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Sonic Mania: Hacking Discussion

Discussion in 'Engineering & Reverse Engineering' started by Chimera, Aug 29, 2017.

  1. Dark Sonic

    Dark Sonic

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    Beefed up regular and Super Emerald sprites? Also interesting. I wonder why those exist? Is it possible the Blue Spheres stages were originally going to be the special stages until they came up with something more interesting?

    Amy AND Hyper no less. Very interesting. So it at least crossed their minds to make Amy a playable character. I wonder how far she got before she was axed, along with the Hyper forms.

    Unless this is just DLC confirmed :specialed:
     
  2. Cooljerk

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    Leftovers from their Sonic 3 & Knuckles pitch perhaps?

    Really interesting shit
     
  3. McAleeCh

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    Before everyone runs away with themselves without checking things, I should point out the "Amy" image is clearly edited (badly - just look at the lettering on Amy's name compared to the others!) - looking in the the archive posted in Chimera's post above show's the real version of the image has the small numbers filed to the right of "HYPER"/"GOT ALL"/"KNUCKLES" and the "CONTINUE" graphic to the right of "TAILS".

    The "HYPER" text is totally legit, though.

    What's really interesting is the signpost graphics (Objects2.gif in the sprites/global folder of the same archive) - the graphics for all three characters' end signposts are there, with Tails and Knuckles' labelled with a crudely-drawn "T" and "K"... after which there's two more copies of Sonic's signpost, labelled "M" and "A". Were more characters planned early on in development? If so, my bets would be on Metal Sonic and Amy based on those initials.
     
  4. Cooljerk

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    The hyper stuff is more interesting to me than Amy anyways :v:
     
  5. Chimera

    Chimera

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    Yeah the only thing surprising is the fact the emeralds are actually updated sprite wise. I think that may be in part because Mania was originally a S3K remake pitch so those are probably left over from when the game was in that state--or the emeralds were gonna be collectable in a blue sphere minigame etc. Really its just that they're updated that's interesting.

    Same thing with the Hyper text... Looks like it was planned? SEGA was probably iffy on the verdict and eventually said no after someone at PW pre-emptively drew up some "just in case" material. Or their workflow was to literally draw over the original sprite sheets /s



    Like yall said the REAL interesting thing is Amy. Her in the game?!? Either a case of pre-emptiveness again since a menu item's cheaper than a whole character, or she coulda been planned as an unlockable but was cut midway through or something. EDIT: my b.

    and just when someone references my post lmao. I didnt have the mind to check that file last night so whoopsie.


    Either way, I think we all know who we gotta put in first... maybe second :v
     
  6. Cooljerk

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    Unfortunately it's none of the above :v:
     
  7. Dark Sonic

    Dark Sonic

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    Hoping you mean some Metal Sanic :specialed: And hey his base is easier, he has sprites. Not so much for Amy. Also how could I forget, we need a Blue Knuckles who goes through all of Sonic's paths and display's Tails' name at the end of each act :v:

    I wonder if it gets to that point, if new characters are added via hacking will they have to be replacements or do you think we'll be able to just make a new character slot?

    On an unrelated note, has anyone found any codes for this game yet? Something via the level select sound test or button inputs?
     
  8. Chimera

    Chimera

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    I edit my post and you guys still quote my mistake.

    Retro's too fast for me smh.

    Dark: vety true, even though a lot will have to be reworked and his palette's actuslly heavily tied to Stardust Speedway Act 2. Fixable, of course, though we still need to find out how to work those palettes in the first place. Interestingly he does seem to use the level palette, so if we wanted to be fancy we could, in theory, edit the level palettes of every stage (provided there's any free space) and put in Metal's colors, and edit his purple reflection to match the level base color. Would be a neat subtle touch to make the mech look like he fits better. Maybe. Baby steps though.

    Also, other than re-shading Amy, we could definitely use the sprites made for her in earlier hacks i.e. amy in sonic 1, with permission of course. The Amy chibi-dolls might also give us a solid enough base on the "appropriate colors" for Mania as well, since chibi Sonic and Tails, for the most part, have the same palette big and small.

