Ambil
From Sonic Retro
<forumuser name="Ambil" /> Ambil is a member of the Sonic scene since January 2005. He comes from Spain, and is known for developing the ASM to Hex code reference, the first document made for this purpose after the Motorola 68000 Programmer's Reference Manual.
Ambil is also recognized for being a hardcore fan of Sonic games for the Sega Master System, helping in Wyvernlord's Gallery of Dumbasses as the Spanish correspondent, and his repertory of memes.
As his mother language isn't English, he is often unable to get the humor in jokes, nor to read 13375P34K properly. These factors, along with his sudden and dramatic mood changes, have made of him a controversial and inconstant member, not easy to deal with him.
However, when he makes efforts in his research, he has proven to contribute to the Sonic scene, specially in those fields people usually don't mind about.
“ | <Ambil> i'm going to make the first ever level layout hack for s2 8bit, and nobody will care about it
<Tweaker> if you don't like what you're doing then it's all pointless <Ambil> tweaker: i like what i do. <Tweaker> Ambil: well then, that's what counts, right? ;) |
„ |
— Sonic Retro IRC channel 27 May 2008 |
Contents
Sonic scener
Ambil's history in the Sonic scene can be divided into three stages.
First stage: 12/01/05 to 12/10/05
Sonic Mania was the very first Sonic related website Ambil signed in. However, The Sonic Spain Webring eventually become the message board he considers as his 'Internet home'.
He started in the English-speaking scene via registering in Simon Wai's Sonic 2 Beta Page, in 26th April 2005. And if Sonic Spain is his home, Ambil has always said SWS2B is his school. He also joined Sonic CulT, Area 51 and Hacking CulT among other major sites. Most sceners he know of were met at this SWS2B in its message board, and thanks to the IRC chatroom then managed by voice.
After performing a timid start, including an unlucky incident that caused him to lose his Member status at S2B, Ambil created the document he's famous for, the ASM to Hex code reference. As it was a desired and unexpected item for the hacking community, Ambil recovered membership, making himself the second person to pass trough the S2B approval system twice (after Syren).
But his progression didn't stop there. Publishing the set of all level layouts in Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (8-bit), cracking the meaning of the level size parameters in the level pointers, and therefore reaching further than anyone in the scene regarding this game, was worth a promotion to Tech Member.
And of course, during all his first stage he became the Spanish correspondant for the Gallery of Dumbasses at SWS2B forums.
First stage suddenly ended in October due to Ambil having problems with his Internet service provider. This made a sudden stop in Ambil's stage as a scener, a pause that lasted a year.Second stage: 18/10/06 to 15/03/07
Second stage wasn't as bright as first. Ambil found the site totally changed after Simon Wai's departure and being demoted from his Tech Member position; and not being able to adapt to the changes at the moment was his biggest problem to re-adapt to the scene.
Ambil, euphoric after being able to be back in the scene, and not aware to the politics change in S2B, could only watch his popularity decreasing due to his insistent actitude in using memes at every turn, until the point he became a target for everyone. This included a pointless feud with drx, now solved; and getting temporarily banned and demoted after proposing a member cleanout (which, ironically, was finally made).After realizing he had lost respect from the scene, Ambil decided to leave until the background would change. Despite creating the first ever legitimate sprite hacks of Sonic 1 and Sonic 2 for Sega Master System, Nayr T'nargh, at the chatroom, was the only person who gave positive feedback about them.
Third stage: 17/04/08 to Present
Internet connection at home was a requirement for Ambil to complete his studies, so he signed up for a new ISP. After viewing the changes in S2B's politics after the merger with Sonic Retro, and realizing they were favorable for him, he decided it was time to return.
In the third stage, he was approved as Member by Tweaker. Ambil is also getting a cordial friendship with another administrator, Scarred Sun, thanks in part to the interest she is showing in the ASM to Hex code reference.
Ambil's latest contribution to the Sonic hacking scene is the collection of tilemaps in Sonic 2 (8-bit), sorted by zone. These are available for review in order to research for unused 32x32 blocks in the ROM. This, and recent achievements in the reverse engineering of the game such as the level maps by Rolken made possible Ambil's newest hack: Sonic 2: Sweet Relief.
In 2008, th was appointed by Nayr as judge in the sixth Sonic the Hedgehog Hacking Contest. After the end of that year, Ambil stopped contributing to the Sonic community. Now his interests are the Chinese game of go, economy news, and creating YouTube Poops at his channel, where you still can find Sonic videos. However, he comes again to the forums to lurk once a while.
Contributions
Technical Documents
- ASM to Hex code reference dated 20/07/05.
- Level layouts in Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (8-bit) dated 17/09/05. File (info) (95 kB)
- Tilemaps/block layouts in Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (8-bit) dated 26/05/08.
- What's the highest possible score in Sonic 1 SMS? dated 08/10/08.
Utilities
- Motorola 68000 assembly highlighter for ConTEXT dated 09/09/05. File (info) (2 kB)
Hacks
- Sonic 2 Sprite Pwnage (SMS) dated 10/12/06. (Not available)
- Sonic 1 Sprite Hack (SMS) dated 15/03/07.
- Sonic 2: Sweet Relief (SMS) dated 04/06/08.
Articles
- Ambil (no wai)
- Annual Sonic the Hedgehog Hacking Contest
- Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (Master System) Hacking Guide dated 01/05/08. (Original content by Hivebrain)
Guides
- Import Art to SonED2 using Adobe Photoshop dated 04/09/05.
Other
- Loads of reports for the Gallery of Dumbasses (Inactive topic)