Sonic 2 LD

Sonic the Hedgehog 2 on the Sega Master System is a nice game in its own right, but having been built by an entirely different team for a completely different console, it doesn't look much like its more famous Mega Drive counterpart.

But look, Doc Eggfan and co of Sonic Retro fame have changed all that. It's Sonic 2 as you remember it running on Master System hardware... sort of.

Wario Land 3 (Mega Drive)

NMMX of Sonic Retro has done the world a favour by dumping this slightly infamous hack of the Mega Drive platformer, Puggsy. There were a couple of videos floating around YouTube, with all sorts of uneducated simpletons claiming this was some sort of amazing pirate original.

Is it worth caring about? Well if it gets more people to play Puggsy I suppose so. It's a very bare bones hack which essentially just replaces the title screen, credits, and Puggsy sprite (as well as removing the Sega logo), but Puggsy is a very good game, sporting great graphics and sound for the time as well as PHYSICS. There's also a version for the Mega CD.

Oh and a fun fact for you - supposedly Puggy's anti-piracy tactics are still in-tact here so make sure SRAM is disabled on your emulator.

You got Green Hill Zone in my Sonic Crackers

I'm sure you're all fans of Sonic Crackers!... no? I don't blame you, but I've been fascinated by this one since I first saw it mentioned in an old copy of the Official Dreamcast Magazine.

Anyway it might have taken a decade, but Selbi of Sonic Retro has actually turned Sonic Crackers into something interesting. Sort of. Now you can play through a very dodgy rendition of Green Hill Zone, with extremely broken collision and other glitches. But hey, it's pretty much the first notable Sonic Crackers hack, and that's a start right?

SAGE 2010: Part 2

SAGE Harder

Some games have shown up fashionably late at the SAGE 2010. Time to have a look at them (and some of the ones I didn't look at before).

SAGE 2010

Have you heard that Sonic Colours theme tune announced not too long ago? Do yourself a favour - conserve your brain cells and don't go hunting for it. You see, the problem with Sonic Team is that despite their name, they can't really make a good Sonic game anymore. My theory is they keep flushing out new experiments as they attempt to appeal to the Japanese (who have never really liked Sega or Sonic), rather than focus on the other, bigger markets that are quite happy with the design choices made back in the early 1990s.

But that's why we have the Sonic Ameteur Games Expo, or "SAGE". People come from all over the world to release Sonic the Hedgehog fangames, many of which like to trump Sega's efforts. Here's a run-down of the stuff Squirrel likes this year.

Hurt me plenty

Saxman of ProSonic fame is writing a program that'll let you transfer WADs to and from the Sega 32X port of id's legendary FPS, Doom. It's still at a preliminary stage but as a proof of concept release here's Doom II's first level running on Sega's craptacular add-on:

Can't get that on Nintendo... yet. The textures aren't all there and things like the music are still relying on the original game, but it does pave the way for 32X ports of Final Doom and of course, Chex Quest. And what better way to spread Christmas cheer than pixelation and horrible music conversions.

VELBT

Char sent me his recently dumped "100-in-1" Game Boy Advance pirate. As I'm not usually the first or second person to have a go at a game, I thought I'd post about it.

I mean it's nothing amazingly special, just PocketNES with a bunch of ROMs. But there's a few hacks, a couple of homebrew games and the odd pirate original included (bonus points if you can guess which ones). Gives me an excuse to review a lot of quick sprite edits on one go, so expect a tORP page soonish. One day I'll also get around to finishing that page on Hummer Team's Tiny Toon Adventures pirate (there's a lot to talk about there).

In other news, the Taxman, known for his Retro Sonic engine (Retro Sonic XG, Sonic Nexus) is developing a Sonic CD port to the iphone. It's been pitched to Sega after a "what iphone games do you want" blog post, who have promised to bring it up in one of their board meetings. A Sonic fangame adopted by Sega? Might be more likely than you think.

Now you don't need a Game Gear 2

Sonic Drift 2 just got ported to the Sega Master System. Well okay, I say "just" but it was actually released three days ago.

