The Sonic Museum

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A Boy and His Hedgehog

Here it is. The result of nearly 100 grueling hours of HTML hell, years of sometimes painstaking research, and one pathetic person's obsession with a videogame character. That pathetic person would be me, and this timeline represents nearly ten years worth of Sonic the Hedgehog information...from his very conception in April of 1990. But it won't stop here...as Sonic continues to spin toward the horizon, I will continue to record major events and games in this one-stop hedgehog resource. Ain't I great?

Of course the most logical question here is, "why?" The most obvious answer is that no such reference existed on the internet until now, or atleast none of this scope and accuracy. But that's only part of the reason. My main purpose for devoting so much of my time to this Sonic resource is much deeper than that. To put it in the least amount of words possible, Sonic the Hedgehog changed my life. As dramatic as it sounds, that's a quite literal statement.

My earliest gaming memory is of playing Frogger on my Intellivision, often for hours on end. I was four at the time, and being exposed to videogames so early, gaming became a part of my composition as I grew. I later owned a Commodore 64 and an NES, but my passion for the gaming industry would not begin to truly develop until the 16-bit era. And the catalyst for that change would be Sonic the Hedgehog.

I still remember seeing Sonic the Hedgehog advertised on TV, and seeing displays in toy stores. To me, it was little more than a hopeless dream. I'd sit and watch demos of the game, completely mesmerized, in total awe that such wonderful things could even exist. My first actual playing experience was at a Toys "R" Us display case. From the moment I started up the Green Hill Zone, it was magic in its purest form. For the next sixty seconds, I was in absolute ecstasy. But it was still just a taste...a hint of something I could only dream of. Until December 1992, still the best holiday season I can recall. It was that year I received a gift the likes of which I hadn't even dared to hope for. A Sega Genesis unit, my first new console since the NES. As if that weren't enough, I open the box up to find just what my now tear-filled eyes had hoped to see: a pack-in copy of Sonic the Hedgehog. To wrap it all up, my grandmother threw in Sonic the Hedgehog 2 as a bonus. There's no doubt in my mind that I was the happiest child on earth that Christmas.

Of course, once I had a taste of the good life, I wanted more. Today, I own (or have owned) an Intellivision, Commodore 64, NES, Genesis, Game Boy, Game Gear, Sega CD, 32X, Saturn, PlayStation, Nintendo 64, and three PC's. I have gone from buying a maximum of five games a year to a minimum of 20, and have money set aside for a Sega Dreamcast and a Sony PlayStation 2. After fooling around with animation, comic books, writing and even sports, I have finally found something I truly love. An industry with goals and high-water marks I actually want to work to reach. I have come to the end of my search, and Sonic the Hedgehog was the game that led me here. This is my way of saying, "Thank you, Sonic. Thank you for taking away my life!"

Hedgehog History 101 The year is 1990, and Hayao Nakayama (Sega prez at that time) wanted a mascot who would be to Sega what Mickey Mouse is to Disney. The man he put in charge of this ambitious project was Yuji Naka, a talented game designer (soon-to-be Game God) whose past credits included work on Space Harrier, Black Belt, Ghouls 'N Ghosts, and the Phantasy Star series. Sonic would be the first game actually designed by Naka-san, and his invaluable right-hand man -- aspiring artist Naoto Ohshima. Together, the two of them concocted the character Sonic the Hedgehog, and from that point Naka-san worked on game design and implementation while Ohshima-san specialized in character and world design.

The original concept was of a character who would run and throw things at enemies to destroy them. However, the acts of running, picking something up, and throwing it involved too many processes. They wanted something simpler, so the idea of a rolling attack was formed. However, a simple round ball doesn't seem very threatening, so the super duo gave it a spiky edge and a character to match. Sonic the Hedgehog was born.

The impact Sonic had on the videogaming industry was far greater than what even Sega itself had expected, and the blue blur's complete and ongoing legacy can be found on the following pages. It's been nine fast first years, but I have a feeling the ride's only just begun...

Sources Of course, I didn't just make this stuff up. The biggest reference point for the Sonic Museum you are (hopefully) about to read was definitely Sonic Team's own Sonic Jam. Although I knew the order of release long before, the "Hall of Fame" in Sonic Jam's "Sonic World" clarified exact dates...and also informed me of a couple of Sonic games I'd never even heard of.

Beyond that, a great big thanks to the following folks who either donated material for the museum, or helped me locate information: Jonathan "WB" Gray, Chan Soen Mun David, Michael "G. Silver" Stearns, "SonicBlu", "Gex42", Gabriel Guevremont, "Mr. Dordray", Mary "Solly" Yamasaki, Martin Braid, Bo Bayles, Heidi "Zero-chan" Kemps, Adam "Blue Gibbon?" Goebler, A.J. Freda, and everyone out there who's bothering to read this! A great big thaaan-kyeeew!

And finally, here's some more sources. That is, people I took stuff from, but they don't actually know I took anything from them. ^o^ Alessandro Sanasi, "Koryan", Andre Dirk, and all the MIDI sequencers. (Please note that there were no restrictions on any of the materials I used, and I naturally assumed them to be open for free distribution.)

Further sources include: The official Sonic Team HP, Sega Online, Sega Entertainment Universe, Sega of Europe Online, Tiger Electronics, Game Sages, Megacosm, and Kids Domain.

General Info

Before you begin your ultimately pointless trek into Sonic history, you should first know how things work. The timelines are pretty obvious, but here's a brief description on some things in the individual game info pages.

Down the timeline, games are marked with double dashes (--), while music is signified with a center dot (·).
I put Sonic Team to their own test and rated each game in "grades" of A-F. A select few receive the ultimate score of "S".
Due to numerous screenshots and images, some pages take very long to load. Please refrain from hitting the "stop" button if you really want to see everything...

Let's Get Spinning!

[ Back | 1990 | 1991 | 1992 | 1993 | 1994 | 1995 | 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | ??? | Other | Music ]

Sonic the Hedgehog, all related characters, and the "Sonic Museum" logo are trademarks of Sega Enterprises and Sonic Team. Page designed by Jared "Green Gibbon!" Matte.