The 2013 Sonic the Hedgehog Hacking Contest

In the meantime though, it looks like SonicVaan mirrored the hacks on SonicGamesDimension here:

http://sonicvaan.son...mirror/SHC2013/ 

I think a few are missing, but they're mostly there.

 

Hey guys; sorry about all the fun and games, but my webhost provider cut out the site due to server load. (You guys killed it from overuse! In one day! :U) It's in the process of being moved to a new server (here :U), and there are some errors to fix with the move. Don't worry, everything is still there - entries, votes, comments, etc. - we just need to finish fixing it so it actually loads the pages properly (fastCGI is a bitch with friendly URLs).

 

I'll be fixing it just my lunch break at work today, so it'll be up again at the latest 2pm BST.

 

Thanks for your patience.

 

If anyone wants to know how much activity this contest has been getting, MegaGWolf broke his viewer record with over 300 and SomecallmeJohnny had 700, maybe more last night. It could get better and better throughout the week.

Anyway, here's today's events which are still going on regardless of the server issues:

• 7pm BST / 2pm EST to 9pm BST / 4pm EST - MegaGWolf Stream
• 9pm BST / 4pm EST to 11pm BST / 6pm EST - Hacking Contest Podcast
• 1am BST / 8pm EST to 3am BST / 10pm EST - SomecallmeJohnny Stream

Monday's podcast will be up when the site is back online. I'm aware there were some issues connecting to the radio last night which I am trying to fix, instead of .m3u you can also connect to just /hackingcontest - a few browsers like Chrome will open up its own media player to listen in.
On the first daily contest, we asked you to do a level layout for Green Hill Zone. We only got one entry. So we're going to give you another chance to make a layout as well as take part in the new daily contest - making new level art. To take part, download this disassembly if you haven't already as we'll be using that throughout the week.

We want you to re-imagine Green Hill Zone, give us your take on what it should look like (how it looks is completely up to you). We ask that you work with the level chunks provided in the original to provide compatibility with the winning level layouts.

• Email your submission to shc[@]sonicresearch[.]org. You need to upload the complete disassembly that we provided you so that we have the content to be transferred over to the disassembly where all the winning entries will be.
• It would be appreciated if your subject name was “Tuesday Entry” for example so we can keep track easily. Obviously if it was Wednesday's entry, it'd be “Wednesday Entry”. State in the email if it's only the level layout you did, level art or both!
• The results will be announced during the Contest Results Podcast on Sunday with the ROM being available for download soon after.
• We ask that you work on content exclusive to this submission and not whatever you have lying around in a hack you haven't submitted this year for example. We want to see how much you can do in the time provided.
• You must submit your entries by Wednesday 3am BST (Tuesday 10PM EST). No late entries will be accepted!

 

Spanner, the somecallmejohnny stream is actually scheduled to run from 2am BST to 4am BST (9pm to 11pm for EST viewers); that's what John stated in his stream announcement video over on YouTube, and I was reminded by other viewers on Twitch.

 

If you check this video's description you'll see that I am right:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-koVON0tOo

 

That's strange  :scratchhead:  In the video itself there was a picture with his schedule, and the times he stated matched that picture; also when I logged into Twitch for 1am everyone kept saying "just one hour to go until the stream starts", and sure enough... at 2am John's stream went online.

I think that he most likely, and by accident, put the wrong information in the video description.  :resent:

 

Aaaaand we're back! All old links will redirect automatically, but the new address is http://shc.sonicresearch.org.

Things are now working again for the most part; any warnings, errors or bugs that you come across please let us know immediately. The set up is different to last time, so things may still need fixing.

 

Howdy folks, sorry if this sounds late. I fell asleep before I could post it.

It seems that the Opening day of the Sonic Hacking Contest has been successful. Actually, more than successful, it has been a record breaker. It seems a lot of you folks have noted the site being down, and I bet a lot of you are wondering why. It is actually because of the traffic we got overloaded the server it was on. That's right, we had so many people come and look at our little contest that the server couldn't handle it. Now that is impressive it I do say so myself. The site was down that way we could move it to a more suitable server, which is the one that SSRG is being hosted on. So like I said, congrats on that.

Speaking of records, it seems the streams hit a milestone as well. According to MegaG and John, they both had over 300 and 700 viewers to their streams respectively. Not to mention we have the Geek Critique and countless other people doing their own ministreams that are now littered on YouTube. Sweet damn, all that is left is to make #shcontest a worldwide trend on Twitter. Seriously guys, lets try to keep this ball rolling, the steam flowing, and whatever other saying. Like I said, the judges are trying to make it the best contest in years, and it seems with the current happenings, this will truly be the best hacking contest since 1890.

