Clownacy
From Sonic Retro
<forumuser name="Clownacy" /> Clownacy (sometimes mistaken as Clownancy) is a Tech Member of Sonic Retro who joined early in July of 2013, after lurking for some years.
Contents
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. Later learning of Sonic Retro and the public disassemblies of Mega Drive Sonic titles, he began trying to make hacks of his own.
Initially, being as a 'copy/paste noob', he only followed SCHG 'how-to' guides, applying them to the aged 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. Using the knowledge gained from this, he helped others around the forum, mostly in the Basic Questions & Answers topic. Because of his lack of interest in producing a full hack of his own, he preferred to share what little code he wrote, which led to him creating a guide on extending Sonic 2's level select menu for his last post as a Trialist. The guide was eventually submitted to the wiki as a 'how-to' guide.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 the 29th of 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. This was uploaded to the Git repository as a branch of the Sonic 1 disassembly.
Today
Clownacy remains a Tech Member on Sonic Retro and a Pro Member on SSRG. He can be found on the #SSRG IRC channel.
Works
Guides
(In chronological order)
- Port Sonic 2 Clone Driver to Sonic 2 Community Disassembly (faulty)
- Port Mega PCM to Sonic 2 Clone Driver
- Extend Sonic 2's Level Select Menu (SCHG version)
- Port Sonic 2's Level Art Loader to Sonic 1 (SCHG version)
- Port Sonic 2 Clone Driver v2 to Sonic 2 Community Disassembly
- Port Sonic 2's Layout Loader to Sonic 1
- Extend the Sound ID Range in Sonic 2's Sound Driver
- Improve PCM Playback Quality with Sonic 2's Sound Driver
- Make Sonic 2's Sound Driver Good
Other
- Sonic 2 Clone Driver v2
- Project Sonic 1: Two-Eight continuation
- REV00 and REV02 additions to Sonic 2 Git disassembly
- S1-friendly improved Sonic 2 sound driver