SEPERATE SONIC 3 AND KNUCKLES ROM SERIAL NUMBERS
SEPERATE SONIC 3 AND KNUCKLES ROM FULL VERSION
SEPERATE SONIC 3 AND KNUCKLES ROM PATCH

My question is, how exactly does the Lock-On Technology work?ДЄccording to Lock-on Technology Hacking Guide, there are some chips on the Sonic & Knuckles cartridge:ДЄlong with the two ROM chips and the cartridge slot, they implement the Lock-On functionality. The only code from the locked-on cartridge that executes is the sound driver. The new game can reuse much of the data from the original game: level graphics, enemy data, bosses, etc.

SEPERATE SONIC 3 AND KNUCKLES ROM PATCH

When Sonic & Knuckles detects that Sonic the Hedgehog 2 is locked on, it passes control of the processor to the code inside the patch ROM, thereby launching Knuckles the Echidna in Sonic the Hedgehog 2. The ROM also contains new graphics data for Knuckles as well as new map data with places and items for Knuckles to reach with his abilities. The patch ROM contains the complete Knuckles the Echidna in Sonic the Hedgehog 2 game code this is the full code for the original game but modified with the necessary game mechanics for Knuckles: lower speed, lower jump height, flight, wall climbing, etc. There are two ROM chips in the Sonic & Knuckles cartridge: one has the main game and the other has a patch for Sonic the Hedgehog 2. The connection to Sonic the Hedgehog 2 works similarly:

SEPERATE SONIC 3 AND KNUCKLES ROM FULL VERSION

If it detects that it's the first Sonic the Hedgehog game, it simply unlocks the full version of the bonus game. Its handling of other games is far less sophisticated apparently, it just uses the metadata found in the ROM's header to generate a unique Blue Spheres stage. Since Sonic & Knuckles was programmed to work with Sonic the Hedgehog 3, it makes extensive use of the data in the locked-on cartridge. This means game's data is made available for use by the Sonic & Knuckles game code it does not necessarily mean the data will be used. This explains why the game works even in emulators that don't support any of the custom hardware inside the Sonic & Knuckles cartridge.ДЄny game locked onto Sonic & Knuckles will probably have its ROM mapped onto the game's address space the same way. Incidentally, that's what a good dump of Sonic 3 & Knuckles looks like. The Mega Drive just sees two games, one after another. The contents of the read-only memory chips get mapped onto the Mega Drive's 68k processor's 24-bit address space. The address space represents memory the game code can access. To better understand what this means, imagine a Sonic & Knuckles ROM with the complete contents of the Sonic the Hedgehog 3 ROM concatenated onto it. This way, the executing game code gets access to the contents of both games. It seems both games are simply mapped onto memory. It probably detects all preceding Sonic the Hedgehog games since they all result in specific effects when locked-on.ДЄre the game ROMs merged in some way when connected?

SEPERATE SONIC 3 AND KNUCKLES ROM SERIAL NUMBERS

It checks the serial numbers of games they can be found in the ROM's header. How does the Sonic & Knuckles cart detect another cartridge?

Seperate sonic 3 and knuckles rom