For other uses, 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 Tails, 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, relatively sharp corners, and a spiraling wire between the antennas. From Sonic Colors and onward however, the Miles Electric is smaller with only has one handle on the left side, rounder corners, and no spiraling wire between the antennas. It also no longer has buttons on the left side as it did in Sonic Unleashed.

While reconfigured into a Wisp translator, the device included a bulky black addition on its backside, complete with exposed red and blue wires. It also had a large, angled antenna on top, with an orange base and what appeared to be a translucent teal satellite dish. These additions were removed in subsequent games, however.

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 (appears in game as hexadecimal code), meaning only Tails could read it (on the Wii version of Sonic Colors, it initially had a few bugs that resulted in mistranslations, though Tails eventually fixed it).

Additionally, the Miles Electric also comes with customized universal Wi-Fi accessibility, which allows it to instantly hook up to any computer,^[1] as well as a built-in hologram projector,^[2] signal tracking sensors,^[3] a video communication feature,^[4] and a flashlight.^[5]

History[]

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[]

In the Wii version and Nintendo DS version of Sonic Colors, alongside the Wii version's remaster, Sonic Colors: Ultimate, Tails attempted to create a translation module so that he and Sonic could understand the language of the Wisps.^[6] 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.

In the Wii version and Ultimate, it initially made several comical translation errors^[7] and was not perfected until the end of the incident,^[8] whereas in the Nintendo DS version, the translator worked perfectly from the start.

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[]

In the Wii U version, PC version and Nintendo 3DS version of Sonic Lost World, Sonic and Tails have one Miles Electric, while Amy and Knuckles have another 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 would carry and analyze Zeti powers with Miles Electric before being kidnapped by the Deadly Six. Amy also contacted to Sonic with Miles Electric two times, telling him about the Extractor's impact on the world. When Sonic tried to contact them a third time at Lava Mountain, he was unable to get any signal from Amy and Knuckles and believed to have lost them. The Miles Electric is also seen at the bottom right of the loading screen after completing a Zone, though only in the Wii U/PC version of the game.

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.

Sonic Dream Team[]

Other game appearances[]

Sonic Speed Simulator[]

In Sonic Speed Simulator, the Miles Electric appeared during the "Metal Madness Event". In this game, it possesses a narrowed version of its design from Sonic Unleashed.

During the "Metal Madness Event", the Miles Electric could be found in the hands of Tails in Green Hill. Its design was also used for the main menu of the aforementioned event.

Variants[]

Miles Electric Mega[]

The Miles Electric Mega is an enlarged variant of the regular being used in Tails' Lab to stream, project photos or to make calls to other and it mainly used and seen during TailsTube.

In other media[]

Books and comics[]

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.

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

IDW Publishing[]

The Fate of Dr. Eggman[]

When stumbling upon a Egg Fleet battleship in the sky during their mission to find information on who was commanding the Badnik horde, Tails handed the Miles Electric to Sonic after instructing him to board the battleship and download data from the first computer that he could find. Unfortunately, this plan was forgotten when Sonic was forced to flee the battleship following a battle with Neo Metal Sonic and some Egg Pawns.^[1]

All or Nothing[]

When Sonic was explaining the characteristics and traits of each member of the Deadly Six to his allies on Angel Island, Tails used the Miles Electric to showcase the appearance of each of the Zeti talked about.^[2]

Out of the Blue[]

When Dr. Eggman attacked Spiral Hill Village, Tails used the Miles Electric to write a code that, when uploaded into the Giga Omega mecha Eggman was using, would release Gemerl from inside Giga Omega. With the help of Rouge, he managed to find the back panel on Giga Omega and hook the Miles Electric up to it, which resulted in Gemerl being ejected from the mecha.^[9]

Chao Races and Badnik Bases[]

For the task of rebuilding Omega, Tails downloaded Dr. Eggman's personal blueprints to his Miles Electric, which Rouge had given him. However, he could not read them because they were encrypted. He and Sonic subsequently took the Miles Electric to an abandoned Eggman base nearby Windmill Village to connect to Eggnet and decipher the blueprints. While there, Sonic used the Miles Electric to illuminate the dark corridors.^[10] Tails later tried to break through the Eggnet's firewall using the Miles Electric, but the work proved arduous. When Belle then appeared, Tails left his Miles Electric for a while, causing the base's alarm to go off. Tails tried then to get back to his work on the firewall, but to no avail.^[11] After escaping the base, Tails got a message on his Miles Electric from Rouge who needed Sonic and Tails' aid in White Park Zone.^[12] Belle later used the Miles Electric to read Omega's blueprints for the repairs of Omega. Afterward, when Tails studied his Miles Electric, he realizing that if Belle could read Eggman's encrypted files flawlessly, it must mean that she had been made by him.^[13]

Test Run![]

While stuck inside Dr. Eggman's space-circumenting test chambers for robots, Tails used the Miles Electric to examine things they came across, such as test dummies and strange sounds. Soon after, in an effort to escape the test chambers, Tails began calibrating the Miles Electric's sensors to track the local Badniks' comm signals back to their source.^[13]

Zeti Hunt![]

When the Deadly Six attacked Restoration HQ, Tails used his Miles Electric to inform Sonic about the attack.^[4] After the Deadly Six had been dealt with, Tails contacted Jewel through his Miles Electric to get an update on recent events.^[14]

Trial by Fire[]

During an experiment to render Badniks docile, Belle hooked Motobud up to a Miles Electric. With it, she was able to isolate Motobud's nonaggression subroutine and then transfer it wirelessly over to nearby Badniks, which resulted in said Badniks exhibiting peaceful mannerisms.^[15]

Scrapnik Island[]

After being marooned on Scrapnik Island with Sonic, Tails was able to make a translator module for the Miles Electric. It allowed for the signals made by the Scrapniks to be translated into text.^[16] Tails was also able to use it to view video feed captured by the Scrapniks. Mecha Sonic stole the Miles Electric from Tails in order to use it for his plan to download his mind into Sonic's body.^[17][18] After Mecha Sonic surrendered, Tails used the Miles Electric to remove Eggman's programing from Mecha Sonic and Mecha Knuckles.^[18]

Urban Warfare[]

Tails uses the Miles Electric to analyze the giant crystals in Eggperial City, where he discovers they are actually Giant Fake Chaos Emeralds. He connects to the city's network via the tablet and discovers the Fake Emeralds are all connected to the central tower.^[19] Silver used the Miles Electric to devise a plan to attack the central tower. Tangle would phase through the tablet and Amy would attack her with her Piko Piko Hammer; it went through Tangle and destroyed the Miles Electric. Tails was dismayed and Amy profusely apologized. Tails would lament not knowing what would happen to the city if they didn't stop it, saying his Miles Electric would tell him.^[20]

Films[]

Paramount[]

Main article: Miles Electric (Paramount)

In the Sonic the Hedgehog film series produced by Paramount Pictures, Tails uses a one-handed version of the Miles Electric.^[21]

Merchandise[]

An accessory of the Miles Electric with the Sonic Colors alien translator attached was made by Jazwares, included with a 3.75" Tails articulated figure in 2014. In 2023, Jakks Pacific released a larger version of the device and translator with a 4" Tails figure.

Trivia[]

• Earlier in the story of the Wii version of Sonic Colors, Tails claimed that the translator decoded the Wisp language in binary,^[22] but in the final cutscene where a full view of the Miles Electric's screen can be seen, the translation was shown to be decoded in 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 ("Thank you for saving us.") while the bottom display decoded reads, "If you can read this, you are a geek".
• While the Miles Electric does not physically appear, Tails mentions it at one point in LEGO Dimensions.

References[]