Character mods, fishing derbies and content restoration are all welcome in the return of the Sonic Hacking Contest for the year of 2016! The contest has been accepting entries for quite awhile. This time however the website has gone live which will mark the home for all entries and streaming personalities showcasing the entries and judging the results.
Remember though, entries are accepted until October 9th. Both longtime contenders and newcomers are always accepted so long as you have an account with us at Sonic Retro or Sonic Stuff Research Group.
I’m still waiting for the ultimate hack for Sonic Lost World to appear, and now that time has come for you to show everyone! Head on over to the new website and good luck to all participants!
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Yesterday Sega Europe announced the SEGA Mega Drive Classics Hub for Steam. Basically it’s a fancy emulator shell that lets you play Mega Drive games in a virtual room. It has the standard features you might expect officially released emulated games to have like save states and visual filters. But outside of that, it’ll have one very interesting sounding feature: Steam Workshop support.
According to Sega’s blog post, the Steam Workshop support is for “modified versions” of the Mega Drive games. You might think that this sounds a lot like they are letting people share ROM hacks, which would be huge news. And it turns out: they are! It was later confirmed on Twitter that you’ll be able to share “custom ROMs” of the games with other Steam users. So yeah, ROM hacks.
It’s no news that Sega is okay with people making and sharing ROM hacks. After all, they haven’t tried to stop us from letting people host them on this site. But to let people share them through an official channel like this has never been done before. More details on how Steam Workshop support will exactly work will be shared next week, but so far this all sounds very promising.
The SEGA Mega Drive Classics Hub will launch on April 28th, and will be released as a free update to the current Mega Drive emulator on Steam. It’ll be compatible with all of the Mega Drive games Sega are selling on Steam, and you’ll be able to make use of the hub if you already own any of them. This of course includes all of the Mega Drive Sonic games that are being sold on Steam.
It would be an uneventful year without the time honored tradition of the hacking contest. Despite the delays and complications the Sonic Hacking Contest got 2016’s back for another round of ROM hacks and more! For the time being, there are no entries being accepted as the website will be up later.
You can get your submission ready by viewing the rules here on our forums courtesy of hacking contest judge Spanner. Deadline is Sunday 9th October 2016, so there’s plenty of time before the contest begins. Watch this space or check with the forums when the website goes live.
Remember that you can submit more than just ROM hacks as there are entries for mods as well. Will you make the ultimate mod to Sonic Lost World?
[Source: Sonic Hacking Contest 2016]
Right, after Gene stole the glory of doing the last ever Monday Links, it’s time for me to start this Retro Digest thing.
So basically Retro Digest will be replacing Monday Links, the supposed-to-be-weekly summary of what’s been happening around the Sonic scene. Except it was almost never actually weekly and it often wasn’t done on Mondays either. So to stop people from making any more snarky responses pointing this out we’re renaming it to Retro Digest. This is our first step in removing all snarkiness on the internet, wish us luck!
Anyway, 2016 is already off to a pretty decent start when it comes to Sonic stuff, with the community doing cool stuff and Sega teasing the fanbase. So here’s a look at the neat stuff that’s been happening
As sure as the air gets crisp and the leaves turn brown (or green if you’re upside down in the world), the Sonic Hacking Contest is live once more for the next generation of game hackers and homebrewers. We’re partnering with SSRG once again to see what the more creative of you can do given a digital game jam of sorts.
To start, you’ll need a forum account for either here or SSRG (the rules are a little more relaxed if you’re actually entering.) Participants will have until Oct. 4 to submit a playable build of their game or hack, and then a further week to work on their projects should the entrant deem it necessary. Voting will then go live on Oct. 19, and also requires an account to either site.
Much like last year, everyone can download and play the entries, but streams will be held that showcase the games for those more interested in hanging out and talking with others.
