#Sonic cd soundtrack comparison how to#

Several hours and over 1 gigabyte later, I was faced with how to actually hex edit it. I couldn’t be bothered to work out how to rip it, so instead downloaded the ISO. Googling reveals that it’s possible to rip the game and hex edit it to only boot the Japanese soundtrack. If it can still be sold in Japan, by god it can be sold in the west – it was in fact sold in the UK! Bloody numpties. Not bung both soundtracks on one disc and then deprive all non-Japanese of the chance to listen to it. IE: it’s part of the development process. Sorting out the licensing issues for the soundtrack, over a decade after its release, should be treated in exactly the same way as staff wages or hiring the factory to produce the discs is treated. That’s like paying $40 for a game at the store and getting home to find there’s no disc in it and the developer says: “Sorry, when we finished making the game we had issues with the fact that we couldn’t magically invent CDs out of thin air.” That’s the wrong answer. Some people say the change in soundtracks is licensing issues. It's insulting that Sega felt the need to do this. Compare the two soundtracks and it should be obvious the original is better. Dave Halverson gave the Japanese version a perfect score of 100, and the US versions something like 70, purely they changed the music. If I'm going to play Sonic CD I want it to have its original soundtrack as intended by the creators.

So right off the bat, one of my main reasons for playing is curtailed. This pisses me off, because the UK actually received the Japanese soundtrack for Sonic CD, and yet the UK versions of Gems boots the US soundtrack, as does the Japanese version in a UK system.

#Sonic cd soundtrack comparison ps2#

PAL PS2 systems don’t have Japanese, so everything – and I mean EVERYTHING – defaulted to English, including the soundtrack to Sonic CD. Except it turns out that Sega, much like they did with Panzer Dragoon Orta on the Xbox, coded the Japanese version to be multi-language and select things based on the language settings of your system. But then I realised this won’t have Bare Knuckle 1, 2 or 3.

And oh lordy, how wrong I was.įirst up eBay UK, which has it for around $6 delivered. So in this respect, I regarded Sonic Gems as some form of holy gaming light - a shining beacon by which other developers could follow. This would lower the prices that collectors demand for the originals, and it would mean the unwashed masses get to experience great games easily and at a fraction of the price. No, reprinting a collection of retro games should - I feel - focus on those which are good yet didn't get as widespread a release. Forget compilations with games which sold well - the original cartridges for those cost $1 a piece. This to me, made it potentially the greatest compilation ever released. A games journalist friend criticised it for containing only obscure titles - but I disagreed.

#Sonic cd soundtrack comparison Pc#

One game on my list was Sonic Gems, a Sonic compilation containing mainly obscure and weird crap most people haven’t played (Sonic Fighters the arcade game and a slew of Game Gear games), plus Sonic CD which has never appeared on compilation before (EDIT: I'm informed it's actually a port of the PC Sonic CD, not the Sega CD version - but I'm going to leave the cover art pics as is). This being the valley of the graph, many will inevitably rise in price. eBay (hate it as much as I do) is rife with excellent games costing from $1 up to $20, all with free postage. With high street stores no longer stocking new PS2 games in the UK, and the second-hand selection dwindling to almost nothing, I’ve been discussing what needs to be smash-and-grabbed before the last PS2 leaves Saigon. The quick answer is: you can’t, making it possibly the most redundant compilation ever released. Contrary to the opening title, I’m not advocating wanton cruelty on animals – rather, I intend to talk you through the hassles of trying to experience Sonic Gems on the PS2 as it should be.