Sonic the Hedgehog 3

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Start position array

These locations dictate where Sonic starts in the level. This is useful if you edited the level layout. You wouldn't want Sonic to fall from the sky or buried six feet under would you? That would look unprofessional.

The format is: XXXX YYYY, where:

• XXXX = X position
• YYYY = Y position

Here is a table for the offsets of each position:

Zone	Act 1	Act 2
Angel Island	$5E018	$5E01C
Hydrocity	$5E020	$5E024
Marble Garden	$5E028	$5E02C
Carnival Night	$5E030	$5E034
Flying Battery	$5E038	$5E03C
Ice Cap	$5E040	$5E044
Launch Base	$5E048	$5E04C
Mushroom Valley	$5E050	$5E054
Sandopolis	$5E058	$5E05C
Lava Reef	$5E060	$5E064
Sky Sanctuary	$5E068	$5E06C
Death Egg	$5E070	$5E074
Doomsday Zone	$5E078	$5E07C
Lost Level 0D	$5E080	$5E084
Azure Lake	$5E088	$5E08C
Balloon Park	$5E090	$5E094
Chrome Gadget	$5E098	$5E09C
Desert Palace	$5E0A0	$5E0A4
Endless Mine	$5E0A8	$5E0AC
Gumball Bonus	$5E0B0	$5E0B4
Glowing Spheres	$5E0B8	$5E0BC
Slot Machine	$5E0C0	$5E0C4
Lava Reef 3 & 4	$5E0C8	$5E0CC
Death Egg Boss	$5E0D0	$5E0D4

Boss Hitcounts

• $469A3 - Angel Island Mini-boss
• $47159 - Angel Island Boss
• $47E07 - Hydrocity Mini-boss
• $48D6F - Hydrocity Boss
• $5639B - Marble Garden Mini-boss
• $4A149 - Marble Garden Boss
• $4C037 - CNZ Boss
• $4E439 - Ice Cap Mini-boss
• $4ED65 - IceCap Boss
• $4F4A1 - Launch Base Mini-boss
• $5044F - Launch Base Cannon Boss
• $4F9D9 - Launch Base Rocket Boss
• $50CF9 - Final Boss
• $4DBCB - Flying Battery Boss (Unused, obviously)

Palette editing

Usually, it's not really necessary to edit a palette in hex. Palette editors give you instant feedback for each RGB value, and the palette can be easily saved as a separate binary and reimported into the ROM. However, it is sometimes desirable or necessary to do it in hex, and it can't hurt to know how it's done.

These are the ROM offsets of the palettes in Sonic 3, as listed by HivePal:

