Moonwalker

Sonic Retro forum user and all-around sweetheart Josh posted about a curious behavior in regards to touching springs while falling back from taking damage. Wow, I can't believe it's almost been a year since then.

This is a consequence of how routine 4, the hurt state, works. While in routine 4, the player continuously falls backward until a) something sets their routine back to 2, thus restoring player control, or b) they land on a solid surface. When the latter occurs, the player object resets its own routine, but also takes care to clear its horizontal velocity.

If it didn't do this, the backward momentum from the fall would force the player into a moonwalk upon landing. Those of you who have played Sonic Mania may already know how annoying that would be, since it occasionally happens when you touch one of Metallic Madness Zone's shrink/growth rays, delaying your entry into the next room for no reason.

What's happening with the horizontal spring up there is that Sonic got within range to activate it, except without actually landing on anything. This sent him hurtling off to the left while still in routine 4, but it was only when he touched the floor at the very edge that his routine was reset and his horizontal velocity killed.

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Reader NES Boy points out this is the blog's 100th post. Big deal. Raymond Chen has over five thousand posts across fourteen years under his belt and he's still going strong. I'll break out the fireworks if I manage to do this for a solid year without missing a beat.

But seriously, big thanks to everyone following this blog, and even bigger thanks to those of you who have added to the discussion in the comments section. I have many more stories yet to tell.