Sonic the Hedgehog Triple Trouble

In Sonic the Hedgehog Triple Trouble, Dr. Robotnik is plotting, Nack Fang is ineffectual, and Knuckles is a dick fine upstanding citizen with unflinching moral fiber.

Interestingly, it's the only mainline Sonic platformer that was released only on the Game Gear, although a Master System counterpart was once planned.

Sub-Pages#

Prototype Info Prerelease Info

Unused Graphics#

Object Art#

Artwork	Description
	Knuckles getting hurt/tired while gliding.
	Nack blinking, and holding a red Chaos Emerald.
	A bonus sign using Nack's face.
	Tiles for an unused enemy, loaded in Atomic Destroyer Zone.

Level Art#

Artwork	Zone	Description
	Great Turquoise Zone	There are spikes used "inside", but this outside spike isn't.
	Meta Junglira Zone	Another unused spike and a 30-degree slope.
	Robotnik Winter Zone	A 45-degree slope in front of the stage background, and an outside spring.
	Tidal Plant Zone	Many unused springs. The giant bubbles in this stage make most of these springs useless.
	Special Stage	Several unused slope types, spikes (which don't appear in any Special Stage), and border tiles.

Unused Text#

Aspect's standard header for their Sonic games is present at 0xC0:

GG SONIC & TAILS
        Ver 1.00
1994/07/30 @SEGA
/Aspect Co.,Ltd

GG SONIC THE HED
GEHOG   Ver 1.00
1994/08/02 @SEGA
/Aspect Co.,Ltd

Debugging Features#

Error Handler#

This game has a generic error handler routine at 0x70 like most other 8-bit Sonic titles, but it's quite a bit more elaborate than the rest of them. Instead of blindly scribbling an error message to VRAM, it performs some fairly extensive cleanup beforehand, loads the needed font graphics and palette, then prints "ERROR" before waiting for 3 seconds and resetting.

What's more, the handler is actually purposely called this time around! When loading a new subscreen, the game uses the target subscreen variable at RAM $D143 as an index into a jump table. If the high byte of the address read from the table is 0xFF - there is a dummy entry of 0xFFFF at index 0x1A, one past the last valid entry, for this purpose - the game will jump to the error handler.

Level Select#

Hold Up and power on the Game Gear. In the opening cutscene, press Start the instant Knuckles picks up the third Chaos Emerald. If timed correctly, a ring chime will play, and the level select screen will appear after choosing a character.

ROM Debug Flags#

The byte in ROM at address 0x64 is checked to enable two debugging options. If bit 0 is set (the byte is equal to 0x01,) the game will transition from the Sega logo directly to the new game character select screen, skipping the opening sequence and title screen. If bit 2 is set (the byte is equal to 0x04,) the level select menu always appears after character selection. Both options can be combined at the same time by setting the byte to 0x05, or any other value with both bits set, like 0xff.

This functionality is present in both the US and Japanese releases.

Oddities#

First Ring#

The very first ring you encounter in the game animates out of sync with other rings in the game, and uses the HUD ring icon palette instead of the normal ring palette. Because most rings in the game are animated background tiles, this one is rendered as a sprite-based object to avoid cutting off the palm tree in the background. (The more obvious solutions of just removing the palm, or moving this ring to the back of the line, apparently didn't occur to the developers.) It's possible the regular ring object's design was changed later in development, with this particular ring being overlooked.

Regional Differences#

Sega ™#

The Japanese version drops the ™ symbol from the Sega logo.

Title Screen#

The title screen is almost completely different between the Japanese and international versions. In Sonic & Tails 2, Sonic and Tails run across the screen, then the game's logo comes up, stars circling around the ring. In Triple Trouble, Knuckles jumps onto the title and laughs. The Japanese version also includes both Sonic and Tails in the Big Ring, while the International version just has Sonic. It also lacks the stars.

The Japanese version also has an extra option, "3D Stage". It simply starts up the first 3D Special Stage (allowing a choice of either Sonic or Tails) and resets once it's completed. However, graphics for this menu option are still in Triple Trouble (left over from it being present in an earlier build of the localization), and the option can be re-enabled with Game Genie codes 041-49E-E66 031-31E-E62. This option, however, did appear in the North American manual for the game.

References#