Sega · editorial
Sonic the Hedgehog
Sega's 1991 series bible calls him the world's first supersonic hedgehog and says the team pushed him through the sound barrier. Later games raise the fantasy. We do not turn that into a miles-per-hour record.
Fiction
How?
Fiction
Fiction. Sega's 1991 series bible calls him the world's first supersonic hedgehog and says the team pushed him through the sound barrier. Later games raise the fantasy. We do not turn that into a miles-per-hour record.
In the story
The Sonic the Hedgehog bible, draft two, dated 24 June 1991, is a Sega licensing document. It calls Sonic “the world's first supersonic hedgehog” and, in Sonic's own voice, says the people at Sega “sweated bits to bust my moves right through the sound barrier.” The American Genesis manual from the same year is vaguer. It credits “power sneakers that give him super speed” and never prints a number.
What is not a measurement
Sega, 1991: supersonic, and through the sound barrier. No stored miles per hour. This page does not turn the story into miles per hour.
Sega
Supersonic means faster than sound in ordinary English. It is not a two-way average, and the bible is marketing mythology, not a timing. Later games and manuals have been looser still. This row keeps the 1991 sentence and refuses the fake precision of converting “sound barrier” into one miles-per-hour crown.
The editorial order also includes Superman and Quicksilver. The order is about the scale each story claims. It is not a clock.
The Sonic the Hedgehog bible, draft two, dated 24 June 1991, is a Sega licensing document. It calls Sonic “the world's first supersonic hedgehog” and, in Sonic's own voice, says the people at Sega “sweated bits to bust my moves right through the sound barrier.” The American Genesis manual from the same year is vaguer. It credits “power sneakers that give him super speed” and never prints a number.
Supersonic means faster than sound in ordinary English. It is not a two-way average, and the bible is marketing mythology, not a timing. Later games and manuals have been looser still. This row keeps the 1991 sentence and refuses the fake precision of converting “sound barrier” into one miles-per-hour crown.
Sega, 1991: supersonic, and through the sound barrier. No stored miles per hour.
Sources
- Sega: Sonic the Hedgehog bible, draft II (24 June 1991)
“World's first supersonic hedgehog” and the sound-barrier sentence.
- Sega: Sonic the Hedgehog Genesis manual
“Power sneakers that give him super speed.” No number.