Knuckles' Emerald Hunt

Discussion in 'Showroom' started by MainMemory, Oct 19, 2015.

  1. MainMemory

    MainMemory Well-Known Member Member

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    [​IMG]

    Last year, I released "Sonic 2 Adventure Edition: Sonic & Knuckles Demo" for the contest, even though most of the streamers missed the "& Knuckles" part. Anyway, after that, I began encountering several problems all at once, and eventually I decided with the help of the SSRG IRC channel to switch to a new hack, with a simple focus, using what I thought was the most unique and interesting gameplay style I had made so far: Knuckles' treasure hunting stages. With some help from SSRG's IRC, I was able to get most of the main functionality working within a year, and add some neat extras too.

    Knuckles' Emerald Hunt is a hack that, as its name indicates, focuses entirely on Knuckles hunting for Emeralds through all the Zones of Sonic 2 (excluding Sky Chase and Death Egg), along with a few extra levels.

    Features:

    • The minute counter on the HUD has been expanded to two digits, and Time Overs have been removed.
    • Randomized Emerald placement: each stage has a number of preset Emerald locations, and three (five for the last bonus level) Emerald locations are chosen randomly every time the level is started. Emeralds can also be held inside Badniks.
    • Emerald radar in the HUD functions similarly to Sonic Adventure, changes color and makes sounds as you approach Emeralds. From far to near, the colors are gray, green, yellow, orange, red. Note that Emeralds are NOT sorted from left to right, and can appear in any order.
    • Collecting Emeralds quickly gives you point bonuses, as in Sonic Adventure 2.
    • Each stage has a unique color for the Emeralds.
    • 1-up monitors have been replaced with random ring monitors, which give 1, 5, 10, 15, 20 or 40 rings.
    • During gameplay, pause and hold A+B+C to return to the level select screen.
    • Hold C after the score tally finishes to proceed directly to the next level instead of returning to the level select.
    • Knuckles starts with a shield after dying.
    • Each Zone has been reduced to a single Act, always using the final Act of the Zone, because otherwise the game would drag on for too long. Nobody wants to have to hunt through all three Acts of Metropolis Zone.
    • The end of each Zone contains a monitor that will return you to the start, in case you missed any Emeralds.
    • Completing a Zone will give you a rank based on your score, A being the best and E being the worst. Completing all stages with ranks equal to or better than D, C, B, and A ranks will unlock new levels.
    • Unlocked stages can be played in any order. Locked stages are marked with a rank of "L" in the level select, and unplayed stages have a rank of "-".
    • Difficulty settings: Easy makes the radar point in the direction of the Emeralds, but reduces the point bonuses you get for collecting them; Hard removes the radar entirely.
    • Music Switch allows you to select between thematically appropriate songs from other Sonic games for each stage and screen in the game. Some music was even ported from other systems (see Sound section of credits for list of people who contributed). Press the C button to play the selected song.
    • Entering Sonic 2's level select code in the Sound Test will unlock all levels, with the caveat that you will not be able to save the game.
    • Entering Sonic 2's debug mode code in the Sound Test will enable debug mode, with the caveat that you will not be able to save the game.
    • An online leaderboard is available at http://mm.reimuhakurei.net/?page=keh where you can upload an SRAM file from the game to see how you stack up against other players.
    • In Chemical Plant, you can choose a direction for the tube by holding Left (upper path) or Down (lower path) on the control pad when entering the tube.


