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IV. “The Golden Age”

From Sonic Retro

Revision as of 01:28, 2 January 2008 by Tweaker (talk | contribs) (Members: formatting)
This article is part of
Hidden Palace Zone: ACLA-ATD4
by Nayr T'nargh.
Individual pages...
I. Introduction
II. Dawn
III. Ethiopia
IV. “The Golden Age”
V. Hackers
VI. The Dark Age of Light
VII. The Cleansing
VIII. A New Start
IX. Deception: The Hacker
X. Astray and Confusion Abounds
XI. Conclusion
XII. Versions
XIII. Credits
See also...

TSC:MTAPE

IV. “The Golden Age” -- The SSC’s finest moments of secret finding emerge Now you’ll get much more info, because this is when I, Nayr T’nargh, showed up with my first name, Samantha Clarfet. It was later adapted by André and Dr. Zachary after I changed my name to escape the criticism. Anyhow, the SSC really started taking off at this point. SSRG invited several more sites on, but no one was ready for some of the discoveries that took place at this time...

Overall happenings and history

Well, we’ve got a lot here, so I’ll just go in order ;)

Sonic 2 beta

Not a member of the community at the time, Simon was and still is the only member who can read Chinese. He knew about the ROM for the prototype Sonic 2. When he realized that people on the SSRG were seeking it, he basically showed up and said “here it is”. This changed the community drastically. The membership of the community must have grown about 100 times during this period just because of the beta. Simon was quickly invited onto the SSRG, where he documented continued discoveries of Sonic 2 Beta, hoaxes and the new fake hoaxes. There is an argument to this day as to whether Simon was the creator of fake hoaxes or whether it was Sonic Pandemonium. The world may never know ;)

The race for HPZ

The existence of Hidden Palace Zone in the beta drove people to wonder about the final. Could HPZ still be in there? A small group of people were wanting to find out. Tom, Cyan and Damian Grove started randomly going through the ROM. In the end, Tom found Hidden Palace Zone and told Cyan. Cyan released the information and got the credit for finding the corrupted version of HPZ in Sonic 2. This period was very important, though. While going through the ROM, these guys had picked up a wealth of other info. Damian documented this in what is now the first hacking guide ever created. I now include that in here from me to you:

=================================
Sonic 2 Hacking Guide v1.00
Copyright(c) 1999 by Damian Grove
=================================
(Use "Word Wrap" for this file)

Welcome to my Sonic The Hedgehog 2 hackers guide! I will be able to tell you how to choose your lives, levels, edit object mapping (the way the 32x32 sprites are lines up on a single sprite), and more. Right now, my notes are very sketchy. You may not even understand some of it. I am constantly working on this, so expect to see major updates. Oh, and one more thing. If you use Microsoft Developer Studio, you will understand the code pointers well enough. If you use HEX, ignore the first zero. This has confused many people.

------------------------
////////CONTENTS\\\\\\\\
------------------------

(1) KGEN/Genecyst Saves
	(01) Startup Data
	(02) Levels
	(03) Tiles
	(04) Acts
	(05) Lives

(2) Sonic 2 Binary
	(01) Mappings
	(02) Object Routins
	(03) Solids
	(04) Music
	(05) Commands
	(06) Extra

-----------------------------------
////////KGEN/Genecyst Saves\\\\\\\\
-----------------------------------

//1-01////////
//////////////
//Startup Data
//////////////

011E8E                 Level Name? (Still studying this) This is sometimes valid depending on the selection.
011E8F                 Level Name/Tiles?
012272                 Music
012273                 TILES/Debug?
012270                 Screen pointers
011EA0                 00 0B B0 00 00 03 00
                                00 = Level
                                   00 = Act
                                      03 = Lives

So, if I wanted to start on Hidden Palace Zone Act 2 with 36 lives, I would have this:
00 0B B0 08 01 24 00

//1-02//
////////
//Levels
////////

#  NAME                # IDENTIFIER
01 Emerald Hill        00
02 Chemical Plant      0D
03 Aqua Ruin           0F
04 Casino Night        0C
05 Hill Top            07
06 Mystic Cave         0B
07 Hidden Palace       08
08 Oil Ocean           0A
09 Metropolice         04
10 Sky Chase           10
11 Wing Fortress       06
12 Death Egg           0E

//1-03/
///////
//Tiles
///////

--(for Sonc 2 Beta)--

Wood            
       DC Emerald Hill
Hidden Palace          D4 is the default for all the levels in the full Sonic 2. I tried changing it and I got a blank screen. This tells me that I am getting warmer to getting its art back!


