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Welcome to Zone: 0! This is a new, and growing site that aims to provide the most indepth information for Sonic the Hedgehog games available anywhere. The project features a blend of original strategy guides with a general information resource, presented with screenshots and level maps. The content is being built up gradually, but everything for Sonic 1 is currently complete, and Sonic 2 is now being worked on and uploaded, page by page.

Update: Stages and Story page added to the Sonic 2 section

The first general Sonic 2 page has been added. Yes, partly a collection of the summaries of levels that I've already posted, but also all important details on how to beat the final bosses, plus ending spoilers! That's quite a tough pair of bosses, so I'd imagine this info should be quite useful to anyone who never managed to beat them. To make it, I managed to work out an altered version of my existing back-end PHP system for building level pages, which was fun. For me anyway, I'm a geek for that sort of thing.

Background Info should be next. Hopefully not too far away, even though I am a bit tied up with other stuff at the moment. These general Sonic 2 pages aren't nearly as time consuming to put together as the levels, it's just finding the time.

Like many UK fans I'm currently enjoying Smash Bros Brawl, keenly working my way through the SSE to try and unlock the obvious. I've only had a couple of hours on it really, but it's a great bit of old skool 2D platforming that I wish there was more of these days on home consoles.

Have you seen the official Sonic Chronicles website? I was very impressed by the whole design and idea behind it, very creative approach. Bonus points to anyone who recognised the background music to the purple alien area as Panic Puppet, from Sonic 3D Saturn/PC. What an unusual choice, and not a favourite of mine, but it's cool that they seem to be plucking those tunes and other Sonic references out of the whole spectrum of the series, from the obvious to the obscure. Is that the kind of audio quality we can expect from the game though? I know it's DS, but I'm sure they can do better than that, it's rather minimal. The Green Hill area sounds a bit more interesting however. Taking a look at the videos of the game in action, I'm impressed by the gorgeous environments, but they appear to be taking a toll on the fluidity of the game in action, which could be really annoying. Reading some of the previews of how it might be a fairly straightforward RPG, to be honest, I think this might be one of those games that will be extremely popular with Sonic fans, but less applicable to the general gaming public. Hopefully Sonic Unleashed will be more balanced with regard to that.

LiQuidShade

#1. Comment posted by iNAUDiBLE on Friday, 4th July 2008, 11:44pm (BST)

Will be sure to check that out, thank you much. You planning on having some part of it dedicated to the Sonic 2 manga things that they had for the game?

It's notable for the fact that a prototype Amy and Charmy were in it. I also have pictures of another manga story by the same author that I think...MIGHT have come with the Japanese manual, but it's not much really.

The music for Central City is a remix of Diamond Dust Zone from the same game. There are even going to be SWATbots. Yeah, it really does seem to be that way. But I'd honestly prefer a straightforward RPG than one that tries to do this that and another. D': Another concern of mine is the preciseness needed for the special attacks, but they have enough time to polish that up. Sonic Unleashed is the big one.

#2. Comment posted by mercury on Monday, 7th July 2008, 6:10am (BST)

Hey, I finally finished my programme. The first release of "Sonic Extractor (CD Mix)" is up at Rapidshare at the following link:

http://rapidshare.com/files/127772038/Sonic_Extractor__CD_Mix__v1.0.zip.html

I really hope it comes in useful for you!

#3. Comment posted by LiQuidShade on Monday, 7th July 2008, 9:25pm (BST)

Wow, Mercury, I am truly impressed! I've used Game Maker myself several years ago and to think it can now be capable of reading and manipulating data from actual Sonic games is amazing! I wouldn't know where to begin to build such a thing, you've got considerable skill there. Very well done.

I tried it out on both the savestate you supplied and one I made myself, and they work perfectly! You've just made my Sonic CD section much more useful and comprehensive than it was going to be, and if you can provide the same tool for Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles (oh please please do!) you will have reduced the time I'll need to produce those guides by at least 50% I would say, probably a lot more. For that, I would be truly grateful! Your work will make a massive contribution to the progress of Zone: 0.


iNAUDiBLE - thanks for the link. I have seen this before and it's pretty weird, but I don't really see the relevance, other than it being associated with the release of the game. At this stage at least, I'd prefer to focus more on the actual game and even more specifically the levels - the kind of thorough details the other sites ignore, but I always hesitate to do too much borrowing of content and info from other places. Thanks for the suggestion though, perhaps in later years, Zone: 0 will grow to encompass a wider range of content such as this.

#4. Comment posted by mercury on Tuesday, 8th July 2008, 2:45am (BST)

I'm really glad that you like the programme! Sonic CD has always been my favourite of the Sonic games, and I feel honoured to be able to contribute. I'm also very glad that it sounds like it's going to be a big help as well.

I definitely want to have a whack at Sonic 3 and Knuckles, and I'm pretty sure it should be faster and easier than doing Sonic CD (what with no time frames and all), but I'm going to take a break for now and go back to my main project. But I'll probably start work on mapping them within the next couple of months.

And, just as aside, how did you like the Help file? I'm somewhat renowned for being a wordy guy. I hope it was clear as well as enjoyable.

#5. Comment posted by LiQuidShade on Tuesday, 8th July 2008, 8:21am (BST)

Yeah, the help file was very comprehensive! Much more indepth than most people bother to write for these kind of tools.

That's cool, let me know how your main project goes, it sounds like an interesting one. Best of luck with it!

All images and text contained within this website are © Zone: 0, unless stated otherwise, and should not be used without credit being given. In particular, please ask permission before using any of my writing or maps for your own website etc. Screenshots, maps and official artworks represent game content owned by SEGA. Sonic the Hedgehog and all related characters etc © SEGA. Zone: 0 is a strictly fan-made website that is not officially linked with SEGA in any way, and is intended to promote the Sonic franchise and provide support and knowledge to its fanbase. Please contact me for any issues regarding these matters.