Sonic Origins Collection - General Thread

My first game was Sonic 3&K on PC so sharp pixels are what I'm used to.
Same with the music, but the genesis music for Ice Cap is unarguably better

 

What Sonic Origins did was not comparable to the blur of an RF cable on a CRT TV.

 

I'm still one of those heathens that genuinely prefers perfectly sharp pixels over the blur of CRT via RF. Send me to hell.

 

Yeah I know, I wasn't trying to imply that, mind you. I just don't care about blurry pixels in general. Make those pixels so sharp I could cut myself on it, por favor.

 

Sharp pixel gang.

 

Well, guess I'm not the only one who likes sharp pixels. Haha.

 

When is this dropping on PS5? I keep checking to update, and it says my game is up to date, but, obviously, none of the changes are there. So I assume it's coming later?

 

Add my name to the list of people who prefer sharp pixels. I remember the first time a friend showed me how to do pixel blurring in an emulator and my first thought was, "that's kinda dumb looking".

 

I was very surprised that we didn’t see S3&K on the Mini 2 with original music by M2’s sound team or Yuzo Koshiro for the MJ team tracks. Kinda expected it, and then it didn’t happen.

oh well.

at least we have S3&K available again in some form, even if the versions of the proto tracks used are awful.

 

I prefer sharp on modern displays but my personal favorite remains CRT through scart for retro games. Glad to see they made this an option, though the filter there wasn’t THAT noticeable, which begs the question of why it existed in the first place. I assume most of us set Mania and RSDK CD, which had a similar filter, to “sharp” as well.

 

Is it 2.001.000?

 

Could be possible it’s out for certain regions and not others yet.

 

Ok, I made a mistake. I do have the update. Didn't realize the option was "anit-aliasing". So turning that off gives you nearest neighbor pixels. My fault.

 

Personally my order of preference is CRT filter > sharp pixels > blur filter. I’m kinda confused why people are associating CRT filters with blur filters but to me they are two different things.

 

A CRT filter simulating a professional video monitor, a la Mania's "CRT Sharp" filter, is usually my go-to for retro pixel games. The scanlines and CRT effect can help blend the pixels together and create a more cohesive image without a loss of sharpness/the added blurry effect often seen with a bilinear filter.

That's to say, it's still a bummer that neither of Mania's CRT filters were included in this patch. At least they're easy to add on PC with mods.

 

I'm guessing the issue is that creating "new" versions of the non-MJ tracks would feel too inauthentic in Sega's eyes to represent the classic games with, even if they claim that's what Origins' renditions are. Remember they wouldn't even allow a Boss Rush mode to change the aesthetics of S2's boss fights in scrapping Egg Gauntlet Zone. Earlier prototype non-MJ music, as "earlier" as it is and presumably simply the latest prototype music they had on hand, still kinda counts as that. Granted, they did make a brand new Super theme as a special case of a song that "should've" existed for the game in the first place, but that needed to be created from scratch compared to there being existing, "serviceable" non-MJ music they otherwise have no reason to not just use instead, rather than spending more money commissioning tracks to replace existing music of the game's development. Did SCD's remaster also make a new song or reuse an obscure song from an SCD album or something?

Pretty good fixes from this patch that do address some personal criticisms I've mentioned before. Stoked they finally fixed the Sonic & Tails crashing issue after all this time. The only game crash point I can think of that remains is using the "No & Knuckles Branding" cheat code on the Slot Machine Bonus Stage. Also might as well make Sonic & Tails (and Amy & Tails) a default option for S1 again now that there's no reason not to, but eh. And their 2023 sprite game can now finally stack up with actually sharp pixels alongside fixing such options of the Game Gear stuff. I noticed S2 GG still has that weird audio volume fluctuation even on mono, and do some of the GG games maybe still have input lag?

I think it's not as simple as just throwing more money at the problem.

I think so. Alongside maybe the Spring SFX still lasting longer than it should and the Super Peel-Out and Super Theme disable cheats still breaking. From what I've heard, I'm guessing it's Mania physics and/or S3&K's values as interpreted by RSDK, and I'd wonder if that's here to stay, ingrained after all this time, though they did change SCD's levels and the filter quality of the game after a long while. Also whether that's something Headcannon would've changed with more development time or if they don't see it as an issue with the remaster, not that it isn't.

 

(throws yellow flag onto the field) They probably did but a visual bug is far less prioritized than, say, things that kill you when they shouldn't. This is how triage works in any sane project.