Sonic Hacking Contest 2014

After more than three years, I'm finally posting on SSRG. Here's TGC's coverage so far:

 

Exposé 1 (featuring Metal Sonic Hyperdrive, Big's Fishing, Crazy the Hedgehog, BakaSonic, LSD is Bad, Metal in Sonic 3, Mystic Cave Classic, Project Reiko, Robotnik Returns, and Gotta Go Fast): 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWF9Av-SImY

 

Exposé 2 (featuring Adventure Generations, Hard Bosses, Sonic 1 FM, Into the Void, World Adventure Packs, Stardust Gear, Painto, hard mode, Sonic 2 Adventure, Rise of Chaos, and Color Contrast): 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QL7i8aHuzFo

 

PLAYTHROUGHS on TGC CLASSIC (Five per day, released between 1-5 pm ET):

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLAgkTPWRJDpLpeou44Ryh_A-pHOPqLrax

 

So for the Mini-Contests, Am I supposed to upload the disassembly, or the ROM?

I asked, because yesterday on the SHC Mini-Contest page, I think it said to upload your disassembly.

 

You are supposed to uplaod the ROM to the Mini-Contests, Bobesh8.

 

On the Community Trophy voting side, once more something needs to be addressed. People have been voting for the Lava Reef Community Trophy (best level layouts in a hack) two Sonic Generations mods that are pretty much the DLC levels from Sonic Unleashed. They're not exactly new, so essentially they wouldn't really be something to vote for that trophy. Remember, you can still change your vote to something that actually has had new level edits done to it, vote for what you think is the best submission in terms of level design.

The contest staff do look at what has worked and what doesn't work during the week in order to improve things for next year, so issues that have been found this year, along with stuff that could be worth doing next time, will be looked at and discussed in order to better the contest as a whole.

● 11am EDT / 4pm BST until 2pm EDT / 7pm BST - SomecallmeJohnny Stream

● 2pm EDT / 7pm BST until 4pm EDT / 9pm BST - Sonic Paradox Stream

● 4pm EDT / 9pm BST until 7pm EDT / 12am BST - MegaGWolf Stream

● 8pm EDT / 1am BST to 10pm EDT / 3am BST - TailsChannel and Cobanermani456 Stream

 

Hello everyone. The first stream was a success. If you missed it here's the video. Feel free to view it to your heart's content!



I'll link to the other videos when I can! =)

 

For any that tried to enter the GHZ mini-contest and only got the MZ form, my bad. The issue has been fixed now, and as such the timeline has been extended a little to get all your entries in. Click here to go to the Day 2 page and enter.

 

Morning folks. Today's mini-contest had a tiny issue. Because of this hitch, we have decided to let you have extended time...as Cinossu has just said....

I'm sorry for being late folks, I dozed off while writing this post, then woke up realizing I never hit enter. Anyways though, Lemme go ahead give you guys the next Mini-Contest information.

[SIZE=medium]Thursday: Rocking Spring Yard[/SIZE]

[SIZE=medium] - This contest will have you creating a new track for, you guessed it, for Spring Yard Zone.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=medium] - [/SIZE][SIZE=medium]The track you make can be basically anything, as long as it fits the level theme of SYZ. So, go get creative.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=medium] - The top two winners will be selected. Each track for Act 1 and 2 respectively.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=medium] - Very Important: Since everybody is using a stock Sonic 1 disassembly, no fancy sound drivers. This contest will work in exactly the same way the SMPS contest over on SSRG works. You can come up with any song, but you can only use what is provided with the stock Sonic 1 driver. This is so that everybody is on an even playing field. I know some people can create masterpieces with the more advanced drivers because they have a crap ton to work with. This is merely to even the playing field, and also because I don’t exactly feel all that up to sitting there on Saturday evening having to figure out how your song works, and then have to port drivers from everywhere[/SIZE]

[SIZE=medium]Anyways folks, I'm headed for bed. You can submit this in the regular mini-contest page by just hitting the tab normally. If you need to submit your GHZ on Fire work, which I hope you lot do, hit Marc's link above my post.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=medium]- FilipinoWaylon26 out[/SIZE]

 

When is the deadline for this SMPS thing, in Italian time? I cba to look it up, and I literally have no time at all today, shame on you for picking today and not yesterday for the one thing I'm interested into D:


If it's in enough hours from now I'll see if I can do something random later tonight...

