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Sonic ERaZor 8 (2025) – Now In Widescreen!

Discussion in 'Engineering & Reverse Engineering' started by Selbi, Jun 10, 2011.

  1. Selbi

    Selbi

    The Euphonic Mess Member
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    Sonic ERaZor
    Sonic ERaZor 7 (2024)
    (or, Sonic ERaZor – Seventh Public Release, if you prefer it old-school)



    This is a complete overhaul of the classic, chaotic, explosion-filled Sonic the Hedgehog (16-bit) ROM hack, and it marks the first new release since 2016! Work on this update began in October 2023, and it took a full ten months to see its completion. Besides adding new stuff and fixing bugs, improving a ton about the poorly aged game design was just as important: if something wasn't fun, it got mercilessly rethought and reworked, or just straight up rewritten from scratch – with a few deliberate exceptions for nostalgia's sake.
    In a way, this update was like finishing a beta after almost a decade.

    If you aren't familiar with ERaZor yet, I suggest you take a brief look at the wiki page first.

    Download
    You need a Sega Genesis/Mega Drive emulator to play (or real hardware)!

    Stop me if you've heard this one before: "Final version of Sonic ERaZor." Yeah, we're beating that dead horse once again, though this time it's at least been a while – 8 years since the last release, to be precise. Don't get me wrong, I really do mean I originally had no plans to work on it again. Hell, I even made the source code public. But then something happened – that's right, redhotsonic happened. While I did spot the odd bug or design quirk here and there over the past few years already, it was his video – specifically the showcase of a massive, unavoidable hard crash if the game ran without SRAM – that finally made me break my oath. So, uh, thanks? :V

    But after almost a decade of silence, I didn't want to release a new version only containing a single bugfix. One thing led to another, and suddenly this revival grew into its own beast. A lovely beast, though; I haven't been this excited about anything tech-related in actual ages. It is genuinely a great feeling to look at the clock and see it's already 3 a.m. because I got so lost in the zone while working on something I'm passionate about. I missed that feeling. If there's anything you might want to take away from this sappy ramble, it's this: don't worry about dusting off the ol' reliable. If working on it makes you happy, that's all that matters.

    Ahem. Now that we're done with the lore recap, I'm delighted to talk about the update itself.


    Highlights
    Originally, I wanted to post the full changelog here. But, uh... it's easier to list the things that haven't been changed. So, for the sake of brevity, here is just the basic overview of some of the highlights in ERaZor 7:
    • Introduced Casual/Frantic Mode (see below for more info, it's a big one)
    • Reworked. Every. Single. Level. Some more and some less, but all in some significant way. For the most part it was to reduce awkwardness, but there's also a ton of new cool content. I won't spoil anything though~
    • Massive engine overhauls courtesy of vladikcomper, including the implementation of his amazing MegaPCM 2 sound driver (along with a fancy Sound Test screen)!
    • Added fancy new and improved cinematic Black Bars! So fancy, in fact, that they are so fancy they behave differently between emulators and real hardware, so it also comes with a custom configuration screen.
    • Speaking of real hardware... full compatibility with real hardware! Yes, even without SRAM :V
    • Rewrote every single custom screen mode from scratch (most notably, the story text screen – boy, that code was a mess).
    • Oh yeah, regarding stories: everything text-related received a total rewrite. English hard.
    • Completely overhauled Uberhub Place to hopefully feel more engaging now. But if it still isn't your thing...
    • Added "Skip Uberhub Place" and "Skip Story Screens" options, for that authentic playthrough-in-one-sitting-without-interruptions experience (inspired by "Straight Version", for those who remember).
    • Added "Photosensitive Mode" option to turn off all flashy lights and camera shakes. Furthermore, the intensity of flashy lights has been reduced a lot in general – no more epilepsy warning necessary, dear YouTubers.
    • Added two new unlockable options and greatly overhauled the existing one, all in an effort to loosely connect them to the ERZ letters from the game's name.
    • Added/reworked tons of easter eggs! Which means I can't tell you anything about them...
    • And in general, just a plethora of bug fixes and general quality-of-life improvements!

    Casual/Frantic Mode

    [​IMG]

    In a nutshell, this is a difficulty selection screen, though quite a bit more involved than just the traditional "easy/hard". In fact, it might just be the single largest feature addition to ERaZor since... ever. It made the game much more accessible while also kinda giving it New Game+ on top. To understand what it's for, you need to understand why it was introduced in the first place.

    See, my attempts at balancing ERaZor have always been a never-ending tug-of-war – too hard scared off the casual players, too easy bored the seasoned ones. But one day I realized something: the main culprit for many people seems to be pressure. A challenge doesn't even need to be hard, something like the ring counter starting to tick down on its own was already enough for many players to feel overwhelmed.

