The GHZ Forum

http://www.sagexpo.org/

I figured most you may or may not care (as this SAGE is centered primarily around fangaming and I figure most people here aren't too hot on that concept), but then I remembered the Ian Flynn live chat is on Thursday and I figured a couple of you may want to sit in on it. Basically, check the site for the schedule - I think it starts at 5pm EST. It will be happening in the SAGE IRC channel (#sagexpo, Rizon network).

A Live chat with Ryan Drummond was just completed, you can view the log here.

Thursday will be another live chat with returning guest Ian Flynn. Ian is the current writer for the Archie Sonic the Hedgehog comic book and has been for about a year now.

With any luck this doesn't count as advertising; many years ago I founded SAGE, but I haven't actually participated in the production of the "expo" for quite some time.

In addition, there's a Level Design Contest and an Art Contest. The Level Design contest requires you have a version of MMF2 to enter as the engine you will be designing your level with (Damizean's fantastic "Sonic Worlds" engine, which replicates Genesis physics about as well as MMF2 can) was written in MMF2. If you really need MMF2, the 30 day demo will let you save and load games to your heart's content, but you can't build .EXEs, which should be okay for the contest. The Art contest has it's own set of rules and regulations you need to follow, and all of this is on the site for your pleasure.

Lots of higher-profile fangames are on display; the biggest names that seem to be garnering the most anticipation are Sonic Nexus, Sonic XG, and Sonic Headway (formerly Sonic Adventure Remix). All three games, coincidentally, may or may not have demos going up tomorrow; Nexus is the only one guaranteed to have a demo, XG and Headway are having technical problems and are shooting for a Wednesday release.

Also on the "show floor" is the amazing Retro Sonic. Taxman should be releasing a new Retro Sonic demo - the first one in about five years - at the show, showcasing the brand-new Retro Sonic engine he's been steadily working on. RSonic is multi-platform, too, something you don't see very often - with builds for PC, Mac, and eventually even Sega Dreamcast and probably beyond (PSP? who knows). RSonic also comes with a multi-platform level editor, which sounds to be pretty hot.

So yeah. Have fun.

Edit:

*** Slingerland sets mode: +m
<Slingerland> everybody has been sent into shut up mode
<Slingerland> this is how the Q&A session works
<Slingerland> you will PM me in this chat when you have a question
<Slingerland> then I will restore your voice
<Slingerland> once your question has been answered, you will be devoiced again
<Slingerland> and the next person will have a chance to ask a question
<Slingerland> NOW:
<Slingerland> GROUND RULES!
<Slingerland> You cannot ask Ryan to voice for your fangame
<Slingerland> or ANYTHING for that matter
<Slingerland> 2) Do not question his identity
<Slingerland> 3) Do not flame him
<Slingerland> understand?

This is the first SAGE i'll be keeping tabs on, thanks to Retro and XG. While the latest trailers for the latter still have me wary, I just watched Retro's teaser in full and liked a good chunk of what I saw. It's not easy for homebrews to get that far with the first look for me. My questions at this point are mainly the potential size of that demo (much farther over 5 megs and i'm SOL) and how powerful those editors are.

Tell if I have this right: to play it on a DC, i'd need to burn it to a CD-R, but I don't need a modded console?

Yup. I mean, mine's not modded, but I was able to easily pirate <i>Daytona USA</i>. Even though it turned out to be the European version (and even still, it runs perfectly on my US console).

I have a CD-R version of DOA 2 that works fine on my DC, but it loads very, very slowly and freezes after an hour and half of play. CD-R can also wear down the lens more quickly, so it's a little risky if you plan on playing it a lot.

What I understood from the media coverage of mid-2000 about the subject, was that the DC's lens wears down when it's forced to read a CD-R as if it was a GD-ROM. If you just play an Audio CD or a homebrew CD-R that "identifies" itself as such (instead of tricking the console into thinking it's a GD-ROM), then it won't get damaged.

Also, I somewhat liked the Sonic XG demos, way to improve but still decent. The same goes for Eternal Rings.

That probably explains why my Dreamcast is dying, but it doesn't explain why it only happens with a very small handful of games (most notably SA2).

Actually, I was looking forward to this SAGE. Fanmade games are getting better since Sonic Robo Blast 2.

Retro Sonic looks GOOD! I mean really good!

EDIT: I'm amazed my Dreamcast is still perfect. Damn little white box is tougher than any other console I've ever had.

http://www.sonicfangameshq.com/sage06/ianlog.html

Ian Chatlog. He stuck around for quite a while!

Sorry to double post, but despite Retro Sonic and Sonic XG not having demos at this SAGE, they both released demos a couple days after the show ended:

http://rsonic.randomsonicnet.org/
http://www.williamg.plus.com/SXGWEBSITE/index2.htm

Both are sooooo good.

They are pretty neat!

Are either of these made with the aforementioned MMF engine?

Sonic XG was made in MMF2, yeah.

I suppose what I meant was, was it made with Damizean's "Sonic Worlds" engine in particular, or did they build their own engine for XG?

Esrever wrote:I suppose what I meant was, was it made with Damizean's "Sonic Worlds" engine in particular, or did they build their own engine for XG?

