Sega Ported Sonic 3 & Knuckles...to Windows?
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 15 มิ.ย. 2024
- As its Saturn system struggled in stores, Sega started selling Sonic 3 & Knuckles for a surprising setup.
Media sources:
Sega Japan HD image 1: commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
Saturn TV commercial: • Video
Sound Blaster card image: commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
Sound Canvas image: commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
Sound Canvas SC-55 audio sample: • Sonic & Knuckles colll...
Michael Jackson story on Billboard: www.billboard.com/articles/ne...
Sonic CD image: www.etsy.com/listing/52414417...
Information sources:
PC Gaming Wiki: pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Sonic_%...
Sonic Retro: info.sonicretro.org/Sonic_%26_...
Sega Retro: segaretro.org/Sega_PC
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Music by Epidemic Sound (www.epidemicsound.com).
Intro music by BoxCat Games (www.box-cat.com). - วิทยาศาสตร์และเทคโนโลยี
![Sonic & Knuckles LOST BITS | Unused Content & Debug Features [TetraBitGaming]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/8hsBz2zKwao/mqdefault.jpg)
![Sonic & Knuckles LOST BITS | Unused Content & Debug Features [TetraBitGaming]](/img/tr.png)
I love how shocked everyone was when the "new" music was actually the original ost. (from the prototype)
True.
to me it has always been the original as i grew up with it :')
And even if these weren't recycled from the prototype, I like the replacement tracks for Carnival Night and Launch Base better than what was played on the Genesis. CN feels a lot more lived in, and Launch Base feels like we really are in the final stage.
@@ZeldagigafanMatthew Brad Buxer’s Ice Cap zone can’t be beaten though
@@deatsbybre7162 Hot take, but I never vibed with Hard Times Ice Cap
I didn't know you could replace the audio in the PC version. Very informative video!
Yuzoboy hey, I like your remixes
Yuzoboy! I love your videos!
I love your Michael Jackson remixes of sonic
I mean, it’s just midi files
So a prototype of Sonic 3 just got dumped online and apparently all the songs in the PC version are in the prototype instead of the MJ songs, so that means the PC songs were the original tracks and they were changed once MJ and his crew were brought in later on, which means that Sega just used what they had when they ported it to the PC.
they're no mj's.
6:52
what Sonic sees before he dies
I guess Sonic too sees his entire life pass through your eyes before death, but really really quickly
It’ll be bad when he sees ‘06.
@@RaposaCadela died*
@my existence is a lie
What? "pass through your eyes before died"? Is that better?
Ultra blast processing.
Michael Jackson's songwriter Brad Buxer, who is credited in the game, wrote the theme for Ice Cap Zone (he originally recorded it as 'Hard Times' in the 80's with his band The Jetzsons, though it wasn't released until fairly recently.) He confirmed in an interview that Michael himself had input on some songs, particularly the Sonic 3 ending credits theme (which bears more than a striking resemblance to Jackson's 'Stranger in Moscow'.) Obviously it's never been confirmed that his involvement is why the songs were removed, but well-done fanmade MIDI renditions of Carnival Night, Ice Cap, and Launch Base definitely existed back in 1996, so recreating the songs in MIDI wasn't a technical impossibility.
The problem is we were given a vague idea of what input was given which means most people just credit Jackson with doing the work or act like he was the main person behind doing it all.
I thought sega had confirmed his involvement shortly after he passed?
Firstly, I'd like to point out that Brad Buxer was not a songwriter for Michael Jackson, he was just a keyboardist for the King of Pop during the Dangerous and HIStory eras. Secondly, yes it was possible to reproduce the replaced tracks in a Midi format, but licensing is still more than likely. There was one track that got replaced that wasn't as sample-heavy as the other tracks and mostly contained the same drums as the non-replaced tracks from the original. I talk about the music when entering the competition mode, which plays on the competition's menu.
There is a story around which talks about Michael being a contributor until the controversy surrounding him, and that Michael wasn't fond of the audio capabilities of the Mega Drive. Both of these led the team to scrap as much of the work they had done with Michael as possible, but due to a looming deadline were not able to scrap everything, likely including Carnival Night, Launch Base, invincibility theme, boss theme, Knuckles theme and ending theme.
Furthermore, Carnival Night music literally has that one bit from "Jam" song by the man himself, and several digital audio clips from Michael Jackson songs. Unless they just were given consent from him to use these clips and the story is bullshit, I do not see how Michael WAS NOT involved. Given how different the mentioned songs in the games are to the rest of the sound track, it is fair to say they had some outsiders on the team. I can not think another Mega Drive game that is so sample heavy. Launch Base music especially has parts where only few other channels besides the digital audio channel is playing anything. That is not how any other Mega Drive music is written.