    The solution came in the form of what started as a simple experiment: I did some research by watching a ton of YouTube playthroughs, identified the pain points causing the players the most trouble due to pressure, and made those optional. Originally, I had low expectations for this to make any difference at all, but it didn't take long before it became apparent that this fixed everything and then some! No longer did I have to worry about a one-size-fits-all approach to game balance, I could simply make both modes equally fun in their own right. Let's take a closer look:
    • Casual:
      The main focus is the absence of pressure, allowing you to get comfortable with the game at your own pace.
      As a result, playing ERaZor becomes a much more relaxed experience and won't patronize you if you fail too many times (well, within reason).
      Plus, some of the tougher challenges are toned down a little.

    • Frantic:
      If Casual is the mode that reduces pressure, Frantic is its antithesis. It can be summarized as "removing the concept of taking-it-easy itself".
      For example, rings barely matter in Casual – in Frantic they often are uniquely tied to challenges as your literal life insurance.
      Furthermore, Frantic is ruthless, as it's specifically designed to be like a very strict but fair teacher to make you truly master the game.
      And while death might feel like an ever-present threat, there are some interesting twists exclusive to this mode to keep you going~
    Casual is the new baseline difficulty and is recommended for new players, but this is explicitely not a requirement: do you want to take your time or do you want to be constantly pushed forward? The choice is no longer mine, it's yours!

    Credits
    I want to give my most sincere appreciation to everyone in the ERaZor 7 squad and everyone else who helped along the way! Without you guys, this update would've been impossible to complete:
    • vladikcomper: The master of blast processing! He helped me out when I hit a severe technical roadblock that almost put the whole project into jeopardy (the black bars... long story). Furhermore, he optimized a tooon about the engine and implemented MegaPCM 2!
    • Chaotic SoFa: Doing a tooon of hardware testing and providing great feedback for almost any wild idea I had. In fact, he was my sanity check for whenever I went a bit too crazy.
    • fuzzy: A long-time fan-turned-friend who joined with the unique skillset of a programmer while also being very familiar with the base game. She made ERaZor even more ERaZor-y!
    • ajcox: Doing extensive video playtesting, uncovering the most bizarre bugs by doing stuff I would've never thought of. Also super helpful with ideas and feedback!
    • MarkeyJester: He's been helping with ERaZor for as long as it has existed, and he continued to be an amazing support for this update as well.
    • neonsynth aka. SonicVaan: The guy who made the original six versions playable returned to beta test this update as well.
    • Peanut Noceda: Helped during the early stages of the update project.
    • Give, Craze, and DeltaW: Additional one-time playtesting to get input from fresh perspectives.
    And a special bonus shout-out to amphobius aka. DalekSam! While we lost contact years ago, his amazing music ports are the DNA of ERaZor to this day. It wouldn't be the same game without him!

    Screenshots
    Do note that these deliberately avoid spoilers, so don't be fooled by thinking they tell you the full story. You have to play the game yourself!

    [​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG]


    Sonic ERaZor 8 (2025)
    (or, Sonic ERaZor – Eighth Public Release, if you still prefer it old-school)



    Download (Regular)
    Download (Widescreen)
    You need a Sega Genesis/Mega Drive emulator or real hardware to play—
    the widescreen version ONLY works for RetroArch with the Genesis Plus GX Wide core!​


    On January 17, 2010, the first public release of Sonic ERaZor hit the light of day. Today, fifteen years later, I am glad to go full circle with Sonic ERaZor 8, the ultimate bonus polish update of ERaZor 7!

    "But hang on," you might say. "If it's just a 'bonus polish update', why isn't it called ERaZor 7.1? Also, didn't ERaZor 7 only come out, like, four months ago?"

    How right you are, observant reader! But you see, after the overwhelmingly positive reception of ERaZor 7, I had so much motivation that what was originally just meant to be a "small bonus polish update" quickly got out of hand, and calling it 7.1 would've been grossly undercutting the amount of changes made. After much consideration, I've decided on the 8 and doubled down on the remaining work. But you got no idea how much can be achieved in only four months if you got the right amount of feedback, creativity, and of course dedicated people who help me put this little hack on a whole new level of polish!

    If you aren't familiar with ERaZor yet, I suggest you take a brief look at the wiki page first.


    Custom 16:9 Widescreen ROM

    [​IMG]

    The big one, and I take no credit for it: vladikcomper once again performed sorcery, managing not only to make ERaZor even faster, but also adding full, unencumbered 16:9 widescreen support! And it's not just a simple engine improvement, it's actually a fully separate ROM build. This allowed us to not only have more control over which parts needed to be adjusted, it also provided an excellent opportunity to fine-tune things like the menu screens, the HUD positioning, and the level boundaries just for widescreen!

