Rings, monitors and time signs
Identify original pickup sprites and monitor icons, then use their effects to support an exploration route.
Original 1993 Mega-CD / Sega CD game, with Sonic as the playable character. Regional soundtracks differ. Tails, widescreen changes and the Special Stage retry features of the 2011 remaster and Sonic Origins are outside this guide.
4 items · one picture per entry · open a picture for full size.
Item directory
Rings
A collected Ring protects Sonic against an ordinary damaging hit. Retaining fifty or more at an eligible first- or second-zone goal also opens the large Ring leading to a Special Stage.
Shield monitor
Breaking the monitor with this icon grants a shield. Use it to preserve your carried Rings through a mistake while exploring a branch, rather than treating it as permission to ignore hazards.
Invincibility monitor
This original monitor symbol identifies temporary invincibility. Take the reward when the nearby route is understood, and continue to respect pits, crushing spaces and other hazards beyond ordinary enemy contact.
Speed shoes monitor
The speed-up monitor temporarily changes Sonic’s running pace. Collect it on a route you have already inspected, because faster movement leaves less time to correct a missed platform or unexpected spring.
Every Sonic CD pickup
From the original 1993 Mega-CD game.
- Rings — protection and extra lives at 100
- Super Ring monitor — 10 rings
- Shield monitor — absorbs one hit
- Invincibility monitor — brief invincibility
- Power Sneakers monitor — temporary speed
- 1-Up monitor — extra life
- Past and Future signposts — run at speed to time travel
- Time Stones — seven, won in the Special Stages
Quick notes
- Read the monitor before breaking it. The screen icon inside a monitor identifies its reward.
- Keep Rings for the next objective. Rings support both ordinary survival and access to Special Stages at eligible goals.
- Use the signs as route markers. Past and Future signs indicate the time direction Sonic can attempt next.
The item pictures show original Ring sprites and the monitor’s identifying icon; they are not promotional drawings of later power-ups.
Picture details
Game artwork belongs to its respective rights holders.