Sonic HackingWiz Pro

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Fast Facts on Sonic HackingWiz Pro

Category: Multi-purpose editor Version: II v0013 System: Microsoft Windows Supported Games: Sonic 1, Sonic 2, Sonic 3 & Knuckles Credits: GerbilSoft

This page describes an obsolete hacking tool that should not be used for new hacks/projects or with new disassemblies/tools.
This page (and associated files) is being kept for historical purposes only, as it documents and archives the history of the Sonic scene.

Sonic HackingWiz Pro is a hacking utility created by GerbilSoft, consisting of several sub-utilities.

1 Sonic & Knuckles Lock-On ROM Creator
2 Sonic the Hedgehog HackingWiz Pro

Sonic & Knuckles Lock-On ROM Creator

Sonic & Knuckles Lock-On ROM Creator V2 with Sonic & Knuckles and Sonic 2 loaded, ready for combining.

The first utility in the SHWP series isn't actually part of the series. It's a simple Sonic & Knuckles Lock-On ROM Creator. It does the job, but is very slow due to poor coding techniques. Two versions of this program have been created, the latter with a faster combiner (but still not as fast as combining with a utility such as `cat`).

The Lock-On ROM Creator has some useful features, such as the addition of the 256k UPMEM for Knuckles in Sonic 2 and ROM "cleaning" for Sonic 3 & Knuckles. Some versions of the Sonic & Knuckles ROM had a few bad bytes, causing lock-on to fail. The cleaning function fixes these bad bytes, so lock-on would work properly.

Sonic the Hedgehog HackingWiz Pro

Sonic HackingWiz Pro was initially nothing more than a rename of the Sonic & Knuckles Lock-On ROM Creator, but it eventually grew to have many different features. Note that since SHWP and related programs was created before disassemblies were common, it only works on original ROMs. That is, it uses hardcoded addresses for various functionality rather than being able to edit data at any portion of the ROM or disassembly.

History

Beta 1: The first beta was nothing more than a rename of the Sonic & Knuckles Lock-On ROM Creator with a multiple document interface.
Beta 2: Beta 2 added initial Sonic 1 hacking, with support for editing the Level Select and title card options.
Beta 3: Beta 3 added Sonic 3 special stage hacking. It also disabled checksums in Sonic 1, thus preventing the Red Screen of Death.
Beta 4: Beta 4 added Sonic 3 level select editing. It also improved the speed of the Sonic & Knuckles Lock-On ROM creator such that it matched standard file copy commands (e.g. `cat` on Unix/Linux).
Beta 5: Beta 5 added a feature to the Sonic & Knuckles Lock-On ROM creator that patched the Sonic & Knuckles portion with SRAM data so in-game saving worked with Sonic 3 & Knuckles. Also, a bug causing the automatic ROM cleaning features to no longer work was fixed.
Beta 6: Beta 6 added various Sonic & Knuckles, Sonic 3 & Knuckles, and Sonic 2 adding features, an SMD to BIN converter, and a Knuckles animation in the About dialog.
Beta 7: Beta 7 added an IPS patcher and changed the About dialog animation to Knuckles running in the Sonic 2 or Sonic 3 special stages.
Beta 8: Beta 8 added a "Save As" function to the IPS patcher and included a built-in IPS patch for Sonic 2. [What does this patch do?] It also added a playlist editor for Sonic 2.
Beta 9: Beta 9 added a playlist editor for Sonic & Knuckles and Sonic 3 & Knuckles.