Sonic & Knuckles © 1994 Sega Enterprises, Limited.
Players control Sonic the Hedgehog and Knuckles the Echidna in their quests to save Angel Island; Sonic tries to prevent Doctor Robotnik from relaunching his orbital weapon, the Death Egg, while Knuckles scuffles with Robotnik's minion, EggRobo. The game takes place across six levels in which the player collects rings and fights bosses.
Game ID: G-4124
Package ID: 671-5483
Cartridge ID: 670-5496
Sonic & Knuckles for Mega Drive was released on October 18, 1994 in Japan.
The Japanese members of Sega Technical Institute in California developed Sonic & Knuckles simultaneously alongside Sonic 3. The two were intended to be released as a single game, but time constraints and small cartridge sizes forced Sega to split the project.
Sonic & Knuckles utilizes 'lock-on technology' that lets the cartridge plus the Mega Drive access data from Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and Sonic the Hedgehog 3 so that elements of both Sonic & Knuckles and the locked-on game are combined. To play these combined games, the hatch on top of the Sonic & Knuckles cartridge can be flipped open and the second game placed inside. This game is known as Sonic 3 & Knuckles when locked on with Sonic 3 and as Knuckles the Echidna in Sonic 2 when locked on with Sonic 2.
The game was backed by a $45 million marketing campaign; at the time, video games typically had a marketing budget of $5 million. It was released around the same time as Nintendo's Donkey Kong Country. Industry figures called the coinciding releases a battle as both advertised revolutionary technological advances (lock-on technology for Sonic & Knuckles and 3D-rendered graphics for Donkey Kong).
* Debug mode and all Emeralds (Locked-On to Sonic 2):
First activate and go to the Stage Select. Play the tracks in Sound Test with button B in this order: 01 09 09 04 01 00 01 08.
This enables the Debug code, you should hear a ring chime if the code is entered correctly. start the selected level with A+start.
To get all 7 Chaos Emeralds, input this code the same way: 01 06 07 07 07 02 01 06
You should hear the Emerald chime. Note: this code may not work without the Debug code
* Level Select:
Start a game and go to Angel Island Zone Act 1. Go to one of the swings that you hang from and grab on. While Sonic is swinging, press Left, Left, Left, Right, Right, Right, Up, Up, Up. You will hear a ring if you entered the code correctly. Pause the game and press A to take you back to the title screen. Press Down twice to find the newly unlocked Sound Test menu. Enter it, where you can play all of the sounds/music in the game and warp to any level.
* Debug mode (Locked-On to Sonic 3):
While playing Sonic 3 and Knuckles press Left(x3), Right(x3), Up(x3) in the mushroom hill zone, while on one of the pully things. (Just like level select in normal Sonic and Knuckles).
* Bonus game trick:
Put a game other than Sonic 2 or 3 in the top of the Sonic & Knuckles cartridge. Then, when it shows the picture of the trio and the message at the top, press A, B, and C simultaneously to play Bonus Games.
* GAME GENIE CODES (SONIC & KNUCKLES GAME ALONE):
AFKT-AAG0: Start with 1 life instead of 3
AKKT-AAG0: Start with 2 lives
AVKT-AAG0: Start with 4 lives
AZKT-AAG0: Start with 5 lives
A7KT-AAG0: Start with 7 lives
BFKT-AAG0: Start with 9 lives
DFKT-AAG0: Start with 25 lives
GKKT-AAG0: Start with 50 lives
NPKT-AAG0: Start with 99 lives
K2WA-CA4J: Infinite lives
Animator: Takashi Thomas Yuda
Art Assistant: Osamu Ohashi
C.G. Artist: Kunitake Aoki
Character Designer: Takashi Thomas Yuda
Director: Hirokazu Yasuhara
Enemy Artist: Satoshi Yokokawa
Excecutive Management: Shouichirou Irimajiri, Tom Kalinske, Paul Rioux
Executive Coordinator: Diane A. Fornasier, Roger Hector, Mamoru Shigeta, Tomio Takami, Takaharu Utsunomiya
Executive Producer: Hayao Nakayama
Lead Game Designer: Hirokazu Yasuhara
Lead Programmer: Yuji Naka
Music Composer: Bobby Brooks, Brad Buxer, Howard Drossin, Geoff Grace, Doug Grigsby III, Darryl Ross
Producer: Yuji Naka
Product Manager: Pamela Kelly, Hisashi Suzuki, Shinobu Toyoda, Masaharu Yoshii
Scene Artist: Kunitake Aoki, Tsuneko Aoki, Shigeru Okada, Satoshi Yokokawa, Chie Yoshida, Takashi Thomas Yuda
Sega Sound Team: Bo, Tatsuyuki Maeda, Milpo, Masayuki Nagao, Sachio Ogawa, Tomonori Sawada, Jun Senoue, Masaru Setsumaru
Senior Game Designer: Takashi Iizuka, Hisayoshi Yoshida
Senior Programmer: Takahiro Hamano, Masanobu Yamamoto
CONSOLES:
Sega Saturn (june.20, 1997) "Sonic Jam [Model GS-9147]"
Nintendo GameCube (dec.19, 2002) "Sonic Mega Collection [Model DOL-GSOJ-JPN]"
Microsoft XBOX (dec.9, 2004) "Sonic Mega Collection Plus [Model ZD6-00003]"
Sony PS2 (dec.9, 2004) "Sonic Mega Collection Plus [Model SLPM-65758]"
Sony PlayStation 3 (feb.10, 2009) "Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection" by SCEI
Microsoft XBOX 360 [XBLA] (sept.9, 2009)
Nintendo Wii [Virtual Console] (oct.27, 2009) [Model MCDJ]
COMPUTERS:
PC [MS Windows 95, CD-ROM] (feb.14, 1997) "Sonic & Knuckles Collection"
Game's ROM.