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Sonic 3 A.I.R. Release Thread

Discussion in 'Fangaming Discussion' started by 360, Apr 7, 2019.

  1. saxman

    saxman

    Oldbie Tech Member
    I've never tried A.I.R. before. I know about it only from what I have read here. But here are my thoughts...

    If I understand correctly, you ported the game's logic into scripts as opposed to recreating it. I don't know what the law is on this or how much grey area there is, but that by itself sounds potentially problematic.

    Using the data from the ROM as opposed to packaging it with A.I.R. was smart, and certainly what others have done to make free alternatives to popular games.

    Using a diff file to recreate S3K content, I'm fairly certain, is still illegal. Don't quote me on that, but that just seems logical to me that it would be. I think I have also read as much. If it weren't, everyone would be doing it to distribute everything for free, even if only in RAM. You could consult counsel on this if you want to be certain on the matter, but I would honestly just assume it's a no-go.

    Another poster mentioned not making it your concern how the ROM was obtained. I say "bingo"! In my non-legal opinion, you've already crossed into questionable territory by porting the game's logic and then calling it free. That should be your biggest concern, not how someone obtains the data. Though I'm not sure A.I.R. is much more legal than the split disassemblies, and Sega hasn't gone after those yet.

    Feel free to correct any incorrect assumptions I have made.
     
    Last edited: May 2, 2022
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  2. Mastered Realm

    Mastered Realm

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    Theoretically, you can extract most of the data from Sonic & Knuckles Collection Demo (which can legally be hosted anywhere).

    You can also make it compatible with the Sonic Classics Collection (NDS) rom, since that is trivial to dump if you have a modded 3DS.

    These are all still gray area though.

    http://retrocdn.net/images/0/0f/Sonic&KnucklesCollection_Demo.7z
     
  3. Eukaryot

    Eukaryot

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    Sonic 3 A.I.R.
    I've thought about this some more.
    The conclusion is that the idea to support Sonic 3D as well is just too risky to actually apply.

    To recap: As was brought up by several people here in the forums as well as on Twitter and Discord, there's two main problems with it.
    • First the fact that you would use one game (Sonic 3D) to play a fan remaster of a pretty much unrelated other game (Sonic 3 & Knuckles).
    • And also the actual process of ROM conversion, which can be seen as legally problematic as well.

    You could argue (like I did) that this is implemented with the only best intentions in mind - allowing new players to still get S3AIR running, while also letting Sega benefit from it.

    However, the described approach to support Sonic 3D is very much a big experiment, with unknown outcome.
    I'm not aware if anything comparable was ever done by a different fan project (of any game). It seems completely unproven if something like this could be acceptable or not. Or would in worst case be seen by Sega as a precendence they would need to act against. We just don't know.

    To avoid what feels more and more like an unnecessary risk of getting shut down, I'd rather step away from that idea.
    Instead, I might have a look at Sonic Origins when it comes out. Maybe it could be a source of data, or at least a sort of key for playing S3AIR. Despite the problems I mentioned, it's still an option after all.
     
    Last edited: May 2, 2022
  4. The Game Collector

    The Game Collector

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    Being Ted Narcotic's bass player; working on Kelly Kristjanson's tape archive; collecting video games
    Hey I got Sonic 3 A.I.R. running before the delisting without ever buying the game on Steam. I don't remember where I got it but it was probably just the bin file from some random website. I've got my original Sonic 3 cartridge, Sonic & Knuckles cartridge, Sonic Jam, Sonic Mega Collection on 3 systems, and Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection on 2 systems legally so whatever.

    I would say just make it compatible with the Genesis rom everyone probably already has. You know, the one that everyone on here uses to make rom hacks? Genesis carts can be dumped with Retrode 2.
     
    Last edited: Jun 10, 2022
  5. DigitalDuck

    DigitalDuck

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    TurBoa, S1RL
    They're literally the same ROM, you just have to name it correctly.
     
  6. RDNexus

    RDNexus

    Member
    This may seem like a stupid question or might've been asked bafore...
    Does anyone intend to try to insert A.I.R. stuff into the S3K remaster?
     