    At this moment, this ROM only works properly in one emulator: RetroArch with the Genesis Plus GX Wide core!

    For the best experience we also STRONGLY suggest to disable sprite limits! Otherwise you may encounter significant horizontal sprite overflow, as the increased screen width allows more situations where over 20 sprites can appear per scanline.


    Highlights
    Just like last time, I can't give you an exhaustive list of changes—it's just too many.

    General:
    • Full 16:9 widescreen support for RetroArch with the Genesis Plus GX Wide core (custom ROM)
    • Save Select screen with three save slots and one no-save option
    • A bunch of new options to customize your playthrough: Arcade Mode, Alternate HUD options, finer control of Flashy Lights and Camera Shaking, Audio mute settings, refined ERZ unlockables
    • Brand-new Remastered Palettes across the entire game; don't worry, the old-school ones are still there as an option
    • Remastered HUD and title cards graphics
    • Insane performance improvements to the point where levels load near instantly now
    • The usual uncountable amount of bugfixes and polish touch-ups across the whole game
    Gameplay:
    • Double jump flag is now reset when hitting almost any object (a lot of new content is designed around this gimmick, but no spoilers :P)
    • All existing bosses have been rebalanced or partially redesigned (less RNG bs, hooray!)
    • Extended Green Hill Place; people rightfully called the stage too short
    • Added a new boss to the end of Ruined Place... in the broadest definition of the word "boss"
    • Added a new ending to Ruined Place which will definitely not be relevant later in the game
    • Streamlined Labyrinthy Place further to avoid unfair deaths
    • Star Agony Place is now an actual buzz wire game!
    • Added motivational messages to the final boss when you die and added a checkpoint before the escape
    • Probably more stuff that I can't remember at the moment
    • Refined all levels to tackle design quirks I saw in ERaZor 7 playthroughs (so this definitely wasn't a case of releasing the hack too early, because I straight up couldn't have known certain things before)
    • ...such as the roll-jump lock still being a controversial feature, which is why it's also removed now. In fact, this was the very first change I did as part of ERaZor 8, so thanks to Snoogleflorp for giving me that idea!

    Credits
    Most of the ERaZor 7 squad remained for the work of 8, but it would be a disservice to not mention them here:
    • Selbi: Project lead
    • vladikcomper: 16:9 Widescreen support, Save Select Screen and overhauled SRAM system, lots and lots of other technical magic
      (this guy deserves AT LEAST half the credits for this update, show him some love!)
    • Chaotic SoFa: Design advice and beta testing
    • ajcox: Video playtesting and beta testing
    • DeltaW: Video playtesting and beta testing
    • Javesike: Remastered palettes and title cards
    • zakku: Remastered HUD and other misc art help
    But I can't wrap up the credits without thanking the many people who helped me along the way as well! I'm sorry if I missed anyone, it's been 15 years. In alphabetical order:
    amphobius aka. DalekSam, CarrascoZX0, cloudiar, Craze, EduardoKnuckles, fuzzy, FraGag, Give, Irixion, iojnekns, Jorge, MainMemory, MarkeyJester, neonsynth aka. SonicVaan, redhotsonic, Spanner, Tongara

    Screenshots
    These images deliberately avoid spoilers. All screenshots are taken from the widescreen version!

    [​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG]
    [​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG]
    [​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG]

    [​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG]
     
    Last edited: Feb 7, 2025
  2. Wow, that's epic... More epic, than I last played it (link)
     
  3. Josh

    Josh

    Oldbie
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    Just beat it. MUCH less frustrating than I remember it, and much more enjoyable as a result. I actually found the special stage kind of fun, and chuckled at what happens in the end.
     
  4. That was tight

    But teleporting instead of instakilling really makes things easier
     
  5. dsrb

    dsrb

    Member
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    >Sonic doesn't fall in hole
    >I am disappoint
     
  6. Selbi

    Selbi

    The Euphonic Mess Member
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    Sonic ERaZor
    @Razor-ua: Thanks for the video! While I think I will probably do a video myself, it would pretty much look like your's, because you play excactly like I do. Is this happening to be a TAS?

    @dsrb: I tried it, seriously, but there's one major problem: The Sonic on the title screen doesn't have legs and I really didn't want to get somebody draw them for a 2 seconds sequence.
     
  7. dsrb

    dsrb

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    But absent-legged Sonic is probably even more fitting to this hack's ethos! ;)

    Anyway, I'll give this a try soon. Glad to hear the difficulty has been attenuated, if only because I'm an unskilled gamer! (Seriously, let's see how long it is until I defeat Seven Force on Normal. Normal.)
     
