Greetings! I would like to introduce you to my current rom hacking project: Superstars Amy Rose in Sonic the Hedgehog! This originally started out as an experiment where I implemented Origins Amy into the original version of Sonic 1. Then Superstars came out in the fall, I played it, and loved using Amy's double jump in that game. Eventually I decided to switch to the Superstars double jump for my rom hack. The whole disassembly is available on GitHub by the way: https://github.com/rocketsailor/Superstars-Amy-Rose-in-Sonic-1 This project is open source to encourage other people to make hacks featuring Amy. Anyone is welcome to submit changes for me to review. I would also like to put Amy (with her superstars moveset) in Sonic 2 and Sonic 3&K in the future. However, this hack needs some tweaking and polishing first. The biggest problem currently is the hammer's hitbox. It functions similarly to the insta-shield in that the hammer expands the player's hitbox, but without the invincibility. This is a problem in some areas, mostly in Labyrinth Zone with the harpoons and especially the underwater boss fight. If anyone has any suggestions for solving this, please let me know, it would be very appreciated! Amy can also spindash. I will attempt to implement Hammer Rush in the future, but that's not my priority at the moment. EDIT: Click here for the latest build! Please note that this hack is unfinished and is subject to changes at anytime.
Alright. So I personally would've waited for the hack to be complete before releasing it, a crucial part of Superstars Amy's moveset is the hammer dash, which is entirely missing right now. Some custom title screen art would've been great too because for a moment I thought I was playing an unmodified version of Sonic 1, even if it doesn't have the "Amy in" banner that other character swaps have. Amy's hitbox is also an issue, it really should only be extended if she did her double jump, I died a decent bit due to it. Perhaps take the route Origins did and have her hammer be a separate hitbox. On the positive side though I'm impressed with the palette management here, nothing looks too off despite Amy having a full palette. And her art is all here, at no points did I see Sonic pop in, not in the ending sequence nor the continue screen. And I'm glad that the community's shifting into a mindset where it's okay to share our source code. I don't think in a fan community we should have such things as trade secrets and being defensive about our perceived "property". We're already prone to crediting every public guide and even tools used (I've seen hacks crediting Microsoft for Windows, even), I wouldn't see why we wouldn't credit each other for borrowing elements from other hacks. And I hope to see more hacks go open source. So this is a good character swap, it just needs to be ironed out a little more and it'll be good to go!
I prefer a 'release early, release often' approach to software these days. A hack can take a while to be completed, and some projects simply never cross the finish line. I'd rather have an unfinished hack over no hack at all. Just look at what happened with that Yoshi in Sonic 2 hack.
Thank you for the tip! I understand the part about the hammer rush. The reason it is not a priority right now is because I honestly don't think I could pull it off right now (at least without A LOT of help). I prefer to fix some other things first, like the hammer hitbox. I do think making a separate hitbox is the way to go, just not 100% sure how I'm going to do that. I haven't done anything with the title screen because Origins Amy lacks those specific sprites. I can brainstorm something for a customized start-up perhaps, I just haven't put much thought into it. The comments about the palette and art are very much appreciated! I've spent countless hours trying to make everything look decent, so I'm glad somebody notices my effort. Thank you for your feedback.
This is what Classic mode in Origins Plus should've been, joke aside. A good idea to bring the invincible monitor to the Labyrinth Zone boss. Rosy's double jump is a neat touch since She can curl into a ball where Modern Amy cannot up until now. I also saw the Sonic text when getting all emeralds in the Special Stage results screen. The purple emerald in Special Stage 3 should be blue cause the pink Emerald matches Rosy's palette, the shield may make the graphics look weird when I picked it up, and I think the camera delay from the spindash and the spindash sound needs to be added. Maybe it's the VRAM that's causing it to not load or something that occurs the shield bug. The demo and credits also need to be recorded so that way Rosy won't be hit by the Chopper in GHZ or any other Badnik in another Zone. I know some bugs need fixing like the shield and the level results. It's a great thing those sprites were from Origins Plus with the Superstars movesets applied. I mean this hack can be speedrunned within minutes. Maybe If I have the time of need, I could help you with the fixes. I can help you with the demos cause I learned from them.
The invincibility monitor is temporary until I can fix the hitbox issue. Thank you for notifying me of other things that need fixing, and for offering to help, I will keep that in mind.
I can't believe it took me a few weeks to notice that people are already uploading playthroughs of my hack onto YouTube. Oh man...the pressure is real now Anyway, I decided I'm going to make releases via GitHub for easier access. I'll edit the first post to include a new link. I'm still working on the new hammer object. Progress is just slow because, well...life. My apologies. Thank you to everybody who has played this hack, given feedback, and/or just simply looked at this thread thus far.
Version 0.3 is now available! This big update adds a brand new object: the piko piko hammer! Well...it's actually just a large hitbox that can destroy stuff without taking damage. I would like to give a huge thanks to DeltaW for this tutorial that provided a good starting point, and to E-122-Psi for teaching me how make the hammer object interact with other objects. I am extremely grateful for your generosity. Please report any bugs found by replying to this thread, or by messaging me on discord (same username). I will fix it ASAP.
