Need to get all time stones during first playthrough?

[Lawyer Cop, M.D.]

I played the Windows 95 version years ago. When I was playing this new version, I intentionally didn't get all the time stones so that I could do the time attack levels in the bad future, which I like more than the good future levels. Back in the win95 version, once you beat the game your save would continue from Metallic Madness 1, so if you were tough enough to get the time stones in MM stage 1 or 2 you could effectively do that over and over, 2 special stages at a time, until you got them all, and thus 'complete' your save. In this version, you only seem able to start from MM stage 3, and so can never get more time stones, and are stuck with however many you had when you finished your first playthrough.
Is this actually the case? Cuz that's kind of annoying.
P.S. I've unlocked stage select mode, and that's basically like starting a new game that does not save from that level, so it also can't be used to add time stones to your save.

[cromignon]

I'm a little late here, but I think 'Good' and 'Bad' futures are dependant on whether or not you went to the Past and destroyed the Badnik generator. Destroying the Metal Sonic hologram machine is optional to creating a Good Future, as it just adds extra animal sprites to the playfield.

[Lawyer Cop, M.D.]

I was asking whether you could 'complete' your save after already finishing the game once with the bad ending, by getting any missing time stones via replaying metallic madness acts 1 and 2 and getting into special stages that way, so that eventually you get the game's good ending due to having all the time stones, not about getting a good future in any particular level. (This was possible on the original Windows 95 release).
You can cause a good future in any particular level by either already having all the time stones, or by going to the Past for that level and destroying the floating cage thing. Yes, the metal sonic projection is purely cosmetic and not required, and just causes more dancing animals.
At the end of the game, if you either 1) destroyed the cage in every single level's Past in the entire game, making every level's future Good, or 2) collect all seven time stones at any point, you will get the good ending.
I found the answer to my question, and unfortunately it does turn out that in this version of Sonic CD you are stuck with whichever ending you earned in a save file your first time playing through. If you beat this version of the game with, say, 5 time stones and a bad ending, that save will always have five time stones and a bad ending. If you want to get the good ending, you have to start a different save file and beat the game again, earning a good ending on your first playthrough.
This was annoying to me, because on the original Windows 95 release I would intentionally not get the time stones or break the cages on my first playthrough so that I would see/enjoy the bad futures/ending with their kickin' music, and then I would replay metallic madness earning the missing time stones, see the good ending, and then when doing time attack get to see/enjoy the good futures.
This is far from game-breaking, but it's a bit of a disappointment.

[Nuku]

hmm strange, i don't recall this being an issue in the Sega Mega CD version, i used to play timeattack on that for ages in the 90's
i never really played the Win95 version, it was a bad conversion imho, so who knows certain things were different.

[cromignon]

Originally posted by Jack:

hmm strange, i don't recall this being an issue in the Sega Mega CD version, i used to play timeattack on that for ages in the 90's
i never really played the Win95 version, it was a bad conversion imho, so who knows certain things were different.

It was nearly a 1:1 conversion. It was Windows 95 that was the problem, with it's inability to properly apportion system resources (although the resource advantage that PCs had over the Mega-CD allowed the FMVs to be viewed in full detail and with richer colours). The save system was redone, allowing for multiple saves (and subsequently save-scumming), as well as an additional 'profile/record' .ini file that recorded how many of the stones you'd collected.

I don't know why this version doesn't do the same thing, as it's not really a port or conversion.