After a turnaround from last year’s showing, the Sonic Hacking Contest 2017 draws to a close with the winners of this year’s showing for trophies rewarded by both Hacking Contest judges and the community. The contest celebrated big this year for it’s 15th anniversary with a brand new website, a public showing at this year’s Fan Jam and featured a game industry participant, Jon Burton of Traveller’s Tales, with Sonic 3D Blast Director’s Cut. There’s plenty to be excited for this year’s showing of ROM hacks and mods for Sonic R, Sonic Heroes, Sonic Adventure DX, Sonic Mania and Sonic Lost World. You can discuss the results of the hacking contest after the jump or via the forum here. You can also watch the first part of the results show from MegaGWolf’s Twitch channel at the top of this post. You can then watch part 2 of the show here.
Browsing Category
Hacking
No longer a sub domain to Sonic Stuff Research Group, the Sonic Hacking Contest website launched on it’s own domain at http://sonichacking.org and it’s live right now along with your opportunity to submit your hacks for the event!
The stakes are going to be higher for everyone this year with the introduction of new quality control measures and newly split trophy requirements. If you are not participating, you can always hit up our forums to talk about the contest in this thread here. Are there any entries you’re excited to see? To bring you up to speed with the goings on with the contest hit the jump to check out some things to make note of.
Game News, Game Secrets, Hacking
Sonic 3D Director’s Cut ROM Hack Announced by Traveller’s Tales Founder
How’s this for a little role reversal? Where Sonic Mania features fan game developers work in a commercial Sonic game, a Sonic game developer makes works on a ROM hack?
GameHut is the YouTube channel run by Traveller’s Tales founder Jon Burton which recently celebrated his achievement of 25,000 subscribers. The channel provides a constant stream of video material showcasing old prototypes, special builds and insight on coding techniques of Traveller’s Tales’ work over the years. There’s a greater focus on Mega Drive material and more recently a focus on their work on Sonic R and Sonic 3D Blast / Sonic 3D Flickies’ Island. As an example I reported on videos on SEGAbits that covered a prototype for Sonic R and unseen footage of an unannounced sequel to Mickey Mania.
In a surprise announcement for achieving 25,000 subscribers on the channel Jon announced that he is working on releasing an unofficial patch for Sonic 3D titled Sonic 3D Director’s Cut that focuses on restoring content and adding enhancements to the game. This has no involvement with SEGA or any other company and is only being developed by Jon himself in his spare time. Details about the hack can be seen in the jump.
Retro Community Day is upon us as we play by our own rules. By that I mean Red Hot Sonic’s rules. We’re playing Sonic Bash with the community. Join your ol’ pal Bart, NeoHazard and special guest Red Hot Sonic, Overlord and others as we see who fights Robotnik best.
SEGA Channel Retro is the SEGA themed variety channel covering anything and everything related to Sonic the Hedgehog, SEGA and the community that supports it. We stream SEGA games, games on SEGA consoles, hacks, mods and more!
You can now watch our live streams on YouTube or Twitch! Also please consider donating to SEGA Channel Retro!
This Sunday at 8PM GMT (3PM Central), we’ll be playing games together with house rules. I’m hosting another Retro Community Day on SEGA Channel Retro. The channel reached over 1,000 subscribers on YouTube and over 400 subscribers on Twitch! To celebrate this, we’re going to be showcasing Sonic Bash, a hack where two players compete to defeat bosses by landing the most hits. Joining me (Bartman) on the horn is Neo Hazard as well as Red Hot Sonic the author of the hack.
You will need to download the hack along with Kega Fusion to get yourself ready for Sunday. Luckily you can find this from the hack’s old entry page from the 2016 Sonic Hacking Contest. This also features instructions on how to set up Kega Fusion for netplay which will be useful on Sunday. This is going to work differently since there’s no dedicated online infrastructure or friend list to work with, so we’re going to make use of the Sonic Retro Discord channel to help us out. Fill out this form here with your Discord handle and join the Sonic Retro Discord here so that we can keep track of you. Do this before 7:30 PM GMT Sunday to ensure your chance to play with us. (You can use that time to meet with us!)
We’ll have more information on how you’ll be able to play with us this Sunday at 8PM GMT. (3PM Central) But here’s a checklist to make sure you can join the celebration.
