Sonic Spinball (GEN)

Undrainable Slime

Unconfirmed: If you enter “multi-ball” mode (getting all the rings in the level) in the first level without getting the emerald out of the slime vat, when exiting multi-ball mode, the slime will be back in the vat and there will be no way to drain it again.

by Tigress (Source)

255 Lives

To get 255 lives, you must trick the game that you are dying twice with 1 life life, essentially, bringing you to 0, which in effect, will give you 256 lives instead due to a programming glitch. To do this, first get to 1 life remaining in the first level, Toxic Caves, then go to one of the barrels that floats on the slime. Steer the barrel all the way to the right (or all the way to the left if you are on the left side). Next jump out of the barrel a little bit behind the barrel, but make sure you are facing the direction of the barrel (you can change directions in mid air). You should now die in the slime and your character should have a death animation that moves out of the screen. If done correct, you should actually die twice (two animations/sounds) and get a “Game Over” message. This may take a couple tries. When you respawn, “Launching Extra Ball”, you should notice you have 0 lives. Now die again to bring you to 255 lives which displays as blank.  Make sure to note that if you get any extra lives and it goes above 0 (256), you will be reset back to 1 life. Another point to note is that your glitched life total does not effect the bonus score after you clear the final stage (as it counts your life total as 0).

by Sonic8000 (Video)

Toxic Caves Door Shortcut

Using the right angle and velocity, you can actually bypass the need to get three worm loops or three barrel busts to get out of the left or right slime areas. If you hit the door corner (near the worm loops) at the right angle, you will lift yourself up through the door. This takes a lot of practice and patience to pull off on any sort of regular basis.

by Vaughn

Animal Prison Shortcut

Unknown Causes: On the third level, when in the Animal Prison room, in the spot where the emerald drops in, you can fall into the right (and left?) wall at a certain angle/velocity to be glitched through the wall where you will fall down through the walls, landing into the bottom area. This could be beneficial for speed-runs.

by Vaughn

Double Fall Sound

Unknown Causes: Under certain circumstances, when falling to get the middle emerald crystal, sometimes two falling sounds will play overlapped partially with each other, so the second falling sound will still continue after getting the crystal.

by Vaughn

Glitch Through Rotating Door

Unknown Causes: Under certain conditions, using the right angle, you are able to glitch through the rotating door when it hasn’t yet lined up for you entrance yet; however, after you get the emerald inside, you will be placed back outside of it. This works with the bottom right emerald door. You must hit sonic against the purple incline at the right angle to be able to perform this trick. This is beneficial for speed-runs.

by mmbossman (Source)

No Emerald Completion

Using a series of advanced and timed precision-based actions, you are able to complete the first level with no emeralds at all, or at the very least, get access to emeralds very easily. By using the empty sludge barrel on the left hand side, you can move all the way over to the slime vat with the emerald in it, after grabbing on to the left ledge and spin dashing, you are able to ramp off the right side of the slime vat. Once you’re in the air, the hard part begins. You have to find a hidden “edge” or corner of an object to repeatedly bump into to gain height each time, until eventually, you can reach the boss room. Also note that If you try to do the spin dash from the right side of the slime vat, it won’t bounce you up like the left side does. Watching the video below will give you an idea how this is possible:

by mmbossman (Video)