Stardust Speedway 012 - And Were Finally Off To A Start

Well; Tomorrow will mark the beginning of my first wave of research for this project; what I intended to do at the beginning of the project was do some light research and get some initial research materials together that could be used for the project.

Now I feel; I have got enough to start with; I am going to start the research properly and am going to keep the research well planned to ensure that I cover everything I need to cover.

So; I have planned and broken down my initial research items into different weeks so they all get enough coverage that they will need. So the following is what I am going to do for WEEK ONE of this initial research.

GAME OF THE WEEK : Sonic The Hedgehog (SEGA, 1991)

BOOK OF THE WEEK : Capitalism - A Very Short Introduction (James Fulture)

FILM OF THE WEEK : Sonic The Hedgehog - The Film (1999)

I am going to do a post mortum report of each title and note what inportant elements could be used within my reportand most importantly what I thought of the titles and their importance within the project.

So this is it; I hope you will enjoy the ride now it is underway and lets make this project a good one and worth all the input that is going to be put into it

Stardust Speedway 011 - Reading List (Sonic The Hedgehog as a Individualist Hero by Iain Smedley)

After a bit of research on the internet (Once Again); I have turned up a small Journal entry from an Magazine called Campainer in the USA by a man called Iain Smedley. He discusses the effect that Video Games had on the early 90s and how it affected culture in various ways such as Sales for a company or how they joined the Playground together in a mutual hobby.

But it also discusses how Sonic (and also characters like Mario) are the individualist hero; how they work by themselves and answer to nobody; but at the same time in the game for themselves.

I have decided to include this within the research because it does discuss some valid points when talking about the character and also how individualism is heavily connected with Capitalism as they both focus on the individuals rights.

The link to the essay is as follows:-

http://www.libertarian.co.uk/lapubs/cultn/cultn033.pdf

Stardust Speedway 010 - Now Showing At A Cinema Near You

Now this part of my research has took a long time to find and I have always wanted to watch this film since I saw the advert in CVG magazine during the late 90s; and now I have found a working copy that I can watch (Without Importing It).

The film in question that I am talking about is the Sonic the Hedgehog film from 1999 and is a 60 minute anime cartoon from Japan that is set during the events of Sonic CD. I have always wanted to see this and found a VHS copy in a charity shop for 50p.

I nearly didn't buy it as only walking past the shop and only saw the copy in the corner of my eye; so I am helping a charity and also watch something I have always wanted to see. I have always spared watching it on youtube as I didn't want to spoil the view of the film by seeing the word buffering on the screen or watching a loading bar getting gradually higher just as the film is getting good.

I have decided to include the film with my research as it features one of the more important characters Metal Sonic in the film and wanted to review the film to get a better picture of the character (as he is only seen properly within the end of the Stardust Speedway stage of the game)

So I am getting the popcorn ready and I am going to see what all the fuss is about

Stardust Speedway 009 - Researching On The Move and Power-Ups

During my free periods from my Teacher Training at the moment; I have been using my Google G1 Phone and some newly downloaded apps to carry out some more research for the project while I am free from lessons.

I have downloaded a Mega Drive Emulator for my G1 phone called Gensoid which allows me to play Sonic 1, Sonic 2 and Sonic Spinball and write down some notes during gameplay. So I will be still researching these titles during the break from uni work.

Just Keeping you updated with everything; but still can't find my dreamcast so Sonic Adventure will be delayed until my room is clear.

Stardust Speedway 008 - Pause Menu

Just wanted to update people about what is happening about the project; I am currently in my final week in my Students Accociate position and this is taking up all of my free time at the moment.

But I am still doing some reading and have been playing my copies of Sonic 1 and 2 on my Xbox 360 (Lukeyboy2209 if you want to add) and making some notes on each game (watch out for some notes about two levels imparticular; Casino Nights and Spring Yard) so I will update when I have finished everything.

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.