    The real challenge would be giving her propper inbetweens (something we'd need to do for Metal anyway even if we can just edit Sonic for the most part), and, well, I've been wanting to get into sprite animation :^) (not to mention the many talented pixel animators we have on these forums already would be more than qualified.)
     
  9. Cooljerk

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    youretooslow.gif
     
  10. redhotsonic

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    But will the downloadable version only be new ones too? Or will they contain the remixes? Seems like Google has no answers.


    EDIT:

    Someone made a save editor already.
     
  11. McAleeCh

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    Another interesting find from the previously-linked archive - in the sprites/title folder, logo.gif contains the graphics for the title screen's banner etc, and some additional graphics which form a logo for "Sonic the Hedgehog Discovery", which has been mentioned previously as the original name for the Mania project. Presumably the "Sonic the Hedgehog" portion would have been overlaid on the title banner, with the "Discovery" portion underneath as with the "Mania" text in the current version - in the final graphics, the word "SONIC" (sans "the Hedgehog") is baked directly into the banner graphic.

    There's also an early version of the red power-light the logo forms from, with added "POWER" and "ON" text, making it clearer what it's supposed to be. The text looks a bit wonky though, which probably contributed to its eventual removal.
     
  12. Dr. Mecha

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    The true challenge are the 3D models used for the special stages.

    Sent from my SM-G920P using Tapatalk
     
  13. sparkpinretro

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    I found this in Studiopolis's graphics, in Sprites/SPZ2/Objects2.gif, is this used?

    [​IMG]

    It looks like slot machine graphics to me, but I'm mostly curious about the Amy graphic.
     
  14. Chimera

    Chimera

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    Can't seem to find the LoveMachineā„¢ in Studiopolis, doubt it's used honestly. Likely was used as a temporary solution for an act 2 slot gimmick, which then was replaced with the BingoBalls machine. Amy being there is likely unrelated to her as a playable character, probably, and was more likely used for a gag. The thign looks like a "matchmaker" kind of thing, so it'd probably be the character you are matched with another character, and I can imagine Sonic + Amy giving him emote 3. Getting Eggman would probably give Knuckles and Sonic emote 2 and Tails emote 3 rofl. but how can you deny that hot egg
     
  15. Dark Sonic

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    Nope, that isn't used at all, and if it does it's so well hidden that I wouldn't even know where to begin to find it. But these look unfinished, so I bet it is unused.

    As for Amy's presence there? Who knows. I mean Eggman's there too, so it's possible she was an extra slot that would have awarded you something. Eggman might have taken rings away while Amy might have given you a 1 up or something? But the range of emotions are weird. Sonic has normal, sneeze, and sad, Tails has normal, happy, and sad, and Knuckles has normal, angry, and surprised? Eggman looks like he's foaming at the mouth.

    Also would anyone care to dump the Sonic Discovery logo?
     
  16. Cooljerk

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    Common trope in Japanese media is that characters sneeze when people talk about them. Maybe it was some sort of Love Connection gameshow type thing?
     
  17. sparkpinretro

    sparkpinretro

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    [​IMG]
     
  18. Dark Sonic

    Dark Sonic

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    ^Oh nice. The Mania logo is nicer though, I appreciate the name change.

    Interesting:

    https://tcrf.net/Sonic_Mania#I.27m_Outta_Here.21

    Apparently the Sonic CD "I'm Outta Here" can still be activated via RAM editing.
     
  19. The digital download that comes with the vinyl is only for the tracks on the vinyl, unfortunately. The fact that it's only new tracks and doesn't feature some of the best (Stardust Speedway 1, Lava Reef 2) turned me off buying it.
     
  20. Chimera

    Chimera

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    Unlike Sonic and Knuckles, Tails doesn't have a reaction in the game for when he gets hit with goo during the Chemical Plant cutscene.

    This, despite having those sprites.

    [​IMG]

    They look finished to me, and I can probably throw these sprites into a gifmaker to preview how they'd animate. Honestly seems like just a technical oversight to me.

    Tax? :specialed: