Archive for the 'Sonic Retro' Category

Heeeeere’s Tweaker with the low down…

I’m happy to announce we have taken on a new community project—Project: Sonic Retro! Formerly known as the Sonic 4 project, this is a new, collaborative Sonic game led by Phoebius, Qjimbo, and BJCharles intended to go back to Sonic’s roots in a very literal sense and create a brand new Sonic game, comparable to the original 16-bit games.

Some may know we have had a shaky history with this project in the past, but all these things are now resolved, and we’re hoping that as many people as possible try to contribute towards the project in whatever way they can. Pixel Artists, musicians, et al are welcome to submit any contributions they have per the relevant contribution guidelines for the project.

Being Sonic Retro, we felt it was appropriate to have a project of our own name that really tried to symbolize what we thought classic Sonic was about. Like Sonic 2 HD, we plan to take the future of Sonic into our own hands in whatever way possible. Sonic Retro—a Sonic Retro community project—will prove to be one of our most prestigious projects yet.

More community funtime at the Sonic Retro funtime forums.

For the longest time, the Sonic Retro community (and others) have debated the true name of the mysterious Dust Hill zone. Originally it was held that the true name of the Desert Zone (seen in mockups, like the one to the right) was named Dust Hill Zone. Over time, however, it came to be thought that it was not, due to a various events, including the concentrated posting of an image which screamed the whole idea was fake, and some conflicting magazine clippings. For the longest time, calling this zone Dust Hill Zone was considered the mark of a n00b, or otherwise somebody who hadn’t been paying attention. Flame wars used to (and still do) erupt over this topic, but a recent development appears likely to put all of the arguing to rest.

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With the annual Sonic ROM hacking contest’s deadline closing in, tons of prestigious, anticipated ROM hacks are getting new releases today! To name a few, we have:

Sonic 2: Advanced Edit:

A Sonic the Hedgehog 2 hack by Rika Chou, Sonic 2: Advanced Edit sports 5 brand new levels, three being entirely complete and fully playable. Each level has complete art and music revamps, and level design quality that far surpasses that of many amateur ROM hacks. New enemies, new gimmicks, as well as familiar graphics from other games (Quackshot being one of note) will face you as you play through this masterpiece. Definitely worth a look.

Sonic 1 Pixel Perfect:

A hack of the original Sonic the Hedgehog by JcFerggy and NovaWizard, Sonic 1: Pixel Perfect sports brand new level revamps, new music, and extremely comprehensive level design. Loops and curves have been placed into levels that did not previously have them in creative ways, and new boss arenas provide a refreshing look on an old classic. Highly recommended.

Sonic 2 Retro Remix:

Another Sonic 2 hack, this time by Thorn and DNXDelta. In the same reign as the previous two hacks, new levels and music are featured, but Retro Remix also contains new technical additions, such as a “field” level ala Sonic Advance 3 which allows the player to freely roam and choose which act of the current zone they wish to play. Each act has a different motif and theme song–for example, the first level in the game has an island/mountain backdrop in the first act, while the second act takes place inside a gigantic waterfall.

In addition, Retro Remix boasts the popular Jump Dash technique, as seen in Sonic Megamix and Sonic 2 Revamped. While not widely used, it adds a new degree of gameplay not seen in the original game.

More ROM hacks other than these three have been featured in the hacking contest submission thread. Check it out!

Just as we received Stealth’s great GBA hack, another technical hack has appeared. Drx, with the help of Puto, Upthorn, and Hivebrain, has created a version of Sonic 1 for the 32X. This has required extensive code changes and, most importantly, moving a sound channel based on the new hardware. More importantly, this hack has been made open source, allowing anyone with enough knowledge to try their hand at Sonic 1 with the possibility of using 32X features.

Since the hack is, currently, mostly Sonic 1 with changes to make it work on the 32X (mostly behind the scenes), rather than go on about it in length here, I invite you to see it at the thread here.

In other breaking news, drx has released five new Sonic protos. Sonic CD Prototype 806, several versions of Sonic Adventure, and Sonic Adventure 2. For more details, visit the thread here.

It’s been a very exciting time for Sonic hacking in general. Who knows what the future will hold?

Forum topic: http://forums.sonicretro.org/index.php?showtopic=11861

Another fantastic technical achievement from the creator of Sonic: Project Mettrix, the E02 engine, and former co-leader of Team Megamix, Sonic hacking ninja extraordinaire Stealth breaks the barriers with another mindblowing breakthrough–a TRUE port of the original Sonic the Hedgehog for the Sega Genesis to the Game Boy Advance!

As many know, there was an “official” attempt to “port” Sonic 1 to the GBA under the name “Sonic Genesis.” However, this version of the game was, quite frankly, horrible–it was less a port and more a disgustingly inaccurate recreation. The physics were completely fucked, Sonic would go through walls, the music was ear-rapingly dreadful, among other things. It was a gigantic mess–probably the worst Sega product ever, and a disgrace to the Sonic brand.

However, Stealth seeks to redeem the Sonic name by taking it upon himself–and I mean a one man job–to do what Sega’s paid 3rd party lackies could not: create a respectable, accurate, and true to the original version of Sonic the Hedgehog for the Game Boy Advance. As this video shows, the project was an absolute success!

Building on the concept of “anniversary mode,” Stealth includes the acceleration system from Sonic 2, the spindash technique, and two additional characters–Tails and Knuckles–to enrich the Sonic experience on the new platform.

All music is using recordings of the original Genesis tunes, so accuracy is a high as it can get–none of that horrible Mircosoft Synth sound! The sound quality is a bit scratchy at points, both in sound effects and music, but that’s a technical limitation of the GBA sound hardware itself. Aside from that, it delivers a very faithful representation of the music from the original game–after all, it’s hard to go wrong with a recording, isn’t it? =P

So far, the current build sports Green Hill Zone with all three of the characters, along with at least one working special stage. I’m not sure if any future work will be done beyond this proof of concept, but if it will, it’s sure to exert the same amount of quality that this release does.

Sega, eat your heart out!

For those of you not in the know, a lot has happened with Sonic 2 over the past few months with the release of 4 more protos in the Sonic 2 family: Sonic 2 betas 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8, along with a handful of Knuckles in Sonic 2 prototypes. Therefore, even though this site is a relatively low-priority project compared to our others, we’ll be working on updating The Sonic 2 Beta Page over the coming months to reflect our new knowledge.

In the meanwhile, you can help us out with this! Simply head on over to S2Beta:Main Page to see what we’ve updated so far and to add whatever you can.

Here’s some of the best of the Sonic Retro forums for the week of June 27, 2008:

• General Project Screenshot/Video Thread - The sequel to the same thread at the old Retro forums, this topic is a one-stop shop for updates on all sorts of projects worked on by Sonic Retro members. Definitely one to watch.
• Sonic World the Land Adventure - Adamis finds a new GBA pirate game; aside from the hilarious name, the game appears to simply be a copy of the NES pirate game/Somari mod Sonic the Hedgehog using an emulator.
• scubaSteve Rocks Mystic Cave - As Sonic 2 HD continues to progress, more amazing things are being submitted for the project, including this amazing remastering of the Mystic Cave Zone theme.
• Sonic Rush Hacking - Tanks, Trunks and GrandMasterJimmy have been tackling Sonic Rush lately by looking at layouts and models. Though there hasn’t been any leftover material found yet, there’s a ton of potential.