I had originally attempted to contact someone who was, at the time,
listed as a "Producer" at Sega America, but for reasons I may never
know, I was never sent a response. This may have been at least partially
due to bad timing, as I attempted this very near Christmas, when Sega
employees would be taking off for the holidays, and their EMail boxes
would likely be filled, and shortly thereafter, the same site on which I
had previously seen this person listed as a "Producer" had changed his
position to some other thing I can't seem to recall. I had no other
channel by which to pursue this particular idea, and with the increasing
likelihood that this wouldn't be accepted so late in "Sonic Classic
Collection"'s development, I had to drop the project to focus on other
things
With Sonic Classic Collection having been released, the original
Nintendo DS and the DSi giving way to the more powerful 3DS, and Sega
having recently licensed Christian Whitehead's "Retro Engine" with his
reproduction of Sonic CD, this particular project was no longer of any
commercial use, and therefore was cancelled permanently
After the initial attempt to contact Sega, which included the 2009
portfolio video I've already published, demonstrating some of my work up
to and including the Sonic 1 portion of this project that was ported
over from my earlier GBA version, I continued to work on various aspects
of Sonic 2 and Sonic 3 in preparation for the possibility that I would
be contacted. Most of the work went toward things that I viewed as
potentially giving me the most trouble, with heavy focus on making sure
I could implement the Special Stages
One thing I wanted to highlight regarding this project was extra
content. Tails, Knuckles, and the elemental shields can be accessed from
within any of the three games and remain fully functional, and the Sonic
3 Special Stage has a map and a layout editing mode that includes two
entirely new sphere types
At some point during development, I had decided to attempt to make this
port multiplatform. For this reason, I also created a GBA/DS video
hardware simulator and made other efforts to ensure that each version
would compile from the same code with minimum changes. I had
accomplished this, but due mostly to the processing expense of the video
hardware simulation, I only really met with success on PC, with Windows
being the only supported OS. For audio, this version uses a slightly
modified, earlier form of the sound mixer and XM audio player I wrote
for E02
Later in the life of this project, I had decided to attempt contact with
Sega again during the first Sonic Boom event, and to pitch another
project, Sonic Megamix. In preparation, not only was Sonic Megamix
itself updated to leave important parts in a more presentable shape, but
I also modified this project to include its first zone and some of its
features, as demonstration that I was prepared to re-create the project
for multiple platforms. I was unable to actually meet with anyone
regarding this, and have since had experiences which have made it clear
to me that Sega taking on this project is very unlikely for a multitude
of reasons, not the least of which being that licensing with all
contributors will would be very difficult, and that given its
feature-richness, it would be extremely time-consuming and costly to
perform adequate QA. In short, it's too much of a risk from the
standpoint of a major business
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 the Hedgehog
games reproduced here
The majority of the work that went into this project was performed by me
(Stealth - www.headcannon.com)
Various members of Team Megamix (www.teammegamix.com) are responsible
for some of the content in the "Megamix" portion of this project
This project uses MaxMod (www.maxmod.org) for audio (DS version only)
The module music used in this project is from "Sonic Project"
(http://sphere.chronosempire.org.uk/~HEx/sonic/)
Steve Snake, who is, among other things, the author of Kega Fusion,
provided some helpful tips in dealing with graphic emulation for the
multiplatform version
WHAT WORKS
-General
-Sonic
-Tails
-Knuckles
-Invincibility, Sneaker, and regular shield powerups
-Elemental shields with special abilities, including ring attraction
