Miscellaneous

25 Years Ago, Sonic Adventure Was Revealed To The World: A Look Back

On a balmy summer morning in Tokyo, Japan, over three thousand people stood outside the Tokyo International Forum waiting for a glimpse of what was claimed to “set a new futuristic standard for gaming.” A piece of software that would outpace and outclass anything that had come before. For the last month, the game had been teased online, alluded to in magazines, and was advertised on television, radio, and even the Yamanote train line before a single screenshot had been shown to the public. The hype was building, but the only way to know if this game could live up to such expectation would be to see it in person. What better way than being crammed into a theater with a thousand other die hard Sega fans?

Twenty five years ago, in a dark theater, a game that would define the Sega Dreamcast was announced to the world in spectacular fashion. Sonic Team had returned to its namesake, and was ready to finally show everyone what they had been working on: Sonic Adventure.

But was it enough? Not just for the Sega faithful, but for those who drifted away during the Saturn era? Could this be the saving grace of Sega on a worldwide scale, and establish the Dreamcast as the cutting edge of the gaming world?

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Community

Sonic Stuff Research Group Reunion Coming To Retro World Expo This August

If you’ve been around the Sonic Internet scene, more than likely you’ve heard of the Sonic Stuff Research Group. Affectionally known as SSRG, it has been a hub for discussing and researching the inner workings of the classic Sonic the Hedgehog games, and the techniques in modding Sonic both old and new.

What you may not know is that the SSRG has, in one form or another, existed since 1996. Initially a small subsection on Andy Wolan’s gaming-themed website EmulationZone, it grew to house a number of Sonic websites dedicated to uncovering the history of the franchise, the lost content that sparked the imagination of an entire generation. Sonic the Hedgehog Area 51, Tom’s Hacking Station, Simon Wai’s Sonic 2 Beta Page – separately, they told snippets of a hedgehog’s history. Together? They became the foundation of what would come.

When Andy stepped away from the project in 2003, it was truly the end of an era.

Twenty years later, Andy Wolan, along with three charter members of the SSRG community, are coming together for the Sonic Stuff Research Group Reunion panel. Taking place at the Retro World Expo in Hartford, CT this will be the first time that these four individuals have ever been in the same room together, telling the story of what once was, and how it informs where we are now. Who knows what stories they have to tell? Or what wild things could happen live and in person?

Who are the others joining Andy on this trip down memory lane?

The expo will take place on August 26th and 27th of this year. A schedule has yet to be set, but the OG crew will be hosting two panels, “one for a general talk and historical reflection on SSRG and it’s impact, and another focusing on the technical challenges we faced as we attempted to tear into the classic games for the first time ever to figure out how they worked.”

If you plan on being in the area, be sure to check it out. For more information and future updates, be sure to keep an eye on the panel’s dedicated thread on the forums.

Game News

Oh Look, A New Sonic Game – Sonic Superstars Announced

It’s that time of year – Geoff Keighley is back on stage, looking business casual as he hosts the Summer Game Fest. Being a Sonic fan, you never really know if you’ll get anything at these events, yet you can’t resist tuning in anyway. Today, sandwiched between news about Remnant II and Honkai: Star Rail, a certain blue hedgehog suddenly ran onto the screen, with a certain weasel watching from the shadows.

Sonic Superstars is coming this fall. It’s a new Sonic game! That’s what we like, right?
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Fan Works, Hacking

Sonic Hacking Contest 2023 Announced, Trophies Listed, New Judges

Looking to introduce your Sonic hack or mod to the public at large? Want to put it to the test to see how it stacks among the rest? Wonder no longer as this year’s Sonic Hacking Contest is on track to arrive later this year in late October. This year introduces new guidelines and judges over last year’s event. Make sure to catch up to speed by taking a look at last year’s winning entries and the 2022 trailer showcase.

This year introduces upload limits, three per person, to address issues the community had raised over last year’s event and to ensure that judges are given time to address the community’s inevitably large output for this year. Entries will remain unlimited for team entries and non-judged Expo entries. To help tackle this workload, new judges have been introduced for the three entry types; ‘Retro’,’ 2DPC’ and ‘3D’ Entries. This is to also help ensure fairer evaluation for unique fan projects such as Sonic 3 A.I.R. mods that were introduced last year. The judges participating are subject to change before this year’s contest begins.

For more information on what to expect this year, head on over to the Hacking Contest’s website. You can also receive up-to-date information following the official Twitter account. Discuss the contest in the Sonic Hacking Contest 2023 thread on our forums as well as on Sonic Stuff Research Group’s own thread.

Opinion

I Never Wrote A Review For Sonic Origins, So Let’s Talk About It For A Minute

On June 23rd, 2022, Sonic the Hedgehog’s legally recognized birthday was celebrated by releasing a game compilation featuring some of his greatest adventures. Called Sonic Origins, it was a collection that many considered a no-brainer to put together. After all, people had been asking for the 2013 mobile versions of Sonic 1 and 2 on consoles and PCs for years, with the added hope that Sega could finally clear up the legal issues that were preventing Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (and/or Knuckles) to get the same widescreen, Retro Engine treatment. At a point when it was extremely unclear how Sonic Frontiers would turn out (spoilers: Frontiers ended up being pretty good!), Origins seemed the safe bet of having one solid, if not fantastic, release featuring our favorite hedgehog.

Then the game came out. And. Well. It was fine.

