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So here we start again, and it’s the same cover as the original edition except with a “Re-Mastered Emerald Edition” Emerald stamp imprinted on it. Kind of a retro/nu combination feeling trying to be attempted, but it was also down to the fact that I didn’t want to re-draw the entire picture again, works pretty well as it is anyway.
Here we go then. First notable feature included in this comic, and for the first time ever for me, is the use of page numbering on every page of the comic, just to distinguish it from the original and try something a little different. Next, I ditched the Flickie’s Island shot (for now) for the intro scene from Sonic Advance 2 and an insert picture from a Megaman game to act as the research centre. Re-designed lab for Robotnik shows that he has made his own special devices to monitor the Emeralds, which look like those seen in the Emerald Chamber, probably got the idea from descriptions of the Chamber given to him by Forte and Cable (from Tales Of Shadow #2: Marooned). Robotnik has a little lab coat this time, the E-1000’s have no gun arms here because they’re not weapons yet and I finally managed to do a visual communication device!
Used a few images from Sonic CD in this comic to give it a more sort of realistic/drawn feel, and little round rectangle speech boxes like in Sonic Battle. This time, the Robots give the warning and call it an “energy spike” as well as there being that distinctive “Chaos Control” wave of green energy, to tie into events seen in Tales Of Shadow: Marooned. Robotnik absorbing the Emerald radiation was a scene I liked in the first one and I think it looks as good here.
How about that? The Emerald energy turned Robotnik into his Sonic Adventure Eggman form! I was gonna keep the Robotnik Genesis sprites but I like those custom SA sprites because of all the poses and now we see that the Emeralds changed Eggman’s mind and appearance too, makes things clearer. Now we get a Flickie’s Island shot, to show the Island has undergone significant change. Also, wow, how about Eggman’s control room? Nifty. And Eggman also has those Emeralds snared by some kind of logical energy field, unlike before.
Much bigger Destiny Bridge allows for a more realistic view of it, though it’s never seen to scale, obviously. I still have big scenes like before because more happens in one scene in this comic, but now they’re cleaner and better presented.
No black shadows, now we see the Robots as they fly overhead! And no gigantic speech marks either, and also there’s my blurring/speed technique!
Better hand editing of the sprites this time round. Also, I re-created the Emerald Heights from the original comic, added some dialogue, better burning effects and, oh, who’s that? Yeah, it’s Amy and a Sonic 3 style Spikes! Also, notice, the E-1000’s HAVE GUNS!!
This is where I discovered that blurring techniques don’t work or look as good with Sonic 3 sprites but this scene comes off pretty well I think, though sometimes the simple way seen in the original looks a bit tidier. Also, Amy’s cameo here and thought bubbles is me killing two birds with one stone as we now see how Amy met Sonic and became infatuated with him, an important plot point that doesn’t necessarily need an entire spin off comic to explain, so here it is.
Re-created Metropolis City, same as Emerald Heights. Pachacamac now has more dialogue so you pay more attention to him.
Bit more spectacular than originally. Pachacamac now has the Green Emerald, as opposed to the Red Emerald in the original; this is because in the original we see that Eggman has the Red and Blue Emeralds after two months and, for no reason I can remember, I foolishly had Pachacamac give Sonic and Tails the Red Emerald. Weird. Also, Pachacamac is now a crazy old geezer, which is the truth within my continuity now following the revelations seen in tales Of Shadow #4: Residual Chaos. Pachacamac must’ve stumbled upon the Green Emerald after it was sent off, that’s my explanation.
Love that background, and the fading out of the faces that Eggman is talking to. New scene of him getting into the Egg-O-Matic, which uses only Genesis sprites because I wanted to keep the advance stuff to a minimum in the re-make.
Smaller stage for the same battle but it helps keep the comic nice and tidy. Much better attack sequence against Eggman, and a much better explosion too. Knowing about that transparency option in Paint helps a lot lol. Also, I added the usual celebration poses I use now.
See, that sprite is helpful for Eggman hiding his hidden communicator. Robot attack isn’t too great cuz I always have trouble with diagonal fire/energy blasts. Not sure where Eggman got that rocket pack from but I tried to put that Robot near him to try and show the Robot putting it on him lol. Launch Base is a bit too small this time but at least that computer/monitor looks more logical this time.
Lots of insert shots are used in the re-make to compensate for the big scenes and lots of things happening at once. Still looks nicer and cleaner than before, especially the hatchway, which actually has a proper design, rather than a big black hole.
MUCH better inner Air Ship, the army of E-1000’s is a lot better now and now we see the automated defences that attack the craft hidden in Angel Island. I especially like how this page looks now when compared to the original.
Re-created the long path to the Emerald Chamber and made it smaller and easier to see. I added an extra part to the New Sonic Adventure-classic Angel Island scene, which leads to the Chamber to show the Chamber entrance. I left that little part out from every other scene so people would know the entrance is there but continuity stays intact.
It was only when I re-did this comic that I realised Eggman snagged the Master Emerald as well, so I had to roll with that too but it still works lol. Extended dialogue in the Sonic Vs Knuckles scene here, transitioning into another fight scene.
