Sonic 1 Color Contrast

Discussion in 'Showroom Archive' started by TheInvisibleSun, Jul 4, 2013.

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  1. pixelcat

    pixelcat The Holy Cat Jr. Member

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    I like your stuff! Also, I have a question: Now FZ have 3 acts? Or FZ is a new name for SBZ?
     
  2. Painto

    Painto Arthurus Paintus Erinaceus Member

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    I think that he made just a new zone with SBZ graphics and named it Final Zone.

    @TheInvisibleSun: I have an idea for you. Maybe instead of Time Bonus you should make Monitor Bonus? The more monitors you have the more points you get for them (for example each monitor is 5000 points in the results; max will be 30000). Just a little suggestion.
     
  3. nineko

    nineko I am the Holy Cat Member

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    I'm not sure if I like the arrow idea. Being an experienced Sonic player, one thing I liked a lot about this hack was its high difficulty level, I would be disappointed to see it watered down. I hope you can make it toggleable to ensure a higher level of challenge for those who want it while holding the hand of the casual players.
     
  4. TheInvisibleSun

    TheInvisibleSun Visible Member

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     Thanks! Title Cards aside, Final Zone is the actual Scrap Brain Act 3 within the code. All I did was implement SBZ's fourth act, then use SBZ Act 1 as a post-game act by shifting it to be placed after Final Zone, and disabled the title card to give it a different feel. For clarification purposes, I refer to it as Final Zone Act 2 (which is what it essentially functions as).

     For a little while I actually had this implemented; maybe this should be toggle-able as an option? The more intensive option would be just make a new row in the 'Got Through Card' though, so it all depends on time.

     Seeing that the arrows are objects, making them an option should be simple. All I'll need now is a new options menu. Really glad you mentioned this!
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jul 27, 2014
  5. nineko

    nineko I am the Holy Cat Member

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    Your attitude towards suggestions is admirable.
     
  6. ThomasThePencil

    ThomasThePencil resident psycho Member

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    Hmm...here's an interesting suggestion I came up with: Through an option, make a level have TWO different Music Monitors: One for FM and one for PSG. DAC (more or less the percussion channel for those who aren't fluent in sound driver terminology) always plays.

    Just a random thought.
     
  7. TheInvisibleSun

    TheInvisibleSun Visible Member

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    An interesting suggestion, but I think I'll keep it as is though. The Music Monitor works by playing an alternate track that has some of the voices muted. To do this, I could have another track for each zone, and have them load them progressively (meaning, the Music Monitors would always play the next one in order, regardless of the which one found first). However, I think that could be reaching the point of having too many monitors. Perhaps later on I'll implement it, after I get the SRAM working (and work out how to retain color status on a per-act basis, for Adventure mode), but right now I'm not planning on working that out any time soon. Thanks for the idea though!
     
  8. TheInvisibleSun

    TheInvisibleSun Visible Member

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    [​IMG]

    Added this yesterday. This option comes up at the very beginning of Classic Mode, but before starting each act in Adventure Mode. I felt conflicted about the difficulty a bit, but wasn't sure whether to add this as an option or not. When you posted that, it reminded me that there were people interested in the difficult game, so I decided to prioritize it, and add the option for the contest release.
     
  9. nineko

    nineko I am the Holy Cat Member

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    And I confirm that you're an awesome person working on an awesome hack.
     
  10. TheInvisibleSun

    TheInvisibleSun Visible Member

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    Last edited: Nov 27, 2016
  11. Pacca

    Pacca Having an online identity crisis since 2019 Member

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    That was awesome! I can't wait to play through the final product!
     
  12. TheInvisibleSun

    TheInvisibleSun Visible Member

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    Anyone else tired of the Sonic 1 Special Stages?



    New Special Stage gimmick. Collect Rings to gradually restore color to the Special Zone! Collect enough, and switches will direct you to the emerald. Fall short, and they kick you out of the stage. As this is a test layout, I do plan to make them a bit bigger (with platforming sections and what not), and with signage that tells you what to do.



