Green Hill Zone (Sonic the Hedgehog 16-bit)

Green Hill Zone is the first zone in Sonic 1, the first of the Sonic the Hedgehog series. It is a picturesque paradise with green forests and beautiful blue lakes and has brown checkered soil. Green Hill Zone has many flowers in the foreground, as well as waterfalls and clouds in the backdrop. Hazards include crumbling platforms and spikes.

Green Hill Zone's beta is thought to have been set at night (though one screenshot of the same place is at day, thus suggesting a bad emulator shot) and had a WELCOME SONIC sign and a rolling ball. This rolling ball was eventually sheltered as Robotnik's wrecking ball for the Act 3 boss.

This zone is so famous in the Sonic series that it reappears in later games such as Sonic Battle and Sonic Adventure 2. Even Sonic Advance 3's Sunset Hill Zone has a remix of Green Hill Zone music.

After completing the game, Sonic makes a brief return to Green Hill Zone for the ending sequence.

Instruction Manual Description

Go around the giant loop, tumble down tunnels, and jump over crumbling cliffs before you get a chance to blink. Bounce on Springboards but not on spikes. Ouch!

Villains

Enemies

• Chopper - A pirahna bot that jumps up from under bridges
• Moto Bug - Insect bot that rides around
• Crabmeat - Crab bot that shoots fireballs from its pincers
• Buzz Bomber - Insect bot that shoots stinging fireballs
• Newtron - Disappearing lizard bot

Boss

• Boss: Dr. Robotnik's Ball-n-Chain Machine
• Hits: 8

Ah, the classic. Anyways, jump on one of the ledges. When he first appears, hit him 2-3 times before he brings out his weapon, a ball and chain. The easiest way to defeat him is to hit him when the ball is swinging to the opposite direction, then run under the ledge all the way to the edge of the screen, then when the ball is gone, jump up, hit him again, and repeat. He's a goner after 8 solid hits.

Technical Information

23A8 GHZ level palette

6DDE GHZ dynamic screen resizing

1C054 GHZ animated pattern load cue

1D17C GHZ object debug list

3BCF2 GHZ 16x16 block mappings

3C692 GHZ Primary pattern block

3DCF2 GHZ secondary pattern block

3F09A GHZ 256x256 block mappings

64A00 GHZ 16x16 collision index

68C7E GHZ act 1 foreground

68D74 GHZ act 2 foreground

68E40 GHZ act 3 foreground

68F62 GHZ act 1/2/3/ending sequence background

6B096 GHZ act 1/4 sprite locations

6B5A0 GHZ act 2 sprite locations

6BB5E GHZ act 3 sprite locations

Techinical Notes

Green Hill Zone is followed by Marble Zone, which uses some of Green Hill Zone's tiles.

There are some bizarre bumper-flower-things you can place in the ending with debug mode. There is also one pink flower. This bumper is actually one of the bumpers from Spring Yard Zone, using art from Green Hill Zone to define itself.

Green Hill Zone is a very commonly hacked level, and is usually the level of choice for beggining hackers, since it uses relatively little tags and the tiles, for the most part, fit together.