Why does "Punching" Sonic 3D blast cartridge trigger level select code?

[Sonic Angel Knight]

I dunno if you knew about this but I was one of the few who did when owning a genesis back when, but yes is true. Some classic Cart based games have some very deep secrets that are cool to find out. Did you know if you start altered beast, then hot swap (take the game out without power off console) with stider, you can get infinite lives? The counter goes to 9 but never drops after losing any lives. Is some of the secrets I'm talking about,
kinda like the Banjo-kazooie banjo-tooie hot swap rumors during the game's existence.

But that is for another time, this time I bring you a new question. Why does "punching" sonic 3d blast cartridge trigger level select? Normally you would be able to trigger it by pressing and Spelling out (Baracuda) on the title screen. If you are curious, this video explains from a programmer of traveler's tales why does it happen.

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[linuxares]

It's such a... intresting method. It's fun that devs talks about it why etc. so many years later. It's quite facinating.

 

[zoogie]

Hah, that's devilishly clever!! Love this solution to those draconian lot checks.

edit: this is "it's not a bug, it's a feature!" taken to a whole new level. Literally

 

[AxlSt00pid]

Iirc some of the genesis/mega drive game programmers handled exception errors by printing a "You found a secret code/area" message on screen and putting the player into another area to avoid the game from crashing (one of the mickey mouse games did that).
So maybe that's why punching the cartridge puts you on the level select screen, you make the connection between the cartridge and the console faulty (causing an error) and the game puts you into the level select menu

 

[Sonic Angel Knight]

Iirc some of the genesis/mega drive game programmers handled exception errors by printing a "You found a secret code/area" message on screen and putting the player into another area to avoid the game from crashing (one of the mickey mouse games did that).
So maybe that's why punching the cartridge puts you on the level select screen, you make the connection between the cartridge and the console faulty (causing an error) and the game puts you into the level select menu

The game you speak of is in the video and explained

 

[AxlSt00pid]

The game you speak of is in the video and explained

I just woke up, I wouldn't comprehend too much of it if I watched it xD

 

[Sonic Angel Knight]

I just woke up, I wouldn't comprehend too much of it if I watched it xD

Well let me TLDR it for you. travelers tales was the devs behind Mickey Mania, Toy story and Sonic 3D blast on the genesis, all three games use a handler exception that rewards the player for game crashes, and the connection you was mentioning is exactly that, the same devs was behind those games. which is explained in the video, what each game had the secret triggers and how or what did it do.

 

[zoogie]

This is what I want to see from 3ds homebrew devs from now on:

An arm9 exception has occurred:

Would you like to
 Dump stack
>Play Tetris
 Power Off

 

[Deleted User]

1) Getting around the quality test with that method is just bloody genius.
2) I did not know about this. Pretty cool.
3) Love when developers talk about stuff like this.

 

[Sonic Angel Knight]

Hah, that's devilishly clever!! Love this solution to those draconian lot checks.

etting around the quality test with that method is just bloody genius.

Yeah, now only if games now had the same kind of "QUALITY TEST" they had back then, maybe we wouldn't have so many problematic game launches.

 

[TangentingTangerines]

I always thought of it as a kid proof method. When kids play games they can be rough with them, but even if they aren't people around them can be. Imagine a young kid playing sonic 3d, on the final level, when his parents accidentally bump the console. Under normal circumstances his progress would be totally lost, but with the level select he's able to start right back up where he left off or even further. It's like a substitute for a save function. It can also occur when the game glitches out and crashes, so it's also an apology from the devs for any poor programming. Now if Sonic 06 let you select any level if you encountered a glitch... The world record for that game would probably be less than a minute.

 

[FAST6191]

Is it called punching now? I always knew it as cart tilting.

 

[tech3475]

I've found this channel quite interesting, despite the known mediocrity (at best) of Sonic R and 3D it's still interesting seeing their development and some of the things they did.

Here's how the intro was done:

 

[Sonic Angel Knight]

Is it called punching now? I always knew it as cart tilting.

I just when with what the video title said. I know is not punching.