Sonic Prototypes (released by Hidden Palace)

So here's how collision is loaded in the prototype...

This is so noobish I can't help but facepalm. Thankfully it was changed in final for a pointer table. But this seriously reminds me of programming by a certain infamous developer in the present day.

 

That looks even worse than the approach I used in my "per-act" music guide, which was bashed just a few days ago (that's why it came to mind).

It almost looks like someone wanted to mimic the "switch" structure from C (or the "select case" structure from Basic, whichever you prefer), but even then, that's indeed an inefficient way to do it, why do they keep on checking even after they already found the right zone?

 

Thank whatever deity that they switched to a pointer table.

 

These are the kinds of discoveries I find most heartwarming about the prototype. Silly things like poorly written code and a few object placements that clearly went for looks over gameplay make it feel a little like someones first rom hack. This is one of the first times anyone had ever tried to make a sonic game, and it shows in the prototype almost like it would in any semi serious first rom hack. It brings me back to the time when I was first figuring this stuff out, and I love that.

 

Splats ready for the Hive disasm, go nuts

 

Is there a reason why one can't use Hex-Rays Home edition to decompile the ROM image? I contacted their sales department, and they mentioned that their home edition can decompile M68k images for $365. Far cheaper than $1,800 + yearly maintenance fees.

My other question is what debugger tool do people use to poke around the ROM when it's executing? Is there an emulator with a good built-in debugger, visual VRAM viewer, and anything else that might be handy?

 

Regen has a CPU debugger with breakpoint support, RAM and VRAM viewers, and a bunch more. BlastEm seems to have some debugging features as well, but I'm not as familiar with it. I know it has a VRAM viewer at least.

 

The glitch, so far, in the final, came from the beta

 

That bug with the GHZ BG leaking through also exists in final.

 

Sorry, I'm terribly late. But better late then never, so here it is:
Sonic 1 Proto SMPS rip + sound driver/DAC driver disassembly
In order to play the proto rips back in SMPSPlay, you need to compile your own version from the SMPSPlay source code, due to a previously unimplemented coordination flag.

Notes about the SMPS driver

• It's an SMPS 68k/Type 1b sound driver (same as Golden Axe II / Dragon's Eye / Toki: Going Ape Spit).
• It's from before they stripped tons of features off, which makes it superior to the final sound driver. (aside from a few bugs with fade-in)
• It has a list of presets for modulation effects, which are usually set using coordination flag $F0. Some songs (e.g. Green Hill Zone) use modulation effects from that global array, with coord. flag $E3.
  What is really interesting about this is, that
  • Only SMPS 68k/Type 1 games have this feature.
  • Only the Sonic 1 prototype makes use of it. None of the releases games does.
  The syntax is $E3 xx where xx is a 1-based (!) index into the modulation preset array.

Notes about the DAC driver and the DAC samples

• It is the typical "generic SMPS 68k DAC driver" and is most similar to the one used by Shadow Dancer.
  That includes the problem with the DAC not being disabled after a sample is finished.
• The DAC samples are a binary match with the final version of the game.
• After the rewrote the DAC driver in order to support the uncompressed SEGA speech, they only adjusted the pitch of the kick drum. ($14 -> $17). The pitch of all other sounds was left untouched, which makes the samples higher pitched than originally.

 

Its download already got taken down after like an hour and a half, I was gonna be interested in this

 

It's what I said.

 

Okay, now that is new. I don't think that happened before, even though I have the complete SMPS research pack in the same folder.

Anyway, I changed the link. The new one shouldn't go down.

 

So for some reason people tend the think that the 'night time' palette that was found in the prototype was like a night mode for GHZ, or if you're insane enough, an underwater palette for Labyrinth, but uh, nope. It's the ending. I always thought it was the end, and will forever believe it's the ending palette. Just because it's not programmed in, does not mean assets won't be made for it. Note the flowers themselves are not in the ROM, I took the final's ending flowers and matched them up to the palette. And it works pretty perfectly, too perfectly.

 

I read the Retro Gamer issue with the article about the Sonic 1 beta is available. I tried buying the issue off their website, but all I got were options to purchase a yearly subscription, which is not something I want. Does anyone know if it's possible to just get a single issue?

And is it me, or is the Retro Gamer website way out of date? Was the last update around a year ago?

 

Single issues are available here - make sure you select issue 216 from the drop-down menu: https://www.magazinesdirect.com/az-single-issues/6937134/retro-gamer-magazine-single-issue.thtml

You're correct, for various reasons the Retro Gamer website is no longer updated. We're now part of the GamesRadar site, with our section located here: https://www.gamesradar.com/uk/retrogamer/

 

Got it. I ordered a copy of the print edition. Question I have now is this: is it possible to buy a digital copy of the issue without having to pay for a subscription? I'd like to check out the article in the meantime while I wait for my print copy.

EDIT: Found it. Never mind.

 

I wondered what other Sonic Prototypes we'll get?

 

Are there any plans as of now for a way to get the Prototype's Sega Screen into the GitHub disassembly?

 

If you compare the old labels and structure to the GitHub labels you should be able to get it working fine.