Useful Links!

Hey, I'm sick of seeing the same shit over and over again with people asking where to get stuff.

Before you even think about asking a question, check through the resources on this list. If you have a problem, chances are, someone else already had that problem.

Useful Websites
Sonic Retro - The wiki over there has a lot of useful information. It's also home to the Sonic Community Hacking Guide, where you will find lots of information that you'll need if you want to hack in a decent way, including data on games such as RAM addresses and offsets for things. Guides are available in the SCHG How-to section.

SSRG Website - Still a work in progress, there are guides and tutorials that show off how to do things, as well as video tutorials.

Hacking CulT - Although it hasn't been updated for a long while, there are some things worth looking at, such as the MD Programming guide.

68k.hax.com - If you want a more thorough look at the Motorola 68000 language, look here. This is basically required reading if you are trying to code.

Tealer Teaches: How to make a Hack Thread - A nice article that covers the do's and don'ts of ROM mod/hack thread creation.

68K Programming Manual
Click here for the programmer's reference manual by Motorola.

Programs
Sonic Retro has a Programs category that is worth looking at. You should find what you're looking at here. The Sonic Hacking Utilities page offers short descriptions of a selection of programs too.
The SSRG also has a Utilities section offering a small selection of useful programs. If one website is down, check the other one.

Disassemblies
The Disassemblies page on Sonic Retro is where you'll find most disassemblies, old and new. It is generally recommended to use the 2005 Sonic 1 ASM68K disassembly and the 2007 Sonic 2 disassembly. If you're looking for something modern, check out the GitHub, although these disassemblies usually don't have guides for them, and these usually have huge changes, not to mention that the Sonic 1 disassembly has no references to old labels, which is a pain in the ass.

Music Hacking
The Sonic Music Hacking Guide is where you'll find pretty much everything regarding the music engine used in Sonic games as well as notes on porting. If you want to import your own music, use xm4smps. MarkeyJester has written a step-by-step guide on SMPS which you can access here.

Using SonMapEd
Want to add your own characters or enemies? Don't know how to use this program? There's only one guide that'll help you with this thing:
How to use SonMapEd by Chimpo: Part 1 - Part 2

Using SonED2
SonED2 is a great level editing program. These links will help you do more things with it.
How to import art to SonED2 by iojnekns.
Loops, Pathswappers, and how to get laid by Tidbit.
Visual path swappers in Sonic 2 by Thorn - Download

Q&A Threads
Everyone was a newcomer once! If you are just starting out and have a question - SCOUR THESE THREADS. You are almost guaranteed to find an answer.
SSRG
Sonic Retro

As you can see - there is a wealth of helpful documentation and guidance for every aspect of Sonic hacking. This wasn't always the case. For that reason, there is no excuse for asking questions that have already been answered, or struggling with a well documented aspect of hacking.

You are so lucky to have all this help at your fingertips. For God's sake, use it!

Check these to see if your issue has already been solved before. Check the wiki too, the guides might cover something about it.

If you ask a question, and already has an answer, iojnekns has personally assured me that he will make it his mission to molest you, your account and your cat. You have been warned!

 

Get this pinned, PLEASE. Glad somebody did this.


However, there should be a small note that says:


Post in the Basic Questions & Answers Thread if you feel like your question isn't worth enough to have its own topic.

 

I'm asuming it's because of...

...to which my answer is, what makes you think that members who do not bother to search the web for this info, are gonna search for this topic?


But regardless, it's something helpful, at least we have a single place to link members.

 

I was actually going to make this topic yesterday, but I was busy with other things. =P

 

There's the SMPS Archive--but it's currently offline.

 

This basically needs to be on the front page. Forcing people to read it when they register couldn't hurt. Followed by a short comprehension quiz to check they actually read it. Excellent idea, excellent measure to stemming the issues discussed elsewhere on the site, excellent execution. Just excellent.


Good call SOTI.


Contributions encouraged!

 

Quick update, added a link to MarkeyJester's SMPS guide.