HUD
From Sonic Retro
HUD is the widely used acronym for Heads Up Display. In Sonic games it usually contains an overview of informations such as score, elapsed time, number of lives remaining, number of rings collected.
Sega Mega Drive/Genesis Games
Sonic 1, Sonic 2, and Sonic 3 & Knuckles
In Sonic 1, Sonic 2, and Sonic 3 & Knuckles, the HUD is divided into two main parts:
- one part in the top left corner, which displays, from top to bottom, the current score, the elapsed time, the number of rings collected;
- a life counter in the bottom left corner, which displays the number of remaining lives.
Sonic 1's special stage has no HUD whatsoever;
Sonic 2's special stage displays either the rings collected by Sonic and Tails in the top left and top right corner respectively, and the total at the top at the centre, or the rings collected by the character himself while not playing as Sonic and Tails together; occasionally, the number of needed rings to complete a section will flash on the screen;
Sonic 3 & Knuckles' special stage displays the number of remaining blue spheres in the top left corner, and the number of collected rings in the top right corner; in Blue Sphere mode, the ring counter counts downwards as well. Occasionally, messages such as "get blue spheres" and "perfect" appear on the screen.