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Sonic Uno

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Revision as of 18:51, 17 November 2014 by Xeta (talk | contribs)
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Sonic Uno
Version: v0.3
Last release: 29/12/08
System: Sega Mega Drive/Genesis
Original game: Sonic the Hedgehog (16-bit)
Credits: Super, Robjoe

Sonic Uno is a Hack of Sonic the Hedgehog by Super.


Origins

Sonic Uno was first started under a contest between Super and Robjoe to see whom could create the better hack all on their own. Super, excited with the project, quickly got underway redesigning Marble Zone while Robjoe put it off. On day 2 of the contest, Robjoe immediately forfeited, claiming art could not be more foreign to him. Super, already the victor, liked the direction he had taken and decided to put off his floundering S3K hack, Final Hope.

Name of the Game

'Uno' was chosen simply as a tentative name, uno meaning 'one', in which the hack is based off of. Super chose the Spanish version simply due to his being in a Spanish class he was attending in high school, that he ended up failing with a 59.9%

Later, Super decided to keep the name Uno, not only to avoid confusion, but it allows him to think that sometimes, foreign languages can be all right, if not horridly frustrating at times.

Move to SonED2

On the second week of Uno, Super pondered the art of the hack. About this time, Stealth released SonED2, and with it's enhanced features, the Uno creator quickly switched over and began to fiddle with art. The move was not at all frustrating as the changes were easy to cope with, seeing as the worst he had down was minor palette edits and some layout issues.

Super had a couple problems with GHZ, but with a little help from a friendly fellow, he soon was on his way to modding the art for said zone.

Early Betas

Beta 1

Sonic Uno v.1 was an early release, showing off a vibrant but overdone Sunset Hill, a pastel Marble Zone, and other palette mods. It was merely to show off that, despite his godawful Angel Island Zone from his original hack, he did have an eye for palettes.

Beta 2

A buggy release that did not display the work that went into the hack accurately. Upon scathing reviews, Super was forced to 'fire' his beta testers. This caused Super to disappear with his hack for nearly a year.

First Steps

Spring Yard Zone

However, before the atrocity that was Beta 2, Super had decided that the first move was to start with the art scene, as to separate his hack from other palette mods. Focusing on Spring Yard Zone, Super quickly set to work on an industrial heights setting for the zone, complete with buildings and see-through windows. While early iterations were flawed and basic, they provided experience and allowed him to get a feel for the utensil.

While completely scrapped, there are a few pictures throughout the internet that still show the early beta level. Super himself recounted the level as having been changed over four times.

Zones

Green Hill/Sunset Bluff

The level edited the least, Sunset Bluff is a minor edit on palette and art. However, 99% of the layout has been changed outside of the first shuttle loop and the lead up to the boss. Sunset Bluff emphasizes speed over platforming, just as it's predecessor Green Hill did before it.

Marble Zone/Mystic Zone

Now Super's pride and joy level, this Marble edit does away with speed and focuses on platforming and navigation. Complete control of Sonic is needed to pass by the level, which often stretches the sprite limit a little too far. Marble Zone has completely redone bricks, to really bring out a more fortress feel, and has mystical backgrounds depicting rings, Emeralds, and lava that mysteriously refuses to pour out of the windows.

Super admits that this level has taken the longest, and that he is very happy with how his art has been accepted as fairly good. He also has let loose the fact that the tubes found in the level are not in their final form, but are merely placeholders for a more intricate system like the one found in Green Hill. Windows were placed at the grievance of Robjoe.

Bosses

Super is inherently bad at ASM code, and doesn't wish to learn much of it, claiming it a dead language and it will be of no use to him out in the field. However, when the issue of bosses is raised, Super, like those before him, had to change the playing field instead of the boss patterns. This created a unique challenge, as he needed a way to separate himself from the others. This presented itself with a list of 'impossible' bosses. Super constructed his areas that, if the player were to act in haste, he would surely die.

Sunset Bluff

This boss is actually a fairly simple edit. Placing the only bottomless pits on either side of the boss arena, a hit in the wrong direction could end Sonic before if even begins. Another note is that the Platforms continually move in and out of the screen, causing the player to accurately time his attacks and subsequent dodging of the large wrecking ball.

Early builds of this boss had a garbled spike set that was positioned to move up and down to provide even more danger, but that was changed to one spike, and eventually, scrapped altogether.

Mystic Zone

Super placed the entire arena with breakable blocks. The trick? Nothing but Lava below. Players must learn to tackle this boss and coordinate their jumps to not only hit, but avoid Eggman and falling into a fiery pit of an early doom. Super provides only one hint for this boss in the cryptic message of "Bonk, Sproing!"

Early builds of this boss took place over two pits of fire with elevated surfaces. Due to the arena's differences, Eggman was piss easy and a breeze to defeat. Super is glad to be rid of that arena.

Beta 3

The current and withstanding release of Uno. Currently up for download in the forum topic by the same name. This build holds nearly finalized versions of both Sunset Bluff and Mystic Zone, as well as being fully completable. Spring Yard and Labyrinth Zone are strangely missing, but they're beta forms are accessible via the level select.

The ASM/Music Fiasco

Super sucks at ASM. 'Nuff said. He has failed to port any feature into the game, and routinely fails at figuring out how to port MIDI over to XM and XM to SMPS.

Continuing Work

Super is still hard at work with Uno, but is still balancing his hack, real life, and college applications. A little stressed, progress will be slow but steady.

Downloads

Download.svg Download Sonic Uno
File: Sonic Uno v0.3a.zip (355 kB) (info)
Current version: v0.3

External Links

Sonic Retro
Sonic Uno current topic
at Sonic Retro