Sonic Hacking Contest 2014

Hey now, let's not forget Sonic Adventure (DX), Sonic Adventure 2, or Sonic Generations. Someone might even hack something like Sonic 06 or Sonic's Schoolhouse, you never know.

 

brb working on Tails and the Music Maker & Knuckles featuring Big the Cat.

 

Hey now, let's not forget Sonic Adventure (DX), Sonic Adventure 2, or Sonic Generations. Someone might even hack something like Sonic 06 or Sonic's Schoolhouse, you never know.



Indeed. I'm just a MD/MCD/32x homebrew guy that likes poking fun at the "no homebrew" rule that was added. Sorry if it came off as ignoring the games outside of that scope. Those are usually decently interesting as well, and aren't terribly hampered by the "no homebrew" rule right now.

Also, Tails and the Music Maker & Knuckles featuring Big the Cat? Now that would be ridiculously amusing to see.

 

Please note the addition of a new trophy which you should be able to figure out which one. This time you have the entire contest to work on it.

 

If you ask you don't get.
One, he didn't ask. Two, that's not how the saying goes =P

I think the results show was a lot better than the mess it was in 2012, but we could look at giving only a certain amount of time to discuss the entries.
If the results were any shorter in time in the podcast, we might as well not fucking bother with the podcast.

2013's podcast was definitely better than 2012, but still was far from perfect. 2012 was full of unwanted shit, people pissing around and unorganised, after 15 minutes, I stopped listening. 2013 was definitely more professional and organised but was way too long. I remember you lot talking about the SFactor for over 20 minutes, and we hadn't even got to 1st/2nd/3rd prize yet, after that, you started talking about another hack for a while, that I tuned out again. For 2014's podcast, you can do the same again but talk about each hack a lot quicker. Give a brief reason why you awarded it that trophy, give it the pros and then cons, then move on. This is just a suggestion.

 

another thing to add to Red's opinion, to me the live game plays last year was also not that good in terms of people were acting on there to. the live stream itself wasn't bad, but the way most of them were acting and commenting were just ridiculous. constantly saying play this, or play that for hacks that wasn't even submitted or just flat out kept saying other kind of shit to the point were they had to stop, at least that's what I heard what happened on Gwolf's live stream any way last year. it was like that on johnny's livestream too but not to the point were they had to stop it. speaking of livestreams, are there going to be any for this year? haven't had a chance to fully look at the first post to see if there is.

 

That's kinda sad when the more popular stream had the better behavior. But anyway, it would be cool to have these two giants commentate and show off the hacks that the "horrid" Sonic fan base creates. It puts us in a more positive light. 

 

Live streams are planned but will be announced nearer the time.

 

The results show this year I thought went well, as from my point of view it felt like an actual show. Getting the results out there pretty quickly with no substance or discussion is boring, quite frankly, and if you just wanted the results waiting another two hours for the posts on each forum wouldn't have really hurt much. The show was for entertainment and, for all intents and purposes, a stream with MegaGWolf with some special commentary over it! 

I agree that we could use more planning and allocating time frames to talk about the trophies and the entries that win them rather than spending half an hour on one hack, however, if it's the same case next year where we have quite a few people in the Skype call and it's something everyone wants to discuss, naturally, more time will be spend discussing it.

Additionally, judging by the popularity of the daily podcast, or lack thereof, I can't see it returning as a daily thing unless more effort is put into advertising and publicising it. I doubt many people are walking around thinking "Aw yeah, I can't wait for the hacking contest podcast tonight!".

Point is, provided I'm not dead next year, with a decent computer, headset and I can still physically talk, I can guarantee that next year's running of events will be just like this years but even better. Being involved in the 2013 contest was extremely fun and I sincerely hope I get the opportunity to help in 2014.

 

Unfortunately one problem we had was the radio stream not working for some people (and the contest site) which is why the daily podcasts weren't as good as they were expected. I'd say expect three overall this time. One at the start to open the thing, a mid-week show and the final results show. I'm sure the radio stream will be sorted for the next contest week anyway.
Also, concerning the behaviour of some on the Twitch chats, it is something that had to be addressed if you were around for that. Not only was there a post on the site about it but also one of MegaGWolf's moderators was invited to explain what went down and how it was unacceptable. Once that was addressed, most people knew what not to do, and those who ignored it were dealt with.

I am contemplating just using a dedicated hacking contest channel next time just for consistency and to help avoid the same issues as last time, but this cannot be guaranteed as there may be some opposition by some streamers. We're looking at bringing in more people to do streaming and other things as well, so it will be different from what happened in 2013's contest week. We're going to try and get as much content available and on the air during the week so there will be something on at most times of the day. But like I said, nothing has been set in stone and don't expect much to be announced right now.

 

I'm so sorry for saying 2 times.I will not make it that next time.Ok? :resent: 

 

LOLWUT? Dude, why are you apologizing for double posting after almost two weeks after the fact? I had to actually go back to the last page and find out what in the hell you were talking about.

 

Maybe he hadn't been on since then?

EDIT: Actually, I could of sworn his post was a lot longer earlier...

 

Fair point, but the topic has since moved considerably past this point. So an apology now is the equivalent of someone answering a hacking question from well over a month ago, and the difference between the original post and reply is like 2 or 3 pages.

Also, his post probably was longer, really haven't been paying attention all the noise in the topic though. Busy working on my job for the contest.(among other things.)

edit: Bad me. I know quoting posts above mine is bad.

 

Perhaps, I'll send one hack this year. Perhaps not. I don't know.

 

Cool beans. I'll be looking forward to judging it.

 

I decided to give hacking a go, and through playing around I've made Sonic completely vulnerable in Sonic 1. He can't curl into a ball at all, unless an S-bend is involved. However, this makes bosses completely impossible at this point in time.

I guess it's kind of a challenge hack at the moment. I may dig around more in the ASM disassembly, and see what else I can do with it.  :biggrin:

 

I hate to say it but i might submit something this year.

 

And we hate to read it.

If I submitted something, I'd only really shoot for the Casinopolis Trophy and probably miss by a mile.

 

It's taken its time, due to a number of reasons ranging from work overload to me actually being on holiday in another country right now, but the Sonic Hacking Contest 2014 site is now open and ready for entries.

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http://shc.hapisan.com

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Like last year, everything is handled on-site and you can log in with your SSRG forum account to get started. More information is on the site itself, including instructions on what to do, how to do it, etc.
The biggest addition this year is Teams, which can be set up from the new "Teams" section. They can be a mix of both Retro and SSRG members, and allow credit to be on all members of the team as well as allow any member to modify and set up entries for the whole team.

As always, enjoy. If any issues, bugs, etc. are found, just let us know either in here, the Sonic Retro thread equivalent, or in the comments of the news post on the site itself.