Okay, here's what you do: you get from the left side of the level to the right in under ten minutes. (There are a couple of deviations from that rule later in the series, but for now...) On the way, you collect Rings. As many as you can. If you take damage, you'll lose your Rings and they'll go bouncing around the screen. Grab back as many as you can as quickly as possible, 'cause if you get smacked without any Rings on-hand, you lose a life. That's bad. Also, if you've got 50 Rings when you reach the exit, you'll be able to enter the Special Stage. I shall elaborate on Special Stages shortly.

   On your way, you'll encounter animal-esque robots of all manner. You should destroy them by spinning, which can be achieved by itself simply by pressing down on the D-pad while running, or accompanied with a jump by pressing one of the action buttons (A, B, or C) at any time.

   At the end of each third Act, you'll encounter Robotnik himself in one of his crazy, hedgehog-harming contraptions. They all take 8 spins a piece. Other than that, they're just like regular enemies ("Badniks") only harder. After defeating 'im, you run up to a robot machine, then push the button on top to destroy it and free the animals inside. Yaay! (In non-boss Acts, you just spin a Robotnik sign by dashing past it, after which it shows Sonic.)

   The Special Stages open up if you have 50 Rings at the end of the first or second Act in any Zone. A giant Ring appears right by the spin sign...jump into it and you're warped to the Special Stage: a dazzling, colorful, 360° rotating maze. Collect Rings & dodge the "GOAL" spheres while aiming for the center: a Chaos Emerald. You can only view the full ending by collecting all six Chaos Emeralds. Bump a sphere in the Special Stage for the indicated effect:

• Bumper -- Bounce right off
• Reverse -- Reverses the rotation of the maze
• Jump Stand -- Jump off these
• Up -- Speeds the rotation of the maze
• Down -- Lowers the rotation of the maze
• Goal -- Takes you out of the Special Stage

   There you go. Keep that in mind, as you'll need to know it to understand the descriptions throughout the rest of the museum. Anyway, the original collection of Zones that we all know by heart include:

• Green Hill -- Palmtrees, checkered hillsides, and a tropical theme: destined to become synoptic with the Sonic schema. Home to Motobug (Motora), Chopper (Batabata) Buzz Bomber (Biiton), and Newtron (Mereon).
• Marble -- Crumbling Greek-style ruins filled with lava, spike balls, and all that good stuff. Home to Caterkiller (Naaru) and Basaran.
• Spring Yard -- The first pinball-esque arena, with the setting being an oddly tranquil city within a mountain range (still one of the coolest Zones to date). Home to Crabmeat (Ganigani), Roller (Aruma), Buzz Bomber (Biiton), and Yadrin.
• Labyrinth -- The original hydro level, set in an ancient underwater labyrinth. Stay for too long underwater and you'll drown...take a breath from large air bubbles to replenish your oxygen supply. Home to Burrobot (Ogurin), Jaws (Pukupuku), and Unidasu.
• Star Light -- The original futuristic city under the stars Zone, and still one of the best. You can really let Sonic's speed rip in this level. Home to Uniuni and Bomb.
• Scrap Brain -- And, of course, the original factory Zone! It's quite a dangerous place, although the biggest threats tend to be getting squished or falling off the screen. Home to Caterkiller (Naaru), Crabmeat (Ganigani), and Ball Hog (Tonton).
• Final -- Not so much a full-fledged Zone, this is actually just the boss to Scrap Brain (and the final boss of the game).

   And ah yes, the classic assortment of items which can be obtained by busting monitors:

• Super Ring -- Worth 10 Rings
• Shield -- Protects you from one hit
• Power Sneakers -- Temporarily raises your speed
• One-Up -- Gives you an extra chance
• Invincible -- Makes you invincible for a short time

   It was released a couple months early in the states...this lead to alot of speculation as to what was in the Japanese version that the domestic build lacked. Rumors ranged from a couple extra layers of parallax scrolling to a whole extra Zone, but the fact is both versions are identical. Really, man. Like twins seperated at birth. Here are some screens of the game in development:

Slow & Frame Skip: At the title screen, press: C, C, Up, Down, Left, Right. You should hear a Ring chime if you've done it correctly. Now press START. Pause the game, and press A to reset the system, B for slow-motion, and C for frame-by-frame movement.

Construction Mode: At the title screen, press: Up, C, Down, C, Left, C, Right. You should hear a Ring chime if you've done it correctly. Reset the system. Input the level-select code. Hold down A and choose your Zone. Continue to hold A until Sonic appears on-screen. The following buttons have the specified effects:

• The Team originally wanted to add a scene in the first level where Sonic was being chased by a large boulder ala Indiana Jones. In the end, it couldn't be done, although (much like the object-throwing maneuver that had to be cut) this vision came to fruition much later with the advent of Sonic Adventure.
• The game's music was composed by Masato "King Masa" Nakamura, a member of the popular J-pop band "Dreams Come True."
• Yuji Naka was NOT the producer of Sonic 1. He was the main programmer and would not move up to the position of producer until after the completion of Sonic 2. (The original Sonic producer was Shinobu Toyoda. He's an executive producer these days.)
• The "One-Up" spheres for the Special Stages shown in the US instruction manual were not in the final product. (Although it is possible to access them via the Construction Mode cheat listed above.)
• It's one of the greatest mysteries in all of Sonicdom: what the hell ever happened to the pink Chaos Emerald? In Sonic 1, the six Emeralds come in the colors of blue, yellow, green, red, white, and pink. The new set of colors in use since Sonic 2 are blue, green, red, yellow, aqua, violet, and white. Where'd the pink Emerald go? The mind boggles...
• It's such a well-known factoid that it's hardly worth mentioning here, but...for the unenlightened, Dr. Robotnik's original Japanese name is Dr. Eggman.