    Unfortunately, the sprites for Tikal were not able to be completed in time for the contest, so Knuckles is the only playable character and Competition mode is locked.
    For those of you wondering why there are songs from non-Sonic games, there were going to be extra bonus levels, complications arose, but someone had already ported songs, so I threw them in anyway.

    http://info.sonicretro.org/File:KEH.zip

    Here's a video I made:



    And here's one nineko made (spoilers for unlockable levels):
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4a3i72_OPA
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Oct 25, 2015
  2. nineko

    nineko I am the Holy Cat Member

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    Yeah, about that... sorry if I released the video too soon by several days, I completely misunderstood how the hacking contest worked, and I assumed your hack was already in the open at that time, I waited for the wrong monday :(

    Also yeah the spoiler warning is very mild since the unlockable levels are listed in the music selection screen :U

    Anyway, easily the best hack ever, 10/10 would play again.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Oct 19, 2015
  3. MainMemory

    MainMemory Well-Known Member Member

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    It's fine, the hack's name was public by that point, so there wasn't much point in secrecy.
     
  4. redhotsonic

    redhotsonic Also known as RHS Member

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    Let's try Knuckles' Emerald Hunt!


    Link
     
  5. MainMemory

    MainMemory Well-Known Member Member

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  6. Razor

    Razor Active Member Member

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    Played the updated version. This hack was a lot of fun. I've recorded a segmented run of this hack.
     
  7. MainMemory

    MainMemory Well-Known Member Member

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    Another small update, adds music by S_T_D and maybe fixes some bug or something. Note that if you used one of the last three song choices for Labyrinth Zone, you'll find it off by one now, due to how that stage's music selection is implemented.

    I'm mostly posting because I'm feeling conflicted and want some other opinions. Around the time of the contest week, I started thinking that once the contest was over, I would start adding more levels to the game, starting with all the Sonic 1 levels. But I started feeling like I was ignoring my own reason for why I only took one act from each zone, that the game would start to drag with too many levels. There's also the issue of the unlocking system being geared towards four extra levels, so I'd have to find some way to rework that or drop it entirely, and I doubt if people will enjoy seeing a level they already played becoming locked again. There's also the ranks, I'd have to find some way to set up a private area to submit scores for new stages or drop the ranks entirely. There's also the matter of porting the stages, I'm not good with anything that isn't Sonic 2 and getting Flamewing to do everything for me makes me feel a bit guilty.

    Aside from levels, there's also the issue of characters. Tikal is planned and half implemented, but I'm not sure if I should be doing things differently. Currently, Tikal jumps higher than Knuckles and runs faster, but her radar is 0.75x the radius of Knuckles', as opposed to in SA2B where her radar lacks the green color entirely (0.5x radius). I don't know if the increased speed makes her too OP or if doing the radar like SA2 would be too weak. I was also considering adding more characters, particularly Tails and Sonic/Mighty (depending on whether I can work around palette issues). I don't know if either character would end up being OP compared to Knuckles or if they'd even be able to get to every Emerald at all. It would also lead to an odd situation where, if I leave their speeds as normal, Tikal ends up being the fastest character in the game, because I increased her speed rather than reducing Knuckles'.

    Lack of 2P aside, KEH is essentially a complete game right now, and I don't want to ruin it by adding too much stuff.
     
  8. ArcaniaCQ

    ArcaniaCQ Well-Known Member Member

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    I am happy that you decided to release this build. I will try to challenge my friends and people from SSRG. Multiplayer is going to be fun to play once I get it set up. Forget about what that said. This build is singleplayer only
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Nov 8, 2015
  9. MainMemory

    MainMemory Well-Known Member Member

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    I am still working on this, and I've replaced the Sonic Adventure inspired level select copied from Sonic 2 Adventure Edition with something more like the Sonic 3 Data Select, or the Chaotix save select (SCH's save select may have also been an inspiration):

    [​IMG]
     
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  10. Royameadow

    Royameadow Welcome to the modern existence. Member

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    Posting these here for the sake of convenience, they're already in the General Video Thread but I felt that they deserve to also be with the original thread of the game that they are a part of.
    The two below videos are World Record times for Emerald Hill and Marble Zone that I still happen to hold on MainMemory's Leaderboards Page, at the time of this post, these records were not easy to get a hold of because it was all up to RNG on as to which emerald setup you get.


