Practice Hack

Sonic 3D Blast, Genesis version, has a practice hack to help aid aspiring speedsters practice their skills and optimize their techniques. This hack solves some of the frustraiting issues with practicing 3D Blast, such as difficulty resetting, running out of lives, needing to use the B-A-R-A-C-U-D-A code, and more. Created by Chrezm and patching site made by BenInSweden.

How to install

  1. First you must have an unmodified North American (NTSC) version of Sonic 3D Blast, do not ask for this or where to get one for free, piracy is illegal and less convient then simply buying the rom on your computer. This game, and importantly a rom we can use, is avaible for purchase anytime on Steam for $5 USD or less
    • you can also install the practice hack via the steam workship if you play the game there.
  2. Download the patch file and unzip it.
  3. Now go to BenInSweden’s github patcher.
  4. Click on the first “choose file” button then navigate to and select your NTSC 3DB rom.
  5. Click on the second “choose file” button then navigate to and select the unzipped patch file.
  6. Hit the “Patch!” button and then click the new link that pops up below it. This will download the patched rom, make sure to save it to somewhere easy to remember.
  7. You’re now all set up! Boot up your emulator of choice or add the patched rom to your flashcart and start practicing.
    • If you’re using the ROM from Steam make sure to allow your emulator to view all files as it is a nonstandard file type but it will work regardless.

Features

  • 1. Start+A restarts the stage from the beginning, ignoring any checkpoints you have attained.
  • 2. Start+B opens level select
  • 3. Clearing a stage puts you back at the beginning of the stage after the score tally.
  • 4. Start+C changes between one of three HUD display modes
    • Mode 1 replaces the lives display with the stage’s frame counter, and the number of rings display with the stage frame counter expressed in MSS format.
    • Mode 2 replaces the lives display with the stage’s frame counter, but the number of rings display still shows the number of rings.
    • Mode 3 replaces the lives display with the stage’s frame counter in MSS format, but the number of rings display still shows the number of rings.
  • 5. Regardless of what the lives display says, you have infinite lives.
  • 6. Regardless of what the number of rings display says, you still have whatever many rings you collected normally (and can still die if you get hit with 0 rings).
  • 7. The “RINGS” text is replaced with some semitransparent tiles (to indicate the viewer it is no longer a rings display), except when you cling to a big ring checkpoint. At that point, it then
    • Replaces the “RINGS” text with the amount of time it took you to make it from the previous checkpoint to the current one for three seconds (if you had previously clinged to another checkpoint earlier in the stage), and then
    • Replaces the “RINGS” text with the amount of time it took you to make it from the start of the stage to the current checkpoint for three seconds, and then
    • Goes back to the semitransparent tiles.
  • 8. Whatever is currently being drawn instead of the “RINGS” text, it will flash if you have no rings. This is intentional, as it helps runners who may want to do a damage boost strat know if they have any rings.

The Practice Hack Spreadsheet

​Wanna keep track of your best times, compare them with others, and break limits going faster than ever before? Head over to our Discord and ask a mod for the submission sheet to start tracking your progress. You can also view the results of the communities fastest efforts on our IL sheet page.

Contributors to this article:
Ame, Chrezm