Sonic 1 and 2 getting the Sonic CD treatment by Taxman and Stealth

Dates were shuffled, jimmies were rustled but it's all good! We'll have much more to say when it does get announced / released.

 

Ah good! Probably just minor issues or something. Good to see that it's coming sooner than later. It seems that just patience is the key here and most of us should know patience if we've had experience with the Mystic Cave pit. *shot*

 

Oh I know that. I'm just saying as every day goes by I'm anticipating the game more and more. Absence makes the heart grow fonder, and all that.

 

You know, if you're all ITCHING for Sonic 2 here, you can instead sharpen up your skills a little more on the original version.

You're going to need it with the special stages.

 

Not gonna lie, my anticipation would be easier if I wasn't getting my hopes up that beta content would be included in this release.

And telling me it won't happen because it didn't happen in CD ain't enough. After the s1 release, I'll actually be a bit shocked if both Stealth and Taxman (our 2 finest engineers) don't give us something new.

Of course, a systematic and direct denial of this now from someone who's actually in the know would make the wait much easier

 

I've not properly played Sonic 2 since Classic Collection came out. So I'll keep it a fresh experience by holding off a while longer.

 

That's what I'm doing, I'm holding off until it actually releases so it'll feel much fresher.
I did finally beat it over the summer (it was the only classic game I hadn't beat thanks to the Death Egg Robot) though the Special Stages are a pain.
I'm guessing they're smoother in some way so maybe they'll be easier for me now?

 

Hell if it's anything as jarring as Sonic 1's special stages, what does it matter? I won't know what I'm doing anyway.

I'll just abuse the reset button.

 

Well, whenever it comes out, I'll enjoy it just as much.

I'm still shocked that Sega reached out to you guys. It's amazing, but awesome.

 

Weirdly for me the toughest one is the fifth -- mainly because its first section is really stringent. After that even it is fairly easy.

 

Actually, what happened was that Taxman initially tried to pitch a Sonic CD iPhone port through certain connections and met with little-to-no success, until SEGA community reps, after the company had recently released an emulated version of a different game on iPhone, coincidentally asked the fans what games they'd like to see brought to iPhone. Especially because they hadn't actually qualified the question by explicitly stating that they meant that they were going to release more emulated games, this presented the perfect opportunity to make a big push to get SEGA to pick up the Sonic CD project by responding directly to the call with a publicized version of his pitch video. Once the video was out, all channels were flooded by requests for this version of Sonic CD accompanied by multiple links back to the video

This ultimately led to Taxman being heard out long enough to produce a demonstration build that was larger and more fully-featured than the one shown in the video. I helped him prepare this by doing some reverse-engineering and data gathering for some certain parts, but I wasn't yet involved in working directly with Retro Engine; my involvement had to stop once the project had finally been approved, since the whole deal was shaky in the first place and two developers would only complicate things. The biggest selling point for Taxman even being considered was that Sonic CD was a SegaCD game, and therefore was much more of a pain to emulate, especially since SEGA did not already own rights to any SegaCD emulation software (that I know of), and even if they did, there's no way it would run this well on mobile

During that time, Taxman worked directly with the mobile department of Sega of America, and was able to develop a good working relationship with them at the same time as actually providing them with a quality product. It's only through that that they became acquainted with him and his work, and it was enough to open up communication and mutual respect with that particular branch of the company

