As mentioned previously, I'm still working on my S1 Hack (though on brief hiatus, until my exams are over in a couple of weeks).
Do what I did, download the Sonic 2 disassembly and start reading guides on z80 asm. This is exactly how I taught myself, then I just went on to hacking other aspect Sonic games. I did the same thing while teaching myself 68k asm as well. Picking up z80 asm isn't too hard once you got a basic knowledge of 68k asm. Also check out SMS power, they have great guides there as well.
It seems you are not alone after all. I'm also a bit of an MD hacker, I once made something I called Sonic 2 Pants Edition. I was bored, so I put pants on Sonic. I still have the ROM, though it's like two years old now. (I'm not even going to ask if anyone wants it, haha.)
I also have one where in Sonic 1 jump is a non-spin jump and you can shoot fireballs. Kills most enemies and destroys most objects...but doesn't all the time for some reason and also goes right through them even after destroying XD
Non-Genesis hacks have always seemed to be the minority to me. No one's really working on Adventure mods anymore, and I can count the notable, substantial Generations mods on one hand.
Yeah, exactly. Who said nobody's hacking Genesis games anymore? Last time I checked that's what's hacked the most. Also, I'm surprised nobody's mentioned Sonic 1 Extended Edition. Contrary to popular belief, it hasn't been cancelled.
Sonic 1 extended isn't cancelled??! That's great news! It's going to be one heck of a hack when it's out...
Yeah, whenever I want to tinker and try new ideas, Sonic 1 and 2 are usually much easier to use as a base, so yes I still use them prominantly. Sonic 3K is a fun game in potential, but it's also a nightmare to code.
I guess that would explain why there aren't that many hacks of Sonic 3 then, wow. As for me, I've made multiple attempts at creating a Blaze in Sonic 2 hack, seeing as I nearly finished a sheet of CylentNight's Blaze into usable animated frames. Never got anywhere besides simple tests since I hardly knew where to start, and other projects would get in the way of learning how to use anything besides Soniksprite anyway. (Which I did manage to get to work, but Blaze's tail and some of her head gets cut off, obviously.) I will bleed skittles if hacking new character sprites into a game isn't as hard as I thought previously; this thread is inspiring me to take another look into it.