    ~ [RTS] Knuckles' Emerald Hunt (EHZ) in 00'06''83 by Roya Rockwood:



    ~ [RTS] Knuckles' Emerald Hunt (MZ) in 00'I8''65 by Roya Rockwood:




    In the case of this game, emerald placements are based on exactly which frame you press the Start Button at the Level Select, which makes it rather brutal for those that want to find the best setup for getting the best time or score possible, this is especially true for Spring Yard and Hidden Palace and also for when I was recording the above footage.
    MainMemory, perhaps a Replay Mode could be implemented to show off gameplay of the players' top records, that would make it far easier to make footage of their best times and scores; I'm sure that others would probably like that as well, over the current methods available, it would also ease the issue of RTS versus TAS on the Leaderboards and probably make records more diverse over time.
     
  11. MainMemory

    MainMemory Well-Known Member Member

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    How would that even be implemented?
     
  12. InTheZone

    InTheZone Well-Known Member Exiled

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    @Royameadow What are those people doing in your videos? How are they even related to the video?
     
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  13. Royameadow

    Royameadow Welcome to the modern existence. Member

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    Replay Mode, I presume would probably be implemented in a similar form as to how Fantavision utilizes the feature, where the player could rewatch a run of a level that was recorded, so long that it is stored on the save file.
    Fantavision granted the players the ability to save footage of a run in what I recall as Chain Attack Mode immediately after a level was completed, they could then watch that footage and look at it from dynamic angles for as much as they had pleased to; in the case of Knuckles' Emerald Hunt, I would presume that what a Replay Mode would do is save a record of the three best runs for a zone from the Single Player Mode: One of each for Best Score, Best Time, and Best Rings, respectively; Racing games that also have a Replay or Ghost Mode for Time Attack in this same regard is what had influenced this recommendation as well, and while I'm not sure how it would be delivered to a Sonic title, it would indeed allow for players to review where they could improve their records if it were in the game, I do find major interest in the thought of that entirely.


    @AwesomeGuy: The people that you view in the above footage are Head and Co~Head Administrators, as well as High Notables, of Royameadow and Co., myself (Roya) in the center of the Now Loading screen and also in the far left of the End of Video Splash Screen.
    They have been in the Splash Screens of virtually almost all footage that has been on the main channel as of August of 2013, select ones (mostly Gabriel in Versus Mode plays) will show up in episodes from time to time, but it's not frequent at this point.
     
  14. MainMemory

    MainMemory Well-Known Member Member

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    The major flaw with the idea of "improving" your records is that the emeralds are "randomly" placed around the level every time you play. It would be a painstaking process to get the timing exact to replicate the same placement from a previous run. Also, I don't think it's necessary to include a replay of the "best rings" run, and "best score" is often synonymous with "best time".

    I think your idea makes a lot more sense for something like my SADX Ghost Mod. I have very little interest in pursuing this idea in KEH, unless someone else does all the work for me.
     
  15. Niko

    Niko All's well that ends well, right? Member

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    And why do all the games that I know of with input-record based replays save the "random seed," again?
    Oh, yeah..

    That said, I'm sure that if any future hacks (including a 3rd Party update for KEH) would put the random seed into the RAM or SRAM until it goes unused, and then saving the replay will also save that value to the replay, then delete it. Or the player exits the menu giving the option to, and then the value is deleted or reused.

    Just a thought, but hey. Not all hackers are aware of all other hacks. (Especially those of games the hack-/mod -er doesn't have.)
     
  16. MainMemory

    MainMemory Well-Known Member Member

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    I'm not saying it's impossible to save working replays, I'm saying it's difficult to get any useful information from a replay.
     
  17. MainMemory

    MainMemory Well-Known Member Member

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    If anyone would like to contribute music to this hack, I'll accept just about anything, as long as it's from a Sonic game and is thematically appropriate (ie no Volcano Valley in Emerald Hill). ASM format is preferred, though I will accept BIN as long as you tell me what PSG and DAC are used (S1/S2/S3K).

