They really cleaned up those renders compared to the uber-dithered Sonic 3 one which i never liked.

I never managed to figure out how to get it working. Played the GoG version a couple of years ago but can't remember if it actually shipped with the editor. I did manage to find a giant archive of player-created buildings somewhere.

Instead Sonic Genesis was greenlit for GBA around that time. Go figure.

There's lots of stories of people developing impressive 3D tech for the GBA but being unable to find any publishers to fund them cause they were only interested in mass producing the cheapest possible shovelware slop for children.

Complementary viewing
www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgG-...

I hope the software mode is also covered cause I find that aesthetic really interesting. They put a lot of effort into rendering stuff that usually required 3D acceleration at that point.

In the original recording upload I saw on YouTube, I think the music was slightly sped up from its original playback rate and I actually mistook the vocals for Jon Anderson from Yes cause the slightly higher pitch made it sound closer to his range.

What I think happened is that once the entire production pipeline became digital, mastering engineers were afraid of losing their jobs once everyone else figured out that digitial signal transfers are 1:1 thus mastering is not really needed, so their marketing pivoted to arbitrary FX processing.

Don't forget also removing a shade of blue from the palette just so you can add green eyes.

Per-channel waveform visualizers needs to be more normalized outside of the chiptune/tracker scenes. A lot more interesting looking at the individual elements.

I thought we had grown past that frustrating 2000s era when retro gaming discourse was entirely overrepresented by arrogantly myopic American viewpoints setting the narrative, but every now and then it still rears its ugly head.

I swear it broke the brains of those who grew up during that era. I think younger folks who grew up seeing stuff like Terraria as just normal games rather than described as a "quaint retro throwback" with some kind of stigma attached have a less biased outlook without that baggage attached to them.

I think this was also a symptom of anything not following the latest new graphics or genre trends being dismissed as outmoded in the western gaming press. The medium was developing at such a rapid pace in those decades, it fostered rather annoying narratives. Just look at that infamous SotN blurb.

Found this old video of him messing around with and musing over synthesizers which was delightful to watch
www.youtube.com/watch?v=FI-4...