I'm writing this so I can tell someone what I've personally been going through lately, it's been by far one of the worst periods in my life. And though it sounds insane, I'm pretty sure it's because of a game I bought.

I want to get rid of this thing, I want this thing out of my life forever, but I don't want it to come into anyone else's hands.

I think some context is needed. I was a huge Sonic the Hedgehog fan back when I was growing up. I was a very lonely kid, still am really, and those games brought me great joy and helped to distract me whenever I felt sad.

I was first introduced to the series when my older cousin gifted me his old Sega Genesis that he stopped playing with a while ago. In it he had a collection of classic Sonic games, from the first one all the way to 3 & Knuckles.

He even had an add-on that allowed me to play one game in particular, Sonic CD. Out of the entire collection, it was always my favorite for some reason. I never really knew why, I guess I just liked it more than the rest.

I played the hell out of those games for years on end, I'd fallen in love with the franchise and it's characters, until one day the console suddenly decided to not turn on anymore.

Since then I never played another Sonic game for years, and while I still held a soft spot for it, I slowly lost interest in it as I grew up.

A few weeks ago though, I was going through an old box with my old childhood belongings and found an old Sonic plushie I used to play with.

It reminded me of the good times I had with the series when I was little and it sparked in me an interest to play one of them again, for old times' sake.

But because I had lost the original games and the console years ago, I'd have to find another way to play them. So I went on craigslist to see if there was anyone willing to sell their copy of the game to me.

I was very lucky and struck gold early. I found a recently put up listing of a disc that had the game burned into it, which was valued at barely over 10 dollars.

"I'm giving away this old copy of Sonic CD's port to the pc I've had sitting in my attic for a while, I honestly don't remember where I got it from but I do know that I don't really have as much of an interest in Sonic as I did years ago. If needed, please contact me for more details."

I followed the guy's instructions and messaged him to see if we could set up a meeting somewhere nearby where I could come pick it up. It turns out we lived in the same town, so we agreed to meet at a local mall for it.

The day came and I took a taxi to head over at the mall, in there I met up with him, a regular dude barely in his twenties, and he was carrying a plastic bag which I assumed had the game inside.

I gave him the money in cash and he handed me the bag in return. We got to talking for a little bit and he told me how he got the box with the game at a garage sale months ago before he moved houses.

We talked for a little while longer before we decided to part ways. I took a taxi and immediately went back home, barely containing my excitement.

I couldn't wait to play this game again.

Once I arrived I barely even set my stuff down and went straight for my PC. I took out the cartridge that contained the disc and opened up the computer's disc tray, gently placing it in and then closing it back up.

I powered on my pc to see that a new folder had appeared on my desktop, inside was a .exe file that I clicked on to start installing the actual program.

Once it finished, a new program with a pitch-black square for an icon appeared on my desktop with the title of "SONIC CD" . I clicked on it twice, and the game began.

As the game was starting I thought back to those old times, I knew this game was the official debut of two important characters to the franchise.

Metal Sonic, one of Sonic's deadliest foes and greatest rivals, and Amy Rose, the lovesick fangirl that was obsessed with him. I was looking forward to seeing their first go around again after so long, especially since they were some of my favorite characters right next to Sonic himself.

The game would usually start with an opening cinematic of Sonic running all around hills and valleys to get to Little Planet, the setting of the game, but this time it launched me straight into the title screen instead.

It was odd, but nothing to pay attention to. So I started a new game and got transported to the first level, 'Palmtree Panic Zone 1'.

Once I loaded in, everything was the same as I remembered. Sonic's sprite looked the same, the stage was vibrant and colorful, all was well and where it should be.

The HUD is where some things changed; the lives counter was nowhere in sight, so I had no way of keeping track of the lives I had. The score and ring counter were still there though, but the timer was different.

In the other Sonic games you had a set time limit of at least 10 minutes before you got a time out and died, forcing you to start over. This time however, it began counting down from 10 minutes instead.

I came to the conclusion that this must have been a modified version of the game, how modified though, I didn't know yet since I barely started.

But I wasn't really familiar with those kinds of things anyways, I'm kind of ignorant that way. Still, it didn't hinder me in any way so I started playing.

I went over the large ramp from the beginning and began to actually play the level as normal, which went pretty smoothly. Smashing robots, collecting rings, running around at the speed of sound.

Something else that I noticed fairly quickly was that every single badnik that I came across was completely black, the only way to recognize them being their silhouette or how they acted, but again I chalked it up to the modifications.

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It still was pretty fun for me though, a blast from my childhood. I didn't get to travel into the past, nor future versions of the stage though; whenever I went through those signs I'd get too clumsy and fail to time travel, and by then figured that I could just go on the next level. I was already near the end anyway.

And near the end was where I knew I would find Amy Rose. She was waiting for Sonic at the end of the level with her hands behind her back, but I noticed something different.

