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Fan Works, Game News, Hacking, Miscellaneous

Monday Links: What It’s Like in a Sardine Can Edition

So last week I promised that I’d put up my impressions of the Sonic Lost World demo at Gamescom. Two problems presented itself, the first one being that there were a lot more people at Gamescom than anticipated. (Pictured right) So many more that it was hard to even walk past some the booths. So I left after two hours of literally squirming through the crowds. The other problem was that the demo available to the public there was the same demo previously playable at Summer of Sonic and Sonic Boom, of which we already have impressions up right here. The demo shown off last week was only playable on the press day.

So basically, the highly anticipated Gamescom demo impressions write-up has been cancelled. To make up for it, here are Monday Links done on an actual Monday again:

Retro/Bits News

The results of the Sonic Hacking Contest 2013 were unveiled [Results]
Guess Who made a video review of A Hedgehog Dash for iOS [The Retro Review]
As if Marble Zone wasn’t an annoying zone already, TheInvisibleSun made a hack in which the first two acts take place underwater [Retro Forums]
Our good friends at SEGAbits have put up a new episode of the Swingin’ Report Show for you to listen to [SEGAbits]

Sonic/SEGA News

Lots of Sonic Lost World stuff was shown this week, first up a new trailer and a walkthrough video [Sonic Retro]
Second, the Deadly Six edition was revealed, which will feature an extra level with bosses from NiGHTS Into Dreams [Sonic Retro again]
Third, new screenshots show off what the Miiverse functions and overworld look like [SEGAbits]
A new Yakuza spin-off game was revealed, you can look screenshots and complain about how it probably won’t be localized [Yakuza: Ishin]
The Creative Assembly did an unboxing of their impressive Total War: Rome II Collector’s Edition while being attacked by dogs [Sadly not included]
Hatsune Miku: Project Diva F pre-orders are doing surprisingly well, so well that Gamestop is no longer taking them [Pizza sadly not included either]
Football Manager Classic 2014 is coming to the Playstation Vita [Playstation Blog] Continue Reading

August 26, 2013 by TimmiT

Community, Fan Works, Hacking, Music, Podcasts, Site News

Sonic Hacking Contest 2013 Unveils Results

Watch live video from MegaGShow on TwitchTV

Last Sunday, the winners of the 2013 Sonic Hacking Contest were revealed by judges through a livestream event which has been preserved on Twitch for everyone to watch in the above video. During the two hours it took, the winners were announced for each category, including categories decided upon community members of Retro and SSRG. You can view the results immediately on the Hacking Contest website here, or you can check past the jump for the complete list.

Don’t forget to check out the available entries for yourself, and even for the ones that didn’t win, they still deserve your attention for their hard efforts. Congratulations to everyone involved!

August 21, 2013 by Bartman3010

Community, Fan Works, Hacking, Site News

Sonic Hacking Contest 2013 Entries Go Public Monday

The hacks are done and submitted. With judgment day looming over which hacks will reign supreme, the time has come for you–Yes, YOU!–to play these works. Lovingly called Contest Week, the festivities will begin on Aug. 12 and last through Aug. 18. During this time, everyone is able to download the games on display. However, to actually vote for Community Choice trophies, users must have a validated account on either SSRG or right here on Retro.

According to contest judge and organizer Spanner, a number of regular events are scheduled to take place every day over on the SHC website. These include live streams of the games by MegaGWolf (from 7pm to 9pm British Summer Time, or 2pm to 4pm Eastern for the Americans) and SomecallmeJohnny (1am to 3am BST/9pm to 11pm Eastern.)

A daily podcast will also go live at 9pm BST (4pm EST) and last until 11pm BST (6pm EST.) At the end of the Contest Week, the winners will be announced live via the radio server on the site, so make sure to tune in from 8pm BST (3pm EST) to 11pm BST (6pm EST.)

Other events planned include hacking workshops–of which they’re still seeking ideas for more, so fire Spanner a PM if interested in hosting your own workshop–and a daily hacking contest open to everyone which will ultimately produce a level within Sonic 1. For that last one, a Retro or SSRG account is not required.

Fans can join the discussion about the contest all week via IRC by joining the server located at irc.badnik.net and joining #hackingcontest.

