Sonic 2: The Spark That Started my Video Gaming Years
Sonic 2 was a huge game, and in writing this article, it’s fair to say that I went down a bit of a rabbit hole of obsession.
It was the first game I ever played on a dedicated video-game console, which was the Sega Mega-Drive (as it was released in Oz, in the US and elsewhere it’s more commonly known as the Sega Genesis). Sonic 2 was bundled in with the mega-drive my family got me as a present in the midi90s (midi, hah, anyway…). The tracks and graphics on these games formed my brain in a huge way.
Video-game addiction has been a social concern just as long as video games. I kicked the habit on all gaming when I was 18 years old, going solid cold-turkey. I had just pulled myself out of a summer playing Civ 3 and realised they were easily capable of consuming my whole life. I decided I would rather commit myself to reality. SO, not for the first time, i unplugged from the matrix. Like oldmate Cypher said in the movie The Matrix, I do wonder sometimes if I should’ve just taken the blue pill instead. It seems like for a large chunk of my 90s childhood, I was basically on one.
I’ve not really played video/computer games since. Thus, my memories of gaming are firmly entrenched in 3 distinct eras: The 16 bit era (I had a Mega-drive), the 32-bit era (I had a Playstation/PS1), and finally a 128bit PS2. Overarching that were trying out the other consoles at a mate’s place or as a demo in the shops, arcade games, computer games (as in, played on the family desktop computer), a gameboy, and even reading magazines and websites on video games.
I’ve now kind-of ameliorated my experience into just a part of my human development. Addiction in anything can destroy you. You could be addicted to sports. You can be addicted to social media. You can be addicted to coffee (I am). Some people are addicted to tattoos. Certain substances are seen as highly addictive (heroin, prescription pharmaceuticals) and the public justifiably focuses more concern on them than on more benign sources. But all the same, know your product and know yourself is the basic rule imo.
So yeah, I was addicted to video and PC games right through most of my school years. After that, I can’t really say I’ve had an addiction to anything except the aforementioned coffee.
This blog is as much about my past and the journey as it is about the present. This morning I was looking back on leftover schoolwork that I had in recently reacquired storage tubs. Mainly yr11-12 art/graphics folio work. I was pretty bloody impressed I gotta say! (and I got high marks for it too). It’s something that might go up online in the future, but basically I designed a snowboard and a rock-poster in VCE VisComm. You can’t find work as good as I did in the shops today! (in my humble opinion). The results spoke for themselves early on.
But going back even further though, gulp…. are 2 exercise books from grade 3, which were lovingly customized with Sonic-themed plastic wrappers (this would probably have been my Mum, thanks Mum). The French one was telling (yeah we did French classes at my state school. They were experimenting with bilingualism). Observe the pic on the right (or scroll to the bottom in mobile app version).
The spark started there in many ways.
But to get back to the video games. Sonic The Hedgehog 2. The Chemical Plant Zone. The music on this was badass.
I’m copy-pasting a youtube commenters’ remarks:
Special shoutout to the Yamaha YM2612, which was the FM synthesis audio chip that was the backbone of what gave the Genesis it's very distinctive and very famous music timbre. The use of stereo, the harmonic layering, the aggressive vibrato - these OSTs to some of these games are, IMO, legendary in their own right. Even today, when I hear this track, it hits me JUST as hard as it did when I FIRST heard it. With a good system, you can really appreciate the composition. There is so much going on, but in such an effective and tasteful way. That bass line!! The lead sawtooth synth with that famous downward bend in the chorus section. Man, these tracks are, to use a very cliché but very appropriate phrase, truly timeless. I am sure my brother (music producer RRAREBEAR) will agree, tracks like this changed our brains. I think this stuff is a huge reason why we both got into audio and music!
