The Sonic CD Intro, Sonic Boom, Is Now Available in Glorious HD

DualShockers

By Scott White

Published Feb 9, 2021

Sonic fans have used the chaos emeralds to up-res the classic Sonic CD intro, so now you can watch it in glorious HD!

Users Tanks and Quazza over on the Sonic Retro forums have painstakingly cleaned and upscaled the Sonic CD intro, and their work is finally finished. Utilizing AI-technology, Tanks goes into detail on working on the up-resing process, utilizing the program ESRGAN, to build specially-tailored AI models for this project. "We stuck to our proprietary models for most of the frame cleaning and scaling, using the film cels SEGA released not too long ago as a guidepost. Some of the darker scenes needed some extra support, and it's thanks to the recently released celframes model we were able to fill in some gaps," Tanks explained. The rest of the forum post goes into greater detail, and you should give it a read if this AI wizardry interests you!

Sonic CD released in the US back in September of 1993, and saw Sonic going up against the Metal Sonic in a time-travel adventure to rescue Amy (pink hedgehog, swings a big hammer in later entries), and "save the world from disaster" as the opening eloquently puts it. This was the only Sonic title released on SEGA's first foray into optical media, the Sega CD add-on for the Sega Genesis / Master System.

The Sonic CD opening holds a special place in the memory of many fans of the blue-blur. It's fast, it's a bit edgy, it's unabashedly full of 90's flare, and it will get stuck in your head for the rest of the day.

To save you a Google search, here are the lyrics to Sonic Boom, the Sonic CD intro song!

If you're strong

You can fly

You can reach the other side

Of the rainbow

It's all right

Take a chance

Cause there is no circumstance

That you can't handle

When you use your mind

Sonic Boom, Sonic Boom, Sonic Boom (Trouble keeps you running faster)

Sonic Boom, Sonic Boom, Sonic Boom (Save the planet from disaster)