  7. Shaddy the guy

    Shaddy the guy

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    It's hard to know how moddable it will be due to different retro engine versions and denuvo, but you can be certain someone will try.
     
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  8. RibShark

    RibShark

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    Currently, trying to download the preview version for Windows or either the preview or stable versions for Linux gives a "quota exceeded" error from Google Drive. Might be worth considering changing to a new file host that doesn't have limits like this.
     
  9. Eukaryot

    Eukaryot

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    Sonic 3 A.I.R.
    I've added mirrors for both the Windows and Linux preview now, allowing for a download directly from the website.
     
  10. Eukaryot

    Eukaryot

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    Sonic 3 A.I.R.
    News for everyone who want to participate in the Sonic Hacking Contest / Expo this year with a Sonic 3 A.I.R. mod:
    There's a port of the SHC splash screen now!
    Find more info about how to include it into your mod in this tweet and in the latest S3AIR test build on Github.
     
  11. Eukaryot

    Eukaryot

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    Sonic 3 A.I.R.
    We just released a new stable update - actually the first one in almost an entire year filled with only smaller intermediate test and preview releases.
    You can find all downloads on the project homepage as usual.

    New features and options in v22.09.10.0:
    - Added a reduced version of the Options menu to the in-game Pause screen
    - Replaced the static main menu background with an animated (and moddable) one
    - Added an update check to the Options menu
    - Added option for maintaining shields between zones
    - Added option for using the Prototype Knuckles' Theme in the Hidden Palace fight against him
    - Added an option to activate Hyper Dash only if pressing any direction, like it's done in Origins
    - Added different Super Sonic Jump Ability options
    - Added option to make monitors fall down when hit from below
    - Added option to choose between main boss or mini-boss music for the FBZ 2 mid-boss / laser trap
    - For the highest anti-flicker setting, reduced intensities of Hyper Sonic screen flash and screen shake effects
    - Sound Test in Options menu now shows a proper name for each music track as well
    - Added DDZ to Act Select after reaching it in a normal game
    - Support for extended camera & camera outrun options in Time Attack
    Bug fixes:
    - Fix for a crash that can occur when entering the Options menu with certain controllers attached
    - Fixed that audio mods used reverse mod priority
    - Fix for positioning of Death Egg in SSZ end cutscene, which didn't work in all level layout settings
    - Fixed a S3AIR-specific collision bug for the MGZ spinning top
    - Also enabled several other glitch fixes previously prepared, like the "frame-perfect reset" bug
    - Fixes for Knuckles outro
    - Fix for a bug in Data Select when left + right is pressed at the same time
    - Fix for a bug that caused some keys on the keyboard to be mapped incorrectly
    - Fixed a possible soft-lock when using a bubble bounce to get on a MGZ spinning top
    - Fixed that infinite lives setting reset your life counter of save games back to 3
    - Fixed that in Time Attack or with Infinite Lives option, there was no ring sound for collecting a ring (or monitor) right when reaching 100, 200, etc. rings
    - Fixed that drop dash did not work on certain badniks (like Jaws, Blastoid, Mushmeanie)
    - Using the original emulated S&K credits medley now instead of the remastered on if emulated soundtrack is chosen (this ensures that the medley also works if no remastered soundtrack files are even available)
    - Fixed "Value stack error: Too many elements" that could come up when Knuckles' fight against Super Mecha Sonic took very long
    - Fix for wrong palette usage in LBZ 1 boss flash
    - Fixed a glitch when character gets hurt while triggering a SSZ teleporter
    - Fix for wrong animation sprite when Knuckles loses his super form while climbing
    - Fixed that pressing Accept and Back at the same time in main menu could mess up the menu
    - Fixed palette errors from the original game in some places
    - Enforcing a fixed simulation update rate of 60 Hz in Time Attack
    - Off-screen tails display for player 2 now correctly renders his tails as well
    - Fixes in the "Score Millionaire" achievement image
    - Fix for PS4 controller LED color when playing as Sonic & Tails
    - Removed the unnecessary "Back" buttons between mods in the mods options
    - Several fixes in scripts and documentation - thanks especially to Veenee, Lave slime and Dynamic Lemons
    - Plus a whole bunch of minor other fixes

