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Sonic 3 & Knuckles Advanced.

Discussion in 'Engineering & Reverse Engineering' started by Robjoe, Oct 4, 2005.

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  1. Robjoe

    Robjoe

    Member
    Well, with my trial posts all but used up, I figured I'd better post some stuff about my hack. So here's some info:

    Changes from a clean S3K ROM.
    • AIZ1 layout complete.
    • AIZ2 pallette and layout complete. But I'm still tweaking with the layout a bit.
    • HCZ1 layout and pallette complete.
    • HCZ2 pallette complete. Layout started, but stopped due to various bugs.
    • MGZ1 pallette complete.
    • MGZ2 pallette complete.
    • CNZ1 pallette complete.
    • CNZ2 water and lights out pallettes complete.
    • ICZ1 pallette complete and layout about half-way done.
    • MHZ pallettes 1 and 2 both complete, but #2 is shit, though...
    • FBZ1 pallette complete. Layout halted due to the level being inflexable as hell.
    • SPZ1 pallette complete, and layout started.
    • LRZ1 layout just started.
    • SSZ2 (Knuckles' part) pallette complete.
    • DEZ1 layout and pallette complete.
    • Blue Knuckles accessable via data select.
    • ...
    And here's some screenshots:

    [​IMG]

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    AIZ. I know, there's probably some bad tiles there, but that level is truly horrid for tile selection.

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    DEZ. This place is MUCH better for editing. Plus two, there's gravity flips in act one.
    More screenshots to come.

    Any comments and/or constructive criticism are highly appreciated. :rolleyes:
     
  2. Heran Bago

    Heran Bago

    Ah! It's Puyo battle then. Tech Member
    I'm impressed. How'd you do it?

    ... got a download link?

    edit: Robjoe1107 for full member =P.
     
  3. Neo Majin

    Neo Majin

    Member
    261
    0
    0
    New England / Virginia
    Very little thanks to poor computer access
    I'm impressed you managed to complete AIZ... I once planned an S3 hack, but AIZ's level tiles are too hard to work with..
     
  4. Robjoe

    Robjoe

    Member
    :blushing: I impressed a techie? Awesome! What I did was found the patch code for enabling Knuckles in S3 standalone. Now, whenever you have an S3 address, you can add $200000 to find that same data in S3K (this procedure also works in reverse). So I found that data in S3K. This data controlled the character select limits. However this was uneeded left9over data from the lock-on, and S3K had new data for this. So I copied some data around the scroll limits, and ran a search for it throughout the ROM. Sure enough, results. I changed 03 to 04 so it would go up to slot 04. And then I had a blast playing with Blue Knuckles.

    As for a download link, it's not quite ready yet. Both the title screen and Knux event soings lie in shreds thanks to my inabilty to port correctly. I'll have it fixed soon.

    The tiles suck for fitting togther, but with a little imagination, you can make an innovative design.
     
  5. LOst

    LOst

    Tech Member
    4,891
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    Sonic 3k is hard to hack because of the size optimations. A lot of data is accessed twice through different pointers in order to be loaded. Take Sonic's sprites for example, where the offset runs out of space around sprite 200 so, the rast of the 50 sprites needed are accessed through a new pointer. And if you don't know that stuff, you pretty much are going to fail. Just imagine how AIZ is managed in order to show buring trees and stuff. It's just too much to get into.
     
  6. superstarCSB

    superstarCSB

    snootch Member
    621
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    16
    Lawrence, Kansas
    I probably should get back to work on my site someday...
    It's good though to see someone making a Sonic 3/Sonic 3 & Kunckles hack for a change. Hopefully we can see a playable version of your hack sometime soon.
     
  7. Heran Bago

    Heran Bago

    Ah! It's Puyo battle then. Tech Member
    I myself was screwing about with S3K a while back, I still have a ROM of "Sanik Teh Hadgehag Three n' Bloods." Despite the limited/crappy tiles, it's possible to make quite unique levels given imagination. Perhaps imagination should be a requisite for ROM hacking.

    Awesome. I don't believe it's ever been done before either. If you'll excuse me, I'm going to go look at all the GG codes I can find.
     
  8. Dragonsbrethren

    Dragonsbrethren

    Member
    99
    0
    0
    I was working on Sonic 3 and dropped it as well... perhaps I'll try again some day.

    As for the screenshots DEZ's palette is cool and I like that you used the mini-Death Egg graphic.
     