Actually, that isn't a half bad idea. Making #shcontest a worldwide trend? I've seen stupider things become trends, why not this? Just a mini challenge for you folks at home. Nothing official.

edit: grammar and shit

 

Tuesday's podcast just from a few hours ago: http://shc.sonicresearch.org/shows/tuesday.mp3

 

Also, the website is now working fine without any slowdowns. Any issues, post in the thread.

 

I just watched John's test stream and, you were correct... the schedule has been changed to start at 1am; my apologies for assuming it was still the original times given, Spanner.

Also, I heard the podcast when it was live... talk about "a fine tooth and comb" analysis; anyway, looking forward to tomorrow's session.

 

Today's Events:

- 7pm BST / 2pm EST to 9pm BST / 4pm EST - MegaGWolf Stream

- 10pm BST / 5pm EST to 12:30am BST / 7:30pm EST - Sonic Paradox Stream

- 11pm BST / 6pm EST to 12am BST / 7pm EST - Radio Rev: Hacking Contest Edition

- 1am BST / 8pm EST to 3am BST / 10pm EST - SomecallmeJohnny Stream

The Daily Contests haven't exactly had a good turnout but I guess that's my fault for choosing a level that needs further work done to it after you split a disassembly. Today's round however is Music. Make up a SMPS import of pretty much anything you want that would fit the level and send it in. You can only send in one entry so make it good and you have to keep to the constraints of the Sonic 1 Sound Driver which includes only using the original DAC and nothing extra. Your import may be in BIN or ASM format (just include s1smps2asm in the disassembly, it's fine). The disassembly used for this week is here.

- Email your submission to shc[@]sonicresearch[.]org. You need to upload the complete disassembly that we provided you so that we have the content to be transferred over to the disassembly where all the winning entries will be.

- It would be appreciated if your subject name was “Wednesday Entry” for example so we can keep track easily.

- The results will be announced during the Contest Results Podcast on Sunday with the ROM being available for download soon after.

- We ask that you work on content exclusive to this submission and not whatever you have lying around in a hack you haven't submitted this year for example. We want to see how much you can do in the time provided.

- You must submit your entries by Thursday 3am BST (Wednesday 10PM EST). No late entries will be accepted!

We're offering you the opportunity to vote for your favourite hacks for the Community Trophies - the awards that are awarded by you. Unfortunately, there have been some voting in trophies where the hack would not qualify for it. Obviously this was a mistake on our end for ensuring that you could only vote for the hacks that fit that category, but here's what we mean.

- An Ordinary Sonic ROM Hack does not meet the criteria of the Windy Valley Trophy as it does not have completely new level art.

- Sonic 1 CD Remake would not be best for the D.A. Garden Trophy seeing as the music is really just "arranged" versions of music from the original game. The hacks behind this on the voting, The S Factor and Metal Sonic Overdrive, have brand new music and would fit the voting better.

You can still change your vote if you want. If you voted for an entry that doesn't suit that trophy, award your vote to something that does.

 

Does anybody have a mirror of the MegaGWolf streams so far? Twitch doesn't work at all for me.

 

Twitch only works when he is on "live". So if you go on tonight at 7pm BST, it would then work.

 

Alternatively, you could click his profile and check out previous streams and find them. Due to me being busy with finals, this is the only way I can watch them.

 

You could always do what I'm currently doing and watch the stream via the stream section on the hacking contest's website.

 

I know that, I just am having trouble with the video player. If no one has them already, that's fine.

 

Today's events:

• 7pm BST / 2pm EST to 9pm BST / 4pm EST - MegaGWolf Stream
• 9pm BST / 4pm EST to 11pm BST / 6pm EST - Hacking Contest Podcast
• 11pm BST / 6pm EST to 12am BST / 7pm EST - Radio Rev: Hacking Contest Edition
• 1am BST / 8pm EST to 3am BST / 10pm EST - SomecallmeJohnny Stream
• Due to a very low turnout we have cancelled the Daily Contest. Feel free to use whatever you did with your own projects. The Big Trophy is still running.

 

I was looking forward to seeing what folks came up with at the end of the week too  :resent:

 

If you are that curious, the song I posted here is the one I sumbitted for yesterday's daily contest. I made it last night in one hour or so because I was bored

 

Podcast from earlier: http://shc.sonicresearch.org/shows/thursday.mp3