i think theres also a variation of random genesis cartridge & knuckles, which is just sonic 1 & knuckles, but it randomly generates a level based on some part of the cartridge instead of letting you choose the level
The Nick Arcade, Simon Wai and Pre-Beta Prototypes make Sonic&Knuckles think Sonic 1 is attached and later Prototypes just crash because it tries to load Knuckles in Sonic 2 but it doesnt get enough Data to work except Beta 7 which loads a unique Special Stage because the Header got corrupted somehow and is GM 00001051-0 instead of GM 00001051-00
As a child the year 2000 i had the sega genesis carteidge add on and was able to play sonic and knuckles complete, i didnt even know what the big cartridge was for until randomly messing with the sega one day and putting sonic 3 on top of sonic and knuckles and it worked, i then put sonic 2 on top and was able to use knuckles in sonic 2, the good ole days
Im confused about the game timeline, is S3 and S3&K have the same timeline? Or S3&K is just a prequel to S&K and that's probably explains why S3 A.I.R. have the title Angel Island Revisited?
Well Sonic 3 released on 2nd February 1994, and Sonic & Knuckles later on 18th October 1994. Since Sonic & Knuckles came out, it was possibly to combine Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles, which plays Sonic 3 & Knuckles. And S3 A.I.R is just a name for the fan project.
SEGA wanted to release S3&K with eachother, but had to release S3 alone for the McDonalds ad. They released S&K with lock-on technology, and it would lock onto S3, basically being the full game in two, only you could connect them to play the full game, AND unlock knuckles with his own path. *TL;DR: Sega wanted to release the games together but didn't for an ad, so they broke it in 2 that could lock onto the other making the full game (& knuckles)*
Since the other classic Sonic games were made on cardridges, Sonic CD was made on a CD. That means, that it was not possible to connect the CD with the cardridge.
Apparently, if you plug in the Sonic & Knuckles cartridge to other Sega Megadrive games, the result is the Sonic 1 & Knuckles "No Way? No Way!" screen.