Was it good?

Faith Buddies the retake is now out

Just saying yeah you can post my stories elsewhere. Don’t worry :)

It’s coming…

Dexter: Dee Dee What are you doing here? You don't have to go to your room because my lab has been corrupted by a failed experiment and I saw a weirdo that looks a lot like me.

Apologies if I've been inactive recently, can the admin open my Sailor Moon lost episode stories again so I can continue to edit them?

I plan to possibly make a sequel to the Nicktoons Plug N' Play figure, but i'm not so sure about it yet.

In 2003, a strange piece of chain mail was passed around containing a strange Sonic the Hedgehog ROM hack. Whilst not well documented, a singular screenshot was archived from the game.

Many have cited the game to be “cursed” due to its uncanny, almost dream-like aesthetic, and creepy atmosphere, with it not being of much help that the game has been taken off of a multitude of ROM hacking sites.

One day, a group of ROM hackers were able to get a copy of the strange ROM hack and documented the ongoings of the bizarre ROM.

The following is a recollection of what they claimed to find.

Alongside the ROM file of the game, there was seemingly a txt file. Deciding to prepare themselves before opening the hack, they opened the txt file first to observe its contents. The following was found in the file, word for word.

“Maximum brightness for best experience, maximum volume on device for best sound design and make sure to wear headphones :)”

After reading the strange txt file, one of the hackers decided to follow its advice to see what would happen. The others didn’t.

The game opened to a bare bones title. “Sonic”. No “The Hedgehog” just Sonic. The title screen was seemingly an original still frame, with it being an orange screen with a black gradient along the bottom. To the right of the screen was what appeared to be Sonic, posing as if this were like any other normal Sonic game.

I have never believed in the supernatural. Don’t think any amount of proof could ever sway my beliefs on the matter, but what I’m about to relay to you isn’t a paranormal experience.

At no point are you going to hear me say that a bleeding stuffed animal attacked and mauled me, or put my soul inside a computer to screw with me. What I believe happened to me, is likely something that has happened to many other people, just under different and less threatening circumstances.

I’ll just skip right to the chase.

In 2003, I had just received my first computer after years of begging my parents to get me one. The awe 16 year old me felt upon getting it was almost unheard of now that I recall that day. Everything. I did everything you could imagine a 16 year old in the 2000’s could do on a computer.

I pirated media like a lunatic; films, shows, games, you name it, I pirated it. Of course I did this discreetly and with caution, however this part of me would change after a while, when I would discover the ROM hacking community, more notably, the site romhacking.net.

This would be when my new phase of sorts would begin. I’d play through all sorts of classic titles, both edited or non edited on the site just to relieve the days of classic gaming. Titles like Super Mario, Sonic, Metroid and others among many others were my favourites, and I’d even put some of these games on flash drives to make sure if I were to forget about the site, I'd have a multitude of games from the site archived for personal enjoyment.

On one late night binge, It came to me that I was going on vacation the next morning, and thus wanted to play as many games as possible in the short category, as well as putting them on flash drives so that I could take them with me during my vacation, since the place I was going to had computers, and it would be too much of a hassle packing up my computer and taking it with me, and amongl my other stuff.

I don’t remember much from that night, but one thing…

Whilst browsing the site, I came across a niche little hack that stood out amongst the others.

“Sonic”

“Huh?” I thought. Whilst the site at the time had many identical duplicates of pre-existing games, this one looked different. The image that accompanied the hack appeared to be a frame from Sonic 1’s intro however it looked off…

The whole image appeared to have been shaded in dark. Sonic looked tired, with his eyelids appearing to be half shut on his two bulbous eyes, and his mouth even appeared to be gone. The game fascinated me strangely enough, as whilst some may have felt uneasy or confused looking at the picture, this ROM appeared to be more high effort than others, having a different intro screen. Whilst my expectations were somewhat higher than usual, I decided to lump it along with all the other hacks I had compiled that day and put it in with the other flash drives I had packed and went to sleep.

The next morning, nothing much really happened. I packed my bags and decided to head off after handing my friend Kyle the secondary keys to the house, as he wanted to check out my place over the holidays and watch over it, as the neighbourhood I was from wasn’t exactly a safe one. The thought of playing the strange ROM lingered in my mind, however the constant sound of honking tyres being dragged against the road made me lose my train of thought. Eventually when I arrived at the holiday home, I was greeted by a pleasantly decorated and homely Caravan. The place like I stated earlier, had free Wi-Fi, and computers to boot, and without hesitation, I began making myself comfortable.

Hours passed as I spent the rest of the day goofing off with nothing to do, playing through each game, and progressively getting better, until I got to the last game in the box. Unfortunately it would seem that I had left the flash drive containing the strange Sonic game in it at home.

