After about a year and a half of absence, the Retrocast returns with monthly installments! In this month’s episode, discussion over Sonic 4: Episode 2 and Sonic and Sega All-Stars Racing Transformed takes place.
[display_podcast]
Browsing Category
Fan Works
The team consisting of Dario FF, Chimera and TwilightZoney have released the first act of the first stage of Sonic Unleashed, Windmill Isle, for the PC version of Sonic Generations. The purpose of this release is to test the mod on as many systems as possible. If it works on enough systems they’ll start to convert all of Unleashed’s stages. More details can be found in the following video and in the link that follows.
Here is the forum thread with details where it can be downloaded along with instructions on how to install it. Other credits go to JoeTE for ripping the songs, Korama for making CPKREDIR (which makes developing and using mods more efficient and easier) and MainMemory for making Generations Archive Editor (which does what the name implies). Like it was mentioned earlier, the intent for this release is to test it on as much hardware as possible. Meaning that you can help the development of the mod by posting the results of how it works on your set-up on the forums. Also post results if you mess around with it by doing stuff like combining it with other mods like Classic Sonic Adventures or some model swap you found on Youtube.
After much fan demand, Sega has begun releasing several of their Sonic series soundtracks on to Apple’s iTunes service. Most of these albums, though recently released, aren’t too easy to track down and import for those looking to legally own the music, never mind worrying about bootlegs.
The albums now available are the 20th Anniversary editions of Sonic CD, Sonic Adventure, Sonic Adventure 2 and Sonic Heroes, as well as “The Best of Crush 40: Super Sonic Songs”, “The Works” (Jun Senoue‘s standalone album featuring several original songs and some Sonic music), and Sonic Colors ViViD SOUND × HYBRiD COLORS, the last one lovingly divided into three volumes for all three discs (Disc 2 and Disc 3 can be found at those links.) Sega further states that the soundtrack to Sonic The Hedgehog 4‘s episodes will also be touching down on iTunes in the future.
It should be noted that the 20th Anniversary album for the two Adventure titles aren’t as all encompassing as their original releases, which may turn some fans off. However, this is the best chance short of importing to show support for the musicians that worked hard to keep series’ reputation for good music alive and well.
Character swaps aren’t exactly a rarity when it comes to Sonic hacks and mods. Especially recently with the PC version of Sonic Generations allowing modders to swap Sonic’s model with pretty much every other character in the game. But on the Xbox 360 and PS3 these mods don’t appear quite as often, mostly because hacking a console game means doing things Microsoft and Sony don’t want you to do which means you’d probably get banned from Xbox Live or Playstation Network for doing so. So it’s a good thing one of the people that actually bothered to hack Sonic 2006 made good use of it:
This video actually has been up since March 22nd, but… yeah, I don’t have an excuse for not covering this earlier. That doesn’t mean there’s not news about our favorite new playable Sonic character though. The video’s creator, Melpontro, has now started a show page for the videos starring Pelé the Beloved Dog, with there already being three more episodes. Be sure to read the descriptions:
Pelé the Beloved Dog in Dusty Desert
Hatsun the Pigeon in Wave Ocean
Pelé the Beloved Dog vs. Silver the Hedgehog
All this guy just needs to do now is to hack Sonic Unleashed and swap Sonic with Professor Pickle.
Two months ago, we posted some very promising videos from a triad of gifted Retroites working to import Sonic Unleashed‘s stages into the PC version of Sonic Generations, because despite Sega’s apparent new-found love for all things computer, Unleashed never got the chance to pop up. And those videos? They were nothing short of impressive work.
The trio–Dario FF, Twilightzoney, and Chimera–are happy to show you the fruits of their labor since then as Sonic zips around locales like Mazuri, Empire City, Shamar, and the original Spagonia to name a few. The team not only managed to get collisions working on the stages, they’ve been able to successfully import breakable objects and even the Global Illumination Ambiance lighting effects of the original stages so that they look like their original selves.
Oh, and a much-requested golden streak of light makes his in-stage presence felt as well.
