Sonic and Sega Retro Message Board: Athelstone - Viewing Profile - Sonic and Sega Retro Message Board

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I think paying to unlock a zone, if it were included, ought to be for offline only.
For the *online* experience it seems to make financial sense for all the levels to already be fully unlocked, included and available to everyone.

The reason for this is that there are tens of thousands of casual players that just want a quick online experience and would not bother to buy the extra maps or not have the time to unlock them offline. So what you would be doing is limiting the variety of levels that these tens of thousands of casual players have access to in the short times that they play online.

Limited experience = Faster boredom = Less incentive to participate = Lower player numbers = Lower popularity of product = Less profit

In my opinion there's more than enough money to be made with Extra Characters DLC, Win-Race Taunts DLC, or Sound Taunts DLC during online races (with pre-recorded voices from the games/shows), and perhaps offline only "pay-for-a-zone", but with the ability to unlock them aswell by playing the game through.

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Financial incentive for the creators to develop and enhance Retro Sonic further! (Look at the amount of updates DOTA2 and TF2 are receiving).

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They *would* indeed be garbage - if priced silly. But it's already been proven that when consumers are offered downloadable purchases at a fair cost (cents and pennies) they're more than happy to oblige.

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Why not have both? Cents and pennies are no object to many, and those that don't like paying and want the challenge of unlocking them would be free to do so.

Hey IceKnight, long time!

Indeed, something like that, looks pretty robust. There's lots that could potentially be added. It's just a matter of whether the creators are convinced it's worth the time and profit. I'm sure it would be - I think that classic Sonic is such an archetype in gaming now that people are likely to snap-up almost whatever is released. And if you have some-sort of system of gimmicky in-game purchases, the longevity and financial reward for such a thing could be enormous (as Valve have been successfully demonstrating). You only have to look at the popularity of rom hacks and editing in this community to get a snap shot of what a much larger audience could be enjoying if it was all made easily available to them.

I know I'm late to the party, but I just recently had a chance to try Sonic 2 on Android multiplayer. All I can say is...

WOW

A big, BIG thank you to Taxman and Stealth, and anyone else involved for creating this...online full screen multiplayer in Sonic 2 has been a fetish of mine for a long, long time...great to finally play it!

This thing has so much potential!!! Some ideas -

Imagine Sonic 1,2,3&K and CD levels all playable from one multiplayer compilation app with more than 2 players at the same time *squeals* XD

~ In-app purchases for:
• Downloadable characters from the Sonic universe with original sprite sheets.
Eg: Chaotix, Amy (classic & modern), Metal Sonic (Metallix), Mecha Sonic (The Sonic 2 & 3k bosses), Silver Sonic (The Sonic 2 GG/MS boss), Fang, Ray, Bean, Bark, Shadow, Silver, Cream, Blaze, Classic animal friends, Eggman in egg carrier, Eggman on turbo jetskis with jetpack and goggles, SATam / Archie (Sally, Bunny, Antoine, Rotor), Fleetway (Brown porcupine Sonic, Kintobor with jetpack and jetskis, Lightfoot and Porker with jackets, Cybernik, Brutus, Captain Plunder), Underground characters (Manic, Sonia), Scratch, Grounder, Coconuts etc...
• Animated taunts that all players see once the winner of the race has been announced.
• Voice Taunts that nearby players can hear during online races, with pre-recorded voices from the games/shows. (Spam protection included and ability to mute them in the options in case some find them annoying).
• Character Profiles - the history and personality of each character, when and where they first appeared in the Sonic universe with artwork galleries (similar to that of Street Fighter Alpha 2 on Sega Saturn) : https://www.youtube....h?v=7FBvW1WRTYM

~ Ability to craft and download custom-made levels, including a public repository featuring the most popular zones.
~ Zones ported from the Game Gear / Master-System series with an option for original 8bit music or ported genesis music (or even just remaster them completely). (Examples):
Sonic 2 GG/MS Green Hill - https://www.youtube....h?v=ldfAKNilMbU
Sonic 1 GG/MS Labyrinth - https://www.youtube....h?v=EbygcFhV784
Sonic 1 GG/MS Sky base - https://www.youtube....h?v=_qv9UfBSgHI
Sonic 1 GG/MS Jungle - https://www.youtube....h?v=_B95ULhykVo
Sonic 2 GG/MS Crystal Egg - https://www.youtube....h?v=LnMlS-LbjEM
Sonic Chaos GG/MS Turquoise Hill - https://www.youtube....h?v=-QNHUPzHB1E

More game modes:
~ Team racing: 2v2, 3v3 with coloured player designations (http://i378.photobuc...ne/players2.png)
~ Super Race: enable characters to race in super form
~ Time Crisis Race: All players are given a certain amount of time to complete a race. When timer runs out all those who have not crossed the finishing line immediately lose and scores are tallied based on how far each player made
~ Ring Grab: players have a countdown timer to grab as many rings as they can,
with music and special stages ported from Sonic 1 game gear / master system
~ Bonus Stage Race: Race through Sonic 1 genesis bonus stages and Sonic Triple Trouble bonus stages, first one to the emerald wins.
~ UFO Attack: Players have a countdown to hit a set number of randomly placed UFOs from Sonic CD special stages. Players who reach target first win.

Bit of feedback -
~ An "On your marks, get set, GO!" countdown before the race starts and once all players have entered the game would be good, to ensure players don't get ahead unfairly before everyone is in and ready.
~ I notice that when playing online if a player crosses the finishing line first, the other player tends to lag behind and try to beat him by collecting rings and raising his score. IMO this was a flaw in the original Sonic 2 multiplayer. Like a real race, a player should win if they cross the finishing line first: full-stop! I think game modes where players win by collecting items/rings should be made separate.
~ Also noticed that if a player falls too far behind in multiplayer, they will sometimes attempt to kill themselves to induce a gameover so that they can save time and move onto the next race. To that end it would be useful if there was a button or option to surrender or giveup (at the top-right perhaps).
~ Would be awesome to have some remixed Sonic music playing in the background when searching for a multiplayer game to get the blood pumping. Examples:
https://www.youtube....h?v=Yz7dCPbYEtc
https://www.youtube....h?v=rmTgN1CULl8
~ Mario Kart Wii provides a nice example of what a multiplayer search could look like (could have an animated planet Mobius in the background spinning through space):
https://www.youtube....h?v=8pwhkJS917Y
~ Some classic animated artwork in the background when searching through menus could be visually appealing and immersive, whilst giving players the incentive to unlock them. Example:
https://www.youtube....h?v=KfFnMh-KYHI


Heartfelt thanks again for this fantastic product - sincere best wishes for all future endeavours...

This is a very cool rom hack - congratulations to all those involved. It's impressive how many gameplay features it has.

Would it be difficult to add a Battle Race mode, à la ColinC10's "Sonic 2: Battle Race"?
http://forums.sonicr...showtopic=29392

Now that the multi-tap is working, would a 4-player micro-machines style mode be possible?