Sonic and Tails: Double Trouble (version 1.1 update + 8/5/2014 fixes)

Here's the first release of my first hack (a Sonic 1 hack).

Screenshots:







Gameplay Vids:







More on my channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/darklightjg1/videos

Story:

Dr. Robotnik, who recently came across a mysterious 7th chaos emerald wonders how he can utilize it to take over the world. Tired of constantly having his evil plans thwarted by Sonic and his friends, he decides to recruit help... by cloning himself. He builds a cloning machine powered with the 7th chaos emerald and manages to successfully make one clone before the machine is overloaded with the emerald's power and destroyed. The emerald then disappears and no one knows of its whereabouts at this time. Sonic and Tails get word of Robotnik's new plan to terrorize the world and they set out to stop him. But now they have deal with twice the intelligence... double the trouble!

(Note: To play as Tails, press B at the title Screen and you'll hear the jump sound to confirm.)

Moves:

• Jump: B or C
• Mid-air roll: Press A while airborne to roll into a ball if you're not already rolling
• Spindash: Press B or C while crouching (down) to start up a spindash. Additional presses will rev it up to give more speed. Release down to take off in a burst of speed.
• Boost Attack (Sonic Only): Press or hold A on the ground for an extra burst of speed. It also functions as an attack (speed-based) and costs 1 ring every 5 frames that you use it (has 5 frames startup, so you can't avoid the cost to use).
• Tails Attack (Tails Only): Press A on the ground for Tails to whip his tails to attack the enemy.
• Flight/Float Underwater (Tails Only): Press B or C while jumping to start flying or floating underwater. You can press A to roll into a ball and cancel the flight in midair

Added functionality to unused Monitors in Sonic 1:

• Eggman Monitor: Damages Sonic or Tails if they break it, so be careful around these.
• S Monitor: Sacred Shield. This rare shield attracts rings (even hidden rings that can help you find other surprises), allows you to be underwater without needing air bubbles and you can take up to two additional hits with it. Getting hit once reverts it to a normal shield.
• Goggles Monitor: gives you 15 rings and then um...

Other things to note:

• Tails' flight is NOT a direct port of his flight from Sonic 3. As such, his ascension is different and he just floats up when underwater (which you can cancel/roll into a ball by pressing A in mid-float). He still automatically starts falling after 8 seconds of flight (gets tired)
• The spike bug is left in intentionally to set up some spike-based traps, so be careful.
• Difficulty-wise, this hack isn't meant for beginners to play through. I'm aiming for around mid-level difficulty. Not too hard/not meant to torture the player, but not a cake-walk either. So, take your time and put your skills to the test!
• It is possible to get through every level without taking damage.
• I'm not a good artist, I have attempted to improve the background for Freedom City (SLZ) or do a new Title Screen... it didn't look good, so I scrapped it. Any help with this would be greatly appreciated

Credits:

Spoiler

• Design, layouts, programming, new moves/sprites, sacred shield, testing, adding Tails and music porting - Darklight (That's me)
• Additional Code (Different music in different acts, functional Eggman monitor) -Nineko
• Additional Code (VDP help, level resize, sprite mapping extension,remember state counter fix and palette change in Special Stage) -Markey Jester
• Additional Code (Tails tails fix) - Ralakimus
• Additional Code (Expand music index) - lukelusher123
• Additional Code (Infinite air underwater) -Selbi
• Additional Code (Spindash 1-3) - Lightning, Puto and Shobiz
• Additional Code (Speed cap removal) - Puto and Tweaker
• Additional Code (switch character at title screen) - PsychoSk8r
• Additional Code (PSG Index workaround): Vladikomper
• Tools (Disassemblies) - Hivebrain, Xenowhirl, Hayate
• Tools (SonMapED) - Xenowhirl
• Tools (Level Editors) - SonLVL by MainMemory (Primary), SonED2 by Stealth (Secondary), SonED2 Projects folder by Quickman
• Tools (SMPS Converter) - ValleyBell
• Tools (HivePal) - Hivebrain
• Tools (Text Generator) - Selbi
• Tutorials and Information - RedHotSonic, Chimpo, ValleyBell, AnimeMaster, Tweaker, Selbi, MainMemory, Markey Jester, TimpZ, Nineko, TheStoneBanana, SuperEgg Flamewing, Vladikomper, Ralakimus and anyone else I may have forgotten from the SSRG or SonicRetro community. Thanks to all of you.
• Boost issue fix - EditChris

...Note that because of letter/space limitations I didn't put every single listed person in the in-game credits, but SSRG and Retro is in there to cover the group.

