Community Interview: Pachuka of Sonic CulT

One of the most notorious Sonic fansite webmasters, Pachuka runs the game research site 'Sonic CulT', which has become one of the biggest archives of unknown Sonic information around. Sonic_Hedgehogs had an opportunity to chat to Pachuka about how he got into the fandom and his keen interest in undiscovered game content.

TSS: Hey, Andrew here with Pachuka, thanks for joining us for this exclusive Sonic Stadium interview!

Pachuka: np

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TSS: Before they start asking, what do you do in the Online Sonic Community?

Pachuka: I run a pretty big site devoted to Sonic research. It's basically the Sonic library of stuff that never was, or IS, but no one knows.

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TSS: Where did you get the idea to create it? Pretty much, what's the history of the Sonic CulT? How did it get started?

Pachuka: Well, lemme see... It started back in the middle of a sort of "Sonic renaissance". 1999, just about 5-8 months before the Dreamcast was released. I had been a fan of prototypes, and ran a large scale emulation site called 'Emucult', which was devoted to strange emulation related stuff that fit no where else.

I ran into a "Sonic 4" prototype (Sonic Crackers) on a message board, and became actively interested in trying to find stuff in it. Not much could be found. A month or so later, a man named Simon Wai found the Sonic 2 prototype rom (commonly referred to as "beta", although it is not).

Wai began his site, and other Sonic secrets sites started to float out of the woodwork. At the time, there were only a few, Area51, Secrets of Sonic The Hedgehog (SOSTH) and Tom's hacking station. After a while, I got sick of going from page to page, site to site every day looking at the neat stuff. So I started saving it to my HD.

Then I got the idea to do a a site with ALL the info I had collected. Sort of an Ubersite. So, in a subdirectory on Emucult.com, (my site) Sonic CulT was born.

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TSS: Have you always been a long time Sonic fan or was the Sonic Crackers thing the start of it?

Pachuka: Nah, I've been a fan since the beginning. This was in the age of Gilligan's Island, Total Recall, and Double Dragon III. The NES had gone to hell, it was worthless and dull. And the SNES hadn't even been heard of. And Genesis ads were on TV constantly. When the Sonic ads started appearing, it was all over. I had to get one.

I got my Genesis with the first run of packaged-in Sonic 1s. And this is the OOOOOOLD set. The Genesis with no bios, an expansion port, and my copy of Sonic didn't have that awful "resale" tag.

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TSS: What did you say to yourself when you first saw Sonic? For instance,"What the heck is that, a rat?"

Pachuka: I was like "Holy shit, he moves faster then anything I've seen!" which was the truth, because up until that point, games had been slow as hell. It was the first time I noticed a games graphics and thought that they were different from any other game.

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TSS: What things do you think visitors look forward most to coming to your site? Example: That great MB, or those screens I have with the "No Right click" sign?

Pachuka: Ummm, I'd have to guess the tons and tons of material. You can learn stuff about Sonic games from my site that you can't find elsewhere.

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TSS: What was the biggest turning point of the CulT that you remember? Like, when did it start getting popular most because of?

Pachuka: Ummm, it was probably when I started causing trouble. I basically made myself known by taking everyone's beliefs and ideas and thoughts and theories and just shitting all over them. I did this mainly because that's part of research. You look at things from different angles.

But due to my on-again, off-again relationship with the CulT, I never noticed how horrid the research community had gotten. Simon Wai's site was taken over and ruined, Area51 had a forum filled with 6 year olds, it was terrible. So I just started being a pain in the ass.

The more of a pain in the ass I was, the more people got on my case. The more they got on my case, the more I worked on the site. The more I worked on it, the more attention I got. The more attention I got made me a bigger pain. It was a large circle. So eventually I decided to make the CulT my main project, and started building and building and collecting and collecting. I was like a Borg from Star Trek - nothing was going to escape my need to know everything.

Then I calmed down a bit, made some good friends (HI Koji!) and started to make a more positive contribution. I eventually noticed after a while that my site was literally the largest of its type online. I was kinda shocked when that hit me.

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TSS: What is your most prized section/item on the CulT? What do you think is your best work on the site?

Pachuka: That's kinda hard, because the site is kinda built from material that I found, art I didn't do, and info I'm simply relaying... but I have to say the best work would probably be my 'Sonic In Chaotix' hoax that I did with my friend Koji. We managed to fool quite a few people, including many well known names.

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TSS: You mean the one with Sonic in the title screen?

Pachuka: Yes, and in game as well

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TSS: Hah! You fooled me too!

Pachuka: I got quite a load of emails for that, but in the end it was just a prank. Since that time I've been involved in a few other hoaxes. Sonic CD Alpha 409, Sonic Advance 2 prototype, but none were as funny as the Chaotix one.

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TSS: I know you just told me your main focus is the CulT, but do you do other website work outside of it?

Pachuka: On and off. I've had various other sites in the past - Emucult, Pasofamiland, the BS ROM page, CultChyldren, Trench Coat Mafia fanpage, The Yoda Shrine, and more. Currently, my sites include my personal page "PACHUKA AND FRIENDS", MK hacking notes, and my Spiderman CD prototype page.

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TSS: If you could create your very own Sonic game with Sonic Team, what would it be like?

Pachuka: I'd probally do one of two ideas. One: An actual 3D Sonic that DOESN'T suck, with no voice acting. Just 3D levels full of traps and running - none of that linear level design crap they fed us with SA and SA2. Two: A Sonic collection that actually has the games ported from source, and covers all systems up until the Saturn, and even including Saturn maybe.

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TSS: Before you leave the Sonic Community online, what would you like people to remember you by or would you rather have, "Hmm, where'd... [Snaps Fingers] ..what happened to ol'... you know... whats-his-name?"

Pachuka: "That guy who pissed everyone off, the one with the really cool site"

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TSS: What would you like to get done in the community before you leave?

Pachuka: I'd like to find Sonic Xtreme. I've come close several times, but I never seem to get my hands on it.

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TSS: What's the biggest mystery in the Sonic world? What do you think would be the biggest mystery that you've been trying to answer?

Pachuka: Probably, "What happened to that desert level in Sonic 2?"

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TSS: Before we wrap this up, what things can we look forward to seeing on the CulT anytime in the future?

Pachuka: I'm in the process of altering the structure of the sections, which includes a ton of new material. There's always new stuff going to be added if people keep looking.

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TSS: Thanks a lot for your time. Visit Sonic CulT if you know whats good for you! Thanks, Pachuka!

Pachuka: np