Paraemon's Comprehensive Ripping Project Thread [Expansion Station]

[Paraemon]

Please do keep the combined flowers from Doc's sheet when you finish this one. I really like how he included his own take on the WWZ flower.

I'm going to! I'm also going to expand on the final game flowers and attribute them with the 510 palettes.

[Doc Melonhead]

Speaking of which, I just wondering if you're going to exclude the combine sprite for Amy rose in your version of the sheet since they're not officially made in the game; because it seems that your rips are designed to be hacker friendly.

[Paraemon]

Speaking of which, I just wondering if you're going to exclude the combine sprite for Amy rose in your version of the sheet since they're not officially made in the game; because it seems that your rips are designed to be hacker friendly.

In all honesty, I hadn't intended on it, though am I all about preservation. However, with the addition of the Prototype page on TSR, I may end up splitting the Amy sheet in half to better account the differences. Mayhaps a Custom submission? If not that, I could always retain them with the palettes to match on each sheet with credit to yourself.

[Doc Melonhead]

There wasn't much of an upgrade and or extension over the original, kinda like that Super Sonic Sprite for the mobile version of Sonic 1; that's why I asked in the first place. In all honesty, it wasn't much of a custom than a slight edit anyone can do with a little know how, in comparison of those Chaos chao sprites I submitted earlier.

Speaking of which, are you going to replace the Mobile app Sonic as well, right?

However, with the addition of the Prototype page on TSR, I may end up splitting the Amy sheet in half to better account the differences. 

...this is new.
But that would mean creating pages for all of the prototypes and splitting all of the sprites up in terms of actual availability.

[Paraemon]

I understand now.  I don't see any issue with retaining them on a refined sheet, if that's what you want.

Mobile Sonic 1 - not planning on it, as I don't have access to it. If I find a way, I would, but otherwise I'd be sticking to the original release contents.

Regarding the prototypes: Well, not really. I mean, the main purpose of the Prototype page was to account for the in-development stages and backgrounds for CD. For the most part, such as prototype Boss palettes/designs, it'd be better to place them on the main CD page sheets instead of splitting them up. And as I said, I may - it's not 100% yet, and I'm not fully keen to break up a sheet with a small amount of content into two sheets with less.

[Ton]

...this is new.
But that would mean creating pages for all of the prototypes and splitting all of the sprites up in terms of actual availability.

I don't intend this to be a common thing we do, but when there is a whole prototype game that gets dumped and a significant amount of the sprites changed from one version to the next, there is a chance the prototype stuff will start to overwhelm the main game. In these few instances, it may be a good idea to make a prototype version of the game.

[Doc Melonhead]

I understand now.  I don't see any issue with retaining them on a refined sheet, if that's what you want.

Thanks, It’s nice of you to do so.

[Paraemon]

Thanks, It’s nice of you to do so.

You're welcome! It's done!

Just a rudimentary text update here. Some will be obvious from previous posts, others are unmentioned before now.

Sheets currently in the works:
Sonic 2
- Chemical Plant Zone Background
- Oil Ocean Zone Background
- Animals

Sonic CD (Prototype)
- Tidal Tempest (All Maps)

Sonic CD (Retail)
- Wacky Workbench Boss
- Tidal Tempest (All Maps)
- Stardust Speedway Zone 3 Bad Future Map
- Metallic Madness Zone 1 Past Map
- Metallic Madness Zone 3 Good Future Tilesets
- Special Stage 3 Background
- Pencil Test (Unlockable FMV hidden in Visual Mode)

Sonic 3 & Knuckles
- Sonic
- Knuckles
- Freezer Mobile
- Egg Golem
- Hydrocity Zone Act 1 Map (Might be broken into half per palette due to size)
- Angel Island Zone Act 1 (Green) Background
- Ice Cap Zone Act 1 Caverns Background
- Launch Base Zone Launch Site
- Sonic & Knuckles' Endings & Credits
- Glowing Spheres (Background sheet will be separate of Foreground & Objects)
- Fonts

(Knuckles') Chaotix
- Isolated Island Full Maps (12 remaining - Day x4, Evening x4, Night x4)
- Marina Madness Backgrounds (Level 1 in progress)

Sonic 3 Complete - Super Sonic
Sonic 3 & Amy Rose - Amy Rose & Palette-affected Objects

[Paraemon]

Attempt 5!



i hate you super tails

[You Gotta be Joshing me]

Something I just found out, so on the currently existing rips of Sonic from SCD I noticed that only the original contains these frames for the pseudo-3D loop in Palmtree Panic:



So then I played through that part of the game, recorded it, then slowed down the footage and confirmed that it doesn't exist in the 2011 version of the game:



So this makes me wonder if these are unused in the Sega CD version as well and should be labeled as such, unfortunately, I don't have access to the Sega CD version, so I can't confirm it.

