Sonic 1 Megamix v3.0 (30.06.2007)

The most popular and most pirated Sonic ROM hack since the early days of the Sonic hacking community.

You can find this ROM hack almost anywhere and everywhere so there’s no reason RomHackPlaza shouldn’t have a bite of it either.

This version is the famous Mega Drive/Genesis one that was the first pirated Sonic hack on a reproduction cartridge back in 2009. 3.0 Still remains the best build of the hack having a lot more stability done to it than later builds, it works on original hardware and emulators and very rarely will you encounter a bug. It’s a hack that has been put up on every major database site as well as small file sharing links for over a decade now so there’s no reason it shouldn’t be put up here and RomHackPlaza usually has the cleanest patches.

Most of the information below has been copied and pasted over from the Sonic Retro wiki page but I have removed all the information about ”Tails” and ”Knuckles” as this page specifically focuses on the 3.0 build which omits Tails and Knuckles.

STORY:

South Island. A magnificent land; one that is not bound by restrictions such as time.

15 years have passed since Sonic the Hedgehog’s first plight against the nefarious Dr. Eggman (originally known as Dr. Ivo Robotnik in English localisations). Ever since, the two sides have clashed nonstop in a variety of settings, with the eventual outcome always being Sonic’s victory. Both sides have gained both new allies and new enemies; some helpful, others… not so much. Naturally, throughout this time, Sonic has learned a few new techniques, which he uses to further stifle Eggman’s plans of world domination. And so, the world is safe – but always just out of Eggman’s grasp.

Some say history repeats itself. In this case, the statement is proven true, as Eggman returns to South Island, in hopes that he can obtain the land’s powerful Chaos Emeralds and finally put forth a solid step in conquering the planet. As he arrives on the island, he brings with him a single Chaos Emerald – one that had been missing, and had upset the natural balance of the island for decades beforehand. The others were trapped in an alternate dimension; one which only very few could enter, and from which even fewer returned.

Of course, Eggman isn’t very good at keeping his plans secret (a big reason why they’re foiled so easily). As a result, Sonic hears of this, and readies his travel back to South Island. With him, he brings two allies: one being Mighty the Armadillo, a longtime friend of his (though they had not spoken in quite some time); and the other being Shadow the Hedgehog who, after finally getting over his angst (at least for the moment), felt like teaching Eggman a thing or two about trying the same thing twice. And besides that, he had never seen South Island before; he had heard things about it, certainly, but never saw it for himself. So, he figured, why not?

And so, the three begin their trek of South Island, each taking their own unique abilities with them, and going their separate ways, each in search of the remaining Chaos Emeralds, and of Eggman, in hopes that once he is defeated, he will finally abandon his plans of world domination. But, then again, that’s not very likely to happen.

We can all dream, I suppose.

Characters

The player has the choice to play through Sonic Megamix as one of three characters: Sonic the Hedgehog, Mighty the Armadillo and Shadow the Hedgehog, Each character has their own specific abilities, while some share common abilities.

Sonic the Hedgehog

Sonic is a blue, 15-year-old hedgehog who lives on the planet Earth. He has the ability to run at supersonic speeds, hence his name. He is always running all over the world, rarely stopping for anything. He is carefree and relaxed; however, he is also very intolerant of injustice, and he will do anything he can to help those in need. He also has a quick wit, a short temper, and a fairly large ego.

Mighty the Armadillo

Mighty is a 16-year-old red and black armadillo who has a strong sense of justice. Opposed to any and all inhumanity, he uses his power to control the elements – Water, Fire, and Electricity – in his battle against Eggman. He enjoys nature, tranquility, and hot springs.

Shadow the Hedgehog

Shadow is the “ultimate life form”, created in an experiment by Professor Gerald Robotnik aboard the space colony ARK. His exact age isn’t known, but he is assumed to be around 50 years old. Once hungry for revenge after the death of Maria, Gerald’s granddaughter, he is now aware of his past, and who he “is.” He prefers to be a loner, but he occasionally tags along with Sonic and his friends when Eggman is up to no good. He uses his ability, Chaos Control, to harness the powers of the Chaos Emeralds to enhance his natural abilities. While he is unable to move very quickly on his own, he possesses fire-powered jet skates, which allow him to move much faster than he can without them.