That's hard to say. I think Sonic XG is using a really, really, really early build of "Sonic Worlds" (before it even had the name attached to it) that Euan and Nitemare have heavily modified. That's what I remember hearing, anyway.

Retro Sonic is absolutely stunning. It does a very good job of emulating the Genesis physics and graphics.

I'd love to get my hands in some Retro Sonic map editor.

Heheh. Sonic XG looks like an SNES game. But it's very very good. The new sprites are... interesting, Sonic has some very cool poses, but sometimes he looks ugly, like the wating pose. His moves are awesome too, the peel out and climbing are great and a nice touch to even out the characters. Tails is great, I have no concerns about Tails' sprite whatsoever, and his new poses are awesome. Knuckles is really cool too, although his gliding physics aren't very similar to the original games. The history setting after S3&K is a very nice touch, and it seems to be well done. The Special Stage was surprisingly better than I thought ("Another Sonic 2 variation"), the upside down thing is a nice touch, but I wish there were something else than rings and bombs, just for fun.

Retro Sonic looks exactely what it implies. Level design is perfect except for a few very bad placed badniks, some too close to springs and others that are practically unavoidable unless you've already played the game or your walking the entire level in slow motion. There's too few things I didn't like here, one of them being the "EG" logo in Eggman's stuff, looks a bit ugly if I may say so. But the whole thing is great and I can't wait until it's out. The Custom Levels idea is perfect. I'm here hoping this will become the MUGEN of Sonic games.

How about that.

It would appear that shortly after Sonic XG released its demo, Taxman, the creator of Retro Sonic, extended an offer to Euan and Nitemare: Port Sonic XG to the Retro Sonic engine.

Not only did Euan and Nitemare apparently take him up on that offer, but the two projects have merged to form probably one of the most ambitious Sonic fangames since SRB2.

Man, who wouldn't take him up on that? I wish I could port all the old levels that I made into that Retro Sonic engine. I would have killed for a level editor like that back when I was a sad kid trying to fake Sonic physics in Click and Create.

They're still beating around the bush about this, but...



All I can say is i'm mad as hell and extremely disappointed in all three of them. It would have been perfectly OK to take the engine and leave the projects seperate, but this is a creative sellout, through and through.

They've lost a player.

Edit: Ok...going and playing some F-Zero GX (of all things) cooled me off a bit. I need to stop for a while though, my thumb is red and aching from holding the A button so much :p

But this merger is still a disgusting idea.

I hate keyboard controls. My awkward hands make gameplay... awkward. I'd be more interested with some kind of gamepad support, but I know next to nothing about this, so I don't know how difficult that is.

Flash, I think you need to chill out! What's so bad about people teaming up to make a freakin' fangame? Maybe this way it will become one of the .2% of fangames that ever actually get finished.

Eh, I liked Sonic XG better then Retro so as long as the merger leans more toward that then I don't think I'll have any problems.

Not that Retro was bad or anything.

Flash, I think you need to chill out! What's so bad about people teaming up to make a freakin' fangame? Maybe this way it will become one of the .2% of fangames that ever actually get finished.

Before we get too ahead of ourselves, I want to wait for a little bit to see if this is some twisted publicity stunt to hype up the next releases/for shits and giggles, instead of embarassing myself. They're being suspciously silent about this and the teaser's a bit generic on second glance...

That is, unless you want me to let you have it, but Shadix at SFGHQ has basically the same view I do on it. Simply enough, it's a cheap, awkward plan that's unfair to everyone involved, and defies all good sense. Which is also why it could be smoke and mirrors.

By all means, please explain to me why this would be so offensive! All I know about either of these games is what has been posted in this thread... I was just under the impression that three people who were making two games are now teaming up to make one game instead. (Which doesn't really strike me as "disgusting".)

If there is more to it than that you'll have to enlighten me! I haven't followed the development of either title.

Well, the two projects had pretty different "styles", you could say. <i>Retro Sonic</i> was a more laidback take on the franchise, while <i>Sonic XG</i> was considerably edgier and more action-packed (as evidenced by the fact <i>they freakin' crash the Death Egg into Angel Island and smash it to pieces</i>... in the first real level). Now, apparently, both styles are going to merge into one, and this leaves me wondering how exactly that's going to work out - they somewhat clash. I was actively looking forward to <i>Retro Sonic</i> more than <i>XG</i> (not that I wasn't looking forward to <i>XG</i>), but now to look forward to either one is to look forward to both, like it or not, so to play <i>Retro Sonic</i> now, I have to accept that they're actively breaking canon and smashing Angel Island to bits.

Funny thing is, this isn't the first merger <i>Sonic XG</i> has gone through, either... It was once <i>Sonic Forever</i>, before it was merged with another <i>Sonic</i> fangame whose name I can't even remember.

Black Rook wrote:I hate keyboard controls. My awkward hands make gameplay... awkward. I'd be more interested with some kind of gamepad support, but I know next to nothing about this, so I don't know how difficult that is.

Sonic XG already has gamepad support. Hit CTRL + Y to bring up the controls, and simply switch Player 1 to "Gamepad" instead of "Keyboard".

Retro Sonic requires you to have something like Joy2Key, currently.