@@AURORAFIELDS Well it's more than a story seeing that people who worked on the project, confirmed Michael's involvement. Also, the invincibility track is not one of Michael's or his team's.
I'm from the future! The tracks used in this version are the ones present in a Sonic 3 prototype dated November 3rd, 1993
This comment is 3 months old, that means you're from the past.
@@littleman7514 your reply was from 8 months ago your from the past
@@NvanRoblox your reply was from 2 months ago now YOU ARE from the past
@@HypaBox u from past
@@DaLEoDraggo *evil laughter* :D
I still have the CD for this and several other SEGA games they ported in the 90s.
Sam here, It's not like this is an unknown hidden gem type of thing.
Sonic R isn't expensive, I'm pretty sure I've ran it on Windows XP before.
@EJ Taylor Yup, that's what I used to run them on
This was the first way I played it since I only grew up with Nintendo Consoles.
Ooh, did you have Sonic CD? That would have meant that you got to see the animations in full resolution and color back in the day!
This is actually how I was introduced to Sonic 3K.
There was also a collection of SEGA games for PC (I believe it was called the Master Pack?) that had Sonic 2, Shining Force, Comix Zone and Vectorman 2.
There was always something fun about going to an Office Depot as a kid, going to the computer section and finding cheap PC games. You never knew what you were going to get.
sega smash pack 1 and smash pack 2 i had those and this one
Shining Force got a release on PC?!
@@mbe102 yes, thats actually how i first played shining force as a kid. i now own shining in darkness, shining force and shining force 2 on the original system but i first played it on the smash pack
heh yeah its harder to get those type of pc games now because no one sells them, but i did the exact same thing not long ago finding a copy of BF hardline for $10 at an office store, i should go back see whats there!
I had sega smash pack 1 too! I loved shining force and sonic 2 the most. The other games were too hard for me as a kid haha
I played both versions as a tiny child. At the time I never understood why the music was different, but let me tell you that this game had THE BEST on disc files. So much great .WAV files for fun sound effects & .JPEGs for awesome wallpapers.
You forgot that there is a hack that can replace the midi with the original tracks using smps format files, so you can actually use the genesis version of the music too.
The music part didnt age well. What I mean is that yesterday Hidden Palace discovered a Sonic 3 prototype with old sprites, S&K zones, and the music used in the S&K collection. So, this means the music was originally intended to be in Sonic 3.
Good thing they changed them
the first time i played sonic was that cd
Same
me too lol
Me too!
For me its sonic 3
Same dude?
8:06 Thankfully it's Y2K certified. Was concerned that playing the game in 2019 might open a black hole, but that has put my mind at ease.
This was actually the first version of S3&K I played. I never played the Sega Genesis ver. Then it was the port on Mega Collection. I was so confused why Carnival Night, Icecap and Launch Base sounded so different.
I dunno if this was mentioned, but the "replaced" music was actually the original before MJ and Brad were involved, as shown by the prototype found last month.
I actually played this Sonic 3 PC version a lot when i was a child in old XP and 98 machines. Pretty fun and a great port!
There was a middleware package called “Exodus” from Kinesoft that was specifically meant to help developers port Genesis, Sega CD, and 32X games to Windows with minimal changes. It was used for many Genesis ports, including Earthworm Jim Special Edition from the Sega CD and Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure from the 32X. It worked very well and the resulting ports had very low system requirements. I don’t know if it used any kind of emulation but devs definitely weren’t recoding their hand-coded X68000 assembly for X86. I’m pretty sure Sega was doing something similar if they weren’t out-right using Exodus themselves.
Everyone thinks that Ice Cap was re-done because of the whole Michael Jackson thing, but it's actually due to Ice Cap being a straight-up instrumental version of a song by The Jetzons, called "Hard Times." Brad Buxer was the keyboard player for the band, and he was responsible for most of Sonic 3's music. He was also one of MJ's producers, but Ice Cap seems unrelated to that. Seems like Ice Cap was changed in case of a lawsuit, since Hard Times was owned by another entity.
The thing is though, there are audio samples that can be heard that can lead back to MJ's music.
And many of them are sounds of MJ himself. Very difficult to hear because of the horrible audio mangling present though
Sounds like a plausible reason, but I wonder if Sega, or rather the Sega Sound Team of the time, knew of the background behind the unreleased Hard Times song. Actual music production took place within the veiled realm of Michael Jackson's production team in LA, and when it was done it it was sent off to Sega (likely, the Japanese branch) to have it all digitized on the Genesis sound chip. Despite having having plenty of information on the subject, there's still a vast, vast amount of info left unknown...