    Also added this to the Hint Menu, so people know that they can go back to the hub as they please in Adventure Mode without soft resetting:



    [​IMG]
     
    Last edited: Nov 27, 2016
  13. TheInvisibleSun

    TheInvisibleSun Visible Member

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    Long Overdue Update:

    As some of you may or may not know, last year I received a very important career opportunity that, while successful, essentially kept me from working on the hack for a long time, sapping away my time and passion for the project for a while. I planned on releasing a version that fixed some of the issues of the SHC 2014 Version, and to show off a bit of the new special stage, but life took over and I never got around to implementing what I wanted to for the next release (resulting in an almost two year long hiatus away from the project!). However, recently I've had some time off from grad school today, so with a burst of inspiration I decided to work in some fixes/updates!

    This new build (5.9) features:

    -No Special Stages at the moment (sorry Josh), until I can fix the Special Stage 'gamemode glitch' I keep encountering.

    However, it is currently replaced with an "Emerald Lamppost" system; after 100%'ing a level, being near a lamppost will cause Sonic and the lamppost to flash. Hit it, and you get an emerald. For Classic Mode, simply 100% a stage, and grab the Giant Ring at the end to get the emerald.

    -New Overworld for Adventure Mode, which takes place in Scrap Brain Zone. This small area contains teleporters which send you to each of the Zone Hubs, and a door to the Final Level(s), which are only accessible after either getting all emeralds, or 'passing' every stage (any%) and recoloring each of the hubs.

    -Free, open world movement is now enabled. After seeing how many times the SHC media had to slog though Green Hill Zone variants in the past two years, I felt it was better for the flow of the game for the player to be able to go to whatever zone they wanted to, and tackle the game in however order they so choose (especially since Green Hill is ironically one of the more difficult Zones to complete).

    -A bunch of 2-year old fixes that never actually made it to a public release.


    Known Bugs/Problems:

    -Rom is not 'Padded to the Power of 2' at the moment - I feel a little silly saying this, but I'm not sure how to do this in Sonic 1 at the moment, as I didn't see an option for it near the top of the rom...

    -Some of the visual problems of the menus still remain.

    -For some reason, after completing Green Hill's Hub palette, I noticed that the first palette lines for Marble Hub and Spring Yard Hub, automatically restore themselves. I can't seem to pinpoint the issue, but since I can't work on it after today, it might have to remain a mystery until I can, unfortunately.

    -Getting a Chaos Emerald in the hubs turn the music off, but the music monitor does turn it back on.

    Please report any additional bugs you may encounter in this release; any feedback is very much appreciated! (Hopefully, this version isn't a broken mess haha)

    Download

    Dropbox Direct Link Mirror

    If things aren't too broken, I'll update the Wiki Page, and maybe even finally put it on Steam officially.
     
    Last edited: Nov 28, 2016
  14. pixelcat

    pixelcat The Holy Cat Jr. Member

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    I will post more when I will play it, but I'll say it from start: monochrome palettes are not so nice to be honest. Quite ironically, too much contrast.

    EDIT1: I'll have to say tho, that the concept is nice, and this intro cutscene is pretty nice too.
     
  15. KosmoF

    KosmoF Masochistic epileptic FEMALE gamer! Member

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    I'm really liking the update :D
     
  16. TheInvisibleSun

    TheInvisibleSun Visible Member

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    Thanks!

    Well that's why its up to Sonic to fix them!

    ...In all seriousness though, 'by not so nice', do you mean monochrome palettes in general, or the ones in this hack specifically? Ideologically speaking, I'm not sure that I agree that monochrome palettes naturally don't work, seeing that the Game Boy thrived despite this limitation (though the Virtual Boy does provide a counter argument to this, haha).

    If you're referring to the in-game palettes, what problem do you have, specifically? I do eventually plan to revisit Green Hill's colors at some point (its the only one I did completely color-by-color, without the help of other software) as I've noticed that the checkerboard pattern is a bit hard on the eyes at times. Other than those, I haven't noticed an issue with the other stages' colors.

    Over the last 3-4 years the project has been public you're one of the very few people that has actually complained about the palettes, so I'd love to hear your feedback on that!

    But yeah, keep the feedback coming people! I'd love to hear of what people think of the new changes (as well as any bugs and other annoyances encountered haha).
     
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