--- Sent By Jarred Man --- Emulation Bulb --- Why Sonic Two doesn't work with Knuckles on Emulators... Taken paragraph from "http://www.emulationzone.org/sections/sonic/" At power-on of the Genesis, and after all the standard stand procedures are run, (Like master reset, ect.), the S&K cartrage looks to see if there is anything in the add-on port by trying to read the contents of the first bank or so. (It assumes that the smallest ROM size is less than 1 Megabit or lower. So, by accessing a bank in this area assures that it is going to read something A light bulb--- The regeneration of special stages is more than likely base on a rom's programming so to take that and apply some data to information would cause cartridges to predoce special stages. The problem- The rom simply isn't loading. There probaly are four checks Sonic & Knuckles does Beginning line commands of Sonic The Hedgehog* Beginning line commands of Sonic The Hedgehog 2 Beginning line commands of Sonic The Hedgehog 3 Beginning line commands of other games Compared to Beginning line commands of adjustment. This seems to be true. The codes change in Sonic Three and Sonic Two when attached to Sonic and Knuckles. Why are Special Stages Generated? Why are there codes for Sonic one? There is a good conclution for this mess. Sonic One there are codes because one of them would probaly take you out of Special Stages and into Sonic 1. This seems far fetched, but you must recall, Sonic 1 was supposed to be used with Knuckles. Sonic Two there are codes as well. The beginning commands typically signify what cart is using, every cart as a signature. There is one interesting thing why this is not applying to Sonic three. Sonic Three introduced a new engine, and Sonic and Knuckles ran on the same engine. Thus it could Identify it. Sonic two is running on a older engine, so the Sonic and Knuckles cart is probaly looking for someway of converting it. Proof of this: There are three shields in the later games, Sonic 2 there is only one. Aquatic ruin is an underwater board, Sonic and Knuckles MUST determine why the shield doesn't get taken away but you can still drown, never a possibility in the later games. There is only one type of shield. It doesn't breath, catch rings, protect from lava. You still lose your shield and you get fired at. This is another conversion. There are no special in air moves with Sonic or with Tails. Knuckles has two (Climbing walls and gliding, braking walls easily). This is another conversion. Which is probaly why you must brake into the Sonic 1 and Knuckles combined rom to dish out too many possibilities (Spin roll, lower jump, new character probaly weren't made for the cart at all, sonic two they probaly reserved programming to do this and diffenetly were going to do this with 3, which is why it is easier to bring three into a rom). The only conversions from S3&K were as follows: Knuckles was obviously programmed in it. Missing boards found in S&K...just moving up the scale. That is it. There MUST be a command line that changes the engine in Sonic and Knuckles to the older engine, there are a few conversions. The command is probaly hidden, and the emulators don't look for it, they aren't programmed to. My theory is this rom cannot be emulated on its own. You must edit the binary so the command is recognized and not laid off. This goes to my theory of why Sonic 1 & Knuckles produces special stages. All games beside those two cause this that are compatible so.... Sonic two's signature IS regonized, but the emulator isn't looking at all commands. --- Taken from 'Secrets of Sonic the Hedgehog - The Original' http://secretsonic.cjb.net ---