August 9, 2013 by GeneHF

Community, Fan Works, Game News, Hacking, Miscellaneous, Site News

Actual Monday Links: Summer of Not For Reupload Edition

So Summer of Sonic happened, meaning that new stuff was revealed there right? Well, besides this new Sonic Lost World trailer not really, but it seems like it was still a fun event for fans. Overlord did a write-up on his experience there, so be sure to check that out. If you want to know what the Sonic Lost World demo was like, an article with impressions from Overlord and other Retro members will be coming out soon. But for now, check out this stuff:

Retro News

Seriously, go read Overlord’s write-up on Summer of Sonic 2013 [Sonic Retro]
vladikcomper put up a new video of his Sonic Winter Adventures hack, which has seemingly moved on to be for the Sega CD [Youtube]
A new version of Dude’s Sonic Generations mod: Sonic Adventure Generations has been released [On our forums]
MainMemory released a Sonic Adventure 2 Mod Loader for the PC version, along with a few mods to go with it [SA2 Mod Loader]
Delta Hedgehog put up a new trailer for his fangame Sonic: Edge of Darkness, which will have a new demo at SAGE 2013 [Youtube]

Sonic/Sega News

A new trailer for Sonic Lost World got released cause Summer of Sonic happened [Look up]
The PC version of Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed got a new update which adds a character from Total War: Rome II [Sonic Retro]
Atlus’ parent company might be getting bought by SEGA-Sammy [SEGAbits]
SEGA actually made some money! [SEGAbits]
Here’s a handy information guide for Sonic Boom, looks like we’ll be seeing some announcements there [SEGA Blog]
What is Sonic doing in Ocarina of Time? [Youtube] Continue Reading

August 5, 2013 by TimmiT

Community, Fan Works, Hacking

Sonic Hacking Contest 2013 Now Open for Registration

Rev up your disassemblies, it’s that time of the year where aspiring Sonic game hackers get their chance to show off new game ideas once more. Registration for the 2013 Sonic Hacking Contest is now open. In the past, the contest has seen magnificent entries such as the highly-praised Sonic Megamix or the blistering fast (and brutally difficult) Sonic Boom.

Novice hackers of course shouldn’t be so intimidated to enter after seeing names like those, since all it takes is a little creativity to strike gold. Robotnik’s Revenge, anyone?

This year is promised to be the biggest year for the contest according to contest judge SuperEgg.

Yes folks, this year all the stops have been pulled, and media coverage wasn’t an exception. For years, this contest had been only covered by MegaGWolf, but this year is going to be different. Through many hours of research and development, the judges realized that the need to bring attention to this community gem has been lacking, and something needed to be done about it.

I took the initiative and invited one of the ever popularly growing YouTube reveiwer, SomeCallMeJohnny, to play with us during this contest. He will be making a series of videos reviewing the hacks in the contest. Another incentive to make sure your hacks are tip top shape for contest, eh?

Johnny is a cool guy, so be nice. No promises that he won’t bite, cause you never know, the evil Sonic hat could easily possess him again……

With more eyes on the contest than ever before, it’s time to see what all the hackers out there, talented or otherwise, can really do. To submit an entry, vote and comment, you must have a Sonic Retro OR a Sonic Stuff Research Group account that has gone through the respective site’s trial period. Exceptions will be considered, so don’t let this be a deterrent.

Submissions must be done through the contest’s website, located here.

June 22, 2013 by GeneHF

Community, Fan Works, Hacking, Humor

Fan-Game Frenzy: Sonic Doom II – Bots on Mobius

Watch live video from vidyaretro on TwitchTV

Have you subscribed to our Twitch channel? We’ve been doing some streams to mess about while we prepare for the next Retro Community Day (Which is likely to happen soon!) When you subscribe, you’ll learn about when we do some unannounced streams. (That is, what we don’t announce on the front page.)

Last Friday, me and the Retro crew sat through the precursor of Sonic Robo Blast 2; Sonic Doom 2 – Bots on Mobius, a total conversion of Doom II: Hell on Earth that attempts to bring the aesthetics of the Sonic universe with guns. Well, sort of. We play through the mod to it’s completion, for better or worse as I jog my memory of this mod from over 10 years ago. Sonic fan games during the 90’s were certainly something else and somehow, I spent some time of my youth playing this. Probably more than I should have.

If you want to play the mod for yourself, SSNTails recently updated the mod to be compatible with zDoom and you can find it here.

June 5, 2013 by Bartman3010

Fan Works, Hacking

Sonic Winter Adventures Gets First Public Release

Sonic 1 hacks are a dime-a-dozen these days. This makes getting excited about them a little difficult if nothing more than a few palettes are edited and zones are sloppily renamed to fit their new color schemes. That said, it’s never a dull day when someone steps up and delivers a new Sonic 1 experience with new boss enemies, moves for Sonic, and more.

Enter Russian Sonic hacker vladikcomper and his project Sonic Winter Adventures. In similar stead to Sonic 1 Megamix, Adventures enables Sonic to enable the full power of blast processing with the addition of light speed dash, super peel out, the spin dash, and even the homing attack. Let’s give the purists a little time to seethe. … All right then!