Don’t be shy if you feel you’ll be swept up by more veteran groups. It’s not unusual for someone to come out of left field and stun the competition, such as with the likes of Robotnik’s Revenge, which in a roundabout way inspired the boss rush mode in Sonic 2 Mobile (2013)/Egg Gauntlet Zone. Practice the craft and have fun with it. Joke hacks are certainly welcome too, but not joke submissions. Basically, you can make something funny, but don’t submit something that’s clearly just stupid (see: Sonic 1337.) If you’re going to swing for worst hack, do it with some grace.
If you’re not into the whole Sonic theme, you can also submit SEGA-themed fangames too. Golden Axe, Shinobi, Jet Set Radio, Puyo Puyo… any of those brands are ripe for the picking. Going off the hip, I can say a Mighty Switchforce 2 styled Burning Rangers may be a neat idea, but you didn’t hear it from me.
And yes, this isn’t just limited to the Mega Drive games. The 3D games like Sonic Adventure, Sonic 2006, and Sonic Generations are encouraged.
I did it you guys. I got Monday Links to actually be a weekly thing for every Monday of a month. I checked and this is something that hasn’t been achieved since 2010 when Slingerland was doing this thing. This is something that I’ve tried very, very, veeeery hard to achieve since I did my first of these back in 2013. And really I probably wouldn’t have done it without Bartman3010 starting it up again. Speaking of which, why isn’t he doing Monday Links anymore? I bet he’s probably doing “more important stuff” and “chasing his dreams” like learning how to make games for the Nvidia Tegra. Pfft.
Now what was I supposed to be doing? Oh right, links.
Sonic Retro stuff
- UtopiaUK put up a video showing some WIP zones from his Sonic 3 Resort Island hack. [Watch the video here and take a look at the forum thread]
- Cinossu made a Blue Sphere hack and he assured us that it’s not a jump scare. [Also don’t look at the spoilers, it ruins the fun]
- Hez shows off his unlockable Wood Zone level in Sonic Classic 2. [Cause unlockables are fun]
- MainMemory has added support for Sonic CD in SonLVL. [Please don’t make more Wacky Workbench levels]
- Enemies can now be constrained to a 2D plane in Xaklse’s new release of SonicGDK. [Handy for those fancy 2.5D platformer]
- LakeFeperd gives an update on what’s going on with Spark the Electric Jester. [Making games can be kinda hard]
- flamewing has released the first new update for SMPS2ASM in years. [Less buggy song stuff]
- We have a new feature called “Something For The Weekend” by our new writer Nova, with fun and cool Sonic stuff. [So go take a look at last weekend’s cool Sonic thing]
Sonic stuff
- Jollyroger has gotten the Sonic X-treme prototype that was found to work on SEGA Saturn hardware. [Progress!]
- The first Sonic Runners gameplay trailers shows that the game is about running. [Now with a more classic but also still modern Sonic]
- Yuji Naka/Prope’s new game Rodea the Sky Soldier will be released in the west by NIS America. [You know, that game that was announced four years ago]
- The sequel to the Sonic and Mega Man Worlds Collide comic cross-over will feature cameos of other SEGA and Capcom characters. [Viewtiful Joe please]
- Enjoyed the latest Sonic Boom episode? If so, good cause we’re gonna see a lot more this year. [If not, stop hating fun you fun hating not-fun-haver]
- How many toys can SEGA still make out of Sonic Boom? [At least this many apparently]
Oh man, you guys, we usually don’t do leaks by anonymous tipsters but this was just too good to pass up. Rayman is gonna be in the upcoming Sonic Runners! This tipster gave us this piece of promotional art in which Rayman is shown running alongside Sonic, Tails and Knuckles. What made this leak especially convincing is that just like Sonic, Rayman consists of a re-used model from previous games with black lines around the edges.
It makes sense as well. Just like Sonic will have, Rayman has had a couple of “endless runner” games that aren’t really endless but actually have stages. These games, Rayman Jungle Run and Fiesta Run, were pretty darn good. So hopefully they’re an indication of how good Sonic Runners will be. And who knows, maybe we’ll see additional guest characters from other mobile games as well, like maybe Mega Man!
