Sonic Unlimited Hack (Source Code Public)

V1.0
Didn't expect this release to be quick and is fully playable except labyrinth zone. Labyrinth zone is skipped anyway so that's good in the format of game crashing.
This does work on real hardware
Credits:
Clownacy For the V2 Clone Driver.
Rom Below with screenshots:



V1.05
Changes:
1. Darker Blue on Sonic
2. New Font for the title cards (credit to Techokami)
3. New Background for the title screen
Rom with 1 screenshot.


V2.0
changes:
Sonic And Miles Font for the level select menu is upgraded to have shading
HUD is upgraded to look more like sonic mania's HUD
more song ports (including 1 song from Knuckles Chaotix)

not really a big update but good enough. here's the ROM with a screenshot.


please scroll down for the next update

 

V2.5
BIG UPDATE TIME!
This update has a lot of changes.
1. music have been changed slightly (credit to nineko for some songs from the smps pack).
2. little Art changes in all of the zones.
3. Labyrinth zone can finally be included in this rom hack.
4. title cards oval has a little change.
5. HUD is upgraded *again..* to look like Knuckles Chaotix with sonic 3's life counter icon.
6. level layout change for GHZ Act 1 and much shorter.
7. palate change for Marble zone to look a little bit easier on the Eyes.
8. palate change for GHZ.
Rom With Screenshots

 

So I haven't played through all stages, just few like GHZ, MZ and SYZ. I found the palette changes a bit good but not good enough. Also, the tiles you used for GHZ and MZ is a bit strange I could say and it's hard to see where I am going. Plus it's not very pleasing in the eyes. And secondly which I liked is that you ported the songs correctly (although the title screen music has loud and different instruments playing for whatever reason.) I liked the Labyrinth Zone's palette as well.
I also wanted to report a bug I found when going through the ending sequence. After the ending sequence has "ended" get it, because it's an ending sequence and I made a joke abo- the sega screen glitches the fuck out and well crashes the game for whatever reason you're having there.
My overall score for this hack is 4/10, not bad but needs a lot of improvement. Especially with the art. As the art is the main issue I see here. The level design can be done afterwards.
Take these as notes and don't take these stuff like seriously, I am just criticising and giving my review on it.

 

yes I did notice that through my playtesting on the crash. However I didn't actually touch the code for it so I have no clue what causes that. At first I thought it was the signpost but it wasn't. So eh.

 

V3.0

Another Big Update!!!
This update has had an Overhaul, here are the list of changes
1. Green Hill Zone (Fanatic Sunset) has had a Background change, oh and another change in Foreground Art with The 1st level having a level design change.
2. Marble Zone (Crumbled Marble) has had an Art overhaul, The Background is the same, but the Foreground has improved in art
3. Extra detail added in the GHZ boss & Marble Boss
4. Life counter changed to be from Sonic CD
5. Spindash added (partially added, has no dust)
6. Title card Oval is back to Normal Sonic 1
7. Title screen Has had A change (Credit: Dax & saan1ty)
8. Sonic 3 (Sonic) Sprites Ported to sonic 1 [has a few animation bugs]
9. Labyrinth Zone (Labyrinth Decay) has also had a Background change to the Prototype Background.
10. Spring Yard Zone (Sparkling City) has had the Background changed to the Prototype Background (Palette cycle Works.)
11. Some BGM changes.
12. ROM Header Has been Changed to "Sonic The Hedgehog Unlimited"
13. Final Zone's name has been changed to "Final Bossfight"
14. Camera Bug is Fixed in Fanatic Sunset Act 1
15. *Again* some palette changes
16. Star Light has had an art change (not much)
17. Sega Screen Changed to the One from S&K
18. Sonic Now has a Victory pose when completing a Level (doesn't work for Capsules & Scrap brain act 2)

Notes: there are a few issues such as, The ending Sequence being broken with its Background slightly with the wrong palette, The victory animation Kinda breaking when not standing still.
Works on real Hardware? --- > Yes
Marble zone has a little broken collision btw. (I have finally Returned)

