The GHZ Forum

So apparently this is a thing that is happening?

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=925240

Somebody's got a "complete" (whatever that means) version of Sonic Xtreme and some other guy has an nVidia Diamond3D video card (souped up "Saturn for PC" hardware) to play it on. Somehow this means we're going to get to see something interesting soon, I guess. At any rate it's a nice write up in the top post there.

I am intrigued by this.

Back in the day, I was very excited by Xtreme. But now I've learned more about it, the magic has gone. It seems to have been a mishmash of ideas with no clear direction. A sort of prototype of the Adventure to Unleashed games (oh, and Lost World to Boom).

Still, it will be interesting to see this protoype. There were some interesting ideas that we never got a good look at such as the giant bosses and the fish eye lense.

Pardon my ignorance, but I always thought the deal behind Xtreme was less a lack of direction and more due to the project being severely under-resourced. Based upon the most-developed in-game footage, it seems that they at least settled on it being a pretty conventional platformer.

Wombatwarlord777 wrote:Pardon my ignorance, but I always thought the deal behind Xtreme was less a lack of direction and more due to the project being severely under-resourced.

It was really both. Sonic Retro has a decent write-up here: http://info.sonicretro.org/Sonic_X-treme

The gist of it is, after Naka and co left back to Japan, Sega of America wanted to get a new Sonic game rolling right away, but a constant shift in hardware from Genesis to 32X to Saturn, an unrealistic focus on 3D graphics over compelling gameplay and a lack of people who actually knew what they were doing led to the project getting constantly reworked until Sega of Japan executives pulled the plug on the whole thing and commissioned a Saturn port of Sonic 3D as a stopgap. (And for good measure, Sega of America's lone contribution to the Saturn version was also nixed.)

"Complete version?" Did the game really get so far as to even resemble a finished product? I thought that prototype that leaked a while ago was the last version.

Jingles wrote:"Complete version?" Did the game really get so far as to even resemble a finished product? I thought that prototype that leaked a while ago was the last version.

Read the article I linked to. The prototype from a while back was a build of "Project Condor" by Chris Coffin, which was originally only supposed to be used for the boss acts. What we're dealing with now is the full source code and development environment for Ofer Alon's engine, which was actually running on PC rather than Saturn hardware (a Saturn build is available, but runs at a deplorable framerate), and is the one with the fisheye lens you see in all the videos and screenshots.

All the maps that we've seen videos of were quickly whipped together for the intent to record game footage to show the higher ups. Nothing actually beatable or entertaining was completed. But with the source code and build tools available, the community could use all the resources available and complete the game.

I'm glad this shit's still coming to light. This all brings me back to my Sonic-Cult days. I wish I made the move to Retro when everyone made the shift.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... 6nAM6oVwqc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qdBKq7o6 ... r_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HX5Tc-Fl ... r_embedded

Newly leaked footage. Note that about 1:26 into the first video there's a Scrape Brain-esque gravity wheel.

Gosh, I know this game is sub-Mario 64, but it evokes that gee-whizz feeling games from the era that I really do want to play it.

I was never too interested in this game, but it looks surprisingly faithful to the old 2D Sonics, particularly Sonic 1, with the emphasis on careful left-to-right platforming interspersed with loops, and the more abstract levels.

I'm also surprised at how good the fisheye effect looks. I'm also surprised it hasn't been used by another game since. I wonder if it was disorienting to play.

They've said they employed the fish-eye lens to eliminate the need for the player to fiddle with camera buttons mid-game. I kinda wonder what the game would look like without it.

Neo wrote:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iiRfFfPsWsY

...And?

Re: the Sonic X-treme footage.... it's interesting how the utility of being able to see further to the left and right than normal is almost completely negated by how bad the draw distance is.

Malchik wrote:

Neo wrote:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iiRfFfPsWsY

...And?

Rob-Bert wrote:They've said they employed the fish-eye lens to eliminate the need for the player to fiddle with camera buttons mid-game. I kinda wonder what the game would look like without it.

Sorry, should've quoted the post directly above mine instead of assuming people would just read the thread and follow the conversation.

Esrever wrote:Re: the Sonic X-treme footage.... it's interesting how the utility of being able to see further to the left and right than normal is almost completely negated by how bad the draw distance is.

That's not even mentioning how many times the player needs to run towards the camera and how zoomed in it is on Sonic!

http://www.sonicstadium.org/2015/02/son ... -playable/

It's only one stage, but apparently more levels will be added as time goes on.