Offset	Name
$291A	Angel Island Act 1 Cycle #1
$293A	Angel Island Act 1 Cycle #2
$29BA	Angel Island Act 1 Cycle #3
$2A1A	Angel Island Act 1 Cycle #4
$2A4A	Angel Island Act 2 Cycle #1
$2A6A	Angel Island Act 2 Cycle #2
$2A9A	Angel Island Act 2 Cycle #3
$2ACA	Angel Island Act 2 Cycle #4
$2B32	Hydrocity Act 1 Cycle
$2B52	Carnival Night Cycle #1
$2BB2	Carnival Night Cycle #2
$2C32	Carnival Night Cycle #3
$2C66	Carnival Night Cycle #4
$2CA6	Carnival Night Cycle #5
$2D06	Carnival Night Cycle #6
$2D86	Carnival Night Cycle #7
$2DFA	Icecap Cycle #1
$2E3A	Icecap Cycle #2
$2E82	Icecap Cycle #3
$2E9A	Icecap Cycle #4
$2EDA	Launch Base Act 1 Cycle
$2EEC	Launch Base Act 2 Cycle
$2EFE	Lost Level 09 Act 1 Cycle #1
$2F7E	Lost Level 09 Act 1 Cycle #2
$2FA2	2P Level - Balloon Park Cycle #1
$2FB4	2P Level - Balloon Park Cycle #2
$3032	2P Level - Desert Palace Cycle
$3082	2P Level - Endless Mine Cycle #1
$30BE	2P Level - Endless Mine Cycle #2
$31C2	Super Sonic
$31FE	Super Sonic Underwater
$323A	Super Sonic Underwater
$3C78	Sega Logo #1
$3CF8	Sega Logo #2
$3D08	Intro Frame #1
$3D48	Intro Frame #2
$3D88	Intro Frame #3
$3DC8	Intro Frame #4
$3E08	Intro Frame #5
$3E48	Intro Frame #6
$3E88	Title Screen
$3FD4	Title Screen Cycle
$5092	2P Level - Knuckles
$70BC	Level Select Menu - EHZ Icon
$70DC	Level Select Menu - MZ Icon
$70FC	Level Select Menu - HTZ Icon
$711C	Level Select Menu - HPZ Icon
$713C	Level Select Menu - OOZ Icon
$715C	Level Select Menu - MCZ Icon
$717C	Level Select Menu - CNZ Icon
$719C	Level Select Menu - CPZ Icon
$71BC	Level Select Menu - ARZ Icon
$71DC	Level Select Menu - SCZ Icon
$71FC	Level Select Menu - WFZ Icon
$721C	Level Select Menu - DEZ Icon
$723C	Level Select Menu - Special Stage Icon
$725C	Level Select Menu - X Icon
$727C	Level Select Menu - Sound Test Icon
$7A26	Special Stage - Sonic and Tails
$7A66	Special Stages
$7AA6	Special Stage 1
$7ACC	Special Stage 2
$7AF2	Special Stage 3
$7B18	Special Stage 4
$7B3E	Special Stage 5
$7B64	Special Stage 6
$7B8A	Special Stage 7
$7BB0	Special Stage 8
$A55E	2P Menu - Sonic and Tails
$A57E	2P Menu - Knuckles
$A59E	2P Menu - Unselected Portraits
$A5BE	2P Menu - ALZ Portrait
$A5DE	2P Menu - BPZ Portrait
$A5FE	2P Menu - CGZ Portrait
$A61E	2P Menu - DPZ Portrait
$A63E	2P Menu - EMZ Portrait
$BBB6	Data Select - Sonic/Tails/Knuckles/Emeralds
$BBF6	Data Select - Sonic Portrait
$BC16	Data Select - Super Sonic Portrait
$BC36	Data Select - AIZ Portrait
$BC56	Data Select - HCZ Portrait
$BC76	Data Select - MGZ Portrait
$BC96	Data Select - CNZ Portrait
$BCB6	Data Select - FBZ Portrait (Unused)
$BCD6	Data Select - ICZ Portrait
$BCF6	Data Select - LBZ Portrait
$236AC	Red Balls Debug Mode Item
$2D3BE	Special Stage Results
$4160A	Ending - Credits
$4168A	Ending - Knuckles and Eggman
$457AE	Knuckles
$457CE	###
$4580E	Carnival Night Lights Off
$45E86	Angel Island Act 1 Intro - Emeralds
$47092	Angel Island Act 1 Boss
$47CD6	Angel Island Act 2 Boss
$48C9A	Hydrocity Act 1 Boss
$49D52	Hydrocity Act 2 Boss
$4B588	Marble Garden Act 2 Boss
$4BF70	Carnival Night Act 1 Boss
$4C91E	Carnival Night Act 2 Boss
$4D520	Flying Battery Act 1 Boss
$4DB80	Flying Battery Act 2 Boss
$4EBC2	Icecap Act 2 Boss
$4F444	Icecap Act 1 Boss
$4F98C	Launch Base Act 1 Boss
$503EE	Launch Base Act 2 Triplet Boss
$50C8A	Launch Base Act 2 Cannonball Boss
$520DC	Launch Base Act 2 Final Boss
$5211C	Ending - Sonic
$5213C	Ending - Tails
$5215C	Ending - Super Sonic
$8C234	Sonic and Tails
$8C274	Level Select Menu
$8C314	Angel Island Act 1
$8C374	Angel Island Act 1 Intro
$8C3D4	Angel Island Act 2
$8C494	Angel Island Act 1 Underwater
$8C434	Angel Island Act 2 FBZ Sequence
$8C514	Angel Island Act 2 Underwater
$8C594	Hydrocity Act 1
$8C654	Hydrocity Act 1 Underwater
$8C5F4	Hydrocity Act 2
$8C6D4	Hydrocity Act 2 Underwater
$8C754	Marble Garden
$8C7B4	Carnival Night
$8C814	Carnival Night Underwater
$8C894	Icecap Act 1
$8C8F4	Icecap Act 2
$8C954	Icecap Act 2 Underwater
$8C9D4	Launch Base Act 1
$8CA34	Launch Base Act 2
$8CA94	Launch Base Act Underwater
$8CB74	2P Level - Azure Lake
$8CBD4	2P Level - Balloon Park
$8CC94	2P Level - Chrome Gadget
$8CC34	2P Level - Desert Palace
$8CCF4	2P Level - Endless Mine
$8CD54	Bonus Stage
$A943C	Mushroom Hill Act 1
$A949C	Mushroom Hill Act 2
$A909C	Flying Battery Act 1
$A90FC	Flying Battery Act 2
$A94FC	Sandopolis Act 1
$A955C	Sandopolis Act 2
$A967C	Lava Reef Act 1
$A96DC	Lava Reef Act 2
$A9CDC	Lava Reef Act 2 Boss
$A9D3C	Hidden Palace
$A973C	Sky Sanctuary Act 1
$A979C	Sky Sanctuary Act 2
$A98BC	Death Egg Act 1
$A991C	Death Egg Act 2
$A9D9C	Death Egg Act 2 Boss
$A997C	The Doomsday
$164896	Marble Garden Act 2 - Day to Night #1
$164916	Marble Garden Act 2 - Day to Night #2
$164996	Marble Garden Act 2 - Day to Night #3
$164A16	Marble Garden Act 2 - Day to Night #4
$19D262	Data Select - Background
$19D282	2P Menu - Background

For information about the palette format, see here.

