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Fan Works, Hacking, Site News

See Shadow The Hedgehog’s Test Level In Action

Back in March, we posted some images of two test levels in Shadow The Hedgehog found by Spanish fansite Sonic Rekai.

Thanks to a 15-minute video recorded and uploaded by forum member DinnerSonic, we can now see how this level looks like in its entirety. Using a ripped version of the game and an emulator, he filmed every little bit of the level.

Being a test level, most of it is designed to test out the game’s physics on how Shadow controls on loops, slopes, steps, and half-pipes among other structures. There’s also the odd laser object, mostly due to triggering some flags in Westopolis.

There’s still no video of the other test level, but if you keep an eye on the forum thread, one may just pop up sooner or later.

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Fan Works, Game News, Hacking

Two Test Levels Found in ‘Shadow the Hedgehog’

Before you panic from the repressed memories of the game, bear with me here.

Forum member princeofknaves uploaded an old version of the RenderWare Graphics World Viewer, which could be used to view Sonic Heroes level maps as well as possibly allow moving them to other games like Sonic Adventure DX: Director’s Cut.

But that’s not all. DaGuAr, a user at the Spanish-speaking Sonic Reikai forums, found that this viewer can also view Shadow the Hedgehog’s level maps too. This isn’t surprising since the two games run on very similar engines.

Look below to see what he found.

Continue Reading

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Fan Works, Hacking

Sharpie Dotifier Draws Sonic the Hedgehog

DIY robotics site PyroElectro makes some pretty neat inventions: a short-range personal radar, a G-Force meter, and a tank that can follow drawn lines. Their most recent invention—the Sharpie Dotifier—is a robotic arm that can draw pictures. Of course, the logical choice of “what to draw?” is…Sonic the Hedgehog.

You can learn how to make your own Sharpie Dotifier, for those who like to mess around with electronics, at the PyroTechno website.

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Game Secrets, Hacking

Sonic 1 Special Stage Jump Issues Fixed Nearly 20 Years Later

For many players, the Special Stages of Sonic 1 can be particularly frustrating for a number of different reasons–rotation, steering, and jumping are the most common reasons listed. Forum member Mercury, best known for the Sonic Physics Guide and Sonic: The One Ring, examined the stages and realized that Special Stages don’t have the variable jump height present in the rest of the game. He investigated and found there was an unused routine for reducing Sonic’s jump height in the Special Stages within the code of the game. Using the power of trigonometry, he repaired and enabled the routine, leading to a fix that combines the X and Y speed using cos and sin to find how fast Sonic’s moving upward at the current angle in a Special Stage. It compares this combined speed with the jump release speed ($400) and if it’s greater, then it uses similar code to the normal jump to make Sonic move at $400 in the current angle. Simple.

You can read more about this fix and download a patched copy of the game at the Sonic Retro forums.

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Fan Works, Hacking, Hardware

Make a portable N64 with a Game Gear

Game Gear was one of the largest portable systems ever released in the market, causing many people in the early ’90s to look like they grew a massive tumor in their leg.

All that size helped in enabling the system to run Nintendo 64 games (and also making it even more unwieldy!)

The above video showcases Evil Nod’s mod job on the console, lovingly called the N Gear 64, running a few N64 titles like Goldeneye, Resident Evil 2 and Mario Kart 64, as well as a few additional features, such as link cable support and TV Out support, which turns off the screen and speaker for TV play.

I know what you’re thinking; “The Game Gear’s six AA battery life was abysmal at best. What the hell is it with this now?”

Because of all the hardware packed into the console, there are no battery slots. However, the mod creator demonstrates using a Power Grip rechargeable battery pack for the console that doubles as a grip for the system… and adds even more girth to the already monstrous device.

While no step-by-step instruction is given on how to create your own, you can check out photos of the system’s construction here.

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Hacking

Sonic 2 XL? More like Sonic 2 ~Extra Awesome~

Every so often a hack of a Sonic game will come along where there’s just a minor change to gameplay mechanics, but a whole new, enjoyable game is made from the result: Sonic 1 Return to the Origin, Sonic 3D: No Flickies, Sonic 1: Bouncy Edition, etc. Then, friends, there are times when a minor change will make a game more awesome.

Captain Bozo and Ranger on the forums have done just that with Sonic 2 XL, a simple hack of Sonic 2 where the game’s standard rings are replaced with…onion rings. Hilarity ensues.

You can download Sonic 2 XL at its Sonic Retro wiki page or visit the hack’s thread on the forums for more information.

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Game Secrets, Hacking

More Tails Remnants Found in Chaotix

Forum member and resident wiki sysop Andlabs has been very busy tearing through the Knuckles’ Chaotix ROM recently for the sake of documenting its internals entirely. Among the oodles of information he’s uncovered, though, one particular find stands out…

It’s Tails in the Tornado! It’s been known that Sonic and Tails had leftovers in prototype builds of Chaotix, but something of this caliber has never been seen before. Big props to Andlabs for the find!

Check out the forum topic here.

http://info.sonicretro.org/Game_Secrets:Knuckles_Chaotix#Removed_Character
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