Primarily, I was to dissect and explain the Palmtree Panic Zone boss,
which is pretty complex in design by comparison to how effortlessly it
can be beaten, so that he could reproduce it flawlessly. During this
time, I personally reconstructed the boss myself using my existing port
of Sonic 1 to GBA/DS to make certain that I was understanding it
correctly. At the same time, I also had a personal interest in Sonic
CD's Special Stage, which I had also been dissecting, and continued my
work with it in order to both provide assistence (though not direct)
with Christian's Sonic CD build, and to attempt my own with the DS
As both projects continued, I saw merit in the idea of pitching the
concurrent development of a DS version of the game, which would require
such a low-level remake as mine due to the fact that the DS wasn't
powerful enough to support a scripting-based game engine like Retro
Engine. Given that, I set out to make a complete POC, which was taken
pretty much to completion
Unfortunately, once Christian's version was formally accepted and he was
under contract, I would no longer be able to associate with the project
and was therefore without a means to get the concept off the ground. I
had no other contacts, and with this being Christian's first project
with the company, he understandably couldn't take the sort of risk that
would have been involved in attempting to take care of it himself
Other inhibiting factors would have included the fact that Sega was
moving toward digital distribution, and a DS version of Sonic CD would
have absolutely necessitated a cartridge. The audio quality would also
have to have been sacrificed, which may have been another factor. It
also wouldn't be long before the DS and DSi gave way to the more
powerful 3DS, and with Christian's Retro Engine already on-hand, this
particular project was no longer of any commercial use, and therefore
was cancelled permanently
The project has since collected dust, and is now being presented as-is
for the sake of novelty. It can not and will not be continued. Most
errors are known and reports are not desired; there will be no updates
CREDITS
Sonic Team/Sega are responsible for the original Sonic CD game
reproduced here
The majority of the work that went into this project was performed by me
(Stealth - www.headcannon.com)
This project uses MaxMod (www.maxmod.org) for audio
The module music used in this project was set up by me, and is just
downsampled audio tracks duct-taped to mostly do-nothing XM data
WHAT WORKS
General -
-Sonic
-Tails
-Knuckles
-Title Screen and Menu
-Level End Sequence
-Animated Tiles
-Invincibility, Sneaker, and shield powerups
-Time Travel (Activate time post and run at full speed for a few
seconds)
-Palmtree Panic Zones 1-3, all time periods, all objects, including boss
-Special Stage with entry from big ring (appears at level end when you
have 50+ rings)
WHAT DOESN'T WORK
-Basically anything that wasn't listed in "WHAT WORKS"
USAGE NOTES
Hardware
- Copy the main "SonicCD" folder (which contains "Player", "R1", etc..
subfolders) to the ROOT of the SD card. It will not work from any other
location
- Place SonicCDDS.nds anywhere on the card
- Run SonicCDDS.nds
No$GBA (Recommended for emulation)
- Run SonicCDDSFull.NDS
DeSmuME (Not recommended)
- In the "Emulation" menu, select "GBA Slot", and from the dropdown menu
that appears, select "MPCF Flash Card Device", and then click "Use path
of the loaded ROM"
- Ensure that SonicCDDS.nds is in the same folder as the main "SonicCD"
folder. Do not put it inside the "SonicCD" folder
- Run SonicCDDS.nds
- This emulator exhibits a lengthy delay before the initial disclaimer
screen appears
- This emulator exhibits a noticeable stall when the music changes
- The Special Stage runs at half speed when played in this emulator
USAGE INSTRUCTIONS
Main Menu
Navigate through options using up/down on the D-Pad
Change most options by navigating to that option and using left/right on
the D-Pad
Change the selected game by navigating up beyond the "Title" option and
using left/right on the D-Pad
Change "Round" by using A/B, X/Y, and L/R to change each individual
component
Select an option by pressing Start
Gameplay
Use the D-Pad to move, and A/B to jump
Use R trigger to toggle Debug Mode. While in Debug Mode, A and B become
object cycle and placement