Sonic Mega Collection

Sonic Mega Collection
Developer(s)	Sonic Team, VR-1 Japan, Comolink
Publisher(s)	Sega
Series	Sonic the Hedgehog
Platform(s)	GameCube
Release date(s)	NA November 10, 2002 JP December 19, 2002 EU March 7, 2003
Genre(s)	Compilation
Mode(s)	Single-player, Multiplayer (2)
Input methods	GameCube Controller
Compatibility	4 Playable
GameIDs	GSOP8P, GSOE8P, GSOJ8P
See also...	Dolphin Forum thread Open Issues Search Google Search Wikipedia

Sonic Mega Collection (ソニック メガコレクション Sonikku Mega Korekushon) is a video game compilation of Sonic the Hedgehog titles for the Nintendo GameCube It includes seven Sonic titles, all of the Sonic & Knuckles expansions/combinations, two bonus unlockable games, and a wide selection of bonus material.

Games list:

• Sonic the Hedgehog (Genesis)
• Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (Genesis)
• Sonic the Hedgehog 3
• Sonic & Knuckles and its three expansions:
  • Blue Sphere
  • Knuckles the Echidna in Sonic The Hedgehog 2
  • Sonic 3 & Knuckles
• Sonic 3D Blast
• Sonic the Hedgehog Spinball
• Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine
• Flicky
• Ristar

Emulation Information

Improper GameCube Font

Due to copyright concerns, Dolphin is unable to include official GameCube fonts, and instead uses Droid Sans. Unfortunately, Droid Sans does not align well with the size/kerning of the official GameCube font, which can cause text to be misplaced, dialogs to display improperly, and other issues due to differing text sizes.

This can be corrected by including a region appropriate GameCube IPL (i.e. BIOS ROM) under <Dolphin User Folder>/GC/. A GameCube "IPL.bin" can be acquired from a real GameCube using Swiss. Refer issue 8362. GameCube BIOS files need to be named "IPL.bin" in order for Dolphin to detect them, and should be 2,097,152 bytes in size. IPL files are different for PAL consoles and NTSC consoles, but American NTSC consoles use the same IPL files as Japanese NTSC consoles. The known good CRC32 checksums below can be used to validate files, but it is possible that a bad dump with a different checksum also works.

	NTSC CRC32	Brazil CRC32	PAL CRC32
v1.0	6DAC1F2A		4F319F43
v1.1	D5E6FEEA	667D0B64
v1.2	86573808		AD1B7F16

Dolphin built-in font

GameCube IPL font

Problems

Frame Issues in Blue Sphere Game

When the game lags, it is possible that it will duplicate or show the wrong frames in the wrong order. This is most evident in Blue Sphere, where it will happen when there are any number of spheres on the screen. In order to avoid this, enable "Emulated CPU Clock Override" and set it to 150% or higher. Refer issue 7199.

Various Minor Graphical Issues

While playing through the 2D Sonic games, some visual oddities may be seen, for example: spikes spawning in out of nowhere, certain objects not rendering right away, or flickering on the Act 1/2/3 text. To fix these issues, set Texture Cache Accuracy to Position 1 (Safe), however this can cause reduced performance.

Sound Desync

Due to a flaw in Dolphin's handling of the GameCube sample-rate, audio will slowly desync in this game. There is no solution currently. See issue 9235. Fixed in 5.0-5700.

Enhancements

16:9 Widescreen

The following Gecko codes adjust the horizontal FOV for widescreen support.

$16:9 Widescreen Region Free
F6000002 80008180
ec830824 ec24e824
d03f0000 ec631024
D2000000 00000006
EC830824 3E403FAA
6252AAAB 92420000
C2420000 EFBD9025
3E403FE3 62528E39
92420004 C2220004
EFBD0473 00000000
F6000002 80008180
fc20f050 fc000050
d09f0014 ec2100f2
D2000008 00000003
3E203F80 92220000
C2220000 EC840473
D09F0014 00000000
F6000001 80008180
ed494024 ed090024
D2000000 00000006
ED494024 3E403FAA
6252AAAB 92420000
C2420000 3E403FE3
62528E39 92420004
C2220004 ED4A04B3
ED4A8825 00000000
D2000004 00000003
ED090024 3E203F80
92220000 C2220000
ED080473 00000000
E0000000 80008000
F6000003 80008180
3F800000 40000000
00000000 BF800000
3F000000 3C8EFA35
14000000 3F800000
E0000000 80008000
F6000002 80008180
48000030 38600001
38800004 38a00005
1000000F 00000001
E0000000 80008000

Configuration

Only configuration options for the best compatibility where they deviate from defaults are listed.

General

Config	Setting	Notes
CPU Clock Override	150%	Fixes Blue Sphere game

Graphics

Config	Setting	Notes
Texture Cache Accuracy	Position 1 (Safe)	Avoid minor issues with 2D titles

Version Compatibility

The graph below charts the compatibility with Sonic Mega Collection since Dolphin's 2.0 release, listing revisions only where a compatibility change occurred.

r4361

3.5-78

3.5-1169

3.5-1178

4.0-7517

5.0

Δ

5.0-19476 (current)

Δ

Δ

Δ

Δ

Δ

2.0 (r5384)

Compatibility can be assumed to align with the indicated revisions. However, compatibility may extend to prior revisions or compatibility gaps may exist within ranges indicated as compatible due to limited testing. Please update as appropriate.

Testing

This title has been tested on the environments listed below:

Test Entries
Revision	OS	CPU	GPU	Result	Tester
r7150	Windows 7	Intel Core 2 Duo E4500 @ 2.2 GHz	Intel GMA 945G	Playable, 50 - 60FPS with DSP LLE	mbc07
r7589	Windows 7	Intel Core 2 Duo E4500 @ 2.2 GHz	NVIDIA GeForce GT 440	Playable, constant 60FPS with DSP LLE	mbc07
3.0-636	Windows 7	Intel Core i5-2430M @ 2.4 GHz	NVIDIA GeForce GT 540M	Most games work well at a decent frame rate, with occasional audio glitches. Dr. Robotniks MBM crashes randomly for some reason.	theredpikmin
4.0-8084	Windows 8.1	Intel Core i5-3210M @ 2.5 GHz	NVIDIA GeForce 610M	SEGA logo intro and menu flickering. Playable, but flickering can be annoying.	Wildgoosespeeder
5.0-381	Windows 10	Intel Core i5-3570K @ 3.4 GHz	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070	The game works perfectly if you're willing to overclock the emulated CPU. If not, it's only merely playable.	JMC4789

Gameplay Videos

Sonic 2 - Emerald Hill Zone HD 1080p Dolphin

Dolphin Emulator 4.0.1 - Sonic Mega Collection (1080p HD) - Nintendo GameCube

Sonic Mega Collection (GC) on Dolphin Wii/GC Emulator