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Revision as of 09:32, 22 February 2005

This article is part of
Hidden Palace Zone: ACLA-ATD4
by Nayr T'nargh.
Individual pages...
I. Introduction
II. Dawn
III. Ethiopia
IV. “The Golden Age”
V. Hackers
VI. The Dark Age of Light
VII. The Cleansing
VIII. A New Start
IX. Deception: The Hacker
X. Astray and Confusion Abounds
XI. Conclusion
XII. Versions
XIII. Credits
See also...

TSC:MTAPE

Ethiopia -- The Sonic secrets community gains stature

With the discovery of the Beta ROM, questions flare. Since levels like Hidden Palace Zone were highly advertised, but never found, Sonic fans had questions about how the level looked. I hope to have more info at some time from André here. Meanwhile, with the realization that the Mario hacking scene was incredibly advanced, yet the Sonic hacking scene was nowhere, a kid by the name of Andrew Wolan started a site dedicated to unearthing information in the Sonic the Hedgehog games. Namely, Sonic and Knuckles.

Overall happenings and history

With this, André launched the Secrets of Sonic the Hedgehog in 1998. The Sonic Secrets scene officially had a home, therefore a new branch of the Sonic community was born. Pretty soon Sonic Pandemonium, a site owned by Sonique Hedgehog, jumped into the scene as well. It could easily be argued that the scene started there as well. Once again, I will search out these people for more info...

On the other side, Andrew Wolan launched Andy’s Sonic Hacking Station. It became a moderate success. It was then that Andy met André. After awhile the two sites fused together into one. These two sites together were called the SSRG.

Secrets of Sonic the Hedgehog

Secrets of Sonic the Hedgehog had everything from what was in Andre’s beta to theories about the beta and hoaxes (Sonic Pandemonium e-mailed Andre asking for permission to add a hoax section to her site. Andre said yes! That's how the hoaxing craze spread). Sonique didn’t like what was happening with André and his site and they never really hit it off too well... (Actually, Sonique ['Soneec' at the time] was a very angry lady. Andre loved to pull pranks like Knuckles in China Land and "Who will bake the pie?". Hence there was a clash!)

Andy’s Sonic Hacking Station

The only early site still out there. You can find it on Google by looking up Andy Wolan. It had a moderate amount of Sonic hacking information. Mainly Sonic and Knuckles info. After awhile, small amounts of Sonic secret info started showing up.

The handshake

In about 1998, SoSth and ASHS shook hands and created SSRG, a site owned by Andy. They decided to take sites based on secrets and offer them to become a member of this “elite” group of people. It was invite only, no hiring allowed. This method worked very well and assured picking out the riffraff. While it didn’t start out too hot, it started picking up in early 1999. One of the first sites accepted was Area 51...

Area 51

...which was owned by Jan Abaza. Area 51 was a site that had been out there long before SoSth, but never really got the recognition it deserved. It had all the weird Sonic screen shots that never made it into the games, thus it was locked away from the public (get it? Area 51 = confidential?). The site was quickly invited on, followed by others such as the Fan Games Archive (a site by Ryan Langley [AKA Rlan]), Tom’s Hacking Station, Underground Zone and Organized Chaos)


Achievements

It was the beginning of the scene basically, and that was good enough. However there was one major breakthrough...

The SSRG

The SSRG was the biggest breakthrough. It represented the Sonic secrets scene as a growing force in Sonic Fandom. The “hub”, if you will, of the Sonic secrets community.

Message boards

I don’t have any idea about the MBs of this era, though I do know that Sonic Pandemonium’s was there. That’s the only one I know for sure (because I personally made my first MB post at this time as Samantha Clarfet, though if I recall, it was in the next era).

Members

Andy / NO CARRIER André Stealth A. J. Freda Tom Scott Prower “Sonniku” Walbank Tails (Andre’s friend, the current owner of Andre’s two betas) Sonique / Nique Jan! SonKnuck Dr. Zachary Rlan Kulock ?Nemesis?

and many more that I will add when I remember them...