@@OKeijiDragonOnly way we'll know for sure is to get in touch with Brad Buxer, if he's even still around.
@@OKeijiDragon All of of Japanese composers rip off or sample from western songs knowingly, so I'm not sure if knowing about it would have swayed them or not... but in those days, western songs usually weren't known by Asia until like a decade after release... so knowing about an unreleased song? Not likely.
I'd venture to guess that all the Brad Buxer stuff was removed from the PC port and replaced. Honestly, Sega made the claim that they removed this from the ORIGINAL release and brought in new composers to write all the music after MJ left the project, but that's very obviously not true if you just listen to the music. There are a handful of songs that are obviously influenced by Jackson/Buxer and MJ voice samples all over the place. But it seems like they legitimately did remove this before releasing it to PC... I'm just glad they didn't REALLY remove it all from the original because those PC versions are almost entirely downgrades (I actually like the new Launch Base though). Like I can tell the new ones are more in line with how Sonic music of the time normally sounded... but they feel so generic compared to the original... maybe part of that is the midi playback though... I think I'm gonna see if I can track down the PC version midis and run them through a Genesis synthesizer to hear what they would have sounded like coming from the actual machine before making a final judgment on them.
All of the Sonic and Knuckles originals was the original versions in a Sonic 3 prototype
Yes. What he said. The background tracks weren't "replaced" -- the ones in the S&K Collection are the original Michael Jackson-free songs.
I'm not gonna lie, This, Sonic CD, and Sonic R on Windows (Was a bundle all together) Was my introduction to the sonic series when I was a kid.
I ran into the same speed issue but in reverse for Sonic CD. Game speed was tied directly to the CPU speed.
I had the rereleased budget version. The pack I got also came with Sonic 2. Sadly, only Sonic 2 worked on our gateway computer
I remember sonic 2 never worked on my computer, and i was able to play only sonic 1 and 3. And later i had sonic 3 on real sega, and i never played 2 until i found out about emulation years later.
This was actually the first version i played and thought that WAS the original music back then. The FM Synth versions did sound pretty cool too. Also the disc had a TON of other bonuses like full soundtracks for Sonjc 1 2 3 knuckles and both the US and JP songs for Sonic CD. And lots of pictures too. Maybe that was only on the Action 4 pack version though.
Something that he doesn't mention about music changes is that knuckles' theme was changed. I feel like it still fits his role as a troublemaker for sonic and tails for the majority of the game pretty well.
I bought a copy of this CD at Jack in the box in the late 90's with the Sonic and Knuckles Happy meal collection.
Me too, They also had Bug! and Ecco.
hell yes!! i remember my dad getting it to me. i beat the whole game 100%, all the emeralds and super emeralds. i didnt even know hypersonic was a thing until then
I have this one(the re-release, for the record), and it’s still quite incredible to me that they got it running on PC in the first place, considering the amount of scrolling and high framerate. I didn’t mind the changed music a whole lot, mostly because it brought a little more variety to the game.
4:42 Even the music wants you to get going!
6:51 when Sonic can run so fast that even the game can't keep up
Funny thing, on every version of Sonic 3 that I've played (being original Genesis, Sonic Mega Collection, Ultimate Genesis Collection, and the very same PC version in this video), there is a point on Hydrocity Act 2 where if you're not careful, Sonic can run so fast that the game is unable to keep up, and Sonic will end up losing a life from running off-screen. It typically seems to happen after being released from one of the boosters with the hand and subsequently pressing down while going downhill on one of the loops.
One of the best TH-cam video games and technology channels, surely one of my favourites... I can't believe it has so "few" subscribers...
what, over one hundred and thirteen THOUSAND people...?!
@@RWL2012 Pay attention to where i've put the quotes...
I thought the music was actually fine for what it is.
I mean, it's hard to beat the original from the Mega Drive simply because the composers made the music for that console soundchip in specific, but I think they still managed to make a decent job with midi there.
Well... when the music is been played on a OPL2 or OPL3 sound card, it actually gets closer to the Megadrive, due to similarities on the Yamaha chips used on the console and some sound cards.
@@BlackCatRedScarf The music, especially replaced midis are actually better. This is all nostalgia, segaheads are used to the crappy megadrive style of music.