-Level End Sequence
-Animated Tiles
Sonic 1 -
-Title Screen
-Title Card
-Green Hill Zone acts 1-3 with all objects and boss
-Labyrinth Zone act 1 without most objects
-Special Stage with entry from big ring (appears at level end when you
have 50+ rings)
Sonic 2 -
-Emerald Hill Zone act 1 without most objects
-Corkscrew object without proper animation
-Special Stage with entry from starpost (touch while carrying 50+ rings)
Sonic 3 -
-Angel Island Zone acts 1-2 without most objects
-AIZ1 tree (sometimes)
-Miniboss fire cutscene
-Miniboss
-Level chaining
-Bombing cutscene
-Zone Boss cutscene
-Zone Boss
-Bonus Stage entry from starpost (touch while carrying 20+ rings)
-Special stage with entry from big rings placed throughout levels
-"Blue Spheres" stages (manual or randomized "magic number" selection)
Megamix -
-Sunny Shores Zone acts 1-3 (v4.0b)
-Both old and new SSZ bosses
-Homing Attack (mostly)
-Light Speed Dash (mostly)
-Special Stages
WHAT DOESN'T WORK
-Drowning
-Emerald Hill Zone background and animated palette
-Angel Island Zone Background and animated palette
-AIZ1 tree (sometimes)
-Sonic 3 Bonus Stage gameplay
-Some sounds are incorrect (Didn't rip them all)
-Some music is incorrect (Mostly substitutions due to lack of existing
modules. Planned to replace them with better SMPS2XM exports than the
one I created for Sonic 3's Special Stage)
-Some graphics are garbled
-Basically anything that wasn't listed in "WHAT WORKS"
USAGE NOTES
Hardware
- Copy the main "Sonic1" folder (which contains "Sonic1", "Sonic2",
etc.. subfolders) to the ROOT of the SD card. It will not work from any
other location
- Place SonicDS.nds anywhere on the card
- Run SonicDS.nds
No$GBA (Recommended for emulation)
- Run SonicDSFull.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 SonicDS.nds is in the same folder as the main "Sonic1"
folder. Do not put it inside the "Sonic1" folder
- Run SonicDS.nds
- This emulator exhibits a noticeable delay before the initial
disclaimer screen appears
- This emulator exhibits a noticeable stall when the music changes
- There are additional level graphics errors (mostly missing tiles) in
Angel Island Zone when played in this emulator
Windows
- Ensure that sonicwin.exe, inst.bin, samp.bin, wavs.bin, and xm.bin are in the same folder as the main "Sonic1"
folder. Do not put them inside the "Sonic1" folder
- Set desktop color depth to 16bit color. The renderer does not support
32bit desktop color
- Run sonicwin.exe
- There are a few graphic, sound, and logic anomalies not present in the DS version due to incomplete implementation
- There is no second graphic screen, and therefore, no map or editor for the Sonic 3 Special Stage
- The main menu is handled by a Windows "Static" object in a secondary window
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 Zone and Act by using A/B and X/Y
Select an option by pressing Start
Change the "Magic Number" for "Blue Spheres" by navigating to the "Blue
Spheres" option and using left/right, A/B, X/Y, and L/R to modify each
component
"Randomize" will choose a random "Magic Number" for the "Blue Spheres"
game
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
Touch the options on the second screen to enable powerups-
0 - No Shield
1 - Sonic 1 Blue Shield
2 - Sonic 2 Blue Shield (Not implemented)
F - Fire Shield
L - Lightning Shield
B - Bubble Shield
I - Invincibility
S - Speed
Sonic 3 Special Stage / "Blue Spheres" Editor Mode
Press R Trigger to enter/exit editor mode
Hold Select and press L Trigger to clear the level
Use left/right on the D-Pad to select an object to place, or tap the
object in the row at the bottom of the screen
Use up/down on the D-Pad to pan the map up or down. The map wraps
around, but scrolling in either direction is restricted by the player's
position
Touch the screen to place the selected object at that location in the
stage
Green Sphere - This sphere effectively takes two hits. One hit will turn
it into a normal blue sphere, that must be hit again to turn it red.
Green spheres will not turn into rings when surrounded by red spheres
Purple Sphere - Touching this sphere will teleport you to another purple
sphere placed somewhere in the level at random. There will be a brief
pause after teleport to allow you to get your bearings
