Game Secrets, Hacking

Sonic 1 Special Stage Jump Issues Fixed Nearly 20 Years Later

For many players, the Special Stages of Sonic 1 can be particularly frustrating for a number of different reasons–rotation, steering, and jumping are the most common reasons listed. Forum member Mercury, best known for the Sonic Physics Guide and Sonic: The One Ring, examined the stages and realized that Special Stages don’t have the variable jump height present in the rest of the game. He investigated and found there was an unused routine for reducing Sonic’s jump height in the Special Stages within the code of the game. Using the power of trigonometry, he repaired and enabled the routine, leading to a fix that combines the X and Y speed using cos and sin to find how fast Sonic’s moving upward at the current angle in a Special Stage. It compares this combined speed with the jump release speed ($400) and if it’s greater, then it uses similar code to the normal jump to make Sonic move at $400 in the current angle. Simple.

You can read more about this fix and download a patched copy of the game at the Sonic Retro forums.

Pyqc Zz KYRKi gVUZwW j WSGHl
Previous Post Next Post

You Might Also Like

6 Comments

  • Reply

    In layman’s terms: little bounce = little bounce, big jump = big jump.

  • Reply

    I don’t get it. These stages are fun and challenging and this dude found it too hard so edited the game to make it easier for himself? :\

    • Reply

      More like he spent his free time to correct a programming mistake that was lazily ignored just because of time constraints. This is what the special stages were SUPPOSED to be like- you’d know that if you had actually read the article or the topic.

      • Reply

        I read it, grammatical errors and all, and didn’t buy it. Play it how real men play it.

        • Reply

          Bah, I have and always will. I’m just saying that people can do whatever they want (within reason- judging people makes you out to be an ass, etc etc), there’s no need to be elitist about it. Also, not everyone can type correctly, so don’t be a douchebag.

  • Reply

    Dr. Facepalm, you make a good point. Part of being a man is accepting when you are wrong, or being a douche, and I accept that I was both. I am sorry for bringing that to this site.

  • Leave a Reply

    This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.