@@harshnemesis Indeed. To be honest, it's a matter of preference. I grew up with the PC version and got access to the Megadrive version later. I prefer the PC version with OPL3, but I would dismiss the console version. ;D
I come from the future. Well turns out the PC music WAS made with the Genesis in mind! It's the original music before (presumably) Micheal and his team came in
The Windows XP computers in my kindergarten classroom had Sonic 3 on them (don't remember Sonic & Knuckles or requiring a disc though). Everyone always rushed their work so that they could have first dibs on the PCs to play Sonic during free time; unfortunately for me I was usually one of the slowest in the class. Back then Sonic was a pretty big deal - the newer Sonic games were still relatively good (Sonic Heroes), Sonic X TV series was still being produced, and Sonic action figures dominated the shelves of the local Target. Everyone had those action figures and we used to take them to school everyday.
Sonic dominated our lives then - watch Sonic X at 6AM, play the games in the classroom during free time, play with the action figures during morning tea and lunch, then come home and watch/play some more! Sonic t-shirts were also a popular fashion choice; my mum even covered my exercise books with Sonic!
Good times!
Funny thing about the Genesis' sound chip is, it was basically a trimmed-down predecessor of the FM synth chip used in the Sound Blaster anyway. :D
I still sometimes go to this version since it gives you the option to play any of the variations of the game. Plus I kinda prefer the PC exclusive tracks for Ice Cap, Carnival Night Act 2, and Launch Base. ^.^
Found this at my local game shop for like $3, and bought it purely out of novelty. I was happy to find out it had the famous _Sonic Screensaver_ ,which is made up of special pictures from Sega of Japan’s corporate only monthly newsletter _Harmony_ .Pretty cool stuff! Issues are so rare there’s hardly any scans of them online, and they hardly ever go up for auction.
The music for Carnival Night, Ice Capped and Launch Base PC version is from the prototype of Sonic 3.
love the original ice cap theme tho th-cam.com/video/LAy8GO1dtD8/w-d-xo.html&ab_channel=MasterEmerald
Man, I remember picking that up in 2002 or so from an Office Depot. Good times...
The only disappointment is that this collection doesn't have Knuckles in Sonic 2 included as that too is a lock-on game originally for the Genesis. Would had been a nice bonus from playing the other similar titles.
funny enough the PC port was how i played my first sonic game (i was a nintendo kid growing up, that at my local walmart never had sega stuff) sadly the copy i had was only the sonic and knuckles version but i got to play it so i was happy (my older sister "lost" the disk as well i bet she did that on purpose so she could play rollercoster tycoon lol)
altho now that i think about it, my version had the original music (maybe it was a hacked disk for all i know lol)
I still remember being so freaking amazed at Ice Cap Zone. The look, music and riding in on a snow board! 😍
I just built a new small gaming PC inside of an old GameCube I bought on EBAY. Not really looking to do top of the line gaming just old school and a few modern titles. Sonic 3 is an important game to me and I'm not satisfied with the standard ROM Emulation. I had no idea there was a PC version! You aso answered questions I had about the music because I know Sega never releases Sonic 3 on other systems due to a music issues. I'll be downloading this and putting in the original tracks! Thanks!
I have a bunch of these Sega PC releases, was great fun for me since I didn't have any Sega Consoles growing up at the time.
I had both PC and Genesis/32X back in the day, but I had more of the games on PC simply because they very quickly showed up in bargain bins for $10, or less, and on a minimum wage after school job it was what I could afford most of the time after I had spent my money building a gaming computer, and getting at least some games for my 32X even on clearance was still more expensive, so PC games if you waited a bit could be had for stupid cheap.
We just had a windows 98 pc in the house at this time so I always enjoyed getting new computer games. This was the first sega game I ever played! I found this at OfficeMax in the bargain bin software and it was awesome fun! its what got me into sega gaming!
Man that FM Synthesis music sounds super cool! Shame you had to test it on such a bad song. The general MIDI also sounds cool as hell!
I'm pretty sure he should have tested it on computers that got the OPL2 or OPL3 systems on the sound card. It sounds very nice and sometimes quite close to the Megadrive.
@Rooflesoft Games I dunno, when I played this on a SB16 it sounded great.
@Rooflesoft Games No it's not. It's IMO, significantly better than most game console sound hardware of the time, especially when you use the Roland Sound Canvas as the synth. That thing still sounds good today, especially the SC-88 pro version. Many games just did a poor job of creating the soundtrack and/or poorly ported it to FM or General Midi.
