Sonic Origins Collection - General Thread

Here's everything I use.

Gives me just about everything I want, except Time Travel Overhaul and per-stage S3 OST selection. Guess CDecomp and S3AIR still have a monopoly on those.

 

And all that through HedgeHogManager, right?

 

Seems to be.

Is Sonic CD intro music restoration restoring the non-beta vocals that don't sound like "shave the planet?"

 

So I’m indoctrinating my sister into the cult of Sonic, starting by setting her up with Origins on my old laptop. Question is, what are the best mods to bring Origins up to scratch in the most straightforward way possible? Ultrafix is, of course, a given, but the go-to sound mod seems to be the HQ OST packs. Trouble is, I’ve never liked these mods because they entail an absurdly unnecessary amount of choice and unconscionable amount of data. All I want to do is download something that replaces the tracks already in the game with versions that don’t sound dogshit, and that shouldn’t require 22GB of files.

Thanks for your help, Retro.

 

Lucky you, Ultrafix updated literally today to include HQ music and SFX, which you can configure in the mod menu.


I just set all of them to 'remastered' except for Sonic 3, which I leave on 'stock' and use the S3AIR OST mod instead. So now my modlist is shorter than it was last week.



Definitely get the DEZ expanded mod though, since I still think it's bullshit that Sonic 2 Death Egg gives you no rings even in a modern incarnation that's supposed to be accessible.

 

Speaking of Origins Ultrafix... this is out now!

 

Still need to try the update, but can't wait to see what it's like based on SCD stuff alone.

Another Origins thing, I was in London for the Sonic Symphony this weekend (loved it btw), and I noticed they updated the S1/S2 footage to be from Origins instead of the mobile versions, but oddly not S3&K, which was still in 4:3. Specifically, it showed at least from one level from each side of the game with the S&K title screen and S3&K logo in the ending, I think. I'm not sure why this is the case, maybe they just really wanted to keep the Sonic & Knuckles title screen to represent the latter character if the S2 medley represents Tails, which of course is absent in S3&K-only Origins outside of the new cutscene transition. It's not like the port is 06 levels of buggy in needing to be edited around, or too unpopular if Colours Ultimate footage is used.

 

I agree with you there. I do enjoy Advance 1 & 3 but they really just need to zoom out the camera. I'd probably even enjoy 2 if I could see where I was going. Games could be completely untouched for all I care as long as I can see the entirety of the level then i'm happy.

 

Played through the games again in UltraFix's recent update (incl. Knuckles S3&K story), and it's been really nice to see small specific gripes I've had like bugged S3&K cheats or lack of universal Max Control finally be addressed. Still got S3&K's stricter RSDK(?) crushing and physics differences, and such things still all should've been fixed by Sega in the first place, but coming off playing without this or that minor nitpick in mind feels great. I hope it joins the official ranks of beloved classic Sonic tetralogy fan projects if it hasn't already. And if more developments are made on S3&K/HE2 hacking, they'll cook even further.

Might want to round out the collection with the emulated Game Gear titles, but I can't tell how detrimental the input lag is for them.

 

How are you enabling Max Control? I didn't see that listed in the most recent changelog. Being able to use that across the collection would be a huge upgrade.

 

Spoiler

The respective missing moves have been added as secret cheat codes that reflect their origin game release dates. 10, 18 for the Insta-Shield in Sonic CD and 01, 09, 09, 03, 00, 09, 02, 03 for the Super Peel-Out in Sonic 1 and Sonic 2.

 

I'm curious as to why ultrafix hasn't tackled this yet, it seems like it'd be #1 on the list of priorities for gamefeel?

 

Because S3K isn't decompiled yet so they can only do simple DLL injections.

 

They haven't tackled it for the other games either; I got unfairly crushed multiple times in Mystic Cave Zone in particular in places I certainly wouldn't have in the original games.

 

With Sega delisting versions of Spinball/3D Blast/Mean Bean/Fighters alongside other titles, it's a shame only the 8-Bit versions of half of those currently have a permanently non-Switch Online, non-Lost Judgement extra home in Origins Plus, if I'm not mistaken. If updates hadn't dried up, maybe that could've been easy DLC like the Game Gear titles whose eShop was about to die. You can still buy half their tracks in the collection, tho! But then again, Game Gear games seem to have some input lag and they'd probably want to account for the Chaotix/SegaSonic contemporaries too, especially after the former was also part of the music DLC, creating an expectation there.

 

Yeah I'd pay an extra twenty bucks for the seven remaining classic games, proper anniversary modes for the GG games, and basically just implementing Ultrafix officially. Bring the game up to a full 60 dollar release at the same time you make it actually worth the money. There are a limited number of 90s Sonic games! You only have to make the perfect collection release of them once. Which is why they never will.

 

So SegaSonic/Mean Bean/Spinball/3D Blast/Chaotix/Fighters/R? Don't forget Sonic Eraser! Although I think GG Anniversary Mode would basically be like making 12 new remasters at once.

Makes you wonder if Origins Plus would look quite differently if they got around to the emulation/trackball issues with Chaotix/SegaSonic years ago.

 

I don't. I mean, I guess I don't know the limits of ROM hacking, but I'm not saying they need actual retro engine ports. There are definitely hacks to make 2D emulated games widescreen, and even if that's a bridge too far, most of these games have Master System versions with expanded resolution, have had artificial screen extension in emulators for years, or have hacks to make them into Master System versions, like Triple Trouble. After that all I'd really want is implementation of the Origins lives system, adding rings to the boss fights, and expanding the inventory in Tails Adventure. It's not like there's really much to be done for Labyrinth, Mean Bean, Spinball, Skypatrol or the 2 Drift games, anyway.

Also, Sonic Eraser is being sent to video game purgatory where it belongs.

 

Sonic 1's stages already last like 30 seconds each and all but revolve around lives and score to be counted at the end; surely there's something that can be done to these games for an anniversary mode other than pasteurize them.

 

Short of radically transforming their gameplay into something pleasant, I have no ideas.