From StrategyWiki, the free strategy guide and walkthrough wiki

There are seven special stages in the game, one for each Chaos Emerald you can collect. In the special stages, you must collect all the blue spheres while avoiding the red spheres. If you collect all the blue spheres you are rewarded with a Chaos Emerald. If you collect all seven Emeralds you get the ability to transform into Super Sonic.

Contents 1 Game Screen 2 Items 3 Making Rings 3.1 Example 1 3.2 Example 2 3.3 Example 3 4 Stage Maps

[edit] Game Screen

	This counter in the top right corner shows how many rings have been collected. If you collect: 50 rings, you get a continue. 100 rings, you get an extra life. all the rings for one stage, you get a Perfect, which is worth 50'000 points.
	This counter in the top left corner shows how many blue spheres are remaining.

[edit] Items

	You must collect all of these to get the chaos emerald. When you touch them they turn red.
	If you touch any of these you lose.
	You bounce off these making you go backwards. Just press up to go forward again.

[edit] Making Rings

Groups of blue spheres can be turned into rings by going around the outside of them.

[edit] Example 1

There must be at least 1 blue sphere in the center.

[edit] Example 2

Notice how only the spheres in the outline and the center turn into rings.

[edit] Example 3

[edit] Stage Maps

Click on an image to view a larger version.

Blue Spheres: 102 Rings: 64	Blue Spheres: 151 Rings: 135	Blue Spheres: 118 Rings: 80	Blue Spheres: 115 Rings: 80
Blue Spheres: 58 Rings: 54	Blue Spheres: 128 Rings: 64	Blue Spheres: 60 Rings: 74	Blue Spheres: 51 Rings: 0