Water Heights

Note that editing water heights for zones without water will not do anything. The format is 2 bytes per act, and the water heights can be found at offset $51D6

Music pointers

The pointers that determine which song plays in each act can be found at offset $4680. The format is 1 byte per act, and each byte corresponds with the music ID in the sound test. Notice that in Sonic 3 there are some music differences for some of the S&K zones. For instance, Sky Sanctuary zone act 2 uses Death Egg act 1 music.

Object Pointer list

Sonic 3's Object Pointer List is different from the one used when locked on to Sonic & Knuckles. Many of the objects with low numbered ID's may match, but it's totally re-ordered later on.

ID #	Description
00	Ring
01	Monitor
02	Collision Plane Switcher
03	Large tree from AIZ 1 (the one right leading up to the miniboss cutscene)
04	Crumbling platforms from AIZ and ICZ
05	Rock from AIZ, LRZ and EMZ
06	Vine which slides down a rope from AIZ 1
07	Spring
08	Spikes
09	Tree bark from AIZ 1. Used only by the tree at coordinates $2F78 and $318. The only purpose this serves is that the bombers passing through the sky are masked by it instead of appearing over the tree
0A	Rope peg from AIZ 1, at the end of the pulley which you ride down
0B	Red revolving spheres
0C	Swinging vine from AIZ
0D	Breakable Wall
0E	Ridge from AIZ, MHZ, SOZ and LRZ which launches player up and forces twirl
0F	Collapsing platform/bridge/ledge
10	Tube transporters from LBZ
11	Floating platform from LBZ
12	Platform in LBZ which moves up when a flag is set and then returns to its original position when the flag is cleared (unused)
13	Exploding trigger from LBZ which causes bridges to change positions
14	Bridge from LBZ which changes position when its corresponding trigger explodes
15	Launcher from LBZ which thrusts the player forward at a high speed
16	Flame thrower from LBZ
17	Hooked ride from LBZ
18	Cup elevator from LBZ
19	Pole attached to cup elevator from LBZ
1A	??
1B	Smashable mini-pillar from LBZ
1C	??
1D	Platform from LBZ which you can hang on to at the bottom (unused)
1E	Launcher from LBZ 2 which thrusts player upward and forces a spin
1F	Hook from LBZ which transports player up
20	Smashing pillar from MGZ, smashing spikes from LBZ
21	Laser-shooting gate from LBZ
22	Siren from LBZ 1
23	??
24	Looping pipes from LBZ/pipes from LRZ which eject the player out at high speed
25	Ring (unused slot)
26	Tunnel entrance/exit (forces spin)
27	??
28	Invisible barrier (the GTGT blocks in debug mode)
29	Disappearing platform from AIZ
2A	Breakable floor piece from various levels
2B	Flipping stairway from AIZ
2C	Collapsing log bridge from AIZ
2D	Falling logs from AIZ
2E	Spiked rotating log from AIZ 2
2F	Various non-animated still sprites from levels. Includes stuff like bridge posts from AIZ, waterfalls from HCZ, mini-towers from LBZ, etc
30	Various animated still sprites from levels. Includes stuff like fire pieces from AIZ 2, the rotating pieces on which bricks travel in SOZ, special lava pieces from LRZ, etc
31	Rotating cylinders from LBZ
32	Drawbridge from AIZ 2 (the one which Knuckles destroys after the boss fight)
33	Button
34	Starpole
35	Plants in foreground in AIZ 1
36	Breakable bar from HCZ
37	The vertical water stream from HCZ 1 which moves forward when you break the first barrier
38	Propelling fans from HCZ and CGZ
39	Large fan from HCZ which propels player forward
3A	Hand launcher from HCZ
3B	Wall in HCZ 1 from which a stream of water gushes out, breaking bricks along the way
3C	Door (used in HCZ, CNZ and DEZ)
3D	Spring from FBZ 2 which moves up and down. Only used once in entire game
3E	Conveyor belt from HCZ
3F	Spike on HCZ conveyor belt
40	Single block from HCZ. Usually pieced together to form horizontal groups
41	Balloon from CNZ
42	Cannon from CNZ
43	Platform from CNZ which falls when you stand on it and rises when you jump
44	Trapdoor in CNZ from which player is ejected after entering a corkscrew