    Other improvements:
    - Performance improvement to rendering in Blue Spheres stages
    - Optimizations for script loading speeds, e.g. when switching mods
    - Improved on the reliability of triggering Tails Assist
    - Small tweaks to make sure AI Tails drops out of his flight after respawn more consistently, when he's close to the player
    - AI Tails does not consume the bouncepads in the Gumball Machine bonus stage any more
    - Removed fast music track versions in options menu's sound test, unless dev mode is active
    - Better OpenGL compatibility checks, to avoid startup crashes on some machines that require fail-safe mode
    - Better support for high-DPI display scaling under Windows
    - Test for possible fix to save data folder visibilty under Android 11 and higher

    Modding:
    - A lot of script code improvements
    - More sprites added for modding (see "doc/modding/sprites")
    - Better support for strings in scripts (requires script feature level 2)
    - Added "Renderer.drawText" script function for easy text rendering
    - Added support for modded fonts
    - Added a better way of defining constants in scripts by using the "constant" keyword
    - Support for constant arrays in scripts
    - Added dynamic icons for input buttons like "@input_icon_button_A"
    - Added support for underwater Super/Hyper palettes
    - Added "Audio.getAudioKeyType" script function
    - New script functions for mod interoperability: "System.callFunctionByName", "System.getGlobalVariableValueByName", "System.setGlobalVariableValueByName"
    - Support for constant array definitions in a single line
    - Fixed that something like "stringformat("%02d", 0)" did only output a single 0
    - Now silently ignoring multiple includes of the same file in lemonscript
    - Integration of the Sonic Hacking Contest splash screen

    (Also, excuse the triple post in a row)
     
  12. Eukaryot

    Eukaryot

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    Sonic 3 A.I.R.
    Just in time for the 30th anniversary of Sonic 3, we're releasing lhe latest stable update of Sonic 3 A.I.R.!

    Highlights of this v24.02.02.0:
    • Controller rumble support
    • Ghost Sync online mode, where you see other players online at the same time
    • Improvements to the Mods and Options menus, incl. faster navigation, and warnings if mods are in the wrong order (if supported by the mod)
    • Many in-game bug fixes and touch-ups
    • Much smaller download size by leaving out the remastered soundtrack, you can download it from the Options menu
    • Quality enhancements for the OpenGL software renderer
    • Better performance for ZIP mod loading and script execution
    • New modding features and script language extensions
    (Full changelog)

    All downloads are now hosted on Github in addition to the project homepage.
    You can also find the full source code on Github, if you're interested.
     
  13. Blue Spikeball

    Blue Spikeball

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    Very nice!

    Question, is ghost sync only for time attack mode?

    And a suggestion: I think it would be nice if you also made the gamepad vibrate when the player:
    - gets hurt by a badnik, boss or hazard
    - destroys a badnik or breakable object (make it weaker for the former)
    - hits a spring or bumper (shorter/weaker vibration than prior cases)
    - destroys a monitor (even shorter/weaker)
    - uses the current shield's double jump move (also short/weak)
     
    Last edited: Feb 2, 2024
  14. Eukaryot

    Eukaryot

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    Sonic 3 A.I.R.
    Quite the contrary, it works when starting a game from Data Select or Act Select (not in Time Attack, though).
     
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  15. Felik

    Felik

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    Sorry if this was addressed already in one of the earlier builds, but did you add the FBZ->MHZ S&K cinematic into the game? Ever since I first saw it in Sonic 3 Complete, I just can't imagine a true modern port/remaster without it :V
    Even Origins has it!
     
  16. Blue Spikeball

    Blue Spikeball

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    You mean LBZ->MHZ?
     
  17. Felik

    Felik

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    oops, yeah
     
  18. Kobz

    Kobz

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    FLA
    It's not a complete 1:1 to what's in Origins (and maybe not Complete for that matter -- it's been a while since I've played it), but there is a mod that plays this after LBZ.
     
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