If you complete either Act 1 or 2 in any Zone (apart from Scrap Brain for some reason) with at least 50 rings in your possession, you'll notice a giant ring hanging in the air near the end-of-act signpost. Jump into it, and you'll teleport to the alternate dimension where the six Chaos Emeralds are hidden; The Special Stage. Sonic 1's is the only Special Stage of all the games to not be in 3D. Rather, it's based in a 2D maze that is continuously rotating around you, and made up of solid coloured blocks and other items. Sonic is forever spinning through it as a ball, bouncing off of the objects, but you have some control over his directions, and can jump off of certain things. The aim is to carefully make your way through while it rotates, and locate the Chaos Emerald. There are six different mazes to complete, each containing one emerald. Every time you enter the Special Stage, you'll play only one of these mazes, which ends when you either grab the emerald, or fall into one of the "goal" blocks, which sends you back to resume regular play without it, and therefore must be avoided.

Square coloured blocks make up the walls of the maze, and rings are everywhere. Only in the Special Stage can you collect 50 rings to earn yourself a continue, which, for the rest of the game, will allow you to resume play with three fresh new lives after you get a game over (one fresh set per continue, that is). The Chaos Emerald is surrounded by smaller coloured blocks which are protecting it from you, and you need to touch them a certain amount of times in order for them to disappear out of your way. They change colour on every touch going from blue to green, yellow, purple, and then disappearing, so try and stay connected to them as the maze slowly spins. They start at different colours, so some will need less touching than others.

Rows of the circular "goal" blocks are located at dead ends in the maze, so be aware of them when you decide to head down a corridor, because the stage is over when you touch them. The star bumpers from Spring Yard Zone make an appearance to bounce you around a bit, though they don't give you any points here, and you'll also find red and white circles labelled "up" or "down". Touch these to increase or decrease the speed at which the maze rotates, while touching the circles labelled with an "R" reverses the direction at which the maze is rotating. Finally, the blank red and white spheres are just there to support you, offering you something to jump off of when you land on them. When you find a line of them that are dull coloured, they will allow you to pass through them, but then become solid as soon as you're on the other side, usually used to lock you safely inside the room with the emerald.

The stage looks pretty wacky, with a dark blue background and a pattern of green birds and clouds, which periodically morphs into a pattern of turquoise fish and bubbles. Complete all six mazes by nabbing the emeralds, and then beat all the stages and final boss to complete the game "properly".

A bit more complex this time, but a similar style. Go to the left of your starting position, avoiding the dead end on the right of it. Going through this path, you'll come into a larger room, with a dead end directly opposite. Go to the right of your entrance. There's another dead end on this far side, but drop into a passage just before it, which leads into the emerald's room. There are more blocks to get through on this one, but only one dead end, on the opposite side.

This consists of one long path to get to the emerald. It starts out in a diagonal direction at first. Keep going this way, avoiding the dead end along the way, until you reach a sharp left turn in the path soon after it. There will be another dead end directly ahead, but look out for the rings to be in an arrow formation, to indicate the correct way. Keep going along the following, straighter path, past another dead end on the left, and you'll come to another sharp left turn, with an arrow of rings. Follow them, as opposed to going straight ahead to a dead end. The emerald room has two dead ends either side of the entrance.

This is another massive room, this time more square shaped, and there are four dead ends on either corner of it. The grey emerald, surrounded by a couple of walls of blocks spaced out from each other, is located smack bang in the middle.