To preface: Sonic Retro was sent a review code for the game. I had intended on writing a review months ago, yet when I sat down, nothing came. After some false starts, I just sat there going “what do I actually want to say about this game?” So I kept on sitting. And thinking. And sitting. Got up to get some coffee. Played the game a bit more. Then gave up.

I know, I know. Exciting story.

It’s been over eight months since Origins came out. And with news that a physical version has been given a rating, it’s made me think once more about Origins. What worked, what didn’t, and why I couldn’t bring myself to write a review.

I don’t know if what follows is a review or not, but here we go.

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Opinion, Podcasts

SEGA Talk Podcast: Sonic the Hedgehog Triple Trouble

On this SEGA Talk we dip back into the world of Classic Sonic with the portable classic Sonic the Hedgehog Triple Trouble! We look at this Game Gear exclusive and the creation of Fang… or is it Nack?

[iTunes – Stitcher – YouTube – RSS – Download]

If you want to give us feedback, suggest a topic for the next podcast or want to ask a question for us to answer on the next episode you can add  them as a comment below or send theme directly to our email. Make sure you use subject line ‘SEGA Talk’ and as always, thanks for listening!

Animation

Sonic Prime Gets New Trailer, Starts Streaming December 15th

With Sonic Frontiers only days away, it’s been easy to forget that the upcoming 3D platformer isn’t the last we’re hearing from Sonic in 2022. Having been teased for nearly two years at this point, Wildbrain and Man of Action’s Sonic Prime has been sitting in the wings, waiting for its time to shine. Until today, aside from some Green Hill-filled teaser trailers, a concept art leak, and the knowledge that the show was meant to involve the multiverse in some form or fashion, we hadn’t heard much else. Not even a release date! Today, we finally got world on the exact day Sonic’s figure-eight run will hit the small screen: December 15th. Sure, the date was leaked some time back, but hey, now it’s official. They even released a trailer for it!

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Animation

Discotek Media Announces Sonic X Blu-Ray ‘Original Japanese Version’

Its the Blu-ray news Sonic fans have been waiting for since the release of the original Sonic X Blu-ray in 2019. Discotek Media has recently aired a panel on their Twitch channel showcasing new releases leading up to the current plans for next year. Among the announcements was a new Blu-ray set for the ‘subtitled’ version of Sonic X labelled as ‘Original Japanese Version.’ This set features all episodes uncut with the original audio tracks previously unreleased to home video outside of Japan. This includes the “Metarex” story arc that was not broadcast in Japan until 2020. Brought by popular fan demand and even a push internally at Discotek from producer Brady Hartel, this release comes in featuring the best possible standard resolution presentation these episodes have ever seen with the launch window slated for winter of 2023. (Edited 10/26/2022) Which is a few months from now!)

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Ok v MWS
Fan Works, Hacking

Sonic Hacking Contest 2022 Results Announcement

Ed. note: The following is provided by the staff of Sonic Hacking Contest for the year of 2022.

Before we begin…

Twenty years ago, the Sonic Hacking Contest started, run by Ayla for many years. The winner of that first contest in 2002 was Sonic 2 Delta…20 years later, the hack is still going, as Sonic Delta 40mb.

Things have massively changed over these 20 years (and 19 contests), we have gone from binary ROM editing with a hex editor and a few tools, to split disassemblies and bringing more flexibility to game modification. But we also have 3D entries too, on many consoles and PC, and for the last few years, mods based on the Retro Engine Sonic games, with decompilations available and tools in the works, offering another way to mod games, rather than just the traditional 16-bit method. There are more people making entries than ever before, no matter when they first started playing Sonic.

The contest itself has changed in these last 20 years. We have gone from private entries being shown behind closed doors to judges only, to fully public entries where everyone can access them. We went from deadlines being missed out and late results at times, to guaranteed set dates.

We went from only offering a contest, to having an expo option where people can choose not for them to be judged. We used to have judges look at everything possible – now they are split between three categories, for judging to be easily managed, and looked at in finer detail than ever before. The introduction of the Evaluations, gave detailed explanations and opinions on each enrty.

We have gone from just being promoted on a few Sonic hacking sites (some still around, some no longer with us) to wider exposure through its own website and the interactive Contest Week, with entries easily accessible, streams during the week on YouTube and Twitch, and of course, allowing the public to vote for their own trophies, something people would not have expected decades ago.

And whilst it all used to happen on forums and IRC channels, these days there are other places to discuss hacks and mods too, such as Twitter and the many various Discord servers out there that cater to different types of games and so on, for people to learn the craft and make their own.

I do not want to thank just this year’s participants, judges, streamers and of course those who played the entries this week. But every single person over the last twenty years who, at some point of their time on the internet, took part in the Sonic Hacking Contest. I hope in twenty years later, we will still have the SHC, in some form or another, and the same applies for fangames with SAGE.

People come and go, their interests and their lives change, but these entries are eternal, especially with the SHC Vault for the last ten years, keeping these entries available for years to come. Without the people who participate, there is no Sonic Hacking Contest. To keep this up for two decades is remarkable and impressive. Who could think in 2002 that the SHC would still be here in 2022.

That being said, for all the pushing about it being SHC’s 20th Anniversary, we weren’t able to celebrate it this week and we are truly sorry about it. We have a few ideas in mind to do something about that, although we have shown many old entries before through the previous pre shows.

And now, here are the results for this year’s Sonic Hacking Contest! (Ed. Note: after the jump!)

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