Odd thing in Sonic 3D Blast

[ice1605]

Last night, I was playing a game of Sonic 3D Blast for Genesis. I made it to Zone 2 (Rusty Ruin Zone) and I had 4 Chaos Emeralds and all of that stuff. But, in Act 1 of Zone 2, I entered the first pipe to the next section(the pipe below the ring). Right as I started to go on the loop that you go through, the screen faded to blue and showed the message "Congratulations! You found the secret level select screen!" and it showed a level select screen! I was mad that I lost all of my progress, but I did go to the Gene Gadget Zone (I can never beat the boss of the Volcano Zone), but I had to go to bed. A perfectly good 3D Blast session, ruined. How did I come across this?

[christhegamer]

Last night, I was playing a game of Sonic 3D Blast for Genesis. I made it to Zone 2 (Rusty Ruin Zone) and I had 4 Chaos Emeralds and all of that stuff. But, in Act 1 of Zone 2, I entered the first pipe to the next section(the pipe below the ring). Right as I started to go on the loop that you go through, the screen faded to blue and showed the message "Congratulations! You found the secret level select screen!" and it showed a level select screen! I was mad that I lost all of my progress, but I did go to the Gene Gadget Zone (I can never beat the boss of the Volcano Zone), but I had to go to bed. A perfectly good 3D Blast session, ruined. How did I come across this?

You may have just found a secret warp that no one has ever discovered!!! Do not delete this post; try doing the exact same thing another time, and, if it works again, send it to a code magazine like Tips&Tricks.
Man, you TOTALLY lucked-out! If no one has already found this, then you may have been one of the few people who has actually found an in-game secret before anyone else has!!!
Come to think of it, the sonic series does have a lot of easter eggs in it's games; why, just yesterday, I was playing Sonic Advance on my GBA SP, and I fell-through an invisible floor, transporting me to a place half-way beyond the level!!

Kudos!!!

:D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D

[ice1605]

I found it again, only in a different spot. I left my Genesis on all night, but when I came back the next day, the stage select screen was there again X_x X_x ! I haven't been able to reproduce it, but I run into it from time to time. It drives me nuts!(Not to mention, the time that I left it on, I had ALL 7 CHAOS EMERALDS) I must find out this bug! Maybe it is like the Houlihan room in A Link to the Past, and it is used when there is an error.

[christhegamer]

I found it again, only in a different spot. I left my Genesis on all night, but when I came back the next day, the stage select screen was there again X_x X_x ! I haven't been able to reproduce it, but I run into it from time to time. It drives me nuts!(Not to mention, the time that I left it on, I had ALL 7 CHAOS EMERALDS) I must find out this bug! Maybe it is like the Houlihan room in A Link to the Past, and it is used when there is an error.

The Houlihan room is a glitch? I thought it was a full-fledged easter-egg (if there ever was such a thing :))

[davidbrit2]

The Houlihan room is a glitch? I thought it was a full-fledged easter-egg (if there ever was such a thing :))

It's a little of both, as I recall.

[Funk E. Gamez]

It might be a cartridge problem actually. I learned about the secret level select like this:

I had just died and I was mad at the game. I hit the cartridge on the top and "Du du du du du du du du, du du du du du du du du......" So that's how you get the level select, its a one of a kind game that actually has something when you hit the cartridge on the top.

Which is why I say it might be a cartridge problem, that it senses it better than normal, and it just suddenly sets off sometimes. If you don't believe me, try hitting your cartridge on the top, with different strenghts, and try it multiple times. My cartridge has trouble sensing it cause its been beat on so much. LOL

[Slate]

I've come across this too. Unlike others, it showed up for me when i treid it in my Sega 32x. Does the Saturn version have this level select menu?

I have two boxes for Sonic 3D Blast (Genesis Version). They are not identical.. (Only have one copy) Maybe some copies of this game have this level Select, while others don't? (Only counting copies of the genesis version)

I'll hook up a genesis to try this out..

[Slate]

I've come across this too. Unlike others, it showed up for me when i was playing it in my Sega 32x. (At first, it went straight to it - Not to the main menu, not to the video, But to the level select screen!) Does the Saturn version have this level select menu?

I have two boxes for Sonic 3D Blast (Genesis Version). They are not identical.. (Only have one copy) Maybe some copies of this game have this level Select, while others don't? (Only counting copies of the genesis version)

Never thought that it could have been unhead of before.

I'll hook up a genesis to try this out..

[XxMe2NiKxX]

This is nothing special. This is the message that comes up when the game has trouble reading from the cartridge, as opposed to it stopping completely. Want to reproduce this? Put the cartridge half in.

[Funk E. Gamez]

Oh yeah, you're probably right. Cause some genesis games freeze when you hit them on the top, that might be why it does that when you do. Interesting though, I wonder how they did that?

[ice1605]

This is nothing special. This is the message that comes up when the game has trouble reading from the cartridge, as opposed to it stopping completely. Want to reproduce this? Put the cartridge half in.
Actually, I suspected that myself. Maybe I just didn't put the cartridge all the way in. An odd crash screen if you ask me... LOL By the way, the Houlihan room was a bit of both.

[MegaDrive20XX]

I gotta find that secret...wonder if it works on the Sonic Mega Collection games as well.......and actually i'm pretty proud of myself, but last night for the first time I finished this game with all 7 chaos emeralds. The ending was simplistic, but that last boss was a pain at times. (playing the Sonic Mega Collection + on Xbox)

and Ice1605, I agree, that Volcano Boss was the biggest pain in the ass. Sonic can't stand still for more then 1 second for godsakes...