  8. Herm the Germ

    Herm the Germ

    Hmm, not bad. Well done, doctor! Member
    1,482
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    Dresden, Saxony, Germany
    MIDI-to-SMPS-conversions, mostly. Takin' requests, too.
    This is by far one of the most amusing hacks in the history of ever. Some very funny glitches were had too

    [​IMG]

    Overall, everyone involved made something quite funny if a bit unbeatable (but that's my own fault for being so unskilled :specialed: ).

    Best part to me was the use of Spark Mandrill's theme and Chaos Angel and that one Mega Man Zero track which I can't quite put my finger on right now. <3

    Awesome job. c:

    EDIT: Oh yeah, one thing that really surprised me positively was the implementation of a feature I waited to hear in a hack since I first heard it used in Shadow the Hedgehog: the music going and not restarting after you loose a life : D
     
  9. No, this is happening to be my nerdiness. That video was recorded after 5-10 tries... And playing previous release back in a day obviously helped me
     
  10. This is an awesome hack...I was surprised that I actually beat it!

    Very innovative and different...good job!
     
  11. Glad to see this finally released :)
     
  12. Yuski

    Yuski

    Dragons, dragons everywhere! Oldbie
    369
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    Ha, ha! Short hack but it's amazing! I loved Labyrinth and the Special Frustration. xD
     
  13. Spanner

    Spanner

    Zzz... Member
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    United Kingdom
    Falling asleep for once
    All I can really say is that it's less fucked up than the previous versions. Also, what do people think about the music? It fits, doesn't it?
     
  14. Selbi

    Selbi

    The Euphonic Mess Member
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    Sonic ERaZor
    Oh crap, almost forgot to put this here:



    It's a mix between speed run, walkthrough and just pure demonstration. :v:
     
  15. ashthedragon

    ashthedragon

    Sonic Paradise Researcher
    1,447
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    Sonic Paradise & Sonic Ages
    I've playing this, and I have to say this is one of the best hacks I've ever played. I love it.

    Alo, I've found a bug on the special stage. Sonic sprite corrupts and then, it uncurls.

    It doesn't affect gameplay, but..it's strange. Also, when you walk on the coloured blocks, his feets are in the blocks, not on it.

    [​IMG]
     
  16. Yuzoboy

    Yuzoboy

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    Very nice ideas have gone into this, well done:)
     
  17. Jimmy Hedgehog

    Jimmy Hedgehog

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    Getting the motivation to continue old projects
    I'm actually really enjoying this hack. The levels don't seem that difficult to me (though of course you did say it's easier than previous releases) and the special stage just takes a bit of getting used to. But yeah I really like this gameplay, fun stuff.
     
  18. Selbi

    Selbi

    The Euphonic Mess Member
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    Sonic ERaZor
    *Shameless bump...*

    So, here we are, over one month since the release. I decided to create a very small bugfix with minor modifications. I did all of these fixes today, not within the last month. I just felt like doing it again today. :V

    These fixes include:

    • Fixed Eggman having no face after defeating him.
    • Removed some of the non-working GOAL blocks in the Special Stage.
    • Made sure you will see all screens in the credits.
    • Fixed fighting two crabmeat bosses at the same time.
    • Fixed some issues with the Inhuman Mode in Green Hill Place.
    • Minor modification on the Press Start Button text and Sonic on the title screen.
    Thanks to everyone who reported these bugs and suggestions. :)

    However, I wasn't able to fix all bugs. The reason for this is, that I wasn't able to re-create some of the reported bugs, thus making it impossible for me to fix them.


    Downloadlink is the same: http://selbi.hapisan.com/erazor


    PS: You could say that this is a somehow a frustrated attempt to get more attention. Two years of hard work for two pages of replies wasn't really what I was looking for and it made me sad. It makes you feel like you just wasted your time, and we are talking about over 300 hours here. It just saddens me, that many people only care about modern hacking these days. Makes me feel like I joined the scene way too late.
     
  19. total

    total

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    "Many people"? Really? There are shitloads of sonic 1 and sonic 2 hacks, yet, not a single complete hack of any "modern" game.
    Nobody cares about anything above Sonic Adventure, except of getting resources (models, textures) for nothing (Do I need to mention dumb recolors and other crap)?. Actually even SADX hacking is (and always was) dead imo. And I doubt that one day things will change.

    PS: I'm sorry for going off-topic, but I was somewhat hurt by this statement.
     
  20. TheInvisibleSun

    TheInvisibleSun

    OVER THE TOP TECHNO-BLAST Member
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    The Water
    Don't feel discouraged; I love this hack, and I think it is very awesome. I don't post that often, (especially during school, as I am ridiculously busy then) so I haven't really been able to respond much. This hack is especially commendable for its craziness and unique qualities, which give it a special feel that one doesn't see very often in hacks. This is something I aspire to invoke when I finish my Sonic 1 hack. You've done a great job with this!