Fast-forward about two years for the completion of Sonic CD, and you get to the stage at which Taxman was concerned with what was happening next. Naturally, more Sonic was of interest, and he and I had already been discussing the prospect of working on Sonic 1, if nothing else. This time, there was potential for me be directly involved from start to finish because after having built up a trust with SOA Mobile, they would be willing to hear what he had to say about someone who he thought would cut down production time and maintain quality. Sometime during this period, we found out that, unsurprisingly, SEGA overall planned to release an emulated version of Sonic 1 for Android to compliment the one already available for iOS. Taxman discussed with SOA Mobile the possibility of supplanting it with a Retro Engine port produced by the two of us, and they began a push to get that to happen. As these things tend to do, the process took several months of back-and-forth, padded out with delays due to other projects the company at-large had going on. Some believed we had it in us to make it worthwhile, others had to be convinced. Again, a well-featured demonstration build was produced before any promises were made or any money was paid. After a full year, we were able to actually start to work under contract. Also, it may as well be said now that in addition to this being a major reason that we got the mobile releases of Sonic 1 and Sonic 2, this would logically also be the reason that mobile ports have been prioritized over console/PC/whatever - while Sonic CD had rarely ever been ported to anything, these two games already exist on almost every platform under the sun. They didn't yet exist on Android, and the poor performance of the iOS versions was just begging to be remedied. That's not to say that anything is or isn't happening; I'm just stating the obvious in regard to the current situation

Even having made it that far, these do still happen to be pre-existing games that are major entries in the company's flagship IP. We're still subject to scrutiny, occasionally intense. Some would put a large amount of faith in us due to on-going success, while others are more conservative. It's not exactly open season for us to do whatever we please no matter how good and/or careful we are

A bit long, but the moral of the story is - we didn't just have the reigns handed over to us. There were opportunities to take advantage of, and we made the best of them. Now, the relationship we've formed with the company has to be actively maintained through dialog, hard work, and compromise

 

All I know is you guys are the BEST for the job, hands down. no other company except Sonic Team themselves can handle ports like you guys do, You and Taxman are not PR people who are outsiders to begin with and try to think how we are based on a few months experence (exceptions included of course).

No, I know you and Taxman have bickered, complained and opinionated, nitpicked and been with us for years and you know what we want out of a Sonic port and a Sonic game in general. Shove this message in front of any manager's eyes and show them my words because god damn it were the ones who really matter here, we buy the product after all.

• We want you guys to say. your the best for the job, nobody except the original developers themselves are going to come close. at all. ever.
  
• We want you guys to continue porting Sonic games, Hell we want you to handle an original Sonic game if you ever get a million year chance to.
  
• We will pay nearly any amount of cash SEGA tacks onto a port because we know that you will handle a port with care and put beyond what Sonic Team and DIMPs themselves put in terms of fanservice. they should give you free regin, because fuck if I didn't want to play desert dazzle or final fevor. also we will pay for console ports too along with mobile ports, their is a demand.
  
• And, We trust you guys 100% and put our full faiths in you, because you are bros to the Sonic community, true brothers who earned their Tech Member badges and know this community inside and out.

If any of your bosses think otherwise and think they can find some one else for the job, then to be blunt they are fools who are thinking of nothing then a cheap buck then the care of the product they are shipping out, hopefully SEGAs days like that are behind them.

Alright I've peptalked enough, I'll sit back down and wait for Sonic 2 to release now.

 

Actually, M2 are doing a fantastic job porting SEGA games, with the likes of perfect emulation, comprehensive configuration, bonuses and new musics exclusively composed for the ports. They would probably have done a good job would they have had to do Sonic ports too. No denying the great work Taxman and Stealth are doing though.

 

They've already done one. It was M2 who handled the emulated 3DS version of Sonic 1, which went through SOJ as a separate project while we were still working on the mobile version. Its announced features:

• Choose between the original release version or the Japan revision with extra background scrolling effects
• Spindash option
• Depth effect on backgrounds when 3D is enabled
• Access to Level Select
• Save-state
• Button config
• Adjust emulated PSG/FM balance or select pre-sets for model 1 or model 2 Mega Drive
• Optional CRT blur and curved screen simulation

 

None of which even come close to the version you guys made for ios. A solid recreation? Sure. But the extras pushed your port from excellent to JAWSOME. I've seen you around this community for 15 years, Stealth. Ever since the early fangame days. You and Taxman are the absolute best on the planet outside of the original team, and I will forever praise SEGA for allowing you two to do your job, and hope they provide you with many more contracts.

 

Amazon app store version uses DRM, iirc.

You gotta connect to the amazon app store app once a day or something.