Such a shame that the Sonic PC version didn't get a good soundtrack port to FM or General Midi. Check these out to see what OPL3 FM or General Midi through a Roland SC-88 could really do:
OPL3 FM
th-cam.com/video/oBaB-p1HMpE/w-d-xo.html
th-cam.com/video/PJUUGga4vBg/w-d-xo.html
th-cam.com/video/eodloWzNxdg/w-d-xo.html
th-cam.com/video/dqkWtMvlsFE/w-d-xo.html
th-cam.com/video/Oo3BJTMoxn4/w-d-xo.html
th-cam.com/video/87LmpbeQVXA/w-d-xo.html
Roland SC-88 & 88 pro
th-cam.com/video/bRvMWCIr2eM/w-d-xo.html
th-cam.com/video/bRvMWCIr2eM/w-d-xo.html
th-cam.com/video/P8R8hbKq_No/w-d-xo.html
th-cam.com/video/bLwPDTUML8I/w-d-xo.html
Can't you get "soundfonts" to improve the sound of MIDIs? I've never messed around with it though.
Sean Ramey - Hey, I recognize that third upload! Good to see that the time spent recording that was worth it :)
Mantis: Mega Outlaw Star Fan - There exist programs that will let you load General MIDI compatible soundfonts and use them for MIDI playback, yeah. That's the best way to get good quality results without buying a hardware MIDI synth like an SC-88 or MU100, though I still consider those THE premiere way to hear General MIDI music. I did some review videos on them if you're interested and have a video on the SC-55 coming up soon.
Rooflesoft Games - Not really. It was dependent on the hardware you owned and how well programmed the game was. The GM soundtrack for Ys Eternal sounds fantastic for example because the devs knew how to work with the General MIDI spec, meanwhile the Sonic & Knuckles Collection has some questionable sound programming.
These are the versions I played on my Windows 95! My sound chip wasn't up to snuff for ANY of the game sounds and the motion blur on the old monitor was bad enough for even my little kid brain to notice. I enjoyed setting up the controls so I could get Tails to carry Sonic around when I felt like it. Great port for its time.
And I LOVED the screensaver.
I actually had a copy of this in a jewelcase as a kid. I played coop with my friend from across the street on my poopy windows 2000.
It ran fine, played well, and was really cool to me. The disk looked really cool in person as well.
I had this game, not sure what I did with the CD. A couple of things you missed, the original beat box music for knuckles appearances in Sonic 3 is missing and is replaced with the Japanese music from S&K. The special stages are also much faster making it much more difficult to complete, however I did manage to collect every emerald with a lot of practice, I had to skip collecting every ring otherwise it just became impossible.
Can't be long after this release(98/99 maybe?) until you could run these games at full speed thru an emulator. Was it Gensyst? Or Dgen? (Obviously not perfect emulation, but for the time it was pretty amazing...)
Even in 1997 you can play using the emulator Genecyst or Kgen. But emulation requires a beefy computer at the time (At least a Pentium @166mhz) but you can play this game on a 486 computer.
@@StriderVM I remember my first job in high school working all the summer of 98 to build an AMD K6-2 550mhz system, a Sound Blaster 128 for the sound card, a Voodoo Banshee PCI video card, running Win 98 on it, and Kgen ran find for me, but yeah it took some horse power for the time period to get good performance, and it was KEGA Fusion where it really got fleshed out, but to run 32X, and SEGA CD games you had to provide your own BIOS files, and I remember having to use babelfish on a Chinese website to get them lol!
@@CommodoreFan64 A K6-II running at 500mhz would be like a Pentium 1 running at 550mhz. It's quite more than enough for Genesis emulation. But yeah. Kega added Sega CD and 32X emulation. =)
@@StriderVM then later releases of KEGA Fusion added Master System, and GameGear support making it the best all around SEGA emulator for some time, although these days I just fire up my modded Wii, as it does a good enough job, and makes it easier for multiplayer with my friends, nieces, and nephews on game nights, and family nights.
@@StriderVM pretty sure my 486 dx4 100mhz that i bought in 94 ran genecyst pretty damn well if not flawlessly.
or maybe i'm remembering it wrong and it was my pentium 233 mmx in 1997 that was flawless. oh well, i did play on my 486 and it was good enough that if it wasn't perfect, i forgot about it. snes9x on the other hand ran like crap on the 486.
I remember having this. Loved just exploring the extra on the disc. Gameplay was still as good as I had played on the original Mega Drive
Emulation and speedruns on this ay milo :p?
I was introduced to Sonic when my dad bought me Sonic CD and the Sonic & Knuckles Collection back in 1997. They worked perfectly on my PC and had no idea it could have issues stated in this video. I have no idea what eh specs were on our computer, but the music sounded exactly like it did in the Genesis version. As for the different tracks, I like them, especially Carnival Night and Ice Cap. The sound you're hearing is significantly worse to what I remember the tracks to sound like, and there is a playlist on youtube that specifies it's FM Synthesizer that proves this point. The tracks sound better than in this video. It's a shame there were people that had issues with the collection concerning sound and lag.
