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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!
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.
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]
That time of year is upon us once again – Summer of Sonic, the Sonic the Hedgehog fan convention in the UK, held its 6th show this weekend just gone; back in London again following a brief visit to Brighton last year. This year the event boasted as guests Takashi Iizuka, Jun Senoue, and Kazuyuki Hoshino; with a playable build of the upcoming new title Sonic Lost World available. So let’s dive in, shall we?
Community, Game News, Miscellaneous, Retro Contests, Sega Retro, Site News
I Forgot to do a Monday Links: Rated E10+ Edition
It’s the grand return of the not Monday Links! Seeing how some things happened (or are happening), I guess there’s reason enough to do one of these again. Also I’m bored and don’t want to do the things I should be doing. Anyway, here are some links:
Retro News
- Tomorrow is the last day you can add a new entry to the Sonic Hacking Contest 2013, so this is your last chance if you still have something you want to place in the contest! [SHC2013]
- Also tomorrow, an update to the Sonic Adventure Generations mod which adds 2 new levels. [Youtube]
Sonic/SEGA News
- A whole 15 minutes of gameplay of the Castle of Illusion re-imagining. [SEGAbits]
- The ESRB has put up the rating summary for Sonic Lost World explaining why it is rated E10+ revealing incredibly dark generic things villains usually say, obviously various fans overreact about it. [ESRB]
- Yuji Naka’s new game Rodea the Sky Soldier is still a thing. [Ferraris for everyone!]
- SEGA announced a new Sakura Wars game for Mobage while nobody wants it. [SEGAbits]
- A new Sonic game was announced and released. [Hurr hurr hurrrrrr]
Watch live video from vidyaretro on TwitchTV
Its free weekend for Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed on Steam. Which sounds like a prime opportunity to host a community stream for this very occasion. Granted, its quite last minute, but then again, we had no clue this was going to happen until yesterday. Come join in the fun with us, and if you want to play with us, we’ll give you the information on the air, or check with the stream’s chat by going to the Vidya Retro channel on Twitch.
Its over, but we’ve recorded all four hours of the free racing action with our Retro crew talking about…something? Also in the meantime, we’ve streamed something earlier that may catch your attention: Fan Game Frenzy II, hot off of Sonic Doom II, we look at more Sonic fan games from the yesteryear.
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.
Another fine release by Lake Feperd (and his crew of musical co-horts) today as Sonic After the Sequel which is a fan-made sequel to Sonic Before the Sequel which was a prequel to Sonic the Hedgehog 2. You can visit this link here to grab the game for yourself. Pretty impressive considering the previous release was only a year ago, yet retains its own unique level themes, branching paths and more. In addition, Lake Feperd has announced a few months ago that he is working on a new Sonic fan game titled Sonic Chrono Adventure which takes inspiration from other titles such as Sonic CD and involves time travel and more open world gameplay.
But don’t get ahead of yourself, check out After the Sequel today! While you’re waiting, you can view the release trailer shown above.
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.