don't click here

Hack Blaze The Cat in Sonic 1 (v0.9)

Discussion in 'Engineering & Reverse Engineering' started by TDRR, Apr 9, 2021.

Tags:
  1. TDRR

    TDRR

    Member
    Blaze The Cat in Sonic the Hedgehog 1 is... well, a hack that puts Blaze the Cat in Sonic 1. To be more specific, it changes all the sprites and adds a couple new abilities and other nice things.

    [​IMG]

    Blaze is able to use some abilities in mid-air, like so:
    A/B/C + Up: Axel Tornado - Similar to how it works in Sonic Rush Adventure, Blaze shoots upwards (retaining side velocity), damaging everything on the way up. Be careful, though, you become vulnerable on the way down!

    A/B/C + Left/Right: Air Dash - Your standard air dash, but you uncurl so be careful and avoid landing on enemies. It gets significantly faster with the speed shoes!

    A/B/C + Down: Flame Stomp - Cancels all your side velocity and sends you flying downwards, breaking enemies and monitors on the way down without bouncing!
    Very situational, but landing on strong slopes with this grants you a lot of velocity very quickly (Star Light Zone is where you'll see this the most)

    Additionally, if you're in mid-air and not curled into a ball (and haven't used up your air ability), you can perform the Air Roll just by pressing A/B/C, which will make Blaze curl into a ball and allow you to use any of your air abilities.

    -Blaze talks! Well, only a little. She says "You can't escape me!" when starting a level, and a couple more sounds.
    -DAC music for the level clear theme.
    -Fixed Press Start Button text, because that's a feature every hack needs (okay maybe not, but I like it)! Plus, some other minor bugfixes.

    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]

    -Sometimes the air dash goes in the right direction, but Blaze's sprite is facing the other way.
    -Every now and then, the stomp doesn't break monitors, so you have to jump again. No idea what causes this.
    -DAC sample playback is scratchy, because I've tried to follow the MegaPCM quality improvement guide a trillion times but apparently I'm way, way too stupid like to make it not black screen on startup.

    -Not exactly a bug or anything but some sprites aren't in yet, namely the ending sequence ones (this is the biggest reason I numbered this version v0.9). All others are practically complete.

    Oh and yeah, this is my very first hack. It's been fun doing all this!
    Some credits go to:
    -Everyone involved in the Git disassembly
    -kirjavascript for the excellent Flex 2 MD graphics editor.
    -Xenowhirl for SonMapEd, a very good small MD graphics editor, used for some sprites.
    -Cylent Nite and .Luke for the Blaze spritesheet.
     

    Attached Files:

    Last edited: Apr 9, 2021
  2. Rrose80149

    Rrose80149

    Member
    90
    19
    8
    So cool, I think I'll give it a go after my sleep.
     
  3. SuperSnoopy

    SuperSnoopy

    I like Sonic Advance Member
    1,778
    740
    93
    Lyon, France
    Slice of life visual novel, coming soon...?
    ...the title screen is part of Blaze's spritesheet tho right?
    The one that's credited to Cylent Nite and .Luke, I mean.
     
  4. Trance

    Trance

    The annoying guy you've probably seen around. Member
    32
    2
    8
    Quite frankly, very well made. Unfortunately, I've never played Rush, so thanks for the trivia on the Axel Tornado.
    Gameplay wise, good.
    Keep up the good work, and hope you fix those bugs~
     
  5. Spicy Bread SSR

    Spicy Bread SSR

    You can call me Mal if you like Member
    10
    7
    3
    The hack is pretty good. The better mid-air control makes this stand out over other character hacks, and the fire particle effects are a nice touch. The only real issue I have is the voice sample, it gets repetitive after a while...
     
  6. TDRR

    TDRR

    Member
    Thanks for the feedback, guys!

    You're right, I should add a way to disable it. Let me see what can I do.
     
  7. DeltaWooloo

    DeltaWooloo

    Be a boss-man and come to my big and tall man shop Member
    Speaking of using PCM, I believe putting it over the zone's music makes it fuzzy to hear. Maybe add the PCM before the title cards fly in. I think other Mega Drive games have done that, IIRC. Also, I see that you're using MegaPCM. There is a tutorial to optimize playback. Have you tried that, yet? Try and see if you can sort it out by the next update. But so far, I'm seeing that this hack has a lot of potential!
     
  8. TDRR

    TDRR

    Member
    Heck, I even tried again twice yesterday, and same issue again. I really can't believe I'm dumb enough to make the same mistake every single time, I'm starting to think the guide may have a problem.

    Thanks for the feedback, though! I can't really hear much of a difference with or without other audio playing, it doesn't sound any worse to me, but it's something I wanna try after finally getting that guide to work.
     
  9. Inferno

    Inferno

    Member
    36
    71
    18
    Sonic 1 Definitive
    Can confirm it does that for me too, even though I follow the guide exactly.
    The thing is, Step 4 works for me, Step 2 doesn't. No matter which disasm. It either breaks the DAC playback or ends in a black screen.

    UPDATE: FOUND THE ISSUE. YOU also have to remove the loop right after the first instruction in Step 2. That is all.
     
    Last edited: Apr 30, 2021
  10. TDRR

    TDRR

    Member
    So as a sort of update on where this hack ended up. I actually did find the original spritesheet for all the Mobius Evolution Blaze sprites, including two sprites for the ending, posted on the original author's DeviantArt with permission for reuse of course. Planned on adding that, fixing the rest of the misalignments and then putting up a new final build with all the other requested changes.

    Sadly, I lost the source after a hard drive crash last year. None of the code in the hack was particularly difficult to do or anything, most of the tedious work was simply all the sprites that had to be put in. At some point later on I might redo the hack again and finally put up the final build here.

    Sorry for the silence! Would've made more sense to post this when that happened.