I remember telling Kyle that during the time he spent in my house, he could use my PC if he wanted, so that he could play some of the rom hacks I had downloaded on my PC, as well as any of the hacks I had saved on a flash drive.

I decided to call Kyle and see what he was up to, as I figured he may have started playing the strange hack and I wanted to hear what it was like at first, and thus I decided to dial his number…

“…”

“Huh that’s odd” I thought to myself, however I figured since it was really late, Kyle must’ve gone to sleep, and thus wouldn’t have picked up the phone. After my vacation had ended, I decided to return home, figuring that whatever was going on was quite suspicious, as Kyle still wasn’t answering his phone.

When I arrived home, the lights in my house appeared to still be on. Figuring Kyle was upstairs and was busy, I planned on opening the door quietly to scare him for a laugh, as we usually played jokes on each other much like this.

Whilst trying to look for Kyle, I found him in my bedroom. Well at least what I believed to be him…

“Oh my God…” I murmured to myself.

Kyle… He was dead?

When I first found him, he was lying down on the carpet of my bedroom, with his back to the floor. He was foaming from the mouth, and his ears appeared to be bleeding. He also seemed to be clenching something in his fists. Immediately, without any hesitation, I called the ambulance, as I noticed whilst trying to rationalise the events unfolding, that his body was still pulsating and spasming, giving me a sense of hope that he could survive if the ambulance arrived soon.

Once the ambulance arrived, that was the last I saw of Kyle, at least for a while. Whilst I had doubts that he would survive, the next day I was contacted by the local hospital, more specifically the doctor who was caring for Kyle. While at first I was anxious on whether it would be news of his death or survival, it was something else altogether.

Kyle, whilst being transported to the hospital seemingly handed one of the paramedics in the ambulance something. It was a blue flash drive. While at first I was confused, it then all clicked for me.

Kyle likely had played the game that was on the flash drive before passing out due to having a seizure. The doctors and nurses who were now in possession of the flash drive, saw it as fit to give it to me, they figured it belonged to me, afterall it was my house, and Kyle was looking after it.

Once at the hospital, after I received the flash drive from one of the doctors, I decided to see how Kyle was doing. When I arrived in the ward he was located in, he seemed to be in no better shape than he was yesterday, granted all of the blood that seeped from his ears had been washed off, and he appeared to be at peace, in comparison to how he was yesterday.

After that, I decided to return home, with the intention of finding out what was on the flash drive. Why you may ask? Well when I found Kyle, I noticed whilst my PC screen was black, the console was still on…

After those events, I couldn’t wait any longer. The next day, I came prepared. I closed the blinds in my bedroom, and got my screen saver ready, in case there were any screenshots worth saving to it.

After inserting the flash drive into my console, I was greeted with the new application for the hack in question.

After loading up and starting the application, the game appeared different from the traditional Sonic 1 to say the least…

The main screen looked completely different. Instead of Sonic popping his head out of the ring above Green Hill Zone, the image was seemingly a still frame, and a new one at that. The background had a lot of warm orangey colours, and a black gradient along the bottom, but what caught my attention the most was the title of the game and Sonic himself.

The font appeared to have been scribbled in, as if it had been written down by a child trying to draw bubble letters. The letters just spelt out “Sonic”. No “The Hedgehog”, just Sonic. I expected this since the ROM had the same name, however the scratchiness of the title made me feel like I was playing some off brand bootleg game.

Furthermore, Sonic’s design also appeared to be off. Instead of him being animated, he was also still like the rest of the image. He was just on the right of the screen, and appeared to be pointing at something.

@JosephTheSnail

What would you prefer for the Blue Pendrive rewrite?

Should it be from a 3rd or 1st person perspective?

Its just that I got the idea to frame the story in a similar light to the bootleg SpongeBob episode, but make it even better.

I plan on doing both a 1st and 3rd person account of the story with one of the two being a sequel. I’d opt for the 3rd person one first, as I plan for it to not be too long. Alternatively, I could combine the two.

What do you think?

@JosephTheSnail

Oh hey man, I was just wondering if I could update the story again, there’s a few things I’d like to change. In case I forget to act on this could you do me a favour and do these two things for me please man

1. There are a few grammar errors in the story, would you mind fixing them for me?

2. I’d like to replace the image of Bowser holding Peach on the bridge with a newer image I’ve added recently, as I see it as superior.

Thanks as always man. As for the Chinelin Sonic + Blue Flashdrive story remake, don’t worry, I’m still working on it.

I didn’t make the image by the way

I'm starting to think that my nickelodeon doesn't have the right clean quality.

The game is a bootleg Nintendo game called “Kart Fighter”