45	Lightbulb in bell-jar from CNZ 2 (near the button which turns the lights off)
46	Fans which make the player hover from CNZ
47	Rotating barrels from CNZ
48	Vacuum tubes from CNZ
49	Rotating wheel from CNZ
4A	Bumper
4B	Triangular springs from CNZ which knock the player forward
4C	Corkscrew from CNZ
4D	Pole from CNZ on which you go round and round diagonally upwards or downwards
4E	Rotating vertical mesh from CNZ
4F	Mud from MGZ and ALZ and quicksand from DPZ
50	Pole from MGZ, at the base of some loops, on which you go round and round
51	Floating platform
52	Smashing pillar from MGZ, smashing spikes from LBZ (repeated entry)
53	Platforms from MGZ which rotate around a centre
54	Air-bubble emitting object
55	Arrow-shooting head from MGZ which you have to hit thrice
56	Moving rotating platform from MGZ with spikes on the sides
57	Platform in MGZ triggered by the rotating blue wheel
58	Swinging spiked ball from MGZ
59	Blue rotating wheel from MGZ which is triggered by a Spin Dash
5A	Pulley from MGZ
5B	Blue spinning top platform from MGZ
5C	Launcher for the blue spinning top from MGZ
5D	Triangular springs from CGZ
5E	Platform from CGZ with blades at the bottom
5F	Retracting spring from 2P mode
60	Elephant block from BPZ
61	Balloon from BPZ
62	Dissolving sand bar from DPZ
63	Button from DPZ
64	Bubble containing item in 2P mode
65	Goal marker in 2P mode
66	Dripper from EMZ
67	Silver blocks from HCZ 2 which move around and expand and collapse into each other
68	Spinning blue column from HCZ
69	Curved twisting blue pipe from HCZ 2
6A	Invisible horizontal block which hurts player
6B	Invisible vertical block which hurts player
6C	Bridge which sags when you walk across it
6D	Special water splash from HCZ, where a waterfall hits an object
6E	Water drops from HCZ
6F-7F	Ring (unused slot)
80	First appearance of the AIZ 1 miniboss, in which he sets the level on fire
81	Bloominator
82	Rhinobot
83	Monkey Dude
84	??
85	Miniboss from LBZ 1
86	Laser columns boss from LBZ 2
87	Snale Blaster
88	Ribot
89	Orbinaut
8A	Corkey
8B	Flybot767
8C	Black ball machine boss from LBZ 2
8D	Boss from CNZ 2
8E	Miniboss from CNZ 1
8F-98	??
99	Jawz
9A	Blastoid (HCZ)
9B	Buggernaut
9C	Turbo Spiker
9D	Mega Chopper
9E	Pointdexter
9F	Caterkiller Jr.
A0	Clamer
A1	Blastoid (CNZ)
A2	Batbot
A3	Bubbles (MGZ badnik)
A4	Driller from MGZ 1
A5	Spiker (MGZ badnik)
A6	Mantis
A7	Blaster (FBZ badnik) prototype
A8	Technosqueek
A9	Boss from AIZ 2
AA	Penguinator
AB	Star Pointer (ICZ badnik)
AC	??
AD	Miniboss from HCZ 1
AE	Eggman from LBZ 1
AF	Drilling Eggman from MGZ 2
B0	Boss from MGZ 2
B1	Knuckles' boss from MGZ 2
B2	Boss from ICZ 2
B3	Miniboss from ICZ 1
B4	Boss from FBZ 2
B5	Boss from HCZ 2
B6	??
B7	Egg Mobile which transports Sonic to the final boss arena in LBZ 2
B8	Crushing column from ICZ
B9	Platform from ICZ
BA	Breakable wall from ICZ
BB	Freezer from ICZ
BC	Segmented column from ICZ
BD	Swinging platform from ICZ
BE	Stalactite from ICZ
BF	Ice cube which covers monitors and switches from ICZ
C0	Ice spikes from ICZ
C1	Harmful ice pieces from ICZ
C2	Snowpile from ICZ
C3	Trampoline from ICZ
C4	Miniboss from MGZ 1
C5	Hidden monitors which bounce out when the starpost touches them
C6	Egg capsule
C7	All appearences of Knuckles as a bad guy or as a non-controllable character
C8	Right trampoline support from ICZ
C9	Buttons used by Knuckles
CA	Sonic during the AIZ intro sequence
CB	Giant ring
CC	Miniboss box from LBZ 1. Triggered only in case the player dies during the fight and restarts at the near starpost
CD	Lost Eggman object
CE	Gumball level from gumball bonus stage. Also initializes all other sprites
CF	Springs on the sides of the gumball bonus stage
D0	Squeeze Tag boss from LBZ 2
D1	Special breakable floor from CNZ 2 which causes a water level rise when broken
D2	Button which switches the lights on again in CNZ 2
D3	Towers supporting the Death Egg at the time of launch
D4-FF	(unused, crashes game)