Unfortunately this version just doesn't compare to the Sonic 3 Complete rom hack. There's even options on the website to use the Sonic 2 sprites, which was one of my biggest pet peeves about S3&K. The biggest benefit here is performance because you can sometimes feel the strain on emulated hardware (also Sega's official Unity Launcher is actual garbage) but Sonic 3 Complete on Fusion is probably the way to go.
For those wondering, look up Cybershell's vid on it. He's got more than I can say in a TH-cam comment.
Cyber did a great job with that
Don't forget Sonic 3 A.I.R (Angel Island Revisited)
Cyber says bad words
So is Cybershell from Ohio like Jake and Logan Paul?
Alot of people say bad words on the internet get over it.
6:52 Sonic just told me to join the navy..
DOH'
"yvan eht nioj"
I bought the Sonic and Knuckles collection when it came out. I now have two copies of it. It doesn't run on modern hardware without being slowed down. It sounded really good on my Soundblaster 16. The Genesis version of Sonic and Knuckles changed he soundtrack of some of the sonic 3 levels as well.
The original genesis music will always be near and dear to my heart, but that roland sound canvas made the music sound fantastic.
Wish someone made a patch for the win 95 version of earthworm jim.
Me too
if it's because the fps is way too fast, you can use something like RivaTuner to limit down the fps.
@@Tam33m No you can't.
There is a Steam version. Don't know how it works..
@@SylveonTrapito Steam version is NOT the Windows 95 version. Steam version is the MS Dos port which is one of the worst ports of Earthworm Jim.
-Unresponsive controls
-Missing levels
Same goes with the GoG version. It's the shitty dos port nobody wanted.
If you want a Sonic 3 & Knuckles fix on PC, don't play this version of the game. Instead, look up "Sonic 3 Complete", you can either download it for free and play it on an emulator, and it also happens to be on Steam as an add-on to Sonic 3 & Knuckles.
Sonic 3 Complete is a customizable version of Sonic 3 & Knuckles, in which you can play both games individually, together, or the Blue Sphere minigame that comes from attaching Sonic 1 to Sonic & Knuckles. You also have a menu in which you can toggle many different features - you can change the music for Carnival Night, Ice Cap, and Launch Base to the Genesis or PC Collection versions, you can change the 1-Up, Invincibility, and Game Over Jingles to the Sonic 1, 2, 3, or Knuckles versions, you can change Sonic's sprite and abilities to Sonic 1, 2, CD, or 3, you can toggle the option to fight Big Arm or not in Sonic 3 & Knuckles, and so many more options. Even small things, like adding a counter to the slot machine Bonus Game of how many rings you need to get a continue, displaying how many continues you have in the File Select, and changing the monitors to look like they're out of Sonic 1, it's all there. The Absolute Madlads behind this game really thought of everything, and you can tell they're dedicated.
The biggest change is probably to Flying Battery Zone. If you can access the Sonic 3 Stage Select, you can see that the stage order was originally very different, with Flying Battery coming between Carnival Night and Ice Cap Zone. When you got to Mushroom Hill (originally referred to as Mushroom Valley), you would directly proceed to Sandopolis Zone. In Sonic 3 Complete, you can either play S3&K as released or you can change the zone order to reflect this, and it is a very cool experience jumping around like this. They even changed the cutscenes between the Zones to reflect this change! Oh, and you can even change the name of Mushroom Hill to Mushroom Valley, too. There is literally no end to the options here, and it's surely the optimal way to play S3&K.
The PC version does something that S3 complete can't and that's run at 60fps the entire time no matter what's onscreen. Once you play this, the genesis version looks kinda sluggish.
But the features in S3C are unbelievable. I mentioned in an earlier comment about this stuff too, but the only benefit of the PC version is the performance.
Best case scenario would be a remake from Whitehead with the features of S3C (and if they put it on Steam jfc). Until then, either better performance and MIDI music, or all the added benefits of SC3. And there are a lot.
@@MatthewStevensOrMattDave there's no denying the features. Perhaps an over clocked genesis could provide the best of both worlds.
Actually, S3C doesn't have "special stage mode" which this guy didn't go into, but my copy of S&KC actually came with blue sphere, which you could play by selecting "special stage mode" from the top menu.
This version is also fine, people just hate the soundtrack because they have nostalgia for the genesis one.
@@MidoriMushrooms lol no the soundtrack is shit compared to the genesis one and to make it worser they replace all the michael jackson musics for others ones that would be fine if they not sucked
That's actually how I got introduced to the Sonic series, in the late 90s! I later found the Megadrive versions of Ice Cap and Launch Base (especially act 2) lackluster by comparison for a good while, until they finally settled on me.
