# Talk:Sonic the Hedgehog (1991 video game)

@Sergecross73: I have restored the previous hatnote linking only to Sonic the Hedgehog (8-bit video game) and not the greater Sonic the Hedgehog dab page, as you were previously reverted at least twice on this by myself today and by Loytra in July. The only part of the current article title that is ambiguous is that there is another Sonic game that was released in 1991 (the Master System game). Your argument that the article title could spark confusion with the 2006 game would made sense if the title was "Sonic the Hedgehog (video game)," but I fail to understand it as is. Why would a reader search "Sonic the Hedgehog (1991 video game)", or select it from the drop-down search menu, and expect the '06 game? Chase (talk | contributions) 14:01, 13 December 2023 (UTC)

I've reverted in the past because there hasn't been any consensus to change it. You are the one who has failed to follow WP:BRD. I'm not guilty of anything besides disagreeing with you. I think it's important to mention when two very separate games have the exact same name as each other across many years. If there's a consensus against that here, then we'll change it. It's not that serious. Let's see what others say. Sergecross73 msg me 17:39, 13 December 2023 (UTC)
I think the hatnote should only list the 8-bit game because that's the only realistic confusion that could arise from the title. Nobody is going to confuse the Sonic 1/Sonic '06 articles because they're properly disambiguated. This and the 8-bit game are an unusual case where they can't really be disambiguated by platform (the 8-bit game came out on two platforms, and people are going to argue over whether we should use "Sega Genesis" or "Mega Drive" in the title here) and this is clearly the primary topic for 1991 Sonic games, so the hatnote is the best way to handle it. JOEBRO64 18:29, 13 December 2023 (UTC)
I think Joe's logic is sound — the article titles (1991 and 2006) provide the disambiguation. Popcornfud (talk) 19:17, 13 December 2023 (UTC)

https://www.segasammy.co.jp/cms/wp-content/uploads/pdf/en/ir/ir_2023_web_all_e.pdf
Page 18, says Sonic 1 sold 4 million?
Maybe the 15 million is combining all Sonic MD SKUs then?  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.192.187.151 (talk) 04:21, 10 February 2024 (UTC) 

It seems the release date of June 23 may be wrong, though I don't think there's anything we can do about it on Wikipedia right now: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:5xjxj3nn5qtj6ajeyypogfk2/post/3lcwv27mqbk27 Popcornfud (talk) 23:34, 10 December 2024 (UTC)

An interesting read, but "Whatever the case, both articles mention the May date only in passing and should probably be taken with a grain of salt" is probably my stance on it too. Sergecross73 msg me 00:58, 11 December 2024 (UTC)
It was most likely just sold early in certain stores/regions. It's been 33 years and I don't recall this ever really being up for debate. ~ Dissident93 (talk) 16:02, 11 December 2024 (UTC)
Yeah, ultimately, I think breaking street dates just wasn't as big of a deal back then. There was no digital distribution for leaks, no social media to create a big buzz/controversy, no friend lists to show someone was online playing it early, etc. It would just be some person playing a game early in their room, with no one really knowing outside of some buddies or something.
It does seem like its come up before with some old Sonic/Sega/Nintendo type game, where some editor notices some archaic, archived message board conversation where someone is talking about a game days/weeks before the release date. And it's...mildly interesting, but nothing to change the official release date over, in my opinion. Sergecross73 msg me 16:58, 11 December 2024 (UTC)
Yep, naturally we'd need good juicy sources to update the article with anything different. But I see this info as useful context to keep in mind, and it might mean that eventually more concrete detail emerges that we do end up being able to use. Popcornfud (talk) 17:01, 11 December 2024 (UTC)
I'd like to point out that the debate surrounding the US release date of Super Mario Bros. on its article uses no more cited sources than what we have for Sonic. Not only do we have multiple accounts of people getting the game before June 23 with confirmed receipts dating June 12, but we also have a newspaper ad from June 12 advertising that Sonic 1 had just arrived. Not one single ad or article from that time advertises Sonic having a street date to look forward to, we know June 23 was a Sunday and no game would ever release that day, and Al Nilsen has gone on record saying Sonic 2 having a nationwide enforced street date in the US was unprecedented. If Wikipedia is willing to argue with Nintendo's officially designated release date for Mario, surely it can do the same with Sega for Sonic. A general date of June 1991 with an added note to the article mentioning the debate makes sense. BGer23 (talk) 07:37, 19 June 2025 (UTC)
I'm not familiar with the Super Mario discussion or the sources they used, but all we have here is a couple social media posts and an old magazine ad? That's...not really the sort of sourcing Wikipedia generally uses, especially on a WP:FA. As mentioned before, something to keep an eye on, but we don't have enough to work with at the moment. Sergecross73 msg me 13:02, 19 June 2025 (UTC)
With Super Mario Bros., there's been entire articles published discussing how the exact North American release date isn't known. That kind of coverage doesn't exist for Sonic 1, but I think newspaper coverage should be enough to add a footnote explaining that the release date is debated. Something like: While Sega and other sources report a release date of June 23, 1991, newspaper coverage indicates the game was available as early as June 12. JOEBRO64 13:51, 19 June 2025 (UTC)
Yeah, I thought I had seen some of those Mario articles before in passing, so I kind of assumed it wasn't a good comparison point. But when you says "newspaper coverage", do you mean the ad from New York Daily News linked above? Because there's no actual date mentioned in the ad itself. The only date I'm seeing at all is the date in the user-created file name itself. I don't particularly like using that date on that alone... Sergecross73 msg me 14:11, 19 June 2025 (UTC)
There is, actually. Look at the left side. It's partially cut out, but you can clearly see a date of June 12. BGer23 (talk) 17:01, 19 June 2025 (UTC)
From what I recall, there are a few newspaper articles from June '91 suggesting that the game was available in some retailers by the 11th or 12th. I'll have to do some digging to see if I can find them. JOEBRO64 14:15, 19 June 2025 (UTC)
I checked Newspapers.com and found these [1], [2] Timur9008 (talk) 15:59, 19 June 2025 (UTC)

Hi. I found on Sonic Retro that Sonic the Hedgehog 1 was originally set for release on 21 November 1990, the same day the Super Famicom and Super Mario World launched in Japan, via the magazine they included below. Can somebody please take the time to translate and read this for confirmation?
https://archive.org/details/famitsu-0115/page/n9/mode/1up Chadalvarez2021 (talk) 18:08, 28 July 2025 (UTC)