Overall, this was really a nice game, shame it was accepted so poorly back in it's time. I honestly loved the soundtrack to the Saturn verison. Yet I still have the Sega PC verison just for it (plus no load time barely is a nice touch)

[Jorpho]

Wasn't the Saturn version substantially better?

[LocalH]

This is well-known. You see, in the Genesis, the first 256 bytes of the ROM hold the 68k exception vectors. In Sonic 3D Blast, all of the normally unused vectors are set to point to the level select routine. So, thus, when you bump the cart and cause the game to crash, it jumps to the level select. Most games have these extra vectors set to an infinite loop routine, so that the game would just appear to "freeze". Sonic 1 has some actual error handlers that will display a small amount debugging information on the screen. Since it just happened to the original poster without any sort of intentional cart jostling, it sounds like it might be the cart going bad.

You can also get to the level select with the BARACUDA code, but it doesn't show the "Congratulations!" screen.

[MegaDrive20XX]

Pretty much, when it comes to presentation and the Special Stage (made just like Sonic 2's except using a fully polygon Sonic and Tails)

It still cracks me up that Sonic 3D Blast was made to compete with Donkey Kong Country...oh Sega..if you only stuck with the original "Sonic Xtreme" plan *shakes my head*

[Arqueologia_Digital]

Oh well, congratulations for the discovering of a new warp zone. Could you post some snapshots to see it???, thanks!!!

[LocalH]

That's the thing, it's not new, it's been known for years. =P

[Gemini-Phoenix]

Pretty much, when it comes to presentation and the Special Stage (made just like Sonic 2's except using a fully polygon Sonic and Tails)

It still cracks me up that Sonic 3D Blast was made to compete with Donkey Kong Country...oh Sega..if you only stuck with the original "Sonic Xtreme" plan *shakes my head*

I always got the impression that the Genny version was inferior, and perhaps supposed to be something greater. Then I found out that a Saturn version existed too.

The title screen of Sonic 3D is appaling. It is rough and grainy... It looks very dodgy indeed

[Snapple]

There are a couple of legitimate ways to easily access the stage select:
http://www.gamefaqs.com/console/genesis/code/586469.html

I suspect that the whole going through the pipe thing to make it come up was a glitch.

[JJNova]

Um. The Chris Houlihan room, was just a secret room that Nintendo promised to include for Chris Houlihan, the winner of the 1994 Nintendo Power contest. First prize was the invitation to appear in a future Nintendo video game, being A Link To The Past. There is more than one way to access the room, but the most common way is a series of events that allows you to enter the room before the secret passageway closes.

[Gemini-Phoenix]

Um. The Chris Houlihan room, was just a secret room that Nintendo promised to include for Chris Houlihan, the winner of the 1994 Nintendo Power contest. First prize was the invitation to appear in a future Nintendo video game, being A Link To The Past. There is more than one way to access the room, but the most common way is a series of events that allows you to enter the room before the secret passageway closes.

...Such as speeding from one point on the map to another in a set amount of time. Various routes can be taken, from various starting points, but is apparently very hard to do. I have tried many times, and failed.

It's just an accident (I guess) that it can also be reached via the cart being half in / half out of the slot...

[Jorpho]

I thought the standard way to find the room was to dash into a bush on the right side of Hyrule Castle with a set of stairs underneath it, picking up the bush at the last instant. Worked for me.

[LocalH]

The Chris Houlihan room is similar to the 3D Blast level select in that it only appears if something's gone wrong - in this case, the game checks for an error condition every time you enter a door. If it finds one, it dumps you into Houlihan's room.

[ice1605]

No! My cart can't go bad! Dang. I got my Genesis and some games free from a person who hates me(paradox, LOL). Well, he only PARTLY hated me then... But, anyhoo, I have heard stories of people accessing the Houlihan room by dashing into the hole made by Ganon directly after the rooster flies them there.

[christhegamer]

Now how would someone actually incorperate these interesting little tricks into a cartridge? does it have a little sensor that tells when the game is hit? What is up with those error things (getting dumped into the houlihan room, for example)? And is this really all just in the series? Most sonic games that I have come-across are humongous treasure-troves of secrets, easter eggs, glitches, etc.

*sorry if that was too much questions :)*

:EDIT: also, I seem to recall a post pretaining to an instance in which someone experinced an act ending scenario envolving chilidogs (I'm not kidding, plus it makes sense, since they were sonic's favorite food in the american cartoon) in a sonic game. Could this be related to my theory that most, if not all, sonic games all have some sort of secret in them?!?

[Jorpho]

Now how would someone actually incorperate these interesting little tricks into a cartridge? does it have a little sensor that tells when the game is hit? What is up with those error things (getting dumped into the houlihan room, for example)? And is this really all just in the series? Most sonic games that I have come-across are humongous treasure-troves of secrets, easter eggs, glitches, etc.

As described above, the cartridge apparently comes a little loose upon being hit, the game experiences brief difficulty reading data from the cartridge, and so the stage select comes up.

It's hardly something the designers intended to happen in such a way. I can only imagine that if designers ever did incorporate something like that into a cartridge, it would be a disaster - half the players wouldn't be able to figure it out, and the ones that did would probably end up breaking their cartridge or console.


:EDIT: also, I seem to recall a post pretaining to an instance in which someone experinced an act ending scenario envolving chilidogs (I'm not kidding, plus it makes sense, since they were sonic's favorite food in the american cartoon) in a sonic game. Could this be related to my theory that most, if not all, sonic games all have some sort of secret in them?!?

You might recall that this account was widely met with skepticism, too.

There seems to be a lot of misinformation about the Sonic games out there; the whole "lock-on" mystique and the wide availability of various beta versions probably did much to fuel it all.