There are a total of 4 levels that were taken out. They are labeled:

???                    01
Wood                   02               43
???                    03
Genecide City          09 ----Level name data still exist!

So actully, there was 16 levels at one time.

//1-04
//////
//Acts
//////

Act 1                  00
Act 2                  01
Act 3                  02

Metropolice Zone Act 3 can also be selected by changing the level number to 05.

//1-05/
///////
//Lives
///////

000                    00
001                    01
002                    02
003                    03
004                    04
005                    05
006                    06
007                    07
008                    08
009                    09
010                    0A
011                    0B
012                    0C
013                    0D
014                    0E
015                    0F
016                    10
017                    11
018                    12

Etc, etc, etc. This makes it so you can have a max of 255 lives.

------------------------------
////////Sonic 2 Binary\\\\\\\\
------------------------------

//2-01////
//////////
//Mappings
//////////

0714F0-??????          Sonic
071FF6-07393C          Smoke streams
073AF8-??????          Tails
0748B2-??????          Sega logo
07CD30-07D227          Sonic/Tails logo animation
07D230-??????          Level intro

//2-02//////////
////////////////
//Object Routins
////////////////

0E41FE-??????
	0E4381          Rings Act 1
	0E4382          Rings Act 2
	0E6800          Execute all debug sprites for 00 except rings and end level mark - act 1
	0E6801          Execute all debug sprites for 00 - act 1
	0E6802          Execute all debug sprites for 00 except rings and end level mark - act 2 (buggy)
	0E6803          Execute all debug sprites for 00 - act 2 (buggy)
	0E6810          Execute all debug sprites for 04 except rings and end level mark - act 1
	0E68C0          Random ring loss for 00 - act 1
	0E6980          Blue liquid worms thingies for 00 - act 1 (from 0D)

This is the thing that looks like a color palette when you open it as a RAW file.

//2-03//
////////
//Solids
////////

044E50-??????

//2-04/
///////
//Music
///////

0ED100-??????

//2-05////
//////////
//Commands
//////////

NqNqNqNqNq              Switches to another frame
Sx                      ??????
Nu                      Sprite offsets
UrUrUrUrUr              ??????
init                    C initializer?
HB                      Pixel offsets

//2-06/
///////
//Extra
///////

Graphics are displayed by tile sets. The art in Hidden Palace is not displayed correctly simply because the tile set value is not correct. The tile value is set to display Oil Oceans art. This is because in early beta versions of the game, Hidden Palace actually came before Oil Ocean and when it was removed, Oil Ocean took over that level slot. Hidden Palace still reads this section though. Also, there is a data section that sets witch sections are walls/floors, and which you can go through. I found that out by doing an experiment. I don't know what the section is though. Anyway, this is proof that the Hidden Palace Zone CAN be restored correctly.


S P E C I A L    T H A N K S :

Scott Feeny --------- Extra level editing info
A.J. Freda ---------- Extra screen pointer info

That’s all for now. You can e-mail me at [email protected] or visit my homepage at www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Alley/6250.
>

Cyan soon created a Sonic 1 hacking guide. So did Damian. Both were hosted on the SSRG until Cyan agreed to combine both sites into one, which became the Sonic 1 hacking document.

Why the heck’d they do that? THEORIES!

This era brought about the need of the group for theories. Unable to contact any of the designers of the games, people had their own ideas about what things were for. So nic 2 Beta really made this aspect take off as people started speculating about unfinished levels, especially the absent “Dust Hill Zone” and the infamous stone in Hidden Palace. In the next release, I will include many of these that were once on SoSth back in the day...

Hoaxes

Hacking was in its infancy, so hoaxes then were very predominant. Few were made with the intention of fooling people, but rather to get out an interesting idea that they thought would be neat or just to make people laugh. This also started the “brutality” towards Miles “Tails” Prower, a movement that died off only recently. The original hoax I still have on an old hard drive and it contains Sonic kicking Tails into a bed of spikes in MCZ.

Achievements

Being the Golden Era, the achievements here were few, but MAJOUR. Two betas were found during this era, although one is often overlooked...

Sonic 2 Beta

The majour achievement that brought us into the golden age. This was the community’s number one membership boost and still continues to bring in members. Although Sonic 2 Beta has just about been picked clean, it has provided a wealth of information over the years.

