Has there ever been a Sonic 1 (MS/GG) revamped for the MD?

I was thinking of making a hack but has anyone?

 

I've seen some partial adaptations and aborted projects, but never a full conversion.


You have to consider several points:


- the levels in the sms version look very small but that's due to Sonic's sprite being much smaller. Converted correctly, they'll be huge and almost empty,


- there's a vertical level, so you'd most likely have to use s2's engine,


- you'll need to know how to make some of the sms specific objects (eg: trunks, scales, lightnings, emeralds)


- you won't be able to make things like the water pools in green hill or the jungle zone like you'd put some water in a md level.


There's probably more to have in mind, but from this, my own conclusion is it would be better to make md versions of the zones rather than copying the original levels.


I tried to make a md version of ms green hill, and it's still incomplete (the level is ok, but not the features, didn't have time to work on it for months). It's essentially the same sequence of "traps" and game elements, visually it's really different from the original. Here's the map (1/4th of the original size):

 

Well, I'll see how I get on. If it doesn't work out, I might try your suggested method

 

I've wanted to see a hack like that for a long time. I think sonic the hedgehog remix is still being worked on, and it was gonna have GG/SMS levels. My advice, make sure sonic 1 remix isn't being worked on, and if it is, then get a new idea for a hack.

 

As far as I know, Tiido is making a homebrew Sonic 1 SMS on the MD. No clue on how it's going, however.

 

Doesn't the MD have support for running SMS games?


Edit: I see what you want to do. This sure does sound like it's gonna need lots of work, but I'd be willing to help if needed.


Edit2: You know what would be really cool? If we could re-use artwork from any of the zones in the series (S1-3, S&K) to re-create the SMS levels as close as possible.

 

Just did a bit more looking and the MD does have support for running SMS games. After all, it has the Z80 and the VDP's based off of the SMS one. All we need is the power base converter or Kega Fusion


Anyways, I might have some stuff to show off sometime later today.

 

Sonic 1 Remix is being worked on, right this minute as well I might add, and will contain MD renditions of all the SMS zones, as well as some all new zones. If someone else wants to remake the SMS zones, that's entirely up to them however, I'm just making it known that the project is well in the works.

 

Uhh what, what does this have to do with anything? LZ has vertical warping so this doesn't matter.

Could always change art/mappings of existing objects

Sure you could, would just take some programming skill =P

 

He posted a couple of screenshots on A PUBLIC SUBFORUM¹ on Gendev. Here they are:

http://www.fileden.com/files/2008/4/21/187...c1MSMDtitle.png


http://www.fileden.com/files/2008/4/21/187...nic1MSMDmap.png


1: emphasis added just in case someone says I'm leaking private stuff. Those screenshots are publicly available here.

 

Those screenshots do look like they could be real, but I would for sure guess that the title screen is a Sonic 1 Title Screen without the background layer. Maybe someone can get in touch with this guy and talk to him or something.

 

...Or, you can read this http://info.sonicretro.org/TmEE

 

Both of those screenshots are real. The fact that I pointed out that they're public implied that I've seen some other stuff which is meant to stay private for now. His Sonic 1 project is coming along very nicely and I look forward to it.

 

But Jungle zone act 2 isn't warping vertically, so either the engine has to be modified to allow more chunks vertically or he'd have to use another engine, or he would have to make the level a little different to use the vertical warping. Check LZ3, you'll see it is nothing like JZ2.

Excepted those objects don't have exact equivalents in the md games. For example, the floating trunk is a mix of the floating blocks of LZ and s3's spinning tops from marble garden. I'm not saying it would be difficult, only that it would have to be done.

Modifying the movements in an area wouldn't really be a problem, but he couldn't use the under water palette for those pools. At best, he could make the high plane flicker with a chessboard pattern of 1px, at 60hz it would look 50% transparent. That's definitely not the way it's done is MD Sonic games (which is what I was writing, I never said it was impossible to make similar pools).

 

The main problem with vertical levels in Sonic 1 and Sonic 2 is that the engine doesn't check for the Y positions when it generates the objects. As long as you are within their X range, they will put load on the CPU, effectively causing a lot of slowdown in levels with a prominent vertical development. This can be noticed for example in Marble Zone 3 in Sonic 1.


This was fixed in Sonic 3 (and in some hacks such as Megamix), where the engine checks for both the X position and the Y position of the objects, reducing the load on the CPU by quite a lot, and allowing for much taller levels.


I'm not sure about the mere chunk limit in Sonic 1, though I seem to rememebr that both Sonic 2 and Sonic 3 have a vertical limit of 16 128x128 chunks, meaning that a level can't be taller than 2048 pixels by normal means.

 

Sonic 1's layout can be set to a maximum size that's equal to Sonic 2's. The only difference being is... chunk size, and that Sonic 1 holds the layout size in the layout data, Sonic 2's is fixed.

 

Isn't the limit much higher in s3? Some levels are so huge...


I thought it was more in s2 as well, I probably got that impression because the 128px chunks are much more versatile.


Anyway, from my tests, the eight 256px chunks of sonic 1 really aren't enough to make a vertical level similar to JZ2.


It was such a great level :/

 

Maybe it's somehow possible to split the level up into different chunks, each contains a section of the level. Then there would be some kind of trigger that loads a different layout once Sonic gets close enough to it. Maybe that way it could be possible to make a level like JZ Act 2.

 

http://www.fileden.com/files/2008/4/21/187...StuffIsReal.png


My S1MSMD stuff is real, but I have not worked on it much and I don't have much to show... once I move out i'll be putting more effort into my game stuffs.


The title screen uses triple layer method to achieve up to 48 colors per tile, which is crucial for the antialiasing... downside is that there won't be any background, but there isn't any in the orginial anyway so it does not bother me.