Awesome video! Not many people talk about this version.
This came pre-installed on my first PC. I loved it so much it turned me into a those crazy Sonic fans for a while. Alos, I still prefer the music in this version to the megadrive one.
The Genesis/Mega Drive actually supports RGB video right out of the box with the right cables (though being based in the U.S, you'll need a way to convert from SCART to component) so it's possible to get MUCH higher quality video out of the console than you showed in this video.
Check out hdretrovision they have straight genesis to component as well as similar cables for other consoles.
All the sonic games are available on steam.
Not sonic 3
@@milesgames944 'Sonic 3 & Knuckles' is on Steam though?
Sonic 3 and knuckles is available on steam and you can choose in the arcade classic options to just play sonic 3 (UK).
also if you own sonic 3 on steam then you should definitely check out sonic 3 air
copy it into any folder, and as long as you have the steaam rom downloaded in the original location, all you have to do is run the sonic 3 air executable
@@robertskitch oh, I read it wrong xd
I had this CD ROM as part of the Sega Mega Pack for PC back in the day. It also came with Sega Smash Pack 1 and 2, which had a good collection of Genesis games, Crazy Taxi, and Virtua Fighter 2. I was always a Nintendo gamer, so I didn't realize how different the original game's music was. I was used to the PC version.
Theres a few things from this that im remembering differently....I ran the windows 95/98 disk on my XP and it ran flawlessly, but I dont remember those weird menus that he talked about.
If i remember correctly, it just loads up Sonic 3 and Knuckles but when you select characters to play the story you could select the kind of story as well, as well as start directly from the Knuckles portion.
I remember distinctly finding a glitch on accident at the time by resetting the game after collecting an emerald on a stage to have it save the emerald but not lose the giant ring so I could have super and then hyper mode in the first stage after some grinding.
Another thing is that I have no recollection of the changed music. It doesnt even sound vaguely familiar.
So im just gonna sit here in disbelief of my own memories and be confused now. Thanks.
Maybe the game just sounded really similar to the original, it's possible.
In S3&K you can always start as Sonic, Tails or Knuckles from the start, right from the Angel Island.
5:55 is a remix of the Crystal Egg Zone theme from Sonic 2 on the Sega Master System.
Man, those news songs are really cool! The first 2 are maybe even better than the originals, but Ice Cap zone’s original track still reigns supreme despite how awesome the new one is.
this was actually my first exposure to s3&k, and the laptop I used at the time had a really wonky midi synthesizer which, while highly detailed, also had VERY different instruments than a normal one
I gifted my cousin this when we were younger. I never knew about the music part though
The music changes are criminal!
Of course, there's also Mega Collection Plus for PC, though that's an Xbox port.
Still though, to actually play this game would be amazing, and to own a copy would be a collector's dream.
The SEGA PC titles from the time period are not that hard to find, I come across at least one if not more of the games a few times a year at local thrift stores here in my area, and actually have multiple copies of the Sonic 3 & Knuckles disc(slightly different shine to the disc depending on when it was pressed) Also to note as far as the music on the screen saver it's nothing special being a low-fi mono wav. files but it is both the US, and International soundtracks for Sonic CD, and the first time both got released here in the US.
I’m not sure of your area but Sanic games aren’t really that hard to find I’ve had em has a kid and adult
The emulation of the version was horrible!
GenesisGems I have Mega Collection for both PS2 and PC I believe, the PC copy I have came with the fantastic Sonic Adventure and Heroes as well as Riders, great bloody set of games for one box.
a PC copy goes rather cheap!
6:50 Now THAT'S Blast Processing.
SEGA
What a blast from the past! I still own my copy. It was my first experience with as sonic game and the first one I 100% completed. Thanks for giving this port the attention it needed!
Heh, Sonic 3 PC music am I right?
I played Sonic 3 & Knuckles first time in this version.
It was amezing. The music in this version is 🔥
no is not
it is decent at the best but not even reach the genesis
the new songs they added too urgh
Comix zone was also ported, it has similar issues with choppy animation but it also has enhanced colours and sounds but some graphical effects are missing.
The CD-ROM was my way of playing this too, when my family gifted the MegaDrive we owned with Sonic 1 & 2 to relatives. Grew up with this version's renditions of the level themes and was surprised to know the originals would be different - I was only just becoming a teen at the time!