  9. Robjoe

    Robjoe

    Member
    Alright, a few more screenshots, and a download link for those who want to play it.

    Also, I missed a few points last time when descibing my hack. Here they are:
    • Knuckles' socks changed to yellow, like in the Knux events.
    • Debug cheat changed to left right right left right left left left right.
    • AIZ1's water risen.
    • Four new Special Stages, but #3 locks up.
    • Edited boss hitcounts, with bosses getting progressivly stronger.
    • Music playlist changes. Azure Lake plays on MGZ1, Baloon Park plays on CNZ1, and Endless Mine plays on LRZ2.
    Now, screenshots:

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    Don't you just want to puke? This is one of my least favorite levels. Terrible pallette, and boring layout. I'll redo it sometime, but as for now, here it is.

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

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    CNZ. Note that I'm iffy on the green background.

    [​IMG]

    FBZ. Not too much to show here.

    [​IMG]

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    Ahh, MGZ. My personal favorite pallette. I've recieved many good comments about this one on SSRG. What do you guys think?

    [​IMG]

    Last but not least, SPZ, with a sunrise style effect.

    And finally the download link. Well, actually it links to a shitty TriPod site I made for it, and since TriPod won't let me make a direct link to it, you'll have to download it from there. Ignore all the update crap on there, as it's out of date.

    http://robjoe-1107.tripod.com/

    The title screen and Knuckles events songs currently lie in shreds, but they'll be fixed sooner or later. No matter what I do, the songs only seem to worse the more I mess with them. Oh, and the file's an IPS Patch, even though it claims to be a BIN file. Blame it on Stealth Patch. And with that, I'll be shutting up. And sorry for the huge post.
     
  10. Neo Majin

    Neo Majin

    Member
    261
    0
    0
    New England / Virginia
    Very little thanks to poor computer access
    "This file is hosted by Tripod, a Lycos?Network Site, and is not available for download. We prohibit downloading of certain file types to protect visitors from computer viruses. Please check out Tripod's Help system for more information. "

    And if you can, can you try uploading the whole ROM? I suppose you shouldn't bow to my whiny complaints, but it's easier :P
     
  11. Robjoe

    Robjoe

    Member
    o_O. What a gay piece of shit. That's never happened before. I'll see what I can do. As for the full ROM, I can't. Last time I did that, TriPod got pissed and deleted my account.

    *Gulp* Last trial post. I hope I get approved.
     
  12. LOst

    LOst

    Tech Member
    4,891
    8
    18
    You should get approved. Where are the admins?
     
  13. Ambil

    Ambil

    I want that heinous hedgehog hammered! Member
    Agreed. I think he's a valuable hacker for the Scene.
     
  14. Rika Chou

    Rika Chou

    Tech Member
    5,276
    169
    43
    To upload the ROM to tripod, just give the ROM a *.txt extension. This will usually work.
     
  15. Quickman

    Quickman

    be attitude for gains Tech Member
    5,595
    18
    18
    :x
    omg porjcet
    Now this guy is a member, give him a real name which doesn't have numbers in it.
     
  16. Qjimbo

    Qjimbo

    Your friendly neighbourhood lemming. Oldbie
    Although I'm not a fan of palette hacks, this is harder because it's Sonic 3 and he seems to be approaching this with a lot of enthusiasm, so yeah approve him :)
     
  17. Robjoe

    Robjoe

    Member
    Alright, I got approved! Thanks a lot for your support, guys! Anywho, I fixed it. Turns out I forgot to RAR it. I tried downloading myself, and it works fine now. I'll try giving it a .txt extension later. Should just do it to the plain ROM (it'd be a monster for 56K people), or should I RAR it first?

    So what do you guys think? I'm open to any compliments, (constructive) critisism, and bug reports you may have.

    QJimbo: This more than a pallette hack. Read the desciption to see what I mean.

    Quick Man: What's wrong with numbers in my name? "Robjoe" sounds a little bland. At least it's not like "?001 d00d" or anything.
     
  18. ICEknight

    ICEknight

    Researcher Researcher
    Just an observation: I fail to see the need to complicate the debug cheat. =(
     
  19. Robjoe

    Robjoe

    Member
    Well, it was more of just something I did because I could. I'll change it back if you'd like.
     
  20. ICEknight

    ICEknight

    Researcher Researcher
    I couldn't care less, just pointing it out.
     
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