 

i appreciate the sprite import from S3 to S1 but you should focus on improving level design. avoid overcrowding enemies and unnecessary springs. i recommend studying the level design used in S1, especially GHZ. Each act has its own qualities: Act 1 serves as a tutorial, introducing basic enemies, a 10 ring monitor and a yellow spring. act 2 offers more technical challenges with two alternative paths. act 3 allows players to choose their path based on speed. Each act has three different paths, with the upper section being easier, the middle section being average and the lower section being more complex.
Another area for improvement is the art and proper use of palettes. some palettes feel poorly made or out of place, and the imported art, like the HUD needs improvement, art level too

the ost is kinda "meh". i'd suggest using tunes from different games instead of S2, S3 or S3D.

 

V3.5

Here's a smaller update containing better loading times, 2 new Backgrounds in Marble & Star light, etc
the list of changes that I didn't mention above:

1. Spin Dust, Skid Dust & S2 Splash.
2. Slight Hud Change (too many hud changes bru)
3. Some Bug fixes
4. The end Pose works completely fine now, this will never apply to capsules.
5. Sonic 3 Snare Now being the AcousticSnare from Knuckles Chaotix
6. Sonic 1 Snare Now being the EletricSnare From Knuckles Chaotix
7. Minor Gameplay Changes for Act 1, 2 and 3.

Helpers & Credits:
Joshwoakes - HUD Sliding
EddyTF/Dewmer Dewar - Sonic 3 Victory Pose in Sonic 1
Dax/Sann1ty - Title Screen Art
RobiWanKenobi - The Hud art permission use (I guess)

and yea I hope this should be a slightly better updater than the previous one.
the screenshots and the rom below:




Rom Below!

Ignore the random 2 image files btw.

 

Alrighty now. Let's get this show started. Now firstly, I saw a lot of improvements over this and the current build. And let me tell you, it's an improvement I can say.
However, as I played through this version of the hack, I started to see some rough edges.. to say the least.

The Title Screen looks clean as heck. Same with the SEGA screen too. Albeit, the logo is from Sonic and Knuckles I believe. Still looks cool tho.
The palettes look alright to me, can't say it about Marble and Spring Yard, Spring Yard's palette is all over the place, red mountains with the.. blue clouds? I mean it's alright, but... I felt like it wasn't fitting.
The background's are pretty nice though, Green Hill's was a bit hard to see on what it was showing. Still, nonetheless, I like those changes. Makes the hack unique.
Level design.. oh boy. I see a lot of misplacement of chunks which looked a bit odd. The level design needs an improvement, as it feels like they're not fully done. And are a bit linear. The long loops do be kinda interesting tho, ngl. But yeah.
Also I got stuck at act 3 of Marble Zone at the start.. and my play-through ended there.
I saw a lot of people point out that the drums weren't fitting. And I have to agree with that.. The electric snare was fitting but the acoustic snare wasn't in my opinion. It wasn't sounding good to the ears with some tracks, but hey might be my preference. I suggest you use custom drums, if you want to.

Over all, I like it, was a bit rough/meh around the edges. Keep up the good work!
(I see Joshwoakes' name there =P~)

 

so, ill say as to why this project has not been getting any updates and that's because, I abandoned it, it was crappy and very bad generally, so as a result, Im just gonna make public my development build as this project will not go any further, I originally planned to hope to work onto this for the hacking contest however I just know that I Don't have faith in this project anymore and it seems like I've lost the motivation to work on this project so as a result the rom will be released to public despite it being a development build, anyway that's all from me, peace, oh and forgot to mention, if any youtubers about to record and upload a video of this rom, I highly advice you to put (Discontinued Project) in the title so ppl will know that I discontinued this project, anyway, peace

 

ThIs Is ThE BeSt Hak EvErRWERERErerrererer (joke)

 

Truly the ROM hack of all time

 

Why do I feel like I'm missing out on a loooooooooooooot of context here?

