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Brett Kosinski

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Brent Kosinski is the original person to decipher the compression format used for level graphics and layout in Sonic 2, and to come forward with information about it. He also is the creator of the Java program Chaos.


Timeline

11-13-2000: Brett Kosinski contacted Saxman with an attached document called the Sonic 2 Compression Spec v1.00. This document detailed how the level layout/art compression used in Sonic 2 was formatted. Saxman made the document available to the public through the Sonic Hacking Community (SHaC) website. Saxman would soon begin calling this Kosinski compression, a name that is still used to describe the format.

12-20-2000: He contacted Saxman again to provide version 2.00 of the Sonic 2 Compression Spec document.

01-15-2001: By this date, Brett had informed Saxman that he's working to incorporate his research into a tool to modify levels inside the Sonic 2 ROM, something that previous level editors could not do (they relied on savestates for some of the level layout data).

01-25-2001: Brett's tool was still under construction. He sent Saxman a modified Sonic 2 ROM that contained a restored Hidden Palace Zone, the first time this had ever been successfully done.

01-29-2001: Saxman had tried the editor by this point and reveals he's impressed with it. It was called Chaos. Brett mentioned he planned to add art editing, import/export, and support for other games.

01-30-2001: Saxman revealed the first public screenshots of the editor, still not yet released.

03-19-2001: Brett had told Saxman he didn't have time to continue working on Chaos. He was deciding whether to release the source code for it as-is, or finish it at a later date.

03-26-2001: Brett sent the source code to Saxman to be made available on SHaC. Saxman also made a compiled JAR of it available at the same time.