UPDATE: I received a lot of complaints saying Knuckles' gliding is broken in the hack. I already pushed a hotfix build if you click on the download link and select said build. Just bear in mind that drill diving is disabled in this build while I fix it in a future release. Introducing Sonic 1: The Super Challenges! It's a ROM hack where the main gimmick transforms and speeds through South Island before your ring counter runs out. Destroy everything in your path, collide with anything you bump into and try to get hurt. The only thing that'll damage you is time; you better not waste that. Every ring counts so try and collect them as fast as you can! Even though this is a challenge-based hack, you will find that this hack will have more than just a simple concept. New game modes - this hack will include 4 different modes: Island Run - run as fast as you can till you beat the final boss. There are hidden paths for you to explore throughout a few zones, so check them out when possible. You may think this is easy, but it isn't and it should be noticeable once you play more and have another south island adventure Endless Run - beat as many levels as possible in a randomized order. The counter will drain the more you progress so try your best to keep the ring counter high and y'know... don't lose rings. :p New powerups: Magnet/Lightning - attracts rings nearby to you for a short period Stopwatch - freezes rings for a short period of time Random Rings - collect rings between 5 to 50 either positive or negative - be mindful when destroying badniks Playable characters: Sonic - Super form is akin to Sonic 2's with the dropdash while Hyper behaves exactly like Sonic 3 and Knuckles Tails - Super form being identical to Super Sonic while Hyper is Super from S3K alongside a higher jump height and speed stats Knuckles - Super and Hyper are identical to S3K's behaviour with a higher jump height and speed stats There are also extra things for you to encounter when playing the demo: Runs on an in-progress engine dubbed WoolooEngine aiming to squeeze as many optimizations and fixes as possible in Sonic 1 to be less laggy as possible and will serve as a base for any future ROM hacks I make Toggle between movesets for Super Sonic (dropdash or jumpdash/homing attack) Select a wide range of Super Sonic themes to play within the zone or to generate a random playlist for all the modes The upper section of MZ has unique secrets and layouts for you to check out alongside SYZ2 near the end (akin to the 2013 remake) SRAM support to save your record and attempt to beat it the next time you play the game A fully-fledged menu allowing you to view the instructions, sound test, options and credits What's to come in future builds: Amy Rose as a playable character - she's in-game however unplayable as I'm looking for ways to make her Super and Hyper forms distinct from each other any badniks that Super flickies destroy will have to attract rings to you Clock Dash - basically Time Attack where you get the best time and rings record beating a single level Hardcore Dash - for the real super challengers who want to play an endless amount of possibly more ideas for gamemodes - to be discussed at a later date Bugs Before the LZ3 boss, gliding as Knuckles can cause you to wrap and skip the boss (due to level wrapping shtick that couldn't be fixed in time). It would save time but that ain't gonna be kept in future builds lol This build only saves you the best time, not the best rings. I have considered making Island Dash save time only while rings can be a separate game mode. The ring counter is capped at 999 rings (though breaking a 10 ring monitor at over 990 will give you higher than that) - 2nd demo will contain an overhauled HUD system allowing for 4-digit ring counter to be in place Super flickies don't hit bosses just yet, only badniks On rare occasions, you can accidentally go through chunks if you spam moves. Sometimes, it does fix itself, but it may lead to you clipping through or dying. Click me to download! I hope you guys enjoy the ROM hack after spending at least 5 years trying and failing to make a decent ROM hack until today and this is one I'm sure I'm proud of creating and will keep this project alive for a good while. I also want to thank the following people who either helped me on the project, playtested it or provided public assets that served as a key benefactor during development: Spoiler: List of Credits Project Lead: DeltaW Programming: - DeltaW - RetroKoH - RobiWanKenobi - Malachi Music: - DeltaW - LackOfTrack - GenesisDoes - RobiWanKenobi Additonal sound: - 29yami - instructions theme - Speems - title Screen theme - KC - Chaotix SFX ports - nineko/Tweaker - Dragon Soul theme - Cinossu - dropdash SFX Playtesters: - ChiliHog - Speems - JDPense - DaxKatter - RobiWanKenobi - GenesisDoes - Sonic the Dutch hedgehog - Malachi - Nia/ArcaniaCQ - RetroKoH - Infermol - Chaotic SoFa - lavagaming1 - KC Additional feedback: - D.A. Garden - vladikcomper - djohe Additional artwork: - Zeta_Null - helped coloured in a lot of sprites to not use palette line 0 (player's palette line) - KC - custom Sonic 2-styled Sonic 3 sprites - DaxKatter - title screen logo - RobiWanKenobi - sound test background, parts of the DeltaW Splash Screen - RetroKoH - Sonic 1 drop dash sprites - Techokami - expanded monitor artwork - Sonic3Expanded - additional Sonic 3 sprites - Doc Melonhead - finetuned Super Sonic (Sonic 1) sprites - MDTravis - additional ASCII punctuation - Gardow, Nebula - Knuckles' drill dive sprites - neo2k - S3 title screen font used for the DeltaW splash screen Additional code: - SonicRetro/SSRG - optimizations and bugfixes taken from various tutorials - Filter and OrionNavattan - helping out with the extra optimizations that makes Sonic 1 (almost) lagless - devon - bugfixes, Regen detection and helped with setting up sound test screen - Hitaxas - after-images object port and splash screen code - ProjectFM - S3K object and rings manager port and worked on the splash screen too - RetroKoH - additional engine optimizations taken from S1Fixed - TheBlad768 - some object code taken from S1 SCE which was needed (some of the object code in the original game was smoking the CPU) - Mercury - Sonic CD-styled timer and extra tweaks taken from ReadySonic - Kilo - dynamic water palette loading routine (DynaWater) - heyjoeway - dropdash code taken from Sonic 2 Community's Cut - giovanni.gen - dropdash improvements, level randomiser, ASCII rendering and menu structure taken from Sonic 2: Score Rush - vladikcomper - Advanced Error Handler and Debugger, MegaPCM 2 - Clownacy - Sonic 2 Clone Driver v2 (based on an older build (2.7+) but with changes backported from the latest version) - flamewing - optimized decompression codes, Kosinski+ and UltraDMAQueue - Everyone who contributed to documenting the Sonic 1, 2 and 3K's disassemblies which made backporting code a lot easier to understand Special thanks: - All playtesters and those who provided additional feedback that are listed above who all served a major part of the development and helped me keep on my toes - The Shining Stiffies - made a ROM hack with a Super Sonic challenge-like concept - Clownacy - his Super/Hyper Sonic port to Sonic 1 ROM hack was also a major inspiration to the project's creation - You - because you'll probably click on that download link and play the game. What are you waiting for? It's a cool-looking hyperlink. You don't wanna miss out. :O