It's even buggier than Triple Trouble SMS, but again, you can play it. Sadly Sonic Drift 2 hasn't really aged well - it betters its predecessor but aside from Sonic in a car, it's nothing special... and Sonic in a car isn't very special either since he's been in one before, and is due to be in one again.

Nevertheless you can't help but be fascinated by all of this. The Sega Master system getting new games fifteen years after it came off the market. Sure neither of the two Sonic games that have been released this fortnight were stunningly amazing games to begin with, but good lord there's worse out there for that system.

Now you don't need a Game Gear

Good news everyone

It may have taken fifteen years but Sonic Triple Trouble (or Sonic & Tails 2 for you Japanese gamers) has been ported to the Sega Master System. No longer must we live under Game Gear conditions.

Boasting a larger screen size, Triple Trouble is now a lot less cramped and can join its siblings on hardware that doesn't eat batteries for a living. It takes a bit of a hit on the graphics because the Master System has 4000 less colours to chose from, and because it's the first release of a fan-made hack, it's not exactly glitch free, but nevertheless it's quite an accomplishment. Kudos to the folks at Sonic Retro!

When worlds collide

Presenting a completely original character not based on a 1991 trademark - Walrushog.

Will the "game" be completed? Probably not, but no doubt I'll release something. Kudos to Glukom for the idea.

In other news I do hope Google removes this new piece of code for blogger that pointlessly blurs images. Now I've got to edit HTML like a chump.

Games of the Moment - 20/08/07

Second time. This must be a feature or something.

It's an odd moment too. Due to redecorating, my regular PC's been offline (and managed to die on me after being moved, but that's a different story), so I've been reduced to my good old lappy which finds new ways to annoy me every time I use it. It's got an odd selection of games on it, from Quake III to Sonic Spinball Beta but these are the main two I've been playing:

N

If you've not played N then where the hell have you been? It's a platforming puzzler game thing with great physics. Not providing a screenshot this time because I don't want anything resized.

N is a flash game, but unlike the majority of flash games, it's fun to play. Your Ninja bloke can jump around and hang on walls, and your job is to get to the goal by flicking switches, avoiding enemies and getting gold before the time runs out. Think Lode Runner but with more freedom. It's got a level editor and hundreds of maps, and it's being ported to the DS and PSP in the next few months. My recommendation? Play it for free. It'll be hosted online if you go looking, but downloading it equals less lag, and means you don't have to be online to play (which is pretty useful for this laptop).

Sonic 1 MegaMix

What on Earth are you putting these two together for? They're not similar in the slightest! Well, uh, because. Sonic 1 MegaMix is, by definition, the greatest Sonic 1 hack ever. Possibly the best Sonic hack ever. The latest version (3.0) set a new standard for Sonic hacks, and there's still work being done on it for another version.

So anyway, the MegaMix team made up of some of the finest hackers in the Sonic community took the Sonic 1 ROM, added Mighty the Armadillo and Shadow the Hedgehog, programmed in some crazy moves (Homing attack, spindash, that thing where you travel along lines of rings etc.), put in Sonic 3 shields, extended and changed the layout of levels, put in new graphics (Like in Misty Maze pictured above), new music (Michael Jackson's Moonwalker?!), super forms, save feature, a "hard" mode and half a dozen other things, thus creating what is essentially a new game entirely... well okay some levels are just palette changes but still.

Furthermore they left in the original Sonic 1 levels/music/whatever, so you can play them with your new powers and stuffs. And all done in the restrictions of MegaDrive hardware! Yes, you could probably play this on your real MegaDrive. The only problem with this game is that obviously, it's half illegal what with it being a Sonic 1 ROM, but that shouldn't stop you. I mentioned this in the SAGE update not too long ago as well, and surely if I'm recommending it twice it needs a download.


So yeah, got some strange stuff on this laptop, but shouldn't be too long until I can get back on my old PC and tell BanjoSonic the broken Player Adventure codes so that he can get his hedgehog-like paws on one of SHPDMBGWL4 3's secret endings. Also so I can finish the "Expansion Pack".