 

Hello everyone. The second stream went bad at first due to lag and it resulted in me having to move over to Twitch but otherwise it was a blast! I figured I'd do facecam for Sonic 2 Omochao Edition but because I didn't play it long it evolved into facecam for the duration of the stream. Meanwhile MegaGWolf is a better Sonic Tetris player than me.



As for any other potential streams I may do a hour long Mini-Contest stream at 4pm Eastern/9pm UK on Saturday as a nice nod to the Mini-Contest that unfolded. Until then enjoy! I'll be guesting in TailsChannel and Cobi's streams so feel free to say hi. =)

 

I'm a bit disappointed that you didn't read the description for Sonic 2 Adventure Edition, and thus were completely unaware of both the B button spin dash and Knuckles unlocking after completing Sonic's stage.

Edit: and the same thing just happened in TailsChannel, minus the bit about missing the spin dash. Obviously I need to put messages on screen somehow in the next release.

 

This is not something I enjoy having to make a post about; it has come to our attention that there are some voting inconsistencies and problems. One of the things we aim to do with the Hacking Contest, due to its public voting aspect, is make sure everything is fair and maintained well. Unfortunately, it seems that some people have tried to exploit this system, and as such there have been some changes to the votes.

Some people visiting the Entries pages right now might notice that there are two entries previously on there now missing. They were the World Adventure Packs for Sonic Generations. One of the voting inconsistencies was a large amount of votes for these entries under the same IP addresses; 40 in total, to be precise, and those sharing the IP of the author of the entry in question. As such, they have been pulled from the contest and will be recieving no trophies and not be elligible for any either.

There have been a number of other inconsistencies along these lines - multiple votes by the same IP address, cross-accounts, etc. - that we will be investigating over the next few hours and during tomorrow. Those caught will have their votes removed at the least, and possible banning from voting in this contest and possibly from participating at all in future contests as well.

Come on guys, are we really stooping to rigging a hacking contest that is done for fun and enjoyment? This is meant to be about showing off what we all can do, and having a little fun with our opinions while we're at it. There really is no need to do this.

 

It's sad that people will rig a hacking contest just so their entry can win. I never thought someone would do this.

 

Whilst Thursday brought an announcement concerning something we didn't want to have in the contest, it shouldn't ruin the rest of the week. There's a few more days left to get your votes in for the Community Trophies.

Anyway, here is Friday's schedule which is essentially the last day with most of our regular streaming going on, as if you've been around for SomecallmeJohnny's and MegaGWolf's streams, mostly everything has been played, just some stuff left to go through as well as revisiting some entries worth playing again, depending on what the streamer has in plan. There will still be stuff going on Saturday, and Sunday will be when the results will be announced live, at the moment this is scheduled for 2pm EDT / 7pm BST in MegaGWolf's stream but this can change if needed. If you miss it, the results are always posted here after the show ends.

If you want stuff to look at whilst the streams aren't going on, check out some Hacking Contest reviews from Geek Critique and Tails' Channel.

● 11am EDT / 4pm BST until 2pm EDT / 7pm BST - SomecallmeJohnny Stream

● 2pm EDT / 7pm BST until 4pm EDT / 9pm BST Spanner Stream

● 4pm EDT / 9pm BST until 7pm EDT / 12am BST - MegaGWolf Stream

● 8pm EDT / 1am BST to 10pm EDT / 3am BST - Cobanermani456 and TailsChannel Stream

● 10pm EDT / 3am BST to 12am EDT / 5am BST - Radio Rev

 

There's something I heard often while watching the streams during this week that I'd like to make a suggestion toward in the future regarding media showcases. It was basically how people where commenting that they were sick of going through GHZ to the point where some layout hacks just got dismissed as "just another GHZ hack". Now I've played through quite a few of them and know there are more changed levels than just GHZ in most unless it's explicitly pushed out as a GHZ Demo.

