Sonic Crackers

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Sonic Crackers
System(s): Sega Mega Drive
Developer: Sega
Genre: 2D Platform

Sonic Crackers (referred to as Sonic Studium in the ROM header, and often identified incorrectly as Sonic the Hedgehog 4) is an early prototype build of the game Knuckles' Chaotix, incorporating many of the elements that would appear in the final game. Its name comes from a peculiar ASCII-art title screen, which looks like it was thrown together in 5 minutes. Sonic Crackers is thought to be an engine test, composed of various different game engines, swapped out using RAM coding.

The game features Sonic and Tails, held together by rings as seen in Knuckles' Chaotix. Sonic can also pick up Tails and throw him up to make it easier to reach higher platforms. The stages and music are also similar to those in Chaotix. There are no sound effects at all during gameplay. There are no badniks to be found neither, however there are spikes, and you lose rings when hitting them (even though you have none).

Interestingly, the date on the lower right of the title screen reads "19940401". The 0401, meaning April 1st, lead to some debate on if the title screen, or the ROM was a April Fools joke. With the discovery of the Chaotix protos (especially of prototype 1207) this is clearly not the case.

Download Sonic Crackers File: Sonic Crackers.7z (368 kB) (info)

Levels

There are four playable levels in Sonic Crackers, which are accessible either by pressing start on "1P START" on the title screen, or by using the "SELECT" menu. They are listed below:

Attraction Levels

These are standard sidescrolling levels similar to those seen in previous Sonic games. By pressing the pause button and pressing a direction key, you can move Sonic in the corresponding direction to anywhere in the level. While moving, Sonic and Tails' arms become detached and stay at the original location until the game is resumed. When dying by Time Over (or, in the case of the first level, reaching the top of the screen) you enter a field stage.

Starting level and World 2 levels

This is an industrial themed level which can be completed by reaching the top, whereupon the Game Over sound occurs and a field level is entered. This is the only level with a obstacle which causes harm to the player (spikes) and makes this the most complete level in the game. The palette and music changes each time the level is entered, which indicates that time of day was already planned by the time of this prototype. Game over activates when the timer reaches 3 minutes, or when the top of the level is reached.

This level is thought to be an early version of Chaotix' Techno Tower. A comparison mp3 created by Qjimbo that has Crackers' version of the level music on the right side, and the Chaotix version on the left side.

<mp3>CrackersChaotix.mp3</mp3>

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  World 2, Attraction 1

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  World 2, Attraction 2

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  World 2, Attraction 3

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  World 2, Attraction 4

World 1 level

This stage is a circus/carnival themed level which can't be beaten; rather than having a level ending it just loops. The collision detection is glitchy and makes the floor difficult to walk on when entering the normal way. The best way to play it is by entering it using the level select as this will make the ground solid. Tails seems to be able to walk on the ground without any trouble, though. Game over activates after 1 minute.

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Field Levels

The incomplete overhead field stages, commonly referred to as Special Stages, even though they are not -- the "Special Stage" selection on the level select menu causes the ROM to crash. These field levels were never properly completed and don't have any collision detection. To exit these stages simply pause and hit any button.

• First Field - The floor is covered in yellow and pink tiling and the background set high in the stratosphere. Clouds and rainbows can be seen.
• Second Field - A dark level set atop a glowing technological city.

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  World 1 Field

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  World 2 Field