Sonic the Hedgehog Hacking Contest 2010

So we might actually have a "Best 3D Trophy" this year, good luck guys, although I'm not well knowledged with 3D game programming, I'm sure it's a somewhat hard yet fun thing to work on, and I hope to see some impressive 3D hacks soon =)

If I were to submit anything myself, I don't know what trohpy I would've gone for, they all seem more or less equal to me in terms of achievement, except the rick roll trophy of course (No offense to Selbi, I know you're going for that one =P).

 

This is the first hacking contest I actually have a chance to enter, IE able to submit something. Do I have to register for the contest ahead of time or can I submit whatever I have at the end of the deadline, with proper categories chosen of course?

 

Yes you can. But you have time to improve your hacks a lot more, so think before you send.

Speaking of time, can you put a link to a timer that counts back till the contest is over in the first post, Ayla? I cant really convert times properly.

 

Code (Text):

1. <?php echo intval((1280527200 - time()) / 86400); ?> days left to Hacking Contest Deadline (July 31, 2010).

Did it with some random countdown creator I found on Google. I'm not sure if you can include PHP scripts in forum posts, so I just give a link.

 

Thanks God you can't, that would be a major vulnerability, since you would get access to pretty much everything.

 

Actually I needed also hours (because I cant convert them really properly) Will it show the hours left when the day comes?

 

All hail javascript.

 

There is something I don't quite understand here:

This line is sorta useless. Lets say your limit is not to use a specific tool, say soned2. This will also forbid people from editing the layouts in hex, because thats exactly what that program does (so is editing palettes and object layout). Making almost all hacks (except technical) forbidden for the contest.

In other words, having a limit on editors would make this whole contest useless, and having no limit at all on editors makes the line 3 useless, therefore why keep that line in the first place?

(unless you used to limit editors in prior contests)

Also I came to ask, who is going for the new super/hyper trophies?

=P

 

I think it's just for clarification. Some people consider using certain tools as 'cheating', and this rule clarifies that this isn't the case with this contest.

 

I hate to ask a few questions that may have been asked before, but I don't fully understand the new rules. I've read over them a few times and I'm still unsure of what to make of a few things.

1) Specifying categories.
With my hack, I don't have the faintest idea what category to put it in for. My hacks in the past have been mostly layout edits with a few other things done for good measure, like hex edits to a few things, or some small assembly work. Also, do you need to specify each and every category you want to try and win in?
Most of my hacks are also mainly my work, with help on a few small things from others. Does this mean that I have to put it in as a group hack or still as a solo? It's a bit of a grey area to me as to what.

2) What did you change?
This section puzzles me. For some people, I imagine typing out a list of each everything they have changed will be a tedious chore. Many small things could be done all over the place and I don't usually keep track of everything I have changed.

Also, if I do submit a hack and anything is wrong with the submission form, will the submission be void or will there be notice given that certain things are wrong?
Sorry for all the questions, it's just that I'd rather know where things stand now rather than 2 weeks before the deadline, for example.

 

It sounds like you might be talking about trophies. There are only three categories: Tech, Special Stage and 3D. If in doubt, list them all!

Good idea. What would happen if I entered Robotnik's Revenge in the Special Stage category, for example? I wouldn't be penalised with some kind of "nega-trophy", I assume! But you'd have to spend a while hunting through the hack and my description for the non-existent special stages. Seems pointless to me.

 

Might as well ask something myself before this topic dies again:

What do you mean by that? Binary file in a zipped archive for example?

Quite confused here, because I basically made my main hack myself, but got like the entire music and many other things from other people (those were however not working in any team of me, they were just friendly and gave me them). Now I'm confused if this still counts as Solo or is already a Group effort, as it's basically much more than 3 people.

Also, is there a limit of different hacks I may enter? Let's say I wanna get 4 trophies and submit a specific hack for each of them, is there a limit?

Thanks for any information. =)

 

Good stuff. I like how you've made the previous entries available along with how they were rated at the time. Playing through some of the stuff from contest 1 makes it really clear how far we've come. Forget my current hack - I'm starting work on a time machine so I can enter a copy of Sonic Boom in the first contest and score 278 out of 10.

 

Could I suggest more trophies? (they may sound like crap)
Rings&Chain Trophy - best new partners combination (I.E mighty and ray *runs*)

Tails Trophy - best new AI for the partner. Instead of having a controller input with a split second delay (sonic 2 beta), have a damn good AI that makes the partner do something like kill an enemy when its close or (if tails) fly to sonic when sonic is standing too high.

SA3 Trophy - best new partner special move. I always had an Idea in mind for a sonic doing a peelout and tails holding him on the back while running at supersonic speeds.

I wonder who will win one of my suggested trophies....

 

Those trophies seem a bit wasteful for a few good reasons:

Firstly, the differences between the games being hacked, I'll stick with using Sonic 1 and Sonic 2 as an example (As there are multiple games that could be hackable), in Sonic 2, the A.I. is pretty much already done for you, there as with Sonic 1 that's not the case, so if one were to make an almost replica of Sonic 2's A.I. onto Sonic 1, would they win the trophy for the hard labour of producing the A.I. in sonic 1 in the first place? Or if it's about design and setout, making the damn thing should be creditable enough don't you think?

Secondly, I can only see Sonic 2 (Or even S3&K) hack's winning this, I mean c'mon, how many Sonic 1 hacks do you know which support two player A.I.? This wouldn't work well for those working on Sonic 1 and comes accross as a bit unfair.

 

You're right, it is completely unfair for sonic 1 hackers who have no asm skill at all. But what about people who has no taste in music? Wouldn't that make the piano trophy unfair? What about people who cant draw shit, does that mean windy valley trophy is unfair for them? If you've noticed, the only technical hacks that won this trophy were sonicgba, sonic 1 32x sonic boom and blue balls and blocks. That trophy is unfair for newbies who just entered and has no tech knowledge. I assume that reducing the partner trophies would be better:

Rings&Chain - best new partner, period.

Also another trophy I had in mind (not partner related):

Tails Trophy - Most annoying thing in a hack