- Download Kega Fusion and Sonic Bash V2
- Fill out the entry form with your Discord handle
- Join the Sonic Retro Discord
- Join us at Sunday 8PM GMT on SEGA Channel Retro on YouTube and Twitch. Subscribing is encouraged!
Note about the Sonic Retro Discord: A bot is in place that allows us to see who joins in. You will need to wait for approval before you can post messages in the Discord channel. Keep in mind that it’s a matter of when mods are around to approve you. All participants will be approved before the community day starts!
Sonic Retro user Morph and several others have gone through Sonic Adventure DX and created a mod that restores the lighting effects that were previously seen in the original Sonic Adventure into the PC version. The difference gives off more vibrant colors in the environment that also reacts to objects and characters. You can download the mod from the discussion thread in our forums.
Lighting can be used to set a specific tone or mood in an environment. But why is it such a difficult thing to remain consistent when converting this to other game platforms? The game featured an artistic shift that occurred when the game was converted to other platforms. A combination of technical hurdles and creative liberties can dampen the original artistic intent, and Sonic Adventure is no exception. The original Dreamcast version featured a “Lantern” engine which provided impressive looking lighting effects using palettes on SEGA’s then cutting edge game console. However the dozens of ports of the game left out these lighting effects in favor of using drop shadows instead, until now. Check out additional videos, comparison screenshots and an interview with Morph on the mod after the jump!
We’re already talking about Hacking Contest in 2017? You bet! The Sonic Hacking Contest’s 15th anniversary is upon us all and they need your help in a big way! The early report brings about rule changes and new trophies are being introduced in next year’s contest.
New rules are set to enact new “quality control” measures for entries to give a bigger focus on the technical achievement for entries with a lower focus on referential humor. New trophies are being made to address entries made for other platforms such as entries for handheld platforms with the Advance Trophy, 8-bit hacks with the Crystal Egg Trophy as well as introducing new trophies to be voted on by the community at large.
You can read up on how you can get your entries ready by reading Spanner’s post on the forums that details the rule changes, trophy guidelines and more. But when does the contest start? You have nearly a whole year before the deadline which is set for Sunday the 8th of October. The contest week then goes between the 6th of November to the 12th. There is plenty of time before then, but don’t let it sneak up on you before you know it!
[Source: Spanner on Sonic Retro’s Forums]
The Hacking Contest for this year has concluded, and the results are in! Spanner a.k.a. SOTI has provided a write up on the forums for this year’s winners as well as some general thoughts on this year’s contest overall. You can read more information on the results on the Retro forums here. You can also hear reactions from the contest judges and see the winners in action on the Results Show hosted by MegaGWolf here. Hit the jump to see the winners for all the trophies of this year chosen by both contest judges and community members.
Hidden Palace Trophy
1st Place
Sonic: Scorched Quest (SHC’16 pre-final) by Team Painto
Wood Zone trophy
2nd Place
Sonic: Virtual Adventure (SHC 2016 Demo) by Ladego Team
HONOURABLE MENTION: Sonic 2 ReMastered by MrCat (very split decision with this trophy)
Dust Hill Trophy
3rd Place
Untitled Sonic 1 Hack by jubbalub
The 2016 Sonic Hacking Contest site is live, with 54 different hacks and mods to download and play! No account is required to play or download any of the hacks, but make sure to sign in with your Sonic Retro or SSRG account to vote on the community trophies. Also check the schedule for near-round the clock streams from folks like SomeCallMeJohnny, MegaGWolf, RedHotSonic and many more!
Downloading hacks are open until Sunday the 13th. Some mods you’ll encounter include ROM hacks of Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Sonic Pocket Adventure as well as mods for PC versions of the original Sonic Adventure DX release, Sonic Generations and Sonic Lost World. Check them out today!
The deadline has passed and the results are in. Spanner on the Retro forums has revealed the 54 entries lined up for the Sonic Hacking Contest of 2016! Starting Monday, November 7th up to the Sunday the 13th, all finalized entries will be made downloadable and playable during that time! Expect more features including livestreams and more when the contest becomes open to the public. Hit the jump to check out the entry list for this year’s contest.
[Source: Sonic Retro Forums]