 

I heard you say something about my mother Naylen?! How could you... You know what, guess I gotta show people how Sonic Limited was really meant to be. That'll teach you to play nice >:0

 

V3.5.1

This is just a Bug-fix update fixing bugs and doing some slight quality of life adjustments such as the following

1. Fixed the Bosses
2. Reverted Some Music to the Original because I've gotten sick of hearing Azure Lake....
3. Sonic 3 Sprites replaced with Sonic 2 Sprites
4. Changed the DAC as people were complaining quite often about the DAC in v3.5 when I was experimenting.
5. GHZ Palettes is now reverted but edited slightly to one of my prototypes of sonic unlimited I have on my comp,
not just that but some Minor Art changes as well as long as Improved Parallax Scrolling.
6. Added a Custom Background and "experimental" parallax scrolling in the special stages, let me know if that causes motion sickness and I'll change it.
7. Custom Parallax for Labyrinth Zone as well as minor art changes
8. Slight Level design change at the start of act 2 of green hill, and the start of marble zone act 1, keep in mind I don't think I'm good with level designs so tell me what to improve on with the level design.
9. oh Yeah and added in the S3K Doomsday zone? background in Final Zone, which also has some art from sonic advance as the foreground (seriously... that took up almost Scrap brains original whole VRAM space???)

I think that's it, I wont show any screenshots to avoid spoilers and plus its only really a bug-fix update so its not that special of an update.
anyway, ROM is below, enjoy? idk anymore I need sleep BAD RHTHRU8EgiG

EDIT: forgot to fix the boxes in marble, are, you, fucking, serious

 

I like this palette

Spoiler: Large screenshot

 

I'm glad to have done something in some capacity to hep with this.

I'll play it when I get a chance and see how it is.

 

this happens when you complete the game btw

 

oh right yeah because its using a hackish method of layout, its gonna carry over layout data from where you die in a zone I'm working on due to no Foreground lmao, (SYZ)

 

it is not working in real hardware, for this bug

also it is not let me play after i finish the game
it is looping sonic playing ghz in demo mode

 

Well, hi, you may of noticed that I have left a lot of hacking servers and it's for a reason that I feel like sharing, I know this thread is a bit of an odd place to cover it for the staff that are reading this, I just wan't to clear things up as to why I've left them and tell you for real of where unlimited is and what I'm going to be doing with it

Lets start with the first thing, which is why I left the hacking servers, when I was in the servers, I didn't feel great mentally, because I'm not sure as to why, but I had this sort of bad view on the community which I feel like I was in the wrong, not only that as well but before I left them, I felt like the only thing keeping me together mentally was like a zip-tie around my head or like a bandage wrapped around me, and a lot of the time, I would be in this sort of Negative state of not being able to recover from and it was like that for a while, like a LONG while, and it wasn't until I left the hacking servers that I felt relieved and ended up much happier for some reason, I know this sounds like I'm giving a bad reflection, but honestly, it's really helped. As to if I join them back or not, probably not.

Now for where Sonic Unlimited is in terms of development, as you may know, I've been up and down on the project ever since I started it in late 2022 (when I wasn't old enough to be on this forum), and the way I was acting at the time was, terrible, anyway, it wasn't until Feb of 2023 where I left for a while until Late 2023 when I came back (a few days after my 13th Bday), when I started working on it again, then I left it again at around the same time frame but in 2024 instead, then I left (at the time we're at rn) early this year, so, to give you summary of what that means, it basically means that I've been losing and gaining motivation repeatedly, and it didn't help when I was in deep depression at the time in 2022 - mid 2024 because of how life was going, and because of this, it was difficult to keep the project in development, and this is where I say, from now, it's going nowhere, I know I've said that before, but seriously, it's going nowhere from now, and the source code will be available on my Github, just so you can see all through my shitty assembly code and maybe get some reference to it, the link to it is below, play around with it and do what you like with it. I do feel sorry but I have too, I'm just not capable of maintaining the project.

https://github.com/NayTheGamer/Sonic-Unlimited-Source-Code

Have fun