[Paraemon]

I'll have to take a look the next time I'm making a run-through of Palmtree Panic for content. Thanks though!

So while I was ripping Bowling Spin, I took notice of something when disabling various layers.



The off-shoot is part of the corridor leading to it - that's where it starts, and the pink blocks are the foreground. In the Plane Viewer that I use to mass-capture as much at once as possible, the foreground laid on the pink blocks is part of the background, as is the entire right wall. There's no actual loop-point, but the background does two things - when Bowling Spin is defeated, the bottom chunk of the background can load, and once the proper floor is reached, this background switches to being the low foreground layer.

This seems to have less complicated stuff throughout it compared to the actual background, so all being well I can finish it this week.

[Paraemon]

this is maDness i tell yOu. MAdNESs!

[Paraemon]

Important Information regarding this Project and my time up until June/September 2020

Where will at least some of my time be going?
Summer break's over, for one thing, so free time is a lot less available. To expand on that, last week, I began undertaking a Masters degree at the university I've been studying at. Obviously, and at a lot of times, that will take priority, and I won't be able to focus on sheets in the same way as I have the past few weeks. At the very least, it will be rare for me to output anything on a Tuesday and Wednesday. Simply, I'll do what I can. I've included Sept. 2020 as a latest potential date as that's when I (hopefully) turn in the dissertation, but there remains a lot to be seen about what will happen in the months between June and September.

There may also be times where, as part of the course, at least, I venture outside of the UK. In the case that this does happen, simply assume radio silence from my end (but I'll let y'all know first!).

There may not be some actually new sheets for a while.
Depending on how I feel, and if a sheet can be done inside a 16-hour period. But there are other reasons, including the above, that are the cause of the delay.

The secondary predominant reason? Palettes.

It's perhaps at the best time where I can just focus on something as simple as altering palettes, as ripping can take time, and I do check my rips thoroughly to ensure that the tiled version (from VDP) and the in-game version align properly. Until I know better where I stand with my time each week, palettes are going to be my focus.

But there's another thing; I've come to a final decision on palettes, and I will not be budging any further on it. In all honesty, I am just done with the back and forth over this whole thing, and any further arguments on it will just be ignored. I am not targeting anyone in particular, but I just don't want somebody else to suddenly have something to say on it in 2020.

FSH (values in increments of 34) will be translated into tables as "PC Port". These tables will be seen only on the Sonic 3/& Knuckles and CD sheets, to account for the PC ports (it would be rather pointless to double-up on the same sheets for the PC page, if just for minute palette differences).

Raw (values in increments of 32) will be reinstated as "Root/Base* Palette", and included on tables - simple tables for Sonic 1, CD and 3D, Shadow and Highlight tables for Sonic 2, 3 and & Knuckles.

*to be determined

Actual (tangential increments) will be translated into tables as "Rendered through Genesis". Shall be seen on all games' sheets, relative to the simple or S/H version per game.

If you disagree with/dislike the palette I have utilised henceforth, you shall have the tools necessary to modify it for your own archive on your own computer from the tables that I include. I am not making three lots of the same sheet.

After some recent findings when digging for Chaotix content, I'm going to go about sheets for those differently, and will reveal more once I've learnt more.

Which brings me onto...

But, in light of all that, what about the current sheets I've submitted?
Excluding Sonic 3's Title Screen, Competition Menus and Sonic & Knuckles' Glowing Spheres, which need overhauling anyway, all sheets that match my 2018 or 2019 sheet standard or later will be quietly updated, so do keep an eye out on those. The sheets from Chaotix will remain untouched until I've got the findings I want.

[You Gotta be Joshing me]

Don't mean to sound rude but do you plan on updating the Sonic CD sheets with what was in the December 1992 prototype that was literally released a few days ago?

[Paraemon]

Don't mean to sound rude but do you plan on updating the Sonic CD sheets with what was in the December 1992 prototype that was literally released a few days ago?

Yes, it was in my plan when the prototype was eventually made available (I had hoped it'd get released before September 24th, but alas).

But.

I'm experiencing technical difficulties due to the files not being friendly with Gens (it crashes at the SEGA screen), insofar as I can perceive, and a current lack of Debug makes it quite difficult to try.

That being said, I can still make efforts to work up the sheets. My personal life just comes first at the moment.