Sonic Retro stuff
- Fans want that Sonic 3 remaster by Taxman and Stealth so bad that they’re doing a campaign thing to get SEGA’s attention. [Here’s Stealth’s post about it]
- flamewing has made some pretty big additions to his Big’s Fishing Derby hack. [It’s a hack in which you play as Big the Cat so you should probably play it]
- Morph released a new update to SA Tools. (A thing that lets you mess with Sonic Adventure DX.) [Lots of new SADXLVL2 stuff]
Sonic stuff
- Sonic Advance is gonna be released for the Wii U Virtual Console in Japan. [It’s the real Sonic 4 to us]
- Unsurprisingly, the Sonic Boom games didn’t sell well. [Turns out that when a game is bad people don’t want it]
- First 4 Figures is releasing an awesome looking diorama of Sonic on the tornado. [If only I could afford it]
- Archie has released a preview of the next Sonic comic issue. [Now with more wrestling]
- Ken Penders. [Ken Penders]
Nobody knows if Monday Links is alive or not. Sometimes is just kinda pops up again, while at other times it just kinda seems to have died into obscurity. Some wonder if Monday Links was ever truly alive for the past year or so, as it only sometimes kinda popped up and then disappeared again for who knows how long. Others just don’t care cause really why would you you probably normally don’t even look at the front page and just go straight to the wiki or forums you jerk. >:(
Anyway, these Monday Links articles usually takes quite a bit of time to make so I’m gonna trim them up a bit from now on. From now on it’ll focus more on Sonic and less on SEGA in general. If you want to see the latest SEGA news and cool SEGA features, you should go visit SEGAbits. Those guys do a pretty damn good job covering all things SEGA and really I’m just wasting time linking all the stuff they put up there when you can just visit their site.
Also I’ll probably use more Space Dandy gifs.
Sonic Retro stuff
- Ell678 put together a trailer and a couple of new screenshots for his snazzy looking 2.5D fangame Sonic Incursion. [I guess people really like to use Tenderoni for Sonic trailers]
- The people working on Sonic 2 HD now put up a time lapse video of the new end level pose animation. [Cause who doesn’t like a cool end level pose?]
- Andrew75 is still updating his impressive Sonic X-treme inspired fangame Project AXSX. [Go take a look]
- S0LV0 has started a development blog on the stuff she’s doing for the Sonic Generations Unleashed Project mod. [Yup, work is still being done on that]
- SonLVL now has support for Chaotix object layouts. [Admittedly I’ve never used it before but it sounds like a neat addition]
Sonic stuff
- Here’s our first look at the Sonic X-treme OpenGL port [Holy shit you guys it’s Sonic X-treme]
- A Sonic remix album called Spindash is out now for ten bucks on various digital platforms. [Officially licensed by SEGA]
- No, Sonic’s not going to be mobile and PC only. SEGA of America is gonna have a huge re-structure but that’s not gonna affect any Sonic games Sonic Team or whatever has in production. SEGA is gonna push mobile and PC games harder (which they’ve already been doing), but they’re not gonna stop making console games. It’s still bad news of course, but not as bad as some make it out to be. [Not really Sonic related but it’s a rumor that needs to be cleared up]
- This anime fighting game called Dengeki Bunko Fighting Climax that has a Green Hill Zone stage will be getting a western release. [So it’s still Sonic related I guess]
- We thought that we’d get to see what Sonic Runners looks like last month but we didn’t. [😐]
Stealth, one half of the brains behind the recent mobile remasters of Sonic 1 and Sonic 2, announced he’s looking to train people into using his own Head Cannon Game Engine (HCGE.) Before you go running in hoping to recreate Sonic 3 or some other title, Stealth has the strict requirement that, regardless of skill level, applicants must dedicate themselves to this project and not just flake out when the going gets tough.
Early on, Stealth will work alongside approved applicants and teach how to run with the engine. As time goes on, Stealth will roll back and allow autonomy to take over. Project HC is focused as being a Sonic game (which most around here should be familiar with) in the same general area as Sonic Megamix, at least to get the ball rolling.
Currently, applications are open to all positions like programmers, musicians, artists, etc. For more information on the project and how to formally submit an application, hit up this lovely link.
Are you up to it?