So my suggestion for the the media/streamers in the future is, if possible, to use the level select and start at a different zone to show off. People naturally start games from the beginning and the GHZ style stage is typically the first due to the level order. Also, it's easier to work with as the beginner stage to ease people into the game through it.

But with so many entries, there wasn't a lot of time to do a full playthrough of hacks that changed more levels and most of the time, GHZ is all people got to see (that and a wrecking ball Easter Egg about 5 times), which is why I'm making this suggestion. Maybe even have a section on the entry pages for the creators to say what zone they would prefer to be showcased for the sake of not being monotonous with GHZ and draw more attention on the viewers' part. It's only a suggestion and ultimately the streamer will show whatever they feel like showing/playing through, but it's something that stood out to me as a situation that could be helped with level select... at least for full layout hacks.

 

Right, well here's the difference between the viewer/audience against us in the judging and media panel.

You see, in order to form an opinion, you have to play the hack from the beginning. You can't simply skip past something just because you've seen it before. We have to give each hack equal attention.

With the Media panel, you must understand as well, they want to showcase interesting content for their viewers. The case of the matter is, you are correct, there are more zones in Sonic 1 besides GHZ, and a lot of the hacks had other layouts changed. But here is the thing, the media panel feels some of these hacks are underwhelming, and to be quite honest, a lot of the later zones were quite obviously nowhere near polished, finished, or even worth playing. And that is part of the problem, a lot of my media team feels that these hacks are not interesting in general, so why bother showing the rest of a hack that isn't all that entertaining to play? Most of the media panel have already played the games before they streamed it, so it's not like it's a blind playthrough....mostly. If they don't feel the hack has anything interesting or polished enough to show, they won't. But, as to be fair to everybody, they have to show every hack, feelings aside.

Now, I don't want to throw my media panel under the bus and say they are the only ones feeling the monotony. As I am part of the judges panel, I can't just outright tell you how we feel, well you probably already know anyways as you've been watching the streams, but I want to leave you with this.

Whenever you've had to play 19 Sonic 1 hacks, with only 3 or 4 of them that have some new mechanic or an actual change to the gameplay outside of a basic level layout and palette change, you honestly get tired of them. The "We are tired of GHZ" thing is a quite honestly an injoke between us in the super sekrt Skype group. Our real beef is the fact there was 19 Sonic 1 hacks.

Why? Were Sonic 2 and S3K all taking a nap in the Rivera out in Vegas and couldn't be arsed to leave their vacation to be used as a base for hacking?

See, it's these kind of jokes we make to prove a point. Variety is the spice of life FFUser, and when there isn't many spices, life gets dull and people complain.

 

The only point I see of editing Sonic 1 right now is the absence of the spindash (which you could mod out of Sonic 2 I suppose) and being able to edit the special stages easily.

Then again, I see countless people not change the special stages, and then when people do it's usually badly done.

The way I see it is that if you're not going to change the level art much or just palette swap with new level design, switch to a game other than Sonic 1.

We don't need more Green Hills or even more tedious Marbles.

Really what breaks it to me is that after Green Hill it goes straight to a more boring/tedious version of Marble a lot of the time.

People don't want to play through that (Unless it's made interesting such as one of the hacks in the mini-contest stream that used the block pushing gimmick a lot more).

Ehh, what I'm saying is go to Sonic 2 or 3&K if you don't do something really original.

 

 

WOAH WOAH WOAH WOAH WOAH HOLD IT RIGHT THERE!

