And the two necessary pallette lines for that matter? Either way it looks awesome, I'm pretty sure everyone on here has dreamed of this at least once in the past.
Thanks to Xenowhirl I am now speechless. Though I have to jump on the "how did you find the vram / how could you fit them all in a palette line" bandwagon. I tried to double check your pics, and I think you did some subtle palette replacement, but they still use 17 colors (16+transparency):
Oh crumbs, I pity anyone who was about about to post their own updates that'd get swamped by all these "holy shit" posts (consider this one)
This stuff is looking amazing... Well, this is just a suggestion Xenowhirl, but maybe call the game something like Sonic 2: Triple Threat? Just a suggestion. I've seen some pictures of Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles be called Triple Threat, so...why not? Up to you.
Hate to sound negative, but those really look like mock-ups to me. Others have already pointed out the palette & vram limitations being surpassed and I think the "team" screen shots look a little thrown together. I really pray to God that my dream has come true so I'll be glad when these mysteries are cleared up.
I can independently verify as a hacking contest judge that the work is legitimate. No debate about it.
So that was the reason behind the recent activity on the svn disassembly... Looking awesome, can't wait to give it a try.
This is bloody amazing and needs its own two threads. As far as the palette in the team play hack is concerned, if Nineko's not mistaken about the 17 colors, I'd bet he either put one character on a second palette line, or that he chopped off the characters' shoes into separate sprite pieces and put them on a second palette line. Or a similar trick. It's what I'd do, at least. Also, DO WANT Yoshi gameplay. Throwing eggs in a Sonic game? Made of win. I can just imagine what would happen to oh, say, the Metropolis boss. I assume there'll be Baby Tails/Knuckles too?
True but converting a consistant second pallette line for another character would be hard due to Sonic 2 really stretching all three level lines for color which would make alterations very noticable in places (in contrast to Sonic 1 which has a near perpetually consistant first level pallette line for all the levels). If there is a trick however, I'd like to hear it.
While it may be difficult, that's not the same as impossible, having 17 (or more) colours under a single sprite piece, map tile, etc, is impossible due to the nature of the VDP chip (of course that is if you don't count the horizontal blanking interval palette swap method as used by Sonic Team for the water levels, and ColinC10 for Sonic 1 and 2 iirc (which funny enough, opens up another method)), but having co-ordinate everything perfectly between the 4 lines (while not easily done) is not impossible and is another option opened up (if one is willing to spend the time to arrange everything and make the seemingly impossible possible that is), and thus to the point, still can convince the idea that those images aren't moc-ups.
@Xenowhirl: That is absolutely unreal that those hacks exist. Excellent job though I hope the Baby sonic sprite will have more detail in the final release if it's possible. @BlazeHedgehog: I'm very glad that effect isn't possible because it looks like a really annoying effect. <_< The game itself looks good though.
