Sonic 2 HD

[Alpha Six]

And that one game that came with a Wii Remote for free, but the game got absolutely zero advertisement and nobody bought it.

[Koopaul]

Yeah but Fling Smash was erm mediocre. However Excitebots is crazy fun. So that's a damn shame.

[Rökkan]

SO ABOUT SONIC 2 HD AGAIN.

The forums at Sonic Retro have a section so that you can help with the project and also ask the ones that are most involved with it how the development is going.

(And yes, the game will have a lot more than just HD graphics and music, as it'll also have Hidden Palace Zone, online play and leaderboards. Other than that, not any other extra feature is entirely confirmed, but a bunch of ideas are being pitched, and some will likely be in. Just to name a couple of them - extra Special Stages, including an "Endless" mode and the inclusion of the other scrapped zones - like Wood Zone and Dust Hill)

So apparently the development is coming along really really well - and fast:

It has been two years and until we see a development blog to indicate their progress in more detail we have to assume (on our outdated information) that the team has the alpha-engine almost complete (given they stated they almost made the alpha release date) and from recalling some notes from the team members on the boards two zones (out of a total of eleven) are almost complete. At this speed we're looking at (using calculations based on the game's progress over the last two years) a projected, optimistic release date of January 2020.

I've seen something along these lines posted a few times, and I feel it should be addressed. It is understandable that you would think that this game won't be released by 2020, I thought the same thing before I joined staff. I was drawn to the project with hopes that I could help speed the production along, because it seemed like little to no progress was being made from the outside perspective. That was a year ago, and while that concern was valid back then, I can tell you that production has exponentially increased since then. You could almost say this project was reborn in the year 2010, because every single asset has been redone for the better. You may see it as a waste of time, but all of the art assets from many different artists put together just didn't fit as a whole. I think we can all agree that we want this game to be the best it can be, and we want the art to look completely amazing and blow people away, so in the end the small wait will be beneficial to all.

That's why we made it a priority to finalize an art style, one that gelled together well while keeping in spirit with the Official Art at the same time. After we finalized that art style, we flew through the rest of the assets, and will continue to do so. Sonic's whole frameset was done in a matter of months, all while adding extended animations (hundreds of frames). HillTop Zone was completely redone from scratch in under a month, compared to Who Knows How Long it Took Zone, aka Emerald Hill Zone. This trend will continue on into all further work we produce as the staff members get even more comfortable with the new art style. We have found our groove, production is going faster than ever, there were just a few speed bumps along the way that have been ironed out.

Most of the staff devote practically all of their free time to the project, all while living our real lives on the side. This project has become a second life for us, and we are trying to please as many people as possible. I genuinely appreciate you voicing your concerns, and I hope I've helped you to understand that things aren't coming along as slowly as they might first appear.

[Iceman404]

Can't link or anything on my phone, but the new Sonic 2 HD demo was released today, and it is amazing (especially DAT TITLESCREEN). After beating both EHZ acts, hold B and press start at the title screen to play as Tails.

Funny thing, it appears that this demo was already completed. Remember that countdown time long ago? The whole thing was delayed because their idiotic programmer, LOst, decided to intentionally delay the ENTIRE RELEASE TO UNKNOWINGLY PUT DMR (or something, it deals with liscensing security to prevent hacking, which also sets of trojan alerts constantly without harm) INTO THE GAME. Even the devs are sort of fed up with this lunatic. Seriously, who the hell from a HACKING COMMUNITY does this shit? They get their resources for the fangame BY hacking the original. This prevents any helpful community modifications to improve or add things, and totally prevents certain people like me from playing it at all due to some virus protectors that can't be shut off.





Anyways, if you get stuck at loading screens or act transitions, please wait for it to finish or restart the game, its not frozen.

[Kriven]

I'd love to play, but it seems to lock up after the title screen fades out.

[Lilly]

Oh God I left a long and angry rant on the release's comment's section. My bickering about the art probably wasn't necessary now that I know they were aiming for the coloring style in the game's manual, but I am still very pissed at the devs for throwing a broken alpha out there. No, not a demo, not even a beta, an alpha!

The compatibility is laughable, the DRM sets most anti-virus software off, and it won't even load on half the PCs that try to run it. I've been waiting for a playable demo since the project's beginning for crying out loud, and they should have waited a bit longer too, when their latest build was actually stable; even if LOst is going on an all out feature-panic with the engine's development from the sound of it. They were way too eager to get this into the public's hands. Pretty much anyone else in the fan community would get roasted on-site for pulling crap like that, what makes them the exception?

The whole thing was delayed because their idiotic programmer, LOst, decided to intentionally delay the ENTIRE RELEASE TO UNKNOWINGLY PUT DMR (or something, it deals with liscensing security to prevent hacking, which also sets of trojan alerts constantly without harm) INTO THE GAME.

To be honest, I could understand why they would want DRM packed in there. Think about, a near-professional recreation of Sonic 2 might just tempt a few pirates into removing the disclaimer screens, burning it onto a stack of discs and selling it for loads of cash on Ebay. Now while the fan community wouldn't dare do this, someone else would. Even SEGA, who may or may not be tolerant of fan games, might feel the need to give Sonic 2 HD a cease-and-desist well before the project's completion for that reason, I think. Something of this magnitude could use a little protection.