It has been quite a while since I made a showcase. Here are a few things I posted earlier on Twitter: I am reaching the beta stages of my ROM hack and thus will have plenty to showcase this month, more than what's provided above. I will make another video showcase later this month so stay tuned for that! Also, I am still looking for bug testers and musicians for Super Sonic themes. If you would like to help, let me know when you can! The more that help, the better as I would like to hear more ideas, opinions, feedback, etc as I am willing to make the game enjoyable to all of you. I also hope to make a solid first impression as it will be my first standalone ROM hack that is less of a joke and generic-looking and I want to build upon the idea as time passes, so your help will be appreciated.
Hi, I wanted to update you on the status of Super Challenges since I haven't posted much about it recently. There's a reason for that so do keep reading. If you caught the Sonic Hacking Spotlight video, I showcased more of the hack there, and I had mentioned that I planned to release it for SHC. After some reflection, I realized that rushing a build of Super Challenges just to meet the SHC deadline isn't the right approach. I'd rather release it in a complete and polished state, so I've decided not to submit Sonic 1: The Super Challenges for this year's SHC. Instead, I'm pushing the release date to the end of the year. This gives me more time to work on the project without the stress of a looming deadline. I'll share this update in my second showcase video as well. I know it's disappointing that the ROM hack won't be part of SHC, especially since it might have earned a few trophies. But I'm more focused on delivering a complete and satisfying experience rather than chasing recognition. Looking back on other projects I've rushed for SHC, like ReOne, Another South Island Adventure, and Fishsticks, I realized that hurrying to gain traction often led to mixed feedback. It taught me that stressing over a deadline isn't worth it and that it's better to finish it at a pace where I'm comfortable working at. Honestly, I don't want to release something unfinished and buggy to an event like that. If I were to push out Super Challenges for SHC, I'd just be repeating past mistakes. It's important to me that I take the time to ensure the game is playable and stable, so I can release a build I'm genuinely proud of. I apologize if you were looking forward to playing this project soon, but I'm making this decision for the sake of both your experience and my own well-being. Moving forward, I will continue to ensure all my projects meet my standards and those of my playtesters. I will be posting more stuff about the project at a later date. However, I would like to showcase content that looks finalized and presentable amongst all of you so please bear with me. Thank you for understanding.
It's been a while since I brought this up. A lot has changed since I last discussed the project here. Oh, you're interested to know more? 17th December 2024 at 9 PM GMT - Mark your calendars, cos there'll be more to showcase very soon!
Spoiler: Copy and paste from description The moment you've been waiting for, I know I certainly have. Here's the first full trailer for my upcoming Sonic 1 ROM hack where you speed through South Island retaining a good amount of rings before it runs out. Not everything mentioned in the thread is covered in the build coming up soon. The demo will contain the following: - Island Run - run as fast as you can till you beat the final boss. There are hidden paths for you to explore throughout a few zones, so check them out when possible. You may think this is easy, but it isn't and it should be noticeable once you play more and have another south island adventure - Endless Run - beat as many levels as possible in a randomized order. The counter will drain the more you progress so try your best to keep the ring counter high and y'know... don't lose rings. - Sonic, Tails and Knuckles are playable with unique super and hyper traits ranging from new moves to different speed/jump height stats. - You can select from a wide range of Super music or use a music randomizer (experimental currently) to listen to your favourite tracks while breezing through levels. That's pretty much all there needs to cover. Obviously, not a lot but there'll eventually be more things coming up I've said publically and more discussed internally that will be in subsequent builds so stay tuned for that. Also credits to giovanni.gen for the clips
Just pushed a hotfix build addressing a few issues: fixed out-of-bounds places in GHZ you won't be able to grab more than 999 rings no matter what monitor you destroy due to an issue surrounding the drill dive which breaks gliding as Knuckles, it has been disabled in this demo until I can get it fixed in a future update set Final Zone boss hit counter back to 8 Due to the continued stress of working on this project, I'll sway away from doing any active development for some time. I plan to push a few more hotfix updates soon alongside showcasing previews for an upcoming second demo with its release date sometime within the next month or so. Thank you all for the support!
I do have to agree. That said, while I am not a video guru, perhaps a full feature preview would suffice Also note to all, please see the updated hotfix link as it contains bugfixes for things you may have found in the demo release.
For context, I had this in the works: I couldn't get it done in time as I was struggling to set up a cool VHS effect that would go along with the standard resolution I applied. Hopefully, I'll greatly improve the production of these preview vids in future announcements.
