[dsrb]

Wait, yeah, just do that! It sounds very familiar now, so maybe I already saw it used somewhere else.

[Crappy Blue Luigi]

Sonic CD called Acts Zones.



This is probably what you're thinking of.

[Tiddles]

I did think about the S2-style "Got Through Zone", but it strikes me as a little Engrishy. Also, on a lazy note, it takes a bit more work to pull off than in S2, where there's already free ZONE text from the title cards in the same font, and it can just be pasted in place of "ACT n" without any centring issues. And of course, it'd contradict the (admittedly fairly iffy) status quo from Sky Sanctuary.

For now, I've just changed the results screens to always report as "Act 1" in easy mode. That'll have to do for this release.

This post has been edited by Tiddles: 04 March 2012 - 03:28 AM

[Tiddles]

The new version 120304 is now available from the wiki (Sonic 3 Complete (hack)) or from the customiser.

Most of the features, you've already seen; there's not much more to say about those. The one I've kept in the dark from most people is the selection of new "oldschool" patch options allowing you to make the game act and look more like Sonic 2 or Sonic 1. (I still need to keep some kind of surprise for release day!)

This was something I'd been interested in having but never been inclined to do the work for whatsoever, certainly in terms of sprite work. So when That One Jig mentioned he'd done something similar, I asked if he'd be interested in contributing it. He was, and he continued to do a lot of splendid work to improve it at the same time.

Let's be clear right away: these aren't a total revisit of the old games' style. The sprites are designed so that they'll still fit with the Sonic 3 look - they use the reduced S3 palette, and Tails in particular keeps his brighter orange look and lack of heavy outline. However, all the main sprites and animations for Sonic, and for Tails where they varied, have been made over with a Sonic 2 look for these patches. The Sonic 1 patch was a later addition and is mainly concerned with animations - Sonic retains his shading and larger eyes from the Sonic 2 sprites, but features Sonic's distinctive Sonic 1 walk for instance.

I think That One Jig did a fantastic job with these and I hope you enjoy them too. And as always, if you don't like them, it's only a patch option, so feel free to quietly ignore it. That's not to say comments or criticism are unwelcome, of course, but please bear in mind that I'm not a spriter and That One Jig has pretty much moved on, so if you want changes made to these, you will probably have to put your money where your mouth and get stuck into some art/mapping/DPLC work.

General comments are also welcome of course. I'm particularly interested in anything you think should be changed in Sonic 3 part one mode or the Jam modes to match the original sources of those features. My experience of Jam boils down to a few hours of testing to check what I'm doing for Complete, so if anyone more familiar with that release knows of something I'm missing I'd be interested to know about it.

Additional special thanks to Neo for the act icons in this release, and to flamewing for making massive strides in improving the ease of use of the S&K sound driver, the fruits of which are mostly invisible to the player for the moment, but have already made things a lot better for me.

Have a fun time! And try to find all the (S3C-specific) bugs before about Wednesday; otherwise, they probably won't get fixed until I've finished Mass Effect 3.

Here's the full changelog for this version:

Bugfixes over previous S3C versions

• Sonic would sometimes get a garbled head after a ring loss detransform when standing still
  
• Very fast bubble bouncing using multiple buttons could bounce you through some floors and bridges

Features

• New master game selection screen
  
• New "Sonic 3 Part One" mode containing original Sonic 3 release content and savegames.
  
• Added Sonic Jam easy and normal layouts and modes. Special stages do not speed up in either mode, and you also visit fewer acts and defeat bosses more quickly in easy mode.
  
• Additionally, unlike Sonic Jam, Easy mode now also removes the super emeralds.
  
• Added per-zone act number icons, mostly by Neo. A patch option is available to revert to using the palm tree icon everywhere.
  
• Better display of character selection in level select
  
• Monitor collision is more solid, acting more like the Sonic 1 version.
  
• Due to various options to make the subgames borrow from one another, the full S3&K credits list is now used regardless of subgame.
  
• Slightly improved fonts for the credits and Blue Sphere screens, intended to be closer to the rounded title card style
  
• Knuckles' underwater sock colour has now been changed to match the other palette improvements in 110706.
  
• It is now possible for Knuckles to complete Death Egg act 1 when entered from the level select.

Sonic 3-ification

• Playing as Sonic and Tails, Tails now arrives slightly later at the start of AIZ and faces right, as in Sonic 3, and cannot move until Sonic can.
  
• Emeralds on the save screen now use the Sonic 3-style flash cycle in all modes.

Bugfixes over S3&K

• Various issues with player art/mappings and reuse of Sonic 2 sprites fixed by That One Jig.
  
• Super Tails' flickies no longer ruin the Sandopolis miniboss
  
• Fixed duff palette cycle when retransforming into super/hyper form
  
• Fixed Tails using the wrong sprite when hit by the boulder in Lava Reef.
  
