Miles Electric

For other uses of the term, see Miles Electric (disambiguation).

The Miles Electric, also called the PAD, is an object that appears in the Sonic the Hedgehog series. It is a multi-functional electronic handheld device created by Miles "Tails" Prower. Possessing many functions valuable to the two-tailed fox, the Miles Electric serves as Tails and his allies' most frequently used gadget and tool.

Description

Appearance

The Miles Electric's appearance is that of a wide yellow rectangle, with two cyan-glowing antennas on top, a touchscreen in the middle and some directional pads beside the screen. In Sonic Unleashed, the Miles Electric had two handles on each side and a spiralling wire between the antennas while from Sonic Colors and onward, it only has one handle on the left side and lacks the spiralling wire, it also no longer has buttons on the left side as it did in Sonic Unleashed.

Functions

The Miles Electric is like an advanced hand-held computer. It possesses several functions, including video communication and radar operation for detecting hostile targets. It can as well interface with Tornado-1, essentially turning it into a control panel for the bi-plane. It can as well scan objects to analyze their properties. It is also capable of simpler computer functions, such as playing videos, file handling, menu operations, window operations and has even a help section.

Later on, Tails upgraded the Miles Electric into an alien translator, allowing it to translate Wisp language, albeit only into binary code, meaning only Tails could read it (on the Wii version, it initially had a few bugs that resulted in mistranslations, though Tails eventually fixed it).

Game appearances

Sonic Unleashed

The Miles Electric was first seen in Sonic Unleashed. Whenever Tails appeared in the game's Town Stages, he could be seen fiddling with the Miles Electric. When Sonic and Chip had restored the first continent, Tails used the Miles Electric to show Sonic and Chip an image of the entire planet when Mazuri's continent was rejoining the planet.

Aside from the story, the Miles Electric would appear on some of the loading screens in the Xbox 360/PlayStation 3 version of Sonic Unleashed, where it gives out tips, gameplay controls, maps of the Town Stages, and sometimes boot up when going to different parts of a Town Stage and after ending some Stages.

Sonic Colors

The device is seen again in Sonic Colors, as Tails attempts to create a translation module so that he and Sonic could understand the language of the Wisps. In the Wii version, it initially makes several comical translations errors and is not perfected until the end of the game, whereas in the Nintendo DS version, the translator works perfectly throughout the entire game. The device itself seems to have been given some slight aesthetic changes as well, with only one black handle on the left and its corners are slightly round in shape.

Sonic Generations

In the console/PC version of Sonic Generations, the Miles Electric can be seen on Tails' Tornado-1 in one of the Challenge Acts.

Sonic Lost World

During the events of Sonic Lost World, Sonic and Tails are seen having one Miles Electric, while Amy and Knuckles have another Miles Electric to contact them from Earth. When Sonic manages to find out the capsule that Eggman has been carrying at the beginning of the story, Amy contacts him and asks him to save the rest of the animals.

Throughout the game, Tails is seen carrying and analyzing Zeti powers with Miles Electric before being kidnapped by Deadly Six. Amy also contacts to Sonic with Miles Electric two times, telling about the impact on Earth. When Sonic tries to contact them third time in Lava Mountain, he is unable to get any signal on Amy and Knuckles, believing to have lost them. The Miles Electric is also seen at the bottom right of the loading screen after completing the Zone, only in the Wii U version.

Sonic Forces

In Sonic Forces, Tails attempted to use the Miles Electric to analyze Infinite during his first battle with Sonic. However, the device could not make any sense of the readings it got from Infinite, and Sonic was ultimately defeated before the device could get a more accurate reading.

In other media

Archie Comics

Main articles: Miles Electric (Archie) and Miles Electric (Pre-Super Genesis Wave)

In the Sonic the Hedgehog comic series and its spin-offs published by Archie Comics, the Miles Electric first appeared in the altered reality of the Prime Zone during the Worlds Collide crossover, where Tails used it to hack the teleporter to the Wily Egg to give himself, Sonic, Mega Man and Rush direct access to the flying fortress.

After the Genesis Wave rewrote history, the Miles Electric became a standard tool of the Freedom Fighters and their allies.

IDW Publishing

Main article: Miles Electric (IDW)

In the Sonic the Hedgehog comic series and its spin-offs published by IDW Publishing, the Miles Electric is a computer-based tool used by Tails and his allies.

Sonic the Hedgehog (film)

In the Sonic the Hedgehog film, Tails uses a one-handed version of the Miles Electric.^[1]

Trivia

• Since its introduction in Sonic Unleashed, the Miles Electric has quickly become Tails' signature item, much like Amy Rose's Piko Piko Hammer.

• An accessory of the Sonic Colors Miles Electric was made by Jazwares along with a Tails action figure.
• When Yacker leaves at the end of Sonic Colors, it is possible to get a good look at the Miles Electric. Tails claimed that the translator was in binary, but it was actually hexadecimal (ASCII code). This may be a result of Tails finally perfecting it, but this was never explained.
  • Additionally, the first two lines of hex translate exactly to what Yacker was saying. But the bottom display decoded reads, "If you can read this, you are a geek".
• Despite his real first name 'Miles' rarely being used in the series, Tails named this device for his actual name.
• The AVA seen in the Sonic Boom franchise is used for the same purpose as the Miles Electric.
• While it doesn't physically appear, Tails mentions the Miles Electric by name at one point in LEGO Dimensions.

References