Johnathan- As a kid growing up I was your average, casual Sonic player. I loved the games but when I played them I wouldn’t go out of my way to 100% the games. So I was caught by surprise when one day I came home to find a beefy envelope on my doorstep.

Expecting it to be maybe just a letter or something from the landlord, I pick it up and go inside. Once I’m inside I go to my room and plop down on the bed. “Alright.. time to see what the hell this is about” I say as I…well…rip the envelope open because I don’t have time to fiddle with it.

Inside is a coverless Mega-CD disc for what is crudely labeled in marker on the disc as “CD Sonic The Hedgehog Dev Disk”. I remember as at least an early teen, I had owned a Mega-CD and beaten Sonic CD (well I got the bad ending) but still. I dug up the Mega-CD from my closet and plugged it in my outlet and set the TV up to it.

When the game started, it appeared like just a normal game of Sonic 1. When I entered Green Hill Zone it structurally looked like how I remembered, but with seemingly better graphics similar to the Sonic CD game I played as a teen. The soundtrack was more high quality with better instruments and everything seemed normal…until halfway through the level. Sonic stopped responding to my controls no matter how many times I tried. And after a while another Sonic appeared behind him. It was…off.

The Sonic had orange shoes instead of red, very big pupils, and a more grey color of blue. After more time passed, the weird Sonic did the spin-dash move into the actual Sonic and the screen flashed white and black with screaming and the sound of what could be awfully described as bones and flesh crunching.

At this point I jumped out of my bed VERY startled at the things blaring on the screen. “WHAT THE HELL!?” After a bit the game reset. I tried to turn it off, but it would not work. And when the game reset it booted me into Green Hill Zone.

This time, playing as Tails. Before I could even get a decent start on the level, something was weird about GHZ… everything was white except the background assets were black and red. Tails remained normal but he looked off too. He looked…scared..and when I walked forward Sonic stopped him, which is weird because isn’t this guy dead? He looks like normal Sonic. But oh..oh god was I wrong… Sonic stood there awkwardly before shapeshifting into the weird Sonic. He flew across the screen as if unbound to what is actually going on in game, but haunting me, the player. After me running as Tails, he went unresponsive and the weird Sonic appeared in front of him.

Very shortly after was a gruesome half second of it ripping Tails’ heart out before the screen cut to black with a scream…

The game reset again to the SEGA screen. After that, the screen was black. I thought it was over. But out of nowhere the continue screen music from Sonic 2 played over a timer and a gruesome detailed image of it waving its finger and counting down from 10. The Mega-CD started smoking more and more during the countdown..

The Mega-CD started making noises. At 10 there was loud rumbling inside the console. At 9 smoke started leaking out of the vents. At 8 the screen began flashing random colors on top of the screen. The music got distorted and slower.

It all was too much! I had to destroy this fucking thing!

And so I panicked. At 4 I grabbed the closest heavy thing I could find, which was one of my old metal baseball trophies. I smashed the Mega-CD and the TV with it over and over until both of them were destroyed. Glass flew EVERYWHERE. The screaming and music finally stopped…

That was the last time I’d ever seen anything like that. I never told my parents the real reason I broke the TV because they would think I’m nuts. To this day I still get chills when I think about it. And please..if you EVER come across a random disc, don’t be like me. Destroy it or better yet, do NOT touch it.

You do not want to go through what I went through. -Kaleb Burden 2026