Nice, clean fight scene with my blurred/speed technique being used to show the fight in a better degree, and my spindash/cannonball knockout blow is still there :)
See now Eggman has incorporated those mechanical Emerald holders to directly convert their powers into the Death Egg, see, continuity and logic working well for this comic now. Better flying scene through Launch Base, better Roboticisor Plant which looks similar to the control room and another lovely insert shot from Sonic CD!!!
Much better introduction to Mecha-Sonic, he’s sparkling/glowing with power and isn’t just jumping out of some crappy cocoon. Knuckles now has a re-coloured ring around his wrists to make his bindings a bit more apparent and his story about the Emeralds is presented much more clearer than before.
Now there’s the right number of Emeralds for my comics :D Knuckles’ reluctance to trust Sonic and Tails is shown a bit better with his last line to them. Mecha-Sonic’s attack looks a lot better than my crappy, hand drawn stuff from before.
The speed fight between Sonic and Mecha-Sonic works quite well here, better than before, but blurring and the Sonic 3 sprites isn’t so great. Knuckles Vs Mecha-Sonic looks better though, and Mecha’s speed is better presented with his lighter toned shadows following him.
That takes care of Knuckles, again, and now Eggman has all seven Emeralds and there’s no black border around my inverted backgrounds.
I had to totally re-do the Death Egg background from scratch by pasting together and editing loads of Launch Base backgrounds because I couldn’t get the original background. All looks much more enhanced and neater now :D
Went for the more traditional approach with the Death Egg rising this time, by splicing together they Death Egg from the intro scene from Sonic And Knuckles and using a small insert shot. Looks more impressive, not as good as it probably could because of the fire effects, but better. Interesting note about this was that I actually ripped that large Death Egg sprite from Sonic & Knuckles and spent a painstaking amount of time fitting loads of its pieces together from screenshots to make it, then like the next week a rip of the sprite appeared at the Spriter’s Resource!
Extended dialogue tells how Sonic and Tails noted there was an extra shuttle onboard the Air Ship :D This time I had the shuttle come rolling along on a little caterpillar thing, not too logical maybe but the Air Ship is big and we can’t see it all lol. Also, this time all three of them can be seen in the shuttle.
This time they run into the hallway from the Sonic 2 Death Egg; makes things tidier.
I had to piece together this new interior myself as well so that it was actually all one big background, from this room into the Death Egg Emerald Room, that I could take sections from as I needed. New view screen, new escape hatch and now there’s some machinery to use later on. Sonic Vs Mecha-Sonic Round Two looks much, much better and is also better than round one.
Arggh! Horrible blurring there, but it’ll do. The Death Egg powering up has my usual Emerald/inverted/power up scheme happening now.
Booyah! Finally, Mecha is trapped under that damn debris! Happy with that! Knuckles smashing the control panel also destroys those mechanical Emerald holders and they pop out! Very happy with this!
This is good too, all the Emeralds are seen much better and Sonic’s left-to-right look around looks much better too. Also, he is seen actually PICKING UP the Emeralds!
Again, Sonic is HOLDING THE EMERALDS. Knuckles’s understanding of Sonic’s idea isn’t as grandiose as it was originally, but it’s maybe a little more subtle that way. The Death Egg powering up looks much better and the Emerald effects surrounding Sonic are better too, though I really liked these scenes in the original so not much has really been changed.
Here it is again, this page was actually remastered before any other in the whole comic, as I sat down and re-did it around the same time as I did the Bloopers And Facts stuff for the First Anniversary of the BFTCE. This time around, I stick with the normal Super Sonic 3 sprite.
The shitty spray paint effects have been replaced with my usual bright-light-in-the-sky trick and I inserted that emotional shot from Sonic 2 (though actually having Flicky sprites in the Emerald Hill scene might’ve helped too. Also, the streak heading to Egg Island is from the ending of Sonic Advance 1. Super Sonic destroying Mecha-Sonic is much better done and leaves behind the burned head we see in I, Metal, providing the catalyst for Metal’s resurrection and, the most important part, this background is custom made to include a decent wall so Super can finally slam Eggman up against it rather than just shoving him.
This is much better also, a bigger Roboticisor Plant, a bigger explosion and a much clearer, crisp picture to show what is happening.
Bit of Sonic Battle creeping in to get a nice comparison scene in using insert shots, and Sonic gives an extra little speech about widening the gap between the two Islands. The Emerald Shrine has no stupid computer thing in it and the last Emerald put into place is, naturally, the Master Emerald, and it ACTUALLY LOOKS LIKE Knuckles is touching/interacting with the scenery and props.
I like this new Island-raise, though (once again) I had to custom-make the Island-raising scene to show the water dripping off it and stuff. Hopefully that’s the last time I do that. And, also, finally, Sonic and Knuckles SHAKE HANDS, instead of just slapping hands. Originally I was glad that I could save the handshake for Sonic: Liberty, but now it creates a bookend to the start and end of the series and a respect between the two characters.
This last epilogue is pretty much the same and effectively closes the Remastered Emerald Edition of the comic. Now, this new edition is to be taken as the way these events really happened, for now it all ties into the stuff seen in the Tales Of Shadow series and with events to come, so the whole series flows much better and all the loose ends are tied up. I love the original, despite its massive errors, and this new edition is as much a homage a sit is a remake. Thankfully my spriting skills developed and evolved over time so I could go back and re-do this comic and present it as it should have been
Thanks for reading again
-Stuart/SkSpAwN
