Right, to the specifics!
I really have no preference as to which charity to donate to, although the usual choice for gamers is
Child's Play, using a service such as PayPal for donations. More important at the moment is the selection of games, commentators, players, and broadcast times.
I would likely make a TSC
Twitch.tv account and share the username and password with all streamers. Players would log on when it's their time to stream, then log off and notify the next player when done playing. The last streamer of the night would be responsible for telling Twitch.tv to save all of the night's streams for later viewing. While in some cases it would be nice to have players at the same physical location (e.g. any two-player games), most of our on-stream talk would likely be done over Skype. I also intend to broaden our audience by reaching out to some other Sonic Team fan communities such as
Sonic Retro,
NiGHTSIntoDreams.com, and
Puyo Nexus for fangames and hacks, NiGHTS, and Puyo Puyo (i.e. the series we know only as Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine) respectively. If we could work in other Sonic Team games/series like Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg or Phantasy Star Online, that'd be great, but I'm not sure how viable those are for gathering an audience.
I don't intend for us to do the games in any chronological or stylistic ordering so that we don't have, say, a night of all of the 2D games followed by a night of 3D games followed by a night of "who's heard of these, who'll care to watch this" games. I also don't intend for us only to do the games we play on TSC, although we probably won't do every game out there and the below list will be narrowed down.
Games and Thoughts on Them- Sonic 1, 2, 3 & Knuckles: We need to decide if emeralds are being collected or not. We can probably do what SDA does and take donations for character requests. It might be worth using Sonic Jam or Sonic & Knuckles Collection to mix things up.
- Blue Sphere: Password --> Stage generators are on the net, and we can play only the fun ones. This can go right on the end of Sonic 3 & Knuckles, where if the game doesn't take up as much time as allotted, this can be played until the next stream should start.
- Sonic CD: As a community stream, I think it's only logical that we use The Taxman's version. As before, we need to decide if Time Stones would be worth collecting.
- Sonic 4 Episode 1: One full-game playthrough will do. Again, should we stream special stages?
- 8-bit Sonic 1 and 2, Sonic Chaos, Sonic Triple Trouble, Sonic Blast: We're playing in real time, so no PAL trickery will be necessary.
- Sonic Drift 1 and 2: Are these exciting enough to get an audience?
- Sonic Labyrinth, Tails' Skypatrol, Tails Adventures: The latter one in particular is a cult classic, so I picture us doing that. I'm unsure of the former two.
- Sonic Eraser: ???
- Sonic Spinball: We probably don't need to stream both the 8-bit and 16-bit versions, if any at all. I'm leaning towards a 16-bit stream, without stopping for multiball bonus rounds.
- Sonic 3D Blast: We'd stream the Saturn version, of course.
- Knuckles' Chaotix: We need two people in the same place streaming this in two-player mode. I will volunteer for what the rest of you consider horrendous. :P
- Sonic Championship (Fighters): This could be a quick single-character romp, which could be made even better if somebody on TSC can consistently obtain Super Sonic.
- Sonic's Schoolhouse: I don't own this anymore. :(
- Wacky Worlds Creativity Studio: This is only a Sonic game in that Sonic and Tails are there. It's not really enticing enough to stream.
- Sonic R: Unlock Tails Doll right away, then main him...? It's pretty much impossible to clear Hard difficulty this way, but Sonic fans love this plushy killer, so perhaps Easy mode will do.
- Sonic Jam: I suppose we could play around in Sonic World, streaming both missions and museums. The Game.com version can gtfo.
- Sonic Adventure, Sonic Adventure 2, Sonic Heroes: We could stream any version of these games. One story from each game will probably be long enough, as well as streaming Green Hill. Heroes could use Super Hard.
- Sonic Shuffle: This is another case where we need people to gather in one place for maximum entertainment. One board will probably be enough if the game is sufficiently long.
- Sonic Pocket Adventure: I seem to remember my PC throwing a hissy fit when I tried to stream this. If screen captures and emulators will cooperate, then we could do this, but if not, it's mostly just simplified Sonic 2 layouts.
- Sonic Advance 1, 2, and 3: One character is enough for each of these (yes, except Advance 3, smartasses)
- Sonic Pinball Party: I'm unsure on this one.
- Sonic Battle: I think a character's story would seem boring. I propose a bout on every level (including Green Hill) while constantly changing characters.
- Shadow the Hedgehog: We'd need to see how to stream this at a reasonable length. Expert Mode may be too long, and a single story may be too short.
- Sonic Rush, Sonic Rush Adventure, Sonic Colors DS, Sonic Generations 3DS: If emulation won't stream smoothly enough, then we'll need to use webcams for videos and auxillary cables for audio. Sonic Generations 3DS will require a webcam and auxillary cable no matter what.
- Sonic Chronicles: I really don't think this would work for a stream.
- Sonic Riders series: We'll need to see if the few people on TSC that own the third game can stream it well.
- Sonic 2006: As opposed to full stories, I propose representing all stages and bosses in the stream via various DLC missions. This will cut down on bad cutscenes and loading times while staying interesting.
- Sonic Rivals 1 and 2: I believe FKE has the proper PSP and cables for these streams. PSP-1000s (launch models) cannot stream without webcam and auxillary cable use.
- Sonic and the Secret Rings, Sonic and the Black Knight: I am unfamiliar with these and do not know how long they would take to stream if done in story mode. If it's too long, then simply showing each stage in a stream will suffice.
- Sonic Unleashed: We have three versions to worry about here. The mobile version can be done without, but we'll need to think of a way to stream most of the other two without taking too long.
- Sonic Colors Wii: A playthough of Egg Shuttle followed by some Game Land shenanigans would be fine. Egg Shuttle takes about an hour, while Game Land will depend on how many people are playing.
- Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games series: I think the Wii versions will be more than enough. If time becomes a factor, the Dream Events are the main attraction.
- Sonic & SEGA All Stars Racing: The 360/PS3 version will suffice here. Racing all 24 tracks plus the DLC track shouldn't take long. Netplay would work well here. In the interest of maximum entertainment via showing full courses, I'd like to avoid the glitch that allows for ten-second laps.
- Sonic Generations 360/PS3/Steam: We wouldn't need to broadcast every challenge, but otherwise this is easy to stream.
- Sonic Retro contribution: These guys could stream various high-profile hacks. If Dude's Sonic Adventure mod could be streamed, that would be awesome.
- NiGHTSIntoDreams.com contribution: A stream of every level in NiGHTS, some of the special features of Christmas NiGHTS (one of them being the Sonic level), and the Chase Missions in NiGHTS - Journey of Dreams would do.
- Puyo Nexus contribution: In lieu of a Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine stream, I'd love to get an amateur tourney going using the Puyo Puyo VS fan game with netplay. The game has a spectator mode from which we could stream the matches. Perhaps the winner of said tourney could be pit against some of the skilled players from Puyo Nexus.