 Basic Controls:

In order to execute all the character specific abilities in Sonic Megamix, you’ll need to know the ropes. Here’s how you play…

Basic moves

• : Action button. Each character has a specific use for this button – read below for more info.
•  in free fall: Roll into a ball. Allows further execution of double jump moves.
•  or : Jump

•  + /: Spin Dash. Roll up into a ball and shoot off at supersonic speeds to destroy enemies!
•  + : Transform into Super form (requires all Chaos Emaeralds)
  • Use the same button combination while Super to de-transform, returning you into your normal state.

Please read about all the specific character moves and further features over at https://info.sonicretro.org/Sonic_the_Hedgehog_Megamix there’s far too much to type here.

Highlights For Version 3.0:

• All level layouts edited.
• Each character now has a unique set of moves (though Sonic and Shadow share the homing attack).
• Most levels (not all) have a small intro, ala S3K, where they perform some sort of action when starting the level i.e, running in from the left.
• All music is changed and ported over from other SMPS 68k/Z80 Mega Drive games.
• There is now a “preferences” screen, where you can customise certain aspects of the game.
• Cheat codes have been changed – go to sound test and play 19, 90, 10, 02, in the correct order, you should hear a chime if entered correctly, then get out to the title screen and press and hold A and Start at the same time. The new cheat grants you access to a new special level select (which is a bit buggy – just don’t hit left/right on zone selections =P).
• “Original Mode” allows you to play the original levels from Sonic the Hedgehog, using all of the additions from Sonic Megamix but it’s not fully implemented properly and finishes at Marble Zone Act 2.
• Title screen demos have been edited. Credits demos have not.
• Super forms have been added.
• Elemental shields, ala S3K, have been added.
• Credits have been edited; each character has a unique end pose on the ending sequence.

This is considered a “complete” release, although not “final”. It was succeeded by a private leaked Mega Drive/Genesis 3.5 build which circulated in the community for 15 years keeping a low exposure level and also a “4.0b”, which was ported to the SEGA Mega-CD in 2008, and further changes have been implemented since, although a “final” release and its date are tentative. More information can be found on the Manual/Wiki page, located at here: http://www.headcannon.com/TeamMegamix/index.php?p=mm_home.

KNOWN BUGS: 

In the Special Stages, sometimes your character will get stuck in the blocks and bumpers, jumping continuously will eventually pry your character free from their trapped spot.

At the end of a level, don’t continue to jump around grabbing hidden points in the air once the end of level points starts tallying up as doing so stops the score tally dead on from counting up all your rings. So if you finish an act with 500 or so rings and jump around you’ll get no points for them. So stay idle.

The stage select cheat screen is broken giving you an ”illegal instruction” one second into it, though the main debugger level select screen works as intended which has all the levels on it anyway.

The ”Save” and ”Load” features of this hack are buggy and don’t always save your game from a previous play so don’t rely too much on the battery back-up SRAM. If you’re using an emulator or a Mega EverDrive/Mega SD flash cart, best to save by using the ”Snap/Save State” feature where you can continue from a previous play at any point in time.

NOTES:

Compared to v3.5 and v4.0b and even the leaked 2011 5.0a, 3.0 here has no where near as many bugs as those later builds and still remains the best and most stable one.

StephenUK and Robjoe remain two of the best level layout and graphic artists in the community. The amount of attention to detail is amazing! As well as the amount of content for rings, badniks and monitors mixed with Sonic 3’s elemental shields makes a really fun and enjoyable game that most standard Sonic 1 ROM hacks just don’t have.

The patch is in standard Lunar IPS format and must be patched to the American/European ROM of Sonic The Hedgehog.

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