    To give you an idea of some of the stuff I want, here's a list. Note that this list doesn't cover all possibilities, as there are some games whose music I am unfamiliar with. If I list a level, rather than a song title, and the level has multiple songs, any/all will be accepted.

    CPZ: "Work it Out", Hot Shelter, Secret Base Zone Act 2
    ARZ: "Tricky Maze ...for Lost World", "Back in Time", Ocean Palace, "Bright Sound ...for Dry Lagoon"
    CNZ: Spring Stadium Zone Act 1 Saturn, Casino Park, "The Dreamy Stage ...for Casinopolis", "Blue Star ...for Casinopolis", Casino Paradise Zone
    HTZ: Volcano Valley Zone Saturn, "The Palace That Was Found", Molten Mine
    MCZ: Quartz Quadrant (Pa, PrJ done), Cryptic Castle
    MTZ: Cannon's Core, EggmanLand (Day done), Metallic Madness (Pa done), Panic Puppet Zone Saturn
    WFZ: Egg Carrier (not "The Ocean"), "General Offensive ...for Sky Deck"
    MZ: Volcano Valley Zone Saturn, "The Palace That Was Found", Molten Mine
    SYZ: Spring Stadium Zone Act 1 Saturn, Casino Park, "The Dreamy Stage ...for Casinopolis", "Blue Star ...for Casinopolis", Collision Chaos (Pa, BFJ, GFJ done)
    LZ: "Tricky Maze ...for Lost World", "Back in Time"
    Title: Sonic 3D Saturn Title
    Menu: Sonic R Menu, Sonic Advance Character Select, Sonic Advance Zone Select, "Advertise: Rhythmic Passage", "SYSTEM SCREEN : SELECT" (Sonic Heroes), Sonic Advance 2 Options, Sonic Mega Collection Plus Menu
    Act Clear: Sonic R Race Finish, Sonic Advance Act Clear
    Invincibility: Sonic 3D Saturn Invincibility
    Credits: "You're My Number One", "You're My Hero", Sonic Advance Credits
     
    Last edited: Oct 16, 2016
  18. JoenickROS

    JoenickROS ROS (bug fixing in progress) Member

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    I have Hot Shelter Act 1, and Act 2, Secret Base Act 1, Red Hot Skull, Deeper, Ghost Pumkin Soup, Aquatic Mine, Mystic Manson, Final Egg Part 1 and 2, Sky Deck, Egg Rocket Zone, All American and European Collision Chaos time periods, Every Tidal tempest except European Bad future, SCD Us act clear, and Sonic Boom Credits. I'm about to get full membership on SoundCloud so soon I'll upload all them there and link you to it in a Pm and you can decided if you want any of them, most likely by Friday.

    Edit: Whoops I'm thinking of Hot Crater from Sonic Advance 2, so I don't have Hot shelter, my bad.
     
    Last edited: Jun 29, 2016
  19. LordXernom

    LordXernom Well-Known Member Member

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    I finished Sky Troops SMPS - I hope you like it.

    Details:

    Channel 1 - Bass Octave 3/4 (Used in Volcano Valley Act 2)
    Channel 2 - Lead Octave 4 (Custom Instrument Made by me via MIDI2SMPS)
    Channel 3 - Lead Octave 5 (Custom Instrument Made by me via MIDI2SMPS)
    Channel 4 - Lead Octave 4/5 (Custom Instrument Made by me via MIDI2SMPS)
    Channel 5 - Silent FM Drums Octave 1 (Custom Instrument Made by me via MIDI2SMPS)
    Channel 10 - S1 Drums DAC/PSG

    SMPS has loop points. I'll also give a MIDI, because I know some people on this forum can port to SMPS better than me.

    MIDI Download link - I hope it works
     

    Attached Files:

  20. nineko

    nineko I am the Holy Cat Member

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    Straight from soniNeko, if you like it :)
     

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