James Rolfe (of AVGN fame) and Mike Matei play Sonic rom hacks.

Isn't Megamix dead now that Stealth is employed by or under contract from Sega? I don't think he can legally work on it at this point and really don't expect to see it finished.

That being said, they're playing one of the Russian repro carts of Megamix v3, some photos of the box art and discussion of it occurred a few years ago in the hacking forum.

 

Technically, he could never legally work on it.

 

I thought it was hilarious when they basically described the Stealth/Tax remakes with their 16:9 ratio comments and thought they were being profound :P

 

I lol'd so fucking hard at the start when it was revealed that they were playing that Sonic.exe-inspired hack. Pretty cool video! Never knew about the Streets of Rage 3 hack.

 

I don't know the degree of which this can be discussed but I always assumed the project died when Tweaker, er, left.

EDIT: Speaking of which, does anybody know where I can redownload the music from this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CS9AyAdSjs

Tweaker once gave me the mp3 but I've since lost it.

 

Why don't you just go off and ask him? He's around on social media you know =P

 

I honestly had no idea, but I really have no desire to speak to Tweaker anymore. Even if he was once a really good friend.

EDIT: And to clarify, I have no animosity toward Tweaker. Its just that my profession is sort of linked to my online activity.

 

Lolk. That's understandable I suppose.

Honestly, the hacks that were played were kinda meh. Streets of Rage was interesting to say the least, but I mean, Megamix? Not to sound like an ass, but I feel the hack is overrated. Like, it's great, but I feel people are using Megamix as some kind of standard hacks are suppose to be held to. There are better hacks out there, it's just Megamix has been around the longest I suppose. I dunno though, maybe I'm just an Asshat McGee.

I mean, them playing Sonic.exe did bring a slight chuckle to my face, but Sonic Blast 6? Come now, why even bother? This was a horrible video showcasing what kind of hacks can be made with the Blue Blur. If this is what is used to represent the Sonic hacking community at large and what can come from it, it's no wonder people think it's a joke. Hopefully the Hacking contest might be able to help refurbish the reputation, but this was sad. Every other video Mike and James played hacks, most of them at least decent. Whatever, maybe I'm just as I said, an Asshat McGee

 

Do you enjoy the 2d sonic games beyond the original trilogy? I get the feeling that your answer will determine how you feel about megamix.

 

Amen. Consider me a long-lost McGee. For Megamix, I always assumed it was one of those 'it was cutting edge back then' hacks. Though, today, with its Mega CD port and having adapted Sonic CD's PCM driver, I think it regained some of that thunder; that's something I can respect. I just wish some documentation came from it. I don't know what to think about the Hacking Contest helping: You seen Johnny's playthroughs from last year? Lewis'(?) facedesk-worthy comment on how we 'waste [our] time' swapping assets from game-to-game (title cards font in SC Heroes). There was that Sonic 1 CD Remake hack, and they just shrugged it off with "if you wanted to show off your remixes, just do it on a music site", completely missing the point of the hack. That and plenty other repressed memories of things that made me legitimately angry, such as Johnny failing at Recreation's GRZ switch lift and blaming the game for it, missing the obvious Spin Dash strategy (and following up with using "fishes" as the plural of "fish"), and attributing S3K's massive levels entirely to vertical looping, ignoring the new format's doubled height, but that's besides the point. They experienced some of the best, and their reaction... yeesh, if that's how the outside view our work, then fuck 'em. Keep Sonic Blast 6.

I'm probable overreacting, I mean, I saw something in this hacking community back when I knew nothing about it, it all started with this video (I'm surprised I could find it after all this time). It stuck out from the Mario World hacks I'd known of at the time, things like Kaizo, palette/layout hacks. Granted, I completely misinterpreted that video back then, I thought Mecha was full size and this his unique attacks were included too; I had thought it to be what I would later know as an ASM hack. Seeing the stuff of today (or at least Megamix) would've blown me away... hey, maybe that's why Megamix is so well known, it's the most compatible with the general dumbassjudge-solely-on-gameplay crowd? It's very... familiar.

Moving on, I would've liked to see James and Mike play something very different, maybe something along the lines of Sonic 2 Recreation. Lag free, technically impressive, overhauled levels, 'new' special stage. Maybe even Winter Adventures (mode 1), I'm sure they would've had something to talk about. Speaking of which, am I the only one who felt a lack of focus on Megamix? They spent most of their time talking about widescreen and 'blast'. The other's weren't handled so lightly. It probably just goes back to that 'familiarity' thing... wow, if that's the case, we really did get kind of shafted. They talked the most about the 'worst' hacks.

 

Well that's pretty much how the series itself gets treated nowadays. Game Grumps and other people who do game playthroughs continue to draw attention to shit like Shadow and Sonic '06, and people who haven't actually played much of the series look at that as if it's still relevant to the quality of more recent games despite Colors and Generations being generally praised (then again, Lost World hasn't been received as well, but it's still better than fucking Shadow and '06). Most of these hacks (and fan games for that matter) end up in the same situation. People keep giving unneeded attention to older projects like Megamix or garbage like Sonic Blast 6, and anything that's actually new and impressive usually ends up being shrugged off or even flat out ignored by everyone outside other hackers.

I definitely agree with you Clownacy, about some of the more different hacks James and Mike could have played. Would have been nice for them to let people see some of the material hackers have made in more recent years, especially if they, you know, focused on the game while commentating.

 

A google search turned up this but it's newer than the version in that video. I have an MP3 of the original, if you'd like me to upload it somewhere. (I've got pretty much every track except Sunny Shores which I don't think was ever posted anywhere.)

 

Semi-related since he was playing it...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Sega-Genesis-CustomAn-Ordinary-Sonic-ROM-HackCase-Cart-Creepypasta-SonicEXE-/271531725185

I'll just leave this repro here.

 

'I would very much appreciate it. I love the music in that video.

 

I would say just donate a burned copy of Sonic Megamix for Sega CD. The one with the filename S1MMU. That one was my favorite and was the last playable demo before the extreme changes to the game design. Oh and send them instructions on how to choose characters and level select and such cause James and Mike play like little kids when it comes to Sonic games. Hahaha.

 

So this track is lost forever? What a bummer I was looking forward to hearing it as a whole. It's so awesome!

 

Someone should send them repro carts of Sonic 2 XL and Omochao Edition :P