• The Death Egg no longer appears in the background of Lava Reef when playing as Knuckles.
  
• Tails will drop out of flight mode if he is tired and hits a diagonal spring in Carnival Night, preventing him from getting stuck.
  
• Insta-shield now deflects projectiles, as appears to have been intended all along
  
• Tails' flight now only deflects projectiles if they hit his tails. (Previously he could deflect anywhere, but only if falling.)
  
• Prevented super transformation during snowboard sequence
  
• Fixed odd palette on HUD lives numbers in some levels
  
• Fixed issue with continues not being saved unless a special stage is completed
  
• Fixed Sonic incorrectly appearing as Hyper Sonic briefly during the ending when he shouldn't be able to.

Additions and changes to patch options

• New options for Sonic 1 and 2 inspired Sonic and Tails sprites, shields, monitors and gameplay. The artwork and mappings for these were produced by That One Jig.
  
• Many of the patches relating to music and layouts have been made obsolete by the in-game menu. These are still distributed in the IPS pack for Regen users who cannot currently save their preferences on the menu, but are not listed in the online customiser. The IPS pack contains new patches for the Jam modes for Regen users.
  New patch option to revert per-zone act icons and use the palm tree everywhere.

Known Issues

• Menu options will not save or load in Regen. Game saves in both S3 Part 1 and S3 Complete work correctly. Menu saves work on all other tested emulators and on hardware through flashcarts.

This post has been edited by Tiddles: 05 March 2012 - 04:18 AM

[MastaSys]

I already peaked it a little, Neo congrats on the icons they really blend very well into the game.
Also the Sonic 2 sprites was quite the suprise, I didn't expect it at least for some good time, I will play it for some time just to feel the early sreenshots vibe.

I'm using the "pink" Knuckles sprite, you could, if you have the time, retouch the S&K tittle screen, there are areas with a strong red on Knuckles, and maybe the shoes.
The Flying Battery picture options was a nice touch too.

And you said back then that it was possible to peek the nighttime Flying Battery Zone, it's this possible in the end? and how I reach it? I'm quite curious on your progress :3

Nice work, btw.

This post has been edited by MastaSys: 04 March 2012 - 04:33 PM

[steveswede]

One of the things I would have thought would have been nice to see in this hack is the option to keep the shields from one zone to another. It's always bothered me in Sonic 3 because of how all the zones connect with each other. Any chance of that being put in the options?

[Tiddles]

MastaSys, on 04 March 2012 - 04:33 PM, said:

I'm using the "pink" Knuckles sprite, you could, if you have the time, retouch the S&K tittle screen, there are areas with a strong red on Knuckles, and maybe the shoes.
The Flying Battery picture options was a nice touch too.

Yeah, I kinda hate the Pink Knuckles S&K title screen... then I look at the original S&K screen and decide the pink one is actually objectively better, it just looks wrong for some reason. I might work on it again, or just shrug and put the original back on that option...

MastaSys, on 04 March 2012 - 04:33 PM, said:

And you said back then that it was possible to peek the nighttime Flying Battery Zone, it's this possible in the end? and how I reach it? I'm quite curious on your progress :3

It's possible to see it in this release, but figuring out how is a challenge I'm going to leave open for a bit.
I'll spill the beans if nobody gets it after a while.

steveswede, on 04 March 2012 - 05:11 PM, said:

One of the things I would have thought would have been nice to see in this hack is the option to keep the shields from one zone to another. It's always bothered me in Sonic 3 because of how all the zones connect with each other. Any chance of that being put in the options?

That might be a good option, yeah - it shouldn't be too difficult in theory to piggyback on the code that keeps your shield going into the boss acts.

I also want to do the reverse as part of the oldschool patches at some point, I.e. trash your shield at the end of act 1.

[Josh]

AWESOME work as always! I probably play this hack more than any other, and it's my standard Sonic 3, now.

I feel a little tinge of pride every time I see the specific drop-shadows in the title cards, considering I originally suggested them all those months ago. Love 'em!

And these customizer options are really well-done. I love the new Sonic 2-style sprites for things like riding on Hydrocity's spinning platforms.

[MastaSys]

Haha, I found the Night-Time Flying Battery, well a way to see it, I don't know if it's intentional but it became a nice easter egg.
If you people want to see it:

-Select Sonic & Knuckles
-Let play the demo, with Knuckles in Mushroom Hill.
-Exit to the game select using the B button
-Select Sonic 3 (Part One)
-Let play the demo, it will be Sonic & Tails in Flying Battery Night-Time.

Also I noticed that you created a To Be Continued ending for Sonic 3 Alone, why not create one for Sonic 3 Complete when playing with Sonic with Chaos & Super too but with the Eggrobo rising?

[Josh]

Regarding Night-Time Flying Battery, I noticed the options menu says "+3C01/120304". I tried playing that in the sound test, with no apparent results.