While the level variety isn’t very boastful, vladikcomper laments, the amount of work put in so far is a very commendable effort and definitely worth playing though. Some of his bosses make specific use of Sonic’s new age moves meaning you can’t just throw Sonic’s body into Eggman eight times and waltz over to the Egg Prisonpod so easily.

So what are you waiting for? Download this bad boy and give it a spin yourself! And don’t think that beating the game means it’s over. vladik teases that more playthroughs unlock more things.

[Official Sonic Winter Adventure Thread]

April 28, 2013 by GeneHF

Community, Fan Works, Game News, Hacking, Music

Sonic Generations: Unleashed Project Mod Released

We first reported on the Unleashed Project over a year ago, when Sonic Retro community members (and all-around beautiful people) Dario FF, Twilightzoney, and Chimera revealed the earliest footage of their experiments with porting stages from Sonic Unleashed into the PC version of Sonic Generations. Today, thanks to the incredible efforts of Dario and his team, they’ve released the first completed version of the project, including all eight major daytime stages from the original Unleashed ported to Generations, along with a redesigned hub world and reworked level progression.

Now you can play through all of the best parts of Unleashed without having to endure the suffering caused by Werehog fatigue and medal-hunting. Plus, you can enjoy the beautiful art direction of each stage in full 1080p at 60 frames per second (provided your computer can handle it – my Phenom II X4 cries during Jungle Joyride), and many of the game’s lower-resolution textures have been recreated in higher quality so you can get the most out of your PC’s graphics card. Of course, the stages also benefit from improvements and changes Generations made over its predecessor, such as tighter controls and the addition of customizable skills.

Be sure to check out the trailer after the break, complete with an orgasmic remix of the Unleashed final boss theme by Retro musician Falk, known for his work on fan games such as Sonic Before the Sequel and After the Sequel (and who also did the hub world remixes of the Unleashed stage themes for this project). You should also head to the project’s ModDB page, where you can find links to download the mod for yourself. Finally, a tremendous thanks to the Unleashed Project team for all the hard work they’ve put in over the past year to get this polished up and ready for release. This project is a stellar example of the kind of awesome stuff we love to see from the Retro community.

March 19, 2013 by Guess Who

Community, Hacking, Sega Retro

Aliens: Colonial Marines Polished Up By Fans

When it comes to games involving Sega in some capacity, it almost seems like the game itself isn’t the only thing players are paying for, but a whole new meta-game called, “Let’s improve the game through hacking through the game’s data.”

This new style of gameplay, which from here on we’ll call Tactical Debugging Action/Adventure™, has already drawn some talented programmers to sift through the game’s code on the PC version in an effort to enhance the game graphically and could potentially lead to repairing other issues such as enemy A.I. and other parameters.

February 19, 2013 by GeneHF

Fan Works, Game News, Hacking, Miscellaneous, Sega Retro

Monday Links: The Monday Edition

Monday Monday Monday Monday Monday Monday Monday Monday Monday Monday Monday Monday Monday Monday Monday Monday Monday Monday Monday Monday Monday Monday Monday Monday Monday Monday Monday Monday Monday Monday Monday Monday Monday Monday Monday Monday Monday Monday Monday Monday Monday Monday.

Retro News

Dario put up a video of Cool Edge in Sonic Generations, also more details on when the Unleashed mod is going to be released. [Youtube] [ModDB]
Tiddles showed some new stuff for his Sonic 3 Complete hack, also this happened 2-3 weeks ago. Oops. [Sonic 3 Complete]
Pelikan13 has teased that The 90’s Arcade Racer could be coming to the Wii U. [Kickstarter]
David is still doing his Mobius 25 Years Later thing. [Part 12]

Sonic/SEGA News

SEGA bought Relic Entertainment, the developer of the Warhammer 40.000 and Company of Heroes game. Here’s some PR stuff about that. [SEGA Blog]
A behind the scenes video of Bayonetta 2 was shown during the latest Nintendo Direct. [Youtube]
Pix ‘N Love’s History of Sonic book is getting a collectors edition. [Sonic Stadium]
SEGA of Japan is doing a 24 hour long live stream on February 2nd/3rd featuring Hatsune Miku: Project Diva F, Phantasy Star Online 2, Yakuza 5, Rusty Hearts, Puyo Puyo and Sonic Team. [SEGAbits]
Sumo Digital has gotten approval to make one of the DLC characters for Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed that fans requested. [SEGA Forums]
Another Aliens: Colonial Marines has been released, this one features cheesy lines that are supposed to sound bad-ass. [Youtube]

Continue Reading

January 29, 2013 by TimmiT

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