The CD-ROM version packs some unique content too. You're able to access a full Blue Sphere special stage game, something you could get by plugging in any MD/Genesis cartridge that wasn't another main Sonic title (except the 1991 game) into the lock-on port of the Sonic & Knuckles cartridge. Millions of Blue Sphere stage combinations to try and play through.
My Genesis model 2 connected to my Framemister through SCART cables looks 100x better then your genesis captures.
Still a good video though
stabinghobo57 Agreed. There's no reason for a TH-camr to be capturing composite for gameplay video in 2019. Especially on a console that outputs RGB natively.
Capture hardware is expensive and in this case he's showing how most people in the United States have played the game compared to the PC version. RGB on consoles in the United States was pretty much non existent until HDMI.
That's an expensive set up altogether and effectively NO ONE in the US was connecting their Genesis in that sort of way at the time - plenty of people were still using RF, for that matter.
merlingt1 guess you should step up and donate so he can upgrade his equipment then
Just stating that he’s making the Genesis look bad. The SEGA Genesis can output a good clean RGB signal.
I remember around 4-6th grade in the latchkey program at my grade school we had this exact cd for the computers in the room, it was obviously the best game there.... good memories.
in the UK this was re-released by xplosive ....which was a company that just chucked out titles left right and centre
I love when you review old tech! Especially hardware I don't own myself.
I had legit copies of Sonic 3 and Knuckles, Sonic R, and Sonic 3D Blast on my folk's old computer. I wonder where those old discs went.
Nice to know the actual history of this strange port.
This PC port was the first game I ever got. I never owned a console version, so I grew up with this family of ports. Fun fact, Sonic The Hedgehog 1 and 2 were also released by Sega, but they were parts of collections rather than independent releases.
I played this version with a friend a lot back in the day and we loved every second of it.
The PC port of Sonic CD was the only way I got to play that game, it'd be cool to see any differences in that to the original version. Though I don't know if there'd be quite as many differences being a SEGA CD game. Nice vid!
Brings back memories playing both PC CD Rom and Sonic Mega Collection GC.
I have always been fascinated by Sega games on old PCs. I would love it if you covered more of them.
I didn’t grow up with a lot of money, so we found ourselves shopping at goodwill quite a bit. I will never forget the time, shortly after getting my first pc ever, that I spotted this collection along with sonic 3D blast and sonic R all for ten bucks or so. The games gave me hundreds of hours of entertainment as a kid.
I bought the first Sonic and Knuckles Collection for PC at launch and ended up re-buying it in so many Sega collections since that I firmly believe anyone who didn’t know this simply wasn’t around. Sonic & Knuckles Collection for PC was sold in numerous Sega value software collections for nearly 15 years straight. It was inescapable!
Edit: Indeed. I see yours is the “Expert Software” re-release, and even then you see K-A Kids to Adults on the insert and E Everyone the disc (so, not even the first Expert Software release).
Sound blaster
Wow that takes me back
The idea behind the "FM Synthesis" sound option was to produce MIDI music that sounded better on an FM Synth chip (such as in a Sound Blaster 16) than the regular MIDI music would.
Growing up a Nintendo kid without a Genesis, this and Sonic CD were the first two games we got when our family got our first PC back in 1996 👍
3:20 For the "FM synth" mode, it's referring to the fact that Sound Blaster cards' FM synthesis have MIDI instruments as well. The FM MIDI instrument set is known as the "Fat Man" pack. It's not to be played by PCM samples like what you showed.
8:24 Easy, General MIDI mode, with VirtualMIDISynth and SGM v2.01 - Nice Pianos, Guitars, and Bass as a soundfont.
I remember playing this at a friend's house as a kid. Thanks for the nostalgia
Love the new intro!
I actually owned the PC Compilations for Windows 98. I was looking all over for this compilation, thanks for bringing it back to light. I did own Sonic R and CD for PC as well.
I played this version of Sonic 3 all the time with my older brother. I was always Tails. :)
This was the first Sonic game I ever played!
My brothers and I played this for hours back in the day.
It was so weird when we finally heard the "real" versions of the songs.
I had this, as well as Sonic CD for the PC!
Unfortunately, both discs are scratched and cracked beyond repair at this point, but that was my first real exposure to Sonic
I still have this cd in perfect condition. Brings back memories.
heck ya. this port was my introduction to knuckles as a kid and i instantly fell in love
There's Roland version of the S3&K music? Great find! Subbed.
It is also worth noting that there is a new project that is meant to add widescreen, DropDash, mobile support and other things to S3&K, called Sonic 3 Angel Island Revisited.
I still have my copies. I was so excited to pick up them back then as I didn't have a good gaming computer nor any consoles. Far from perfect, but it was so cool to experience.