Known Issue:

• Tails' tails not in special stages

And without further ado, here's the download (this is version 1.0 look below for 1.1):

http://www.mediafire.com/download/qadt6p9a8twcpav/Sonic+and+Tails+-+Double+Trouble.bin

Version 1.1 update (Edit: as of August 5, 2014. Slight changes, object placement adjustments and some major glitch fix. Thanks to MarkeyJester and Vladikomper for these fixes):

http://www.mediafire.com/download/479agmnkgj1sz5a/Sonic_and_Tails_-_Double_Trouble_v_1.1.bin

Please leave any feedback or constructive criticism. Things you like/don't like. Things that could be improved or any new errors not already listed. Also, if you have any insight and can help me with the issues I pointed out (I've been stuck on some of them for a while), please PM me.

Hope you enjoy.

 

Ha, not really sure how I helped you looking at your credits, as I was more of a burden to you, but hey, thanks for the shout out dude.

So... First, I'd like to point out that you might want to add the fact to play Tails, as I can't figure it out, although it's probably just my stupidity, anyway.

Next, the layouts do feel a bit wonky to me. Stuff is a bit too close together for my tastes. The only pallet I'll complain about would be Labyrinth Zone's, as that is really hard on the eyes, but otherwise, good job.

Overall, yeah, I do like it, but it does need more work, yet, this is only the first release, so who am I to be complaining? I anticipate further releases from you man. Good luck.

 

looks like a decent hack to me... i will try it!

 

In what ways would you suggest I can improve that?

I wanted to keep the palettes for each zone different from each other color-wise and to have them go with the theme of the zone (except GHZ be night and SLZ be daytime) while not being too similar to someone else's palette choices, but I don't want to hurt anyone's eyes in the process (Like TSB said LZ's palette is hard on the eyes, so I'm thinking about what to do with it). I'm open to suggestions.

Edit: Also, before anyone mentions it, a friend pointed out to me how you can get stuck after passing the bottom signpost in GHZ2. That's been addressed and will be in the update.

 

I've done a slight update for this. It's not as large-scale as the next update will probably be if I do one, but here are the changes:

-Title screen now tells how to pick Tails

-GHZ2 end changed so you don't get stuck if you move backwards right after passing the signpost.

-Palettes tweaked for MZ, SYZ, LZ, SLZ (background) and SBZ3 (background).

-SYZ3 layout changed (the only zone that didn't get a layout change in the first version)

-Double bosses fixed, so they work as intended (screen locked until both are defeated)

-Extra Boss included in Final Zone, so it is now essentially a double boss fight (unkillable... beat the original boss to beat the game).

-Special Stages changed

-Spindash sound effect changed

-Tails' tails attack slash art added

-Spindash for Sonic set to only activate when pressing B or C so that you don't lose rings with the boost button (thanks to EditChris for this fix)

-Sega Screen Change

-Some sound effect changes

-Fix to an remember state counter issue (thanks to MarkeyJester for this fix).

-Fix to a life icon changing issue when Tails is picked (thanks to MarkeyJester for this as well)

-Slight object placement adjustments.

Link: 

http://www.mediafire.com/download/479agmnkgj1sz5a/Sonic_and_Tails_-_Double_Trouble_v_1.1.bin

First post will also be updated to reflect the changes.

 

Vladikomper gave me a workaround to an issue, so now people should be able to play the hack on Regen no problem. I will be fixing the song ports that caused this issue in the meantime. Thanks very much to Vladikomper for this fix.

Download link (also added to first post):

http://www.mediafire.com/download/479agmnkgj1sz5a/Sonic_and_Tails_-_Double_Trouble_v_1.1.bin

 

Let me say that, yes, I didn't address this in your previous release, but it's something that bugs me.

You see, it's fine you changed the special stages, but you kept in that one way door thing so that, once you get in here and see that the Chaos Emerald isn't there, you're forced to hit the GOAL circle and leave.

I don't know if this is the case with the other special stages, but it's something I wanted to bring to attention.

 

Yeah, that one is on purpose and it's mean. But it's the only special stage I did that on as it's pretty much exactly the same as the original SS1 with that trick thrown in (have to go the other way). If I had an actual good reward for collecting some or all of the emeralds, I wouldn't put that in there/would remove it.

'Still debating whether I'll put in rewards for it or not, as I have an idea, but it isn't super forms or anything like that.

You reminded me, I have to change the last SS a little bit because I don't like the way the goals are (need to put some barriers around them because it's too easy to hit them).