Clownacy

<forumuser name="Clownacy" /> Clownacy (often mistaken as Clownancy) is a Tech Member who joined Sonic Retro early in July of 2013, after lurking for some years.

History

Clownacy first became aware of the Sonic hacking scene through YouTube videos demonstrating ASM modifications, something beyond what he'd ever seen in other ROM hacks. This intrigued him, leading to his discovery of Sonic Retro, and modification of ROMs at a code level in general.

Initially, he only followed SCHG 'how-to' guides, applying them to the Hivebrain and Xenowhirl disassemblies, hoping to make 'definitive versions' of Sonic 1 and Sonic 2. He later found this to be a very common pursuit of newcomers, and came to turn away from ROM hack production as a result, instead focusing on the 68k assembly language and Mega Drive hardware, and exploring the Sonic Engine. He still maintains modified versions of Sonic 1 and 2 for personal enjoyment. Using the knowledge gained from this, he began helping others around the forum, mostly in the

Basic Questions & Answers topic. Because of his general lack of interest in producing a full hack of his own, he's not prone to keeping his code to himself, which led to him creating

a guide on extending Sonic 2's level select for his last post as a Trialist, hoping it would allow him to become a Member, with good results. The guide was eventually submitted to the wiki as a 'how-to' guide, bringing his story full-circle: from learning from the guides as a lurker, to creating them as a Member.

From then, he went on to create several more guides, refine the Git disassemblies, and, later on, create an enhanced version of Sonic 1's SMPS 68k sound driver, functioning as a replacement for the aged, but still commonly used, Sonic 2 Clone Driver. This driver was named the Sonic 2 Clone Driver v2. It is possibly his most well known work, having received attention from several influential members, even extending to those of SSRG.

He was promoted to Tech Member on 29th July 2014, just over a year after joining.

In mid-August of the same year, he produced an upgraded version of Project Sonic 1: Two-Eight, sporting a rebase to the modern Git disassembly, bug-fixes, optimisations, and restored debug features. Using his newly-gained abilities as a Techie, this was uploaded to the Git repository as a branch of the Sonic 1 disassembly.