You sir, are WRONG

First off, many people already put spindash in Sonic 1. I've done it for crying out loud! Also, ever hear of Sonic 1 Special Stage editor?
 

Second, there are PLENTY of good Sonic 1 hacks! Ever play Megamix? pana der hejhog? An Ordinary Sonic 1 ROM Hack? Sonic Brother Trouble? The S Factor? The list of amazing Sonic 1 hacks goes on and on and on, and they've all done amazing things!

Oh yeah, like changing the game is gonna change how different it is? Are you saying Mystic Island Zone from Pana is SOOOOOO unoriginal, yet Icy Paradise Zone from Sonic Overload is great?

 

Well no. People have done amazing things with Sonic 1. Sonic 1 is a great game to use as a base for hacking. That's not the problem. Well, honestly, it isn't a problem. We love to see people enter the contest, not do so well, but then come back the next year wow us. Honestly, we've all somewhat agreed to that statement, that a lot of these hack probably will be better next go round. What everybody's main gripe is that there is a ridiculous over saturation of Sonic 1 hacks.

Does that mean we don't want to people to not hack Sonic 1? No.

Does that mean that people who use Sonic 1 as a base for their hack is bad or unoriginal? No

So what does it mean? It means that even though we are judges, we are human. We get tired of seeing the same thing over and over. And yes, all hacks are not the same, which I understand. At the same token however, when a lot of these Sonic 1 hacks are nothing more than palette and layout hacks we get tired. And if there is nothing that stands out, it just makes it worse as we can only say so much about one hack without sound like a broken record.

 

WOAH WOAH WOAH WOAH WOAH HOLD IT RIGHT THERE!

You sir, are WRONG

First off, many people already put spindash in Sonic 1. I've done it for crying out loud! Also, ever hear of Sonic 1 Special Stage editor?

Second, there are PLENTY of good Sonic 1 hacks! Ever play Megamix? pana der hejhog? An Ordinary Sonic 1 ROM Hack? Sonic Brother Trouble? The S Factor? The list of amazing Sonic 1 hacks goes on and on and on, and they've all done amazing things!

Oh yeah, like changing the game is gonna change how different it is? Are you saying Mystic Island Zone from Pana is SOOOOOO unoriginal, yet Icy Paradise Zone from Sonic Overload is great?






Woah there. I wasn't saying hacking Sonic 1 was bad.

I was saying that if you're not going to make the most brand new thing in the world, it would be better to go with the sequels just to keep from the exhaustion of the Sonic 1 levels.

The Sonic 1 hacks you mentioned are all great (I love Pana der Hejhog a bit too much, really). I was talking about the, well, bad hacks. Even the average ones which completely change the layout.

And I said there's the absence of the spindash in Sonic 1 that may be appealing to some people, not that people should rather want to hack Sonic 2 to have access to the spindash (I've seen many a hacks implement the spindash myself).

As SuperEgg said, it's just that we're tired of seeing the same thing over and over again. Changes to levels such as only the level design annoy us.

Now that I think about it, seeing that sort of thing in Sonic 2 wouldn't be any better, but at least it's not the same levels.

Taking from the contest, at least Bakasonic is a fresh breath of air rather than, well, numerous other entries that modify the original levels rather than making new ones.

The tools are there to make the levels look a lot different, people should use them. I prefer it looking/sounding a bit worse than the original over than it not being different.

LooneyDude, I just believe your reply was just taking what I said as saying all Sonic 1 hacks are bad, which is wrong.

 

Yeah, there are so many Sonic 1 hacks out there its ridiculous. I don't see many Sonic 3 hacks on Sonic Retro nor here, and there's only like 1 or 2 hacks on this year's hacking contest. If I ever make/start a hack, I'm making it out of Sonic 3 (& Knuckles). I do fancy some Megamix though. :3

redhotsonic edit:  Edited post to remove huge quote.  Pelase refrain from quoting the direct post above in the future.  Thanks.