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Instead of them being black, her eyes were a golden yellow color. That wasn't the strangest thing about her though.

When she got close enough to Sonic, she went in and hugged him like I expected would happen, but when I tried to get her off by jumping, she didn't. I tried doing it again at least three times before she finally let go.

I ran away before she could grab me again and went into the last stretch of the level. I ran past the goal sign and finally completed Zone 1, without entering the special stage.

I was left wondering why that happened with Amy however, because I clearly remember that in the original all it took was one jump to free yourself from her hug.

Still, this didn't really change or ruin anything for me just yet though. It was still Sonic CD, so I was going finish the game.

'Palmtree Panic Zone 2' finished loading, and I had to pause for a second once I looked at the time; it hadn't restarted. It was still counting down the 7 minutes and 28 seconds that I finished last stage with.

Even after restarting the level the time was still counting down. Would that carry over to the next levels as well?

It made me wonder if someone was actually expecting me to play the entire game in just under 10 minutes. I groaned, sighed and resigned myself to find out.

I continued, now with a small sense of urgency seeing that I had a set time limit before something happened. Even if I didn't really know what would happen. I did try to not let it spoil all the fun though.

After running across a sign that said 'Past' and gathering enough speed, I was able to travel back in time and go into one of the different versions of the stage.

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I always loved the past aesthetic of this zone a lot more than the present. The level's music was really enjoyable and it had a nice scenery, it made smile. I decided not to dwell on it too much and continued playing.

As I played through the rest of the stage I realized something; I had not come across a single enemy since I arrived here. In fact, the whole stage felt completely desolate and empty.

I even went looking for them in areas I knew they'd spawn in, but nothing. Every single badnik had dissapeared from the level even though i hadn't destroyed the Robot transporter yet, which was also gone. Needless to say, but it felt weird.

Near the end of the stage is where I got all the proof I needed to see that someone was fucking with me. Since despite being in the past, I found Amy waiting for me at the end again, which is not supposed to happen.

I tried jumping over her, but she jumped with me and caught Sonic in a hug. This time, when I tried to get her off of me, I struggled, like her grip on Sonic had gotten even stronger and refused to let go.

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I had to mash the jump button multiple times just to get her to back off before I started running away, but she began chasing me at a speed that nearly rivaled Sonic's.

Only nearly though, since she clearly still wasn't fast enough to catch up and began falling behind once I had gained enough speed to get to the goal sign this time.

As the next zone began loading I kept going back and forth trying to wrap my head around what the point of all these modifications were, and the only conclusion I came to was to just fuck with the player.

'Palmtree Panic Zone 3' finished loading and already, more strange things had happened. The time was at five minutes and ten seconds by now.

The music was gone, and in it's place was just an eerie silence that made feel slighly more uncomfortable. The only sounds were coming from Sonic's jumps or any rings I collected. This silence even carried over to the Eggman boss fight.

Eggman himself wasn't safe from all these oddities either. While the mech's sprite looked perfectly normal, he himself had turned completely black just like his robots. It looked like his shadow was the one piloting that machine.

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The boss fight itself was a bit harder since he took a few more hits than I remembered he should, but it was also nearly intolerable to play. Each time I landed a hit on him, a short, ear piercing sound would play instead of the usual sound effect you'd get in other games.

It was like a high pitched screech that felt like someone had taken a drill to my ears, it was so bad that I had to turn down the volume for it to not hurt as much, but it left a ringing in my ears.

After defeating him, Amy reappeared once again. I was starting to get really annoyed at how she never seemed to leave me alone. I anticipated her though, so I got away quickly before she could grab onto me again.

The last section of the stage was a lot longer than it should've been though, instead of a loop that lead you to the ending, the area where the boss fight took place was extended.

She began chasing me once more. What I didn't expect was for her to actually start running faster than before. She had a similar running animation to Sonic's, hands on her sides and feet moving so fast they looked like a wheel.

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Sonic was running at his top speed, but she was still catching up to me. And as she got closer, that same high pitched sound began playing on loop, growing louder and louder the closer she was.

My ears were ringing and I was gritting my teeth, it hurt so bad that I'm pretty sure it may have caused some actual damage to my ears. She was coming closer and closer.

But just as she was inches away from catching up to me, she suddenly halted as I finally ran into the capsule at the end of the level. I destroyed it, freeing the seeds and completing the level at last.
I was relieved.

While I rubbed my ears I was seriously questioning if all these of these modifications were meant to be more than just annoying and straight up malicious. That last chase had gone a bit too far.

I was just about to shut off the game and turn off my computer, I was getting sick of it. But I figured by then that it didn't matter anyways, I finished the last level with a less than 2 minutes on the clock so I might aswell just see it through to the end.

I finished loading into "Colission Chaos Zone 1" and expected things to get stranger right off the bat but oddly enough, not really. The HUD's score and ring counters were still gone and the music remained absent, but nothing else.

