To answer your questions, I most assuredly am not dead, although sometimes I wake up and can sure as heck feel that way! ;)
The main reason I don't come around here, which is kind of a majorly important one, is that I left the project several years ago; mostly because I stopped enjoying the game series, particularly after Sonic Team went on to produce re-releases, further re-releases and further additional re-releases. I don't remember being a coder for the game, as I was by and large the lead designer. Perhaps that should read 'the guy who screamed lots when demos came out and there was something I wanted that was missing/didn't work/got DELORTED'. Since leaving STJr, I stopped using the name 'Sonikku'.
As for retiring in Jamaica, I don't recall doing that, although sometimes university can lead me to think otherwise! These days I'm actually at the University of Essex, trying to get a degree in Linguistics. It was a choice between that and Computer Science, but I fear that my lack of advanced maths tuition would have let me down there somewhat. Yes, AJ and I are still good friends, although our busy lifestyles mean that rarely get the chance to converse these days, disappointingly. He keeps me posted on his projects, and I keep playtesting them and making the same doubtless irritating comments I did back in the days of developing SRB2. ;D
For the bored and/or curious: I still maintain a healthy passion for games and have taken the role of being next year's secretary in the Multiplayer Gaming Society we have here. Recent favourites have included playing through Ikaruga and Gradius V, offset by a lively villain busting session in City of Heroes. Somewhere down the line I get roped into occasionally playing CS:Source.
And finally, yes, pigeons are highly suspectible to baking soda and painkillers. Don't let the PETA catch you, though!
Good to see people still remember me in a sense. ;D
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Johnny