Sonic 1 Beta Hoax

To try and stir up a bit more interest in Sonic 1, Cyan Helkaraxe decided to do something which had never been done at that time--create a ROM hack.

Cyan set to work on the Sonic 1 ROM, researching its internal workings primarily by a trial-and-error process (since there was absolutely no documentation on Sonic 1 available at the time), with the goal of creating a hoax beta--a ROM that mimicked the behaviour of a "genuine" Sonic 1 beta.

Finally, in May 1999, the ROM hack was released to Simon Wai's Sonic 2 beta page. The ROM was deliberately not listed as a hoax, but rather released under the title "Sonic 1 beta?".

The release of the hoax beta stirred up more interest in Sonic 1, and when it was identified as a hoax, Andy Wolan invited Cyan to the SSRG for his work in creating the ROM hack.