[sonicblur]

Josh, on 04 March 2012 - 07:59 PM, said:

Regarding Night-Time Flying Battery, I noticed the options menu says "+3C01/120304". I tried playing that in the sound test, with no apparent results.

While that could mean something... I just assumed he wanted the release date on the screen so you knew which version you have.

Are there any plans to have some music on the game select screen? If someone made a SMPS version of the Sonic Jam game select music, would that be something you'd want?

[Neo]

MastaSys, on 04 March 2012 - 07:17 PM, said:

Haha, I found the Night-Time Flying Battery, well a way to see it, I don't know if it's intentional but it became a nice easter egg.
If you people want to see it:

-Select Sonic & Knuckles
-Let play the demo, with Knuckles in Mushroom Hill.
-Exit to the game select using the B button
-Select Sonic 3 (Part One)
-Let play the demo, it will be Sonic & Tails in Flying Battery Night-Time.

Well, that was fast. Though what you found was probably an oversight, Tiddles must have forgotten to reset a demo counter somewhere.

Spoiler

Basically, to access FBZ Night, all you have to do is enter FBZ while in standard Sonic 3 mode.

Spoiler

The easiest way to do this is:

1) Pick "Sonic 3 (Part One)" from the splash menu.
2) Input the level select code L, L, R, R, L, L, L, L while on the title screen. Scroll the options to reveal Sound Test.
3) Activate debug mode by playing songs 01, 03, 05, 07 in the sound test.
4) You can now enter Flying Battery, as well as any other S&K stage, from the level select.

If you complete the level, it drops you into Ice Cap as originally intended. Clearing Mushroom Valley will also skip you straight to Sandopolis, though the cutscenes still show Sonic jumping on board the Flying Battery and then randomly falling from the sky.

Anyway, Tiddles, neat stuff! I really like all the different options, especially the comprehensive music customization. Also, Knuckles can clear Death Egg now! I bet that most people weren't expecting that... and that nobody was expecting how it ends up happening.

The sprite patches by That One Jig are also pretty cool, but it leaves me craving matching palette patches. Would you include them in your customiser if I made them?

By the way, people, go try the oldschool patches. Sonic 3 with no insta-shield or elemental barriers is bound to be a fresh experience!

[TheDarkArchon]

Spoiler

I really like the nice touch with the sky colour at the end of night Flying Battery. Also like the fact that Robotnik buggers off at the end of Death Egg before Doomsday rather than dropping the Master Emerald and wondering how he managed to get it from the Death Egg wreckage

[Tiddles]

MastaSys, on 04 March 2012 - 07:17 PM, said:

Also I noticed that you created a To Be Continued ending for Sonic 3 Alone, why not create one for Sonic 3 Complete when playing with Sonic with Chaos & Super too but with the Eggrobo rising?

I do kind of want to get that in there, but the S3C logo scene sits around for much longer, and by default there's no music, so it seems like a long time to be waiting around for not much to happen.

Neo, on 04 March 2012 - 08:37 PM, said:

MastaSys, on 04 March 2012 - 07:17 PM, said:

Haha, I found the Night-Time Flying Battery, well a way to see it, I don't know if it's intentional but it became a nice easter egg.
If you people want to see it:
-Select Sonic & Knuckles
-Let play the demo, with Knuckles in Mushroom Hill.
-Exit to the game select using the B button
-Select Sonic 3 (Part One)
-Let play the demo, it will be Sonic & Tails in Flying Battery Night-Time.

Well, that was fast. Though what you found was probably an oversight, Tiddles must have forgotten to reset a demo counter somewhere.

Yep, totally unintentional! Nice spot though; it does work nicely as an easter egg though. I'll fix that up next time.
Neo's method is the "intended" way to see it, but there's also another deliberate mistake (genuinely deliberate this time!) that lets you see it without any cheats.

Neo, on 04 March 2012 - 08:37 PM, said:

The sprite patches by That One Jig are also pretty cool, but it leaves me craving matching palette patches. Would you include them in your customiser if I made them?

Definitely, provided they cover all relevant situations without introducing any undue bizarreness. I already wanted to do a Sonic 1-ish palette but didn't get around to it this time. It might be better to work what you produce back into the build system before I put it out on the customiser, just to make sure I get it integrated properly and don't end up out of sync for the next release.

sonicblur, on 04 March 2012 - 08:10 PM, said:

Are there any plans to have some music on the game select screen? If someone made a SMPS version of the Sonic Jam game select music, would that be something you'd want?

I'd consider it, but I'm quite happy with the silence behind that section. It's intended to give the impression that you're not really in the game yet; it's the "calm before the storm", if you like.

This post has been edited by Tiddles: 05 March 2012 - 01:35 AM

[Vinchenz]

I love the S2 sprites! Sonic snowboarding in Ice Cap Zone is so cute. :3

That was a nice surprise. I can't wait to see what else you have in store.