Check out the gallery for more photos and the trailer below to watch their efforts in motion. Of course, from the looks of things, the team is only getting warmed up with Unleashed levels and have set their sights to other areas…
(The following is a guest editorial written by forums member Guess Who, because frankly, someone needed to say it.)
Starting in the late nineties, a sizable community formed around reverse-engineering Sonic games. Thanks to the work of this community and its extremely talented individuals, amazing feats have been achieved. The original Sonic titles have been disassembled into their raw Motorola 68000 assembly code and thoroughly documented, allowing for substantial modifications; Sonic Adventure DX has similarly been torn apart, allowing for the creation of useful tools such as level and model editors; even the brand-new Sonic Generations has already been hacked wide open for creating custom levels, porting levels from Sonic Unleashed, and importing music. One thing all of these accomplishments have in common is that all of them are the result of collaboration. Many people worked for days, weeks, months, and sometimes even years to acquire and share the knowledge necessary for all of these technical marvels to come to fruition. Sonic Retro has always fostered a collaborative environment thanks to its forums, wiki, and Mercurial repository, and consequently has become the de facto hub for all things Sonic hacking.
So in March 2008, when Sonic 2 HD was announced, it was hailed as a shining example of the collaborative community environment that’s been so crucial to the Retro community. Media outlets like Kotaku covered the game’s announcement with great anticipation. It was given its own forum where members could contribute their own assets to the game, whether it was art, music, programming talent, or just general feedback. The engine, coded primarily by long-established community member LOst, was built using the disassembled code of the original Sonic titles (you know, that code collaboratively reverse-engineered and documented by a number of community members?) as a basis for its physics. The original Sonic 2 HD board received a whopping 14275 replies, mostly from members offering their own work or feedback for the product.
The PC version of Sonic Generations has already gotten a couple of mods in the past. First there was Classic Sonic Adventures which allowed you to play as Classic Sonic in Modern Sonic’s levels. Then we discovered we could import levels from Sonic Unleashed into the game. And now the Russian Sonic fan MrHelias94 has found out how to swap Sonic’s model in the game:
This basicly means that other characters in the game can be made playable, so if you ever wanted to play as Tails it’s possible now. How this can be done is shown in the video tutorial above. The results this delivers depends on if the character is about Sonic’s size, so if you’d try to play as a character like Eggman the outcome may not be what you expect, though this is not necessarily a bad thing. Videos of various characters being played like this can be found after the jump.
Sega’s been showing a lot of love to PC owners as of late with releases of Sonic Generations, Sonic 4: Episode 1 and Sonic CD to the platform. But what of Sonic Unleashed, the game which kicked off Modern Sonic’s current breakneck speed style (and included the highly divisive Werehog)? If anything, those Unleashed stages may soon be making their way as a patch to the PC version of the game.
Forum members Dario FF, Twilightzoney and Chimera have been hard at work trying to bring Unleashed‘s stages over to Generations’ engine. In one week, they went from bringing in the stages without any sort of collision and usage of Global Illumination Ambiance (GIA), the system used in both Unleashed and Generations to give some dynamic lighting to the levels, to the above video. So far, Windmill Isle Act 2, Dragon Road Act 1 and Cool Edge Act 1 have all made a partial conversion. The group admits that while progress is going well, there is still much work to be done.
In light of speculation that the popular Rom Hack Sonic Megamix might be cancelled due to recent events, the head of Team Megamix, Stealth, has opened a new thread for discussion on the game, and made a statement in regards to its progress.
Merchandise, Music
[UPDATE: Gone!] Get Autographed Sonic Generations Albums And More From Jun Senoue
[EDIT: And as quick as it came, the offer is already gone. Impressive!]
Looking to grab Sonic Generations’ True Blue album in a more tangible way than slapping a random download onto your media player? Lead Sonic music honcho and Crush 40 guitarist Jun Senoue is selling copies of the album at his official website for $55 with the added incentive that he’ll autograph the case for you.
On top of that, the first few orders also get a Sonic themed black guitar pick, something that might go well for those very few of you that dropped some serious ring for a replica of Senoue’s Sonic-themed ESP guitar.
Supplies may be limited, so for those wanting to get their hands on the CD, head on over to JunSenoue.com’s store and get it before it’s gone.