So this game influenced musicians and audio-producers as much as it did artists and visual designers!… (and electronics repairers…). The whole score was written by a gentleman named Masato Nakamura, who also did the music for the first Sonic Game and was in a J-Pop band called Dreams Come True, from the game’s wiki:
Since Sonic 2 was more technically advanced than its predecessor, Nakamura "wanted to create music that showed progress... It was like the Indiana Jones sequels. Same concept, but with more fun and excitement."[55] Nakamura felt considerable pressure, as he understood that expectations were high due to the first game's success.[55] STI let Nakamura work freely, which he felt allowed him to create melodic tunes and unusual rhythms.[56] He composed using a Roland MC-4 Microcomposer; composing was challenging due to the Genesis' limited sound capabilities, but this encouraged him to be more inventive.[57] Five or six people worked to convert Nakamura's music to the Genesis format.[51]
The track for the Chemical Plant Zone (with its rolling bouncy house beat), deserves its moment in the sun.
In fact, a few of them do. The spooky jazz of the Mystic Cave Zone…
The debonair and somewhat romantic swing-jazz of Casino Night Zone with its daring intro. (It’s the Rat-Pack at Al Capone’s club playing When The Saints Go Marching In)….
The Latin tropicana of the Aquatic Ruin Zone. (Some bloke in comments said he made it his ringtone)….
The Arab-themed Oil Ocean Zone, which sounds like 80s electro-funk pioneer The Egyptian Lover, and which carries another classic youtuber comment: @notofthisworld5267“The stage Obama and Bush couldn't beat. “…
…and who could forget , WHO COULD FORGET!!!:
Lodged deep into the game, at about stage 8, and accompanying arguably the hardest stage in the game (according to the communal memory of youtube-commenters, and fair-call), was the upbeat party-starter theme for the Metropolis Zone, which is just way different from anything else in the game. It sounds like it should be played in a street block-party of the era, or maybe a fun Tokyo nightclub where the dress-code at the door was a white shoulder-padded jacket and matching sneakers, or perhaps even just in an open-top cruiser driving to and from. It’s almost vaguely Van Halen-esque to me, mixed in with some DJ scratching and a steady chugging beat. I would listen to this extended while running Sonic on the spinning cogs. Just way cool man, way way cool.
I started playing this game in Grade 2. 1995. Mind blown. Worlds of possibility opening up. Give it to me today and I reckon I can still clock it and get all the emeralds. I was just that good.
Mario had nothing on this. No game on Nintendo or any other gaming device did. It was, as I now have learned, all about Sega’s superior audio-design. It’s even now called the Sega Bass! Plus you can just tell the developers had their ear to what was going on in the pop charts and night clubs.
This was before the supposed celebrity help of the sequel to this game. But that’s a story for another day. Yes I will be doing another article on Sonic and more on the influence that video games had on my formative years. For now I’ll just give a collective thanks to my ever-divided nuclear family for pitching in and getting me this console and game.
Sonic and Tails get cracking on the Chemical Plant Zone. Sonic: Get those rings mate!
I still have two exercise books from Grade 3 that were adorned with Sonic-themed custom-wrapping.
Early evidence of the obsession and a future life path. The French didn’t improve much.
I’d describe the music for the Metropolis Zone as an upbeat cross between Van Halen and the Rapping DJ beats and scratches that topped the charts in the early 90s.
Thank Masato Nakamura for the music of the first two Sonic games. He wrote the score with this thing: The Roland Microcomposer MC-4 (sadly I don’t own one of these).
I still have an original manual for the game, printed on double-sided A4 paper folded into 8 sections. Practical and compact, like anything good the Japanese make. Included is info on special moves, tricks, intro guides to each level, how to use the controller/insert a game cartridge, an epilepsy warning and a grid template for writing down your high scores. There are also blue-and-white snapshots of the game logo and still-shots, and schematics of various lesser baddies, who were cyborg animals. They really thought of everything.
The aliens are gonna come to some very curious conclusions if this cryptic document is all they ever find of Earth’s former civilisation.