Sonic 1 Beta HOAX

The proving that Sonic hacking had matured during the race for HPZ. Unbeknownst to anyone else, Cyan had collected info on Sonic 1 during the race and released the first ever Sonic hacking hoax (arguably, the first ROM hack). Though unimpressive by today’s standards, it was for a VERY long time beyond anyone else’s capabilities.

Sonic 2 Final’s HPZ

The race for HPZ revealed that the final may have fried most things, but certainly not all of HPZ. Though the belief at this time was that the art was in another location in the ROM and that the level was completed, it was still known that at least the sprite location array had remained intact as well as the level slot. It was also discovered not too long later that Wood Zone’s palette survived the blasting.

Sonic Spinball Beta

Though at a transitional period between periods, this was the last boost in the Golden Age. Found by Elliot Rosenburg on a Chinese site with the name SuperSonicGame, it turned out to be the second and last dumped beta found in the community. With very few changes and game support lacking in the first place, the recognition quickly died off.

Message boards

Sonic Pandemonium had lost serious membership due to other SSC sites opening up. The ones that were loyal to Sonic Pandemonium started going to at least the new SoSth board and some to A51’s and S2B’s. Here we go...

Sonic Pandemonium

I don’t have much info here, because I got scared off the board and sought refuge in S2B for about a year.

Secrets of Sonic the Hedgehog

Ah yes... André and Dr. Zachary noticed that I left and picked up my name posting as me. It led to a really funny time with wars back and forth between André, Nique, Dr. Zachary, Mecha Tails and “Samantha”. Mecha Tails even hacked Samantha’s site. Those two also created a couple additional hoaxes for Samantha. New people started showing up there as well, which added to the chaos...

Members

  • Andy Wolan
  • André Dirke
  • Damian / Saxman / Rocket
  • Simon Wai
  • Cyan Helkaraxe
  • Jan!
  • Goon / Tom Moran
  • Scott Prower
  • Desmond Castner
  • Terunaga Matsumoto / Anime Freak
  • Cracked Knuckle
  • “Samantha Clarfet”
  • Dr. Zachary
  • Mecha Tails / Nic Newman (currently Lostgame)
  • MS Metallix / Mecha Sally
  • SoNick
  • The Nique / Sonique / Allison
  • SonKnuck
  • Looney Mike
  • Pelord
  • Elliotro / Elliot Rosenburg
  • Kulock
  • Wetflame
  • Kat
  • Samantha Clarfet / Nayr T’nargh
  • LocalH
  • A Kid in a Computer Class / Jon Carnuthe
  • Trystan Poe
  • ICEKnight
  • Los1
  • Jacko
  • Yarharhar
  • “Sonniku”
  • Nemesis
  • Pachuka Dog / Pachuka
  • Sonysbad
  • Stealth
  • Tom
  • Sonicblur

And a lot more I’ll add as I remember or as they come forth ;)

Sonic 2 Beta

With the foundation of Sonic 2 Beta, Sonic 2 Beta switched from their original board very quickly to an anyboard one. The major events here were a few music discoveries and Sonic 2 Alpha being supposedly found by myself (my first post with my new name. Yes, I was still in my stupid Samantha stage at the time). After that fell apart, not much really happened. Just hoaxes and general zaniness...

Members

  • Andy Wolan
  • André Dirke
  • Damian / Saxman / Rocket
  • Simon Wai
  • Cyan Helkaraxe
  • Jan!
  • Goon / Tom Moran
  • Scott Prower
  • Desmond Castner
  • Terunaga Matsumoto / Anime Freak
  • Cracked Knuckle
  • “Samantha Clarfet”
  • Dr. Zachary
  • Mecha Tails
  • MS Metallix / Mecha Sally
  • SoNick
  • The Nique / Sonique / Allison
  • SonKnuck
  • Looney Mike
  • Pelord
  • Elliotro / Elliot Rosenburg
  • Kulock
  • Wetflame
  • Kat
  • Samantha Clarfet / Nayr T’nargh
  • LocalH
  • A Kid in a Computer Class / Jon Carnuthe
  • Trystan Poe
  • ICEKnight
  • Los1
  • Jacko
  • Yarharhar
  • “Sonniku”
  • Nemesis
  • Pachuka Dog / Pachuka
  • Sonysbad
  • Stealth
  • Tom
  • Sonicblur

And a lot more I’ll add as I remember or as they come forth ;)