[ColinC10]

I've had no time to work on any new hacks this year. However, I like to submit something for the contest each year, and I found this while looking through my old laptop. It's the first hack I ever made, back in 2006 (before Robotnik's Revenge). It was about 95% complete when I hit some technical issues and gave up. With six years more hacking experience the issues were simple to fix, so here it is, finally finished! All I ask is that you judge it by the standards of 2006 rather than 2012.

Sonic 2: Battle Race is a TWO PLAYER ONLY hack. Players race against each other on the same screen. If a player falls too far behind his opponent and disappears off the screen, he dies. The leading player then gets a point, the losing player reappears next to him, and the race continues. Whoever has the most points at the end of the level wins.

Pause + A: Quit the current level and return to the level select.
Pause + B: Kill both players and return to the last checkpoint. This is handy for "standoff" situations, where the players can't progress (they fell off a MTZ nut, for example) but they don't want to backtrack for fear of losing a point to their opponent.


Screenshots:


Monitors work the same way as in split screen mode, but with an extra life giving you an extra point instead.


Knowing the level layout is important, particularly in the later levels.


All zones are playable except Sky Chase and Death Egg.


Edit: Here's a video of the hack in action, courtesy of Iceman404. It probably gives a better idea of what the hack's about than screenshots:




I realise that the vast majority of you were probably expecting to play a single player game and have no interest in a two player one, so if that's the case then I'm sorry for the disappointment.
However, if like me you've always wanted to play Sonic 2 against a friend on anything other than Emerald Hill, Casino Night and Mystic Cave then hopefully you'll have some fun with this hack.

++Download++

All comments are welcome!

This post has been edited by ColinC10: 29 July 2012 - 04:44 PM

[PsychoSk8r]

This gives us a great excuse to team up with some netplay.
I look forward to having the opportunity to playing this. =P

[redhotsonic]

I just downloaded it, went to Battle Race, picked MCZ1. Lost tails to the side and gained a point, then this:




EDIT: Same with EHZ 1.


EDIT2: Actually, mate, this game seems unplayable on Regen. As soon as a player gets lost, the game comes up with the same error.

Kega seems fine with it though.

This post has been edited by redhotsonic: 24 July 2012 - 07:45 AM

[ColinC10]

redhotsonic, on 24 July 2012 - 07:42 AM, said:

I just downloaded it, went to Battle Race, picked MCZ1. Lost tails to the side and gained a point, then this:




EDIT: Same with EHZ 1.


EDIT2: Actually, mate, this game seems unplayable on Regen. As soon as a player gets lost, the game comes up with the same error.

Kega seems fine with it though.

I've tested it on Fusion and Gens, so it should work fine on those. I've not tried it on Regen but it looks like a pretty simple issue to fix. Back then I obviously wasn't aware that long data needs to go on addresses that are multiples of 4...

[redhotsonic]

ColinC10, on 24 July 2012 - 07:58 AM, said:

I've tested it on Fusion and Gens, so it should work fine on those. I've not tried it on Regen but it looks like a pretty simple issue to fix. Back then I obviously wasn't aware that long data needs to go on addresses that are multiples of 4...

Yeah, it should be easy to fix. Just looks like you're moving a longword to another starting with an odd address 35(a0). As long a it starts with an even, it's fine, but of course, you're aware of that =P

[ColinC10]

redhotsonic, on 24 July 2012 - 08:06 AM, said:

ColinC10, on 24 July 2012 - 07:58 AM, said:

I've tested it on Fusion and Gens, so it should work fine on those. I've not tried it on Regen but it looks like a pretty simple issue to fix. Back then I obviously wasn't aware that long data needs to go on addresses that are multiples of 4...

Yeah, it should be easy to fix. Just looks like you're moving a longword to another starting with an odd address 35(a0). As long a it starts with an even, it's fine, but of course, you're aware of that =P

Okay, fixed. Anyone having the same issue should re-download.

[jasonchrist]

Gutted! I feel like Oasis fans felt when they released "Standing On The Shoulders of Giants". Let my words speak volumes of what I think of your talents and potential Colin, and not as an insult.

This post has been edited by jasonchrist: 24 July 2012 - 01:47 PM

[flamewing]

Heh, nice to see that address error screen of mine is getting used

Anyway, will try it a bit later on, when I fixed all bugs in SCH.

[dsrb]

jasonchrist, on 24 July 2012 - 01:46 PM, said:

Gutted! I feel like Oasis fans felt when they released "Standing On The Shoulders of Giants". Let my words speak volumes of what I think of your talents and potential Colin, and not as an insult.

“Relax, guy!” He did say he hadn't had time to do anything properly new, so it's a nice gesture to have done something at all—plus, with this having been his first hack, don't you like getting an insight (albeit slightly revised) into the rise of a legend?

[redhotsonic]

flamewing, on 24 July 2012 - 02:26 PM, said:

Heh, nice to see that address error screen of mine is getting used

Any reason why it only works in Regen and not other emulators?




Anyway, this may not be the "hack of the year", but it's a very interesting concept. It's more unique to the normal splitscreen. Also, many hacks do not bother with split screen, but this would be a much better solution to hacks.



Either way, I like it. I'll have to netplay this with someone, as all my mates aren't interested in Sonic.

[MainMemory]

redhotsonic, on 24 July 2012 - 03:15 PM, said:

flamewing, on 24 July 2012 - 02:26 PM, said:

Heh, nice to see that address error screen of mine is getting used

Any reason why it only works in Regen and not other emulators?

Most emulators don't emulate the address error, including Gens and I think Fusion.

[KingofHarts]

Another year, another something special from ColinC10. If I could get my girlfriend to play Sonic 4 Ep. 2... surely this will be better. :D

[ColinC10]

flamewing, on 24 July 2012 - 02:26 PM, said:

Heh, nice to see that address error screen of mine is getting used

Yeah, thanks for that, Flamewing. I was having a weird crash issue so I added that screen to see if it would help with debugging, but it wouldn't trigger. This is the first time I've actually seen it come up, and it made it very easy to find the cause of the problem, so good work!

Also, I had never used Regen before, but the debug version seems to have some pretty useful tools. Being more accurate when emulating errors helps too. I wonder if this hack runs on real hardware?

[flamewing]

Beware of one thing in Regen: at present, it has a bug that triggers occasionally regarding SRAM. AamirM (the author) is trying to fix it. Just an FYI, so you don't lose your hair trying to debug an emulator error

More information on this topic.

[KingofHarts]

Hey Colin, I use Gens GS r7 (the emulator that came with Sonic Sage2010) Everything locks up when I start the level. The music plays and the graphics are active, but controls are frozen. Works on Fusion just fine though. Just thought I'd throw that out there.