year since he's been available to contribute, so in case you've forgotten, he's vowed to supply a piece of artwork to accompany each level page on the site, or at least as many as possible. You can do it Ricky! Keep up the good work.
We're up to Chemical Plant now, check it out!
Meanwhile, I've managed to get quite far with the Sky Sanctuary guide. On the map, I've had to recreate the platforms that float up and down by hand from lots and lots of screen shots, which has set me back a bit, but I'm pretty sure I can get this one out there within this month. That's still pretty good, by my standards!
This post continues, click here to read on or add a comment...
We're up to Chemical Plant now, check it out!
Meanwhile, I've managed to get quite far with the Sky Sanctuary guide. On the map, I've had to recreate the platforms that float up and down by hand from lots and lots of screen shots, which has set me back a bit, but I'm pretty sure I can get this one out there within this month. That's still pretty good, by my standards!
This post continues, click here to read on or add a comment...
Featured Posts
Sonic Generations is a once in a two-decade treat not just for fans old and new, but for Sonic newbies and those who wandered away from the flock long ago. Everybody should be playing this game, and, in great detail, here's exactly why...
Sadly, after Sonic & Knuckles, I have decided I will not be creating any new content for Zone: 0. New guides by other writers may be possible, but not confirmed.
