Ralakimus - thank you very much for helping me. I want to give back and do disassembly commentary for s3k / graphic visual tutorials. I have commented a good portion of the sonic 3k object respawn management code commented. About a year ago, I seriously stepped into disassembly and learning 68k started with sonic 3k without sonic 1, 2 engine experience to my stupidity and stubbornness, lol. Realized I need to brush up perhaps on how camera code updates and how wrapping works.
I don't know if this is the proper place to ask this sort of question, so I apologize if I'm breaking any rules or if this should be posted elsewhere: Are there any Sonic 2 ROM Hacks that add Sonic 3's save system and/or other QoL upgrades? I've played a few, but all of them change other things too, sometimes minor, like sprites, or major, like level design, and usually there's no way to toggle that on or off like in Sonic 3 Complete, for example. I do enjoy ROM Hacks that essentially make a whole new experience, but at the moment it's not really what I'm looking for, I find Sonic 2 to be pretty much perfect, but being able to do things like saving just how it's done in Sonic 3... or being able to activate Super Sonic when I want instead of it triggering against my will whenever I jump while having 50 rings... all of that would be phenomenal. I know Sonic Origins is out, and I wanted to buy it at first, but a lot of things about it have come up which are turning me off from it, so I was wondering if there are any Sonic 2 ROM Hacks with what I'm looking for.
Have you played Sonic Delta 40MB? It's got pretty much what you are looking for. It's not exactly a Sonic 2 hack, rather a Sonic 3 hack. But it contains Sonic 1 - Sonic 3K. It has the data select from S3, but I am unsure if it contains the alternate super activation option. Been a while since I've played it myself. https://forums.sonicretro.org/index.php?threads/sonic-delta-40mb.39203/ This is the link to the forum topic. You will likely have to go to their website (which, I think is in Portuguese) to download the most up to date version. It also doesn't work on many emulators. I think I used Kega Fusion to play it. I know it doesn't boot correctly on BlastEm.
I've never played it before, though I had heard of it, but from what I understand it has much more scope than what I have in mind, while it does have the save system I'm looking for, which is welcome, having Sonic 1 and Sonic 3 included, alongside new content for Sonic 2 based on what was cut during development, it's simply too much for what I'm actually after, which is Sonic 2 with some QoL upgrades and not much else more. Also, for some reason when I try to extract the files for Sonic Delta 40MB, I keep getting an error, and the result is a .bin file with 0 bytes that doesn't run at all, which is odd, must be something with my PC though. Still, I do appreciate your suggestion nonetheless, so thank you!
I think, this hack is doesn't exist. But you can play Sonic 1&2. It contains levels from Sonic 1, Sonic 2, and you can save! Not like in S3K, but you anyway can save! And it has a time attack.
I'm starting to feel that what I'm looking for really isn't a thing that exists just yet, which is unfortunate, but not the end of the world, I can still give Sonic Origins a shot when they fix everything in updates, which I'm hoping they'll do. I've tried out Sonic 1&2 and, while not exactly what I was looking for, I quite like it, Sonic 1 and Sonic 2 always felt the closest between the classics, Sonic CD and Sonic 3 has much different level design philosophies compared to Sonic 1 and Sonic 2, so a hack that combines them actually feels quite seamless, and the save system works as it should, so thanks a lot for the recommendation, I'm having a good time with it so far.
You were so close with the "Sonic 1&2" suggestion, but there's something even better: Sonic Classic Heroes. It features a save system AND it allows you to select which game or games you want to play, either Sonic 1, Sonic 2, or both of them, so you can choose to play as Sonic only (or Sonic + Tails), in Sonic 2 levels only. And it features a metric shitload of bugfixes.
Origins doesn't have that kind of save feature for Sonic 2 either, anyway. It's closer to an emulator savestate than to what Sonic 3 had; in fact, Sonic 3 has both in that collection.
I've decided to give this a go and I'm quite impressed, it's almost exactly what I'm looking for, and there's so much I can customize to my liking, with the right settings I can pretty much play Sonic 2 with a save system, which is exactly what I was looking for, I'm so thankful for this suggestion. Only issues I have with it are mostly due to me being hard to please, nitpicks really, I don't like the HUD/UI compared to Sonic 2, I prefer playing Sonic 2 with the standard shield over the elemental ones, and most of all, which I know can be controversial, I've always disliked Sonic 3's sprites compared to Sonic 2's. A pity that I can't really change any of those things in the options, because if I could this would be a genuinely perfect experience, still excelent though, and I'm grateful for it. I see, that's a shame, my interest in Sonic Origins just went down even more really, it just feels like they missed the mark on so many things, at least when it comes to my preferences and expectations really, still, with Sonic 1&2 and Sonic Classic Heroes I think I'm covered.
