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

Couldn't see a topic about this here already, so if it's old news I apologise.

Just browsed to the Retro Sonic website to find that Taxman had got around to uploading the 2007 PC Demo of Retro Sonic (sorry, no OSX version yet from the looks of things). For those of you who don't know what Retro Sonic is, it's a pretty awesome fangame that's been in development for quite a long time now. This latest demo includes the first level, Egg Garden, as well as Emerald Hill under the 'Custom Levels' option.

To get the demo, head over to the Retro Sonic Website - the download link is near the bottom of the page. You can also check out an older demo that uses the engine from the 2002 release if you want to see how far Retro Sonic has come since then.

Enjoy! = )

EDIT: Also, just in case Taxman actually still frequents this place, small bug I noticed - you might want to make the game check if Tails is on the ground before doing his end-of-level pose. Haven't tested it in Tails Alone mode, but in Sonic and Tails mode he's consistantly done his pose in mid-air for me, since he was flying when the level ended. =P

...Sonic 1 for the SMS/GG, that is. =P Sorry if that disappoints you, but hardly anyone actually seems to care about the 8-bit games. Also, sorry if this has been found before, but I couldn't find it on any site so assumed it was new. As you do.

Anyway. Browsing through the VRAM while playing the GG version, I noticed some tiles loaded in Green Hill Zone that intrigued me:



Tiles were loaded into the VRAM for an enemy not only unused in GHZ, but in the entire game - an 8-bit version of Marble Zone's "Basaran" / "Batbrain" enemy. Intrigued by this, assuming it to be a leftover from a much earlier version of the Zone, I decided to check out the prototype. However, instead of Basaran's tiles, I found this:



In the prototype (and, I found later, the SMS version), instead of Basaran, the tiles for "Meleon" / "Newtron" are loaded (and, infact, the jet flame for the right-facing Meleon is still loaded in the GG version, meaning the graphics are probably still present). Now, while this is not an unused enemy, two things are of note here:

- Meleon does not appear in GHZ at all.
- The animation for Meleon jetting across the ground is unused.

Logically, from this we can draw the conclusions that:

- Meleon was intended to be featured in GHZ earlier in development of the SMS version.
- Meleon was also intended to act more like its' Megadrive counterpart (the blue Meleons on the MD skid along the ground; the SMS Meleon when used acts exactly like the green MD Meleons instead).
- When the GG version was made, at some point in development a decision was made to put Basaran into GHZ. This was, however, ultimately dropped.

Finally, one unused thing that has been brought up before (by ICEknight, I think, but I may be wrong). In the SMS version, 8 tiles of the VRAM are allocated as space for Sonic's feet for his Springing animations, as these sprites are larger than the 8 tiles allocated for Sonic's sprites. However, in the GG version, the sprites have been replaced with smaller ones meaning the extra space is not needed. It has been filled with this:



This appears to be a two-frame shield animation permanently loaded into the VRAM; however it is unused. In both the SMS and GG versions, the shield (which only has one frame) loads itself over Sonic's graphics, meaning both Sonic and the shield constantly flicker and end up looking translucent. It seems from this 'improved' shield that during development of the GG version it was decided to fix this issue, but for some reason it wasn't implemented into the final version.

So, there you have it. A little unused stuff noticed at first glance. When I get the chance, I'll play through the whole game in both versions and do up a detailed comparison, highlighting any 'lost' graphics found in the process.

Also, sorry for the size of the images - I did make double-size versions (and overview shots of the entire VRAM, too), but my FTP decided to be a bitch after I uploaded the first three images. =P Sorry.

I'd never used the old version of LOst Library, since my PC wouldn't run it. So, I made a simple hack using the latest Beta release, to help myself find my way around the uses of it. Using LOst Library, and ICEknight's notes on the animation format, I made the Sonic 2 shield look and animate exactly like the Sonic 1 version:


Click here to download

I've got one small problem, though; while the 2P vs. mode seems to pick up my new mappings and animations correctly, a few of the actual tiles for the shield become garbled, meaning some parts display incorrectly. If anyone could help me fix that, it'd be much appreciated.

This isn't really much point to this hack; like I said, it was just me testing out LOst Library. However, if I could get this working perfectly, it might be fun to have around. Perhaps I'd use it in a bigger project, if I ever had the time to start one. So, yes. Any help would be welcome. Thank you!

I'll make this short, and to the point, since there's no point me wasting people's time. ^^; It'd be useful to me if someone'd be able to tell me what values I'd need to change in my Sonic 2 ROM in order to disable the parallax-scrolling effects in Aquatic Ruin's BG, since I need it disabled for something I'm working on. If anyone could help me out, it'd be most appreciated..

Haven't seen anything about this on the main page, so do forgive me if it's old.

At the SCARZ forums, there was a topic about old ads from the Sega / Nintendo console wars. In that thread, a page got posted with lots of old TV ads in for Megadrive / Genesis games, among others. The Sonic 2 ad intrigued me, as it contained footage from a version that I for one hadn't seen before:

http://217.153.29.18...usa/sonic2.mpeg

There's a lot of evidence in the video pointing to the fact that this is taken from a much later prototype of Sonic 2:

1. The Title Screen


Similar to (if not the same as) the title screen pictured in the Sonic 2 Manual, which I believe may also have come from this version. It's the same as the dumped proto, but with the 1 PLAYER and 2 PLAYER options at the bottom, in orange and white (coloured similarly to how Esrael recreated it in earlier versions of his Delta hack). There is evidence that this menu was probably functional, as the text reading 1 PLAYER changes between orange and white the first time you see it.

2. The Sonic Sprites


It's hard to see, but it looks like Sonic has his final Sonic 2 sprites in this proto, as in shots from other later prototypes.

3. Zone Graphics


Chemical Plant still has the same loops as in the dumped proto, with the sloping corners... (That weird garbled block is actually Tails flying BTW, it's just the low quality of the vid. Interesting to note that he can fly in this version, though).


However, Casino Night now has the same graphics set used in the final.

4. Special Stage


Is active. Not very important really, but I thought it worth mentioning since I haven't seen any shots of the Special Stages inamongst any proto shots I've seen.

5. Spindash


As you'd expect from a proto this late (having seen the pics of Sonic and Tails spindashing with dust trails in the proto Casino Night, I mean), the Spindash has the dust trails.

Also, an interesting glitch I found in this vid:


Tails' tails coming loose when fired from those cannon things in Oil Ocean. XD Just thought that one was worth noting.

Anyway, just thought that was a bit interesting. Like I said, I apologise if this is well-known. ^_^;