Stardust Speedway 007 - Jumping Into The Next Gen (A Bit Too Late)

Now; the selection of titles I have chosen for this research have only been from one generation of consoles and inparticular one console which is the Sega Mega Drive (and its add on; The Sega CD) now this could be down to the fact that I am a Mega Drive fan boy at heart; but also is that because all of the titles that I want to use for this project are all older titles.

So for this reason I am adding two more additional titles to the research; this late addition for the research list will let me view the series within a different light and also see if the series has advanced.

The first title is (SUPRISE) another Mega Drive title; but I think that it is an important title when I did some more research; the title that I am refering to is Sonic Spinball. This Mega Drive title puts Sonic into a gaint pinball machine and allows players to play a game of pinball; which dumbed down is all about point scoring and item collection (like extra balls) but this game does break the Sonic DNA slighly which I will discuss in the games post mortom report I will do in a future post.

The Second title is Sonic Adventure for The Dreamcast; now I initially didn't think of including any of the more modern titles within the Sonic Series as I think that they break the Sonic DNA for the series too much with the inclusion of more characters and weird tie ins with fairy tales like in the more modern titles; but this title is the only one that I though of that did not change the original formula of a Sonic Game that I am trying to research in depth; so I am going to include this title as well.

This will give me five games to draw points from and to research further; this should give me a broader vision of what the Soinc series is trying to achieve and I think that this list includes the best Sonic titles for the job without having to look at Sonic and The Black Knight.

Stardust Speedway 006 - Reading List (Capitalism: The Unknown Idea by Ayn Rand)

Well I have nearly finished my first book of my reading list and I now have a basic grasp of Capitalism (in some form) So I am going to jump into another book as quick as I can and this has been highly reccomended by various people.

Now, I have read Altus Shrugged by Ayn Rand which took me a long time and alot of determination to do before the release of Bioshock to get more of an understanding of the game; but her opinions of the society that the characters live in can be seen within various points of the book. So I have decided to read this collection of essays about Capitalism and various other themes to get a more deeper understanding of the subject.

So once it has come from Amazon; let the reading begin.

Stardust Speedway 005 - A Late Entry and Personal Reviews

I have decided to include the original Sonic The Hedgehog title within my game research; as when replaying the title. Some of the elements that I am trying to uncover are more visable within this game and also it was the first title; so I would have to look at it and then I could compare it to the other two titles that I am looking at which are Sonic CD and Sonic The Hedgehog 2.

Also I have started to replay all of these titles; and when I have played each title a few times each; I am going to write up a small post mortum report to discuss what elements I have found within each title.

(I can breath now I have got that miniture rant out of my system) :)

Stardust Speedway 004 - In The Beginning; There was a hedgehog from Nebraska

Well; I also have been researching on the internet and I have found some interesting documents which ended up being the original concept documents that Sonic Team used to create the original title.

Not the series; has come an extreamly long way since these days; but they are a rearly good read.

You can find the link at the following address

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=352814

Stardust Speedway 003 - Reading List (Capitalism - A Very Short Introduction)

Well; I do watch a lot of topical news quizes such as Have I Got News For You and Mock The Week and I do live in a Capitlist society; but I still do not understand the subject to a full extent. So I went out this morning and bought the following book (Capitalism - A Very Short Introduction) bu James Fulcher.

Now when you look at the title; you cannot have a very short introduction to a vast subject; but this series of books are very detailed and I have used them before when researching subjects like Terrorism with my Paper on Resident Evil: Code Veronica X. So I am going to use this book as a starting point for my research and see where it goes from there.

Also; I have nearly finished my playthrough of Sonic CD for the project and I am going to write up a games post mortem report to discuss what I found within the game (as long as I get past the Wacky Workbench level)

Stardust Speedway 002 - Retro All The Way, I Say

Well, thinking about the project last night and also what comments were left on my blog; I have decided on the sonic titles that I am going to focus on; now before making this position; I have been digging up all of my Sonic titles and playing them for a while to see what title would be best.

Now after my conclusions (and several hours of hard gameplay); I have decided to focus on two titles; the first being the namesake of the project; Sonic CD. This is my favourite Sonic The Hedgehog game for so many reasons (but this is for another time); but I think that its the iconic time travel mechanic which allows Sonic to travel into the past and future of his current location; but if he doesn't destroy any of Robotnik's machinery; it will be an evil future where Robotnik rules the entire world and the opposite effect when Sonic destroys a piece of machinery and goes into a good future. I like the way that if you don't destroy Robotnik's machines; it will always be a bad future; but why is the game like this is What I want to know. Also the inclusion of a Metal Sonic; the character that I am labeling a Captialist Figure that now has a Doppleganger; what was Robitnik trying to achieve by creating him?

Now the second title is Sonic The Hedgehog 2; the first title that includes Tails (Sonic's Sidekick) and another favourite title of mine. The main element that intrigues me about the title is the games final level; The Death Egg.

Robotnik's "Ultimate Weapon" which is exaclty like the Death Star; but also the inclusion of Super Sonic; Sonic's alter ego that he can only turn into when he has collected all of the Chaos Emerelds from Robotnik; but when he does he turns into an unbeatable speed machine that is twice as fast as normal sonic and can beat anything. But the downside is his power drains Sonic's Golden Rings Collection; so to keep this power; he must collect these items of value to stay invinsible.

Now I know that these tiles are retro titles; but the newer titles do not focus more on the colelction of items than the older titles does; more about speed and acrobatic set pieces. SO for now these are my two titles; but when I have done some further reading I could add some more titles and even include some that are not Sonic titles.

Now; I am going to play a bit more Sonic CD and enjoy the animated cutscenes.

Stardust Speedway 001 - Looking at Sonic in a different light

Hello; my name is Luke Bale and I am currently studying Bsc (Hons) Comnputer and Video Games at the University of Salford. I am just about to entry my third year and starting to research the topic for my 3rd year dissertation.

Now I have already thought of an idea for this Dissertation blog; which was called Rage On The Streets and that was going to focus on the Streets of Rage game and how they portray Gang culture. But I have had a change of heart about the topic as this project is all about doing something that I am interested in and it gives me time to research deeper into one of my favourite game series; the Sonic The Hedgehog games.

Now I am not going to include the latest titles at the moment as I do not feel that they are the same games as the ones created within the Mid 90s, but I will look at thse titles in the future of the project.

Now I have called the essay; Owning The Stardust Speedway. The inspiration of this title is a famous level from the Sonic CD game where you fight against Metal Sonic; but I want to look at the games and Sonic The Hedgehog himself imparticular as a figure for Capitalism and see what capitalist elements are within the titles such as collecting golden rings and searching for the rare Chaos Emerelds which give Sonic the power to turn into Super Sonic.

Not only does this project give me the chance to play two of my favourite games; Sonic The Hedgehog 2 and Sonic CD once again; but explore elements of the game that I did not initially think when playing them for the first time.

I hope you like the research and enjoy reading these blog entrys; I will enjoy the game playing and also finding out about how the Capitalist system works in details.