Time was still ticking so i figured with nothing else to do i'd at least try and get as far as i can in the level. Because by then, i'd already figured out that i'd likely run out of time before i made any substantial progress.

I didn't get far at all, i got to the area where Amy is supposed to get kidnapped by Metal Sonic, where he'd bust through a wall of spikes that prevented me from going forward. The wall and Amy were still there, but Metal Sonic never came at all.

Amy didn't try anything either like i assumed she would, instead she just stood there, looking at Sonic with her arms behind her back.

I didn't have a way of moving on to the actual level due to that spike barrier, so i was basically stuck and left there waiting.

The time was running out now, 50 seconds left, and this is when something changed in Sonic. First, his pupils dissapeared which left his eyes completely white and blanked out.

Second was his movement, he felt heavy to control, it took too long to gather any speed to actually make him run, like someone set a smaller limit as to how fast he could go.

25 seconds left, i felt how his speed began decreasing even more and i lost the ability to jump, i was left stuck like that as time ran out.

10 seconds in is where Amy finally did something, she suddenly turned away from looking at Sonic and stared directly at the screen, and in turn directly at me. Which left me quite startled.

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5 seconds left, Amy kept staring at me and i in turn stared back at the screen. I didn't really want to turn away.

4 seconds left...

3...

2...

1.

My computer screen suddenly went dark, and i got scared that something bad may have happened to it, i tried pressing the power button to see if i could get the screen to come back on but i still got nothing.

I frustratedly tried searching for a way of getting it to turn on, it's a very expensive computer and i didn't want it to die on me.

I turned back to the screen to see that something did come back on, but it wasn't the game or my desktop, it was still a pitch black screen, but this time there was a golden pixelated eye with a black pupil.

Right there in the middle of the screen, it was staring directly at me, the eye followed my every move, like it was studying me.

I was dumbfounded, i didn't know what to say or do because i had no idea where it came from or what it's deal was.

That was until it flashed an incredibly bright white screen at my face, it even went past the limits of what should be possible for a regular computer. And it was growing brighter and brighter by the second.

I wanted to look away but i couldn't physically turn my head even though i desperately tried to.

My neck and body suddenly felt stiff like something was holding it in place while forcing me to look into that light, in fact, it was pushing my face closer to the screen.

My eyeballs felt like they were on fire, tears were pouring out of the corners of my eyes, and just like that, i suddenly fell head-first into my keyboard and passed out.

I woke up hours later, with a terrible headache and blood flowing out of my nose. My entire keyboard being soaked in it.

I lifted my head up to look at my screen again, the game had come back on, but Sonic was in an entirely different zone, a black void with grey grass and nothing else.

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I didn't really pay any mind to it since i had other things to worry about, i ran to the bathroom and began cleaning off all the blood that had spilled out from my nose since half of my face was caked in it.

Something happened back then, after i passed out but before i woke up. I think i was dreaming, but it was incredibly vague and memories from that are fuzzy.

I do remember some bits and pieces from it though.
I was Sonic, i was in a large field with pitch black skies and monochrome grass, a place that would've seemed straight out of some fantasy story, but to me it felt... off.

It felt lifeless.

There was nothing to see, nothing to do, there was no noise, no apparent way out, all i could do was just stand there, all alone. Or at least that's what i thought before it appeared behind me.

It was incredibly tall, nearly three times my current size, and it wore a tattered yet elegant white dress with blue cloth entangled in it's torso.

It's pink quills were drenched in a black, dripping substance, and in place where one would expect a face in a human being, was a void.

A single golden eye stared down at me from inside it.

That thing, something happened to me because of that thing, i don't know if it did something but ever since i woke up from that dream happened i've been feeling horrible.

I've been getting these terrible headaches all the time, i haven't been able to sleep properly in days, my nose sometimes randomly starts dripping blood, overall i feel incredibly weak.

And i'm pretty sure it's all because of that game, i never played again after what happened and i made sure to delete every last trace of it off of my computer, but i still feel awful. Nothing changed.

I went to see a doctor two times already, but they can't seem to pin down anything actually wrong with me, they insist that i should be healthy when i feel the furthest thing away from it.

I've been trying to wrap my head around it, find any sort of logical reason as to how this could have happened to me, but i find no other possible explanation than that game.

Whatever that game did to me left me in a terrible state.

And what's even worse? I feel like i'm being watched.

I live in a single bedroom apartment on the 3rd floor of the building, i have no pets or roommates, and i never even talked to my neighbors. Even though i'm alone, i don't feel like i am anymore. And that scares me.

After i finish writing this, i'm gonna go break the disc into pieces.

Mostly just to air out my frustrations since i know that it's unlikely to actually do anything, it wouldn't make sense, then again my condition already makes no sense.

Maybe it could be the key to solving my problem? Who knows, but i'm going to try anyways.

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Pub: 11 Nov 2023 20:49 UTC
Edit: 13 Nov 2023 18:43 UTC
Views: 329