Not that it really matters any more, pirates crack right past DRM and laugh at it very rapidly these days, so stemming the whole project's development to implement something that can be so easily ripped out by hackers later on is just a waste of time and turns off the player-base. I find it both stupid and pointless; that guy is just wasting their time.

[Cobalt Blue]

i dont know what the hell that man over there is talking about.

the game took its time to load, but it was worth every second of it.

EVERY SINGLE BIT OF THIS WAS AMAZINGLY BEATIFUL AND ENJOYABLE.

[Alpha Six]

Oh God I left a long and angry rant on the release's comment's section. My bickering about the art probably wasn't necessary now that I know they were aiming for the coloring style in the game's manual, but I am still very pissed at the devs for throwing a broken alpha out there. No, not a demo, not even a beta, an alpha!

The compatibility is laughable, the DRM sets most anti-virus software off, and it won't even load on half the PCs that try to run it. I've been waiting for a playable demo since the project's beginning for crying out loud, and they should have waited a bit longer too, when their latest build was actually stable; even if LOst is going on an all out feature-panic with the engine's development from the sound of it. They were way too eager to get this into the public's hands. Pretty much anyone else in the fan community would get roasted on-site for pulling crap like that, what makes them the exception?

The whole thing was delayed because their idiotic programmer, LOst, decided to intentionally delay the ENTIRE RELEASE TO UNKNOWINGLY PUT DMR (or something, it deals with liscensing security to prevent hacking, which also sets of trojan alerts constantly without harm) INTO THE GAME.

To be honest, I could understand why they would want DRM packed in there. Think about, a near-professional recreation of Sonic 2 might just tempt a few pirates into removing the disclaimer screens, burning it onto a stack of discs and selling it for loads of cash on Ebay. Now while the fan community wouldn't dare do this, someone else would. Even SEGA, who may or may not be tolerant of fan games, might feel the need to give Sonic 2 HD a cease-and-desist well before the project's completion for that reason, I think. Something of this magnitude could use a little protection.

Not that it really matters any more, pirates crack right past DRM and laugh at it very rapidly these days, so stemming the whole project's development to implement something that can be so easily ripped out by hackers later on is just a waste of time and turns off the player-base. I find it both stupid and pointless; that guy is just wasting their time.

boy, you sure are Really Mad about a nonprofit fanmade alpha hack that is being made for no other reason than because they want to

---

seriously since when is "we really want our fans of this project to try out the alpha of this project" a bad thing? seriously, have you never heard of "open alpha testing?"

[Lilly]

That whole stupid rant of mine was rooted more in disappointment (And ignorance from not grasping some other details that wasn't revealed until later on.) than anything else; my keyboard wasn't cracking under immense pressure the whole time I typed it.

Normally it's not an issue to me whenever an alpha for a fan game is released, (In fact, I've tried a lot of stuff in their alpha stages!) but LOst is a really paranoid programmer, who's off his rocker and completely out of touch with the fan community as a whole. Even this half-broken alpha should have been out the door an entire year ago if it weren't for his doing! The S2HD team gave him far too much control over the project, and after four years time passes, they're still stuck with only one finished zone. Even that is only half-playable no thanks to the broken and bloated engine. To avoid making my post unnecessarily longer, this should make things more clear : http://www.sonicretro.org/2012/03/guest-...hd-parade/

To put it shortly, I don't really mind if someone decides to release an alpha of their game for other people to test out on their rigs, but there were a lot of other deeper issues outside of just that; you should have seen the "shit storm" S2HD's DRM-crippled engine started on the Retro Message boards. Wasn't the worst topic I've ever read, but it still wasn't pretty.

EDIT : Now that I've reread my last post, ouch; that did sound a lot harsher than what I was trying communicate. I'm more or less frustrated by their incompetent programmer than anything else, because the art and music is just fine. The rest of S2HD's staff just needs a more portable and efficient engine to work with, I think. *coughtaxmancough*

[Sengir]

lol DRM in a fangame

[Iceman404]

Late April Fools.
Put in the Sonic the Hedgehog level select code on the Sonic Retro Forums page.
http://forums.sonicretro.org/
LOst is now the laughing stock of the whole Sonic community.

[Lilly]

Late April Fools.
Put in the Sonic the Hedgehog level select code on the Sonic Retro Forums page.
http://forums.sonicretro.org/

Oh God, I actually tried that a couple of days ago. It shocked the heck out of me because I didn't have my headphones plugged in at the time, and my speakers were turned up fairly high. xD

On another note, every Sonic fan community I've ever visited are quick to gang up in full and roast a single guy for inexcusable quality in their work, and LOst was no exception. It's happened to me before, even, (SRBG WHAT WAS I THINKING AAAAAAA!!!) and it humbled me real quick too. Needless to say, I almost didn't return to those forums from the sheer level of embarrassment. It took a lot of balls to log back in and admit to my colossal failure.

Who wants to bet LOst is feeling the same way right now? His huge ego must be shattered.

[Dazz]

Late April Fools.
Put in the Sonic the Hedgehog level select code on the Sonic Retro Forums page.
http://forums.sonicretro.org/
LOst is now the laughing stock of the whole Sonic community.

⍩

But no seriously, that made my day.

[Random Talking Bush]

Oh hey. About that Sonic 2 HD alpha...

It has a keylogger in it.

[Crappy Blue Luigi]

so who's willing to bet that we're not going to hear anything from LOst anytime soon