Looking for some advice and better methods of researching. I sometimes take an approach on learning about the Genesis Sonic (1/2/3/ knuckles) Disassembles of understanding the overall order of when things happen. For example when and where sonic coordinates is updated and wrapped updated and likewise for cameras x/y. But doing so isnt always clear cut because Sonic Object calls debug mode which modifies the camera Y when he goes into debug mode so it isnt as simple as sonic object always updates his x/y and ScrollVert ScrollHoriz updates the camera. If i play the level setting breakpoints and assume 10 seconds of play will show a general sense of when and where I could be not raking a lot into consideration. There are so many factors. If I go through the .LST file looking for operations where the destination is camera or sonic x and y , there is no guarantee because these coordinates could be stored in a destination operand as an address register. I made scripts In lua that check if the previous x / y is not equal to the current meaning it wrote a new value. if a ram address new value is calculated in a temporary data register, you may not be able to compare the previous and current. Say it wraps it by and $7ff using data register, the you can't compare its old and new value as with a lua script as it was calculated with data register. Is researching the game in a general sense of when and where not recommended? Looking for some advice on better methods to get a general grasp of when and where of a big system like a sonic game . Optimum methods preferred. Is getting a general idea even necessary?
What would happen if, during VBlank, I attempted to DMA more data to VRAM than is possible (let's say $8000 bytes for example)? Would it freeze the game until it completes, or does the transfer fail part of the way through?
With DMA from 68000 memory, DMA length is in units of 16-bit words, so the maximum is $20000 bytes. VRAM has half that capacity. If I recall correctly, the address should just wrap around to the start if it goes past the end. DMAs from 68000 memory also halt the 68000 so that the VDP can access the memory. Once it goes into active display, the only thing that should happen is the bandwidth getting lower, thus slowing the speed. Worst case scenario should just be that it'll cause slowdown.
I download S3K disasm with incuded flamewing's sound driver, and when i start to compile this- i get a error: "You'r O.S. is not supported". I use Windows 7 32bit. Is the anybody have a "fdp2bin.exe" with 32 bit O.S. support?
I gave it a shot, it's good to have a ROM where most bugs are gone, it'll be useful whenever I just want to play vanilla Sonic 2. I'm mostly interested in the impure version of this though, since you can transform into Super Sonic, and turn back to normal, at will, if only this had Sonic 3's save system it'd be perfect, but it's still good that its fixed Super Sonic, since his implementation in the original was really poor in my eyes. I appreciate the recommendation.
You're welcome. I might try making "Sonic 2 with fixes and saves" myself at some point, though it'd probably be low-priority.
I'd download it in an instant to be honest, if you decide to make something like that at any point in the future make sure to let me know.
I thought we could be done with the Sonic Classic Heroes recommendation, but if you want to pile on more hacks, there's also Sonic 2: S3 Edition, which might not be the best of the bunch, but it does feature the actual Sonic 3 save system.
I gave this one a shot too, it's really good, and it has the literal Sonic 3 save system as I hoped for, and it fixes Super Sonic, because I have to actually press the button while jumping, my main gripes with it are the extra things it adds from Sonic 3 onto Sonic 2 besides those elements I mentioned, those being the elemental shields and Sonic 3 sprites, I do like the elemental shields, but when playing Sonic 2 I prefer the vanilla shield for some reason, and regarding the sprites, I know this might be an unpopular opinion, but I've never liked Sonic 3's sprites, and there's no option to change it to the Sonic 2 sprites, which is what I'd prefer. I know I'm quite picky, sorry for that, but I do like all of the options which were shown to me in this thread, downloaded and played all of them, and every one of them has their merits, it's just that none of them get a home run from me, but it's not their fault, it's just me being picky to be honest. Still, thank you for the recommendation, hopefully I warm up to the Sonic 3's sprites at some point, because then this one would be pretty much perfect.
Well, if you wait a while longer you may get your wish. I've been rewriting this said hack from scratch - plans include optional elemental shield and a choice between Sonic 2 or Sonic 3 sprites.
