Paraemon's Comprehensive Ripping Project Thread [Expansion Station]

[Superjustinbros]

I do! *raises hand

[Paraemon]

I do! *raises hand

Excellent~

Update time!

Finally reworked the Hidden Palace Zone background sheet. Now to just work out the rest of the .zip items.



A fully and finally finished pair of sheets for Launch Base Zone Act 1 and Sandopolis Zone Act 2.



Revisited CD. Ever the problem child of the five games. But y'know, once it's done, it's done.



And here's other stuff that's confirmed completed or on the way to being, ahead of the release I'm planning. The more I look at it, the more likely it is to be put pack even further. That being said, if I don't get all these sheets finished by whenever I actually set, I might be able to supplement it with updates to pre-existing content that I know how to better extract now.

[Ton]

Those backgrounds look great. We could start putting them up and keep them separate from the foreground parts.

[Paraemon]

Those backgrounds look great. We could start putting them up and keep them separate from the foreground parts.

Sounds great, just allow me some time to get more backgrounds ready and then they'll be great to go up. 

[Paraemon]

Update!

Went back to Launch Base, and got the first palette covered. Since it's alike to the water-surface cover seen earlier in Hydrocity in Act 1, I decided to cover it that way. Just need the Flash Cycle, darker sky palettes and the Underwater palette. Not going to be easy!

Fun fact: Unlike the water surface in Hydrocity, this is 64 pixels in height and intentionally misses the 61-, 58- and 55-pixel tall variations in favour of making two versions for some others.



And I finally figured this one out! The yellow palette is hidden behind the lava fall in the backdrop, when the score is being tallied and all the way up until you reach the mint green flooring of Act 2. There were a bit of garbled graphics in a couple of pillars, but that was relatively easy to resolve. Because the background is basically the same between Act 1 and Act 2 (excluding the Boss area) with the only real difference being the Death Egg, I'll remove the Act marker in the top left of the sheet and include the Blue palette and the second Death Egg appearance.

[Paraemon]

BAM.

Suck it, Sandopolis Zone!

[WizToad]

BAM.

Suck it, Sandopolis Zone!

Oh wow! I was totally unaware you were doing new background rips like these. Great job!

[Paraemon]

Thanks! And yeah, it's hard to avoid seeing the changes that occur in most of the backgrounds throughout the early games, be it any of the following:

- Parallax (stacked strips that move independently based on X-axis movement (or also Y-axis in Ice Cap Zone Act 1)
- Integrated Parallax (sometimes stacked, but the 'closer background' over one or more partly-covered strips)
- Auto-scrolling (typically clouds, but also seen in Sonic 2's Death Egg Zone or The Doomsday Zone)
- Rotating palettes in parts of the backgrounds
- Underwater palettes
- Heat Haze effects (Sonic 3/&Knuckles)
- Flash Cycle (Sonic 1 Epilogue, Sonic CD & Sonic 3/& Knuckles)

Which is why I'm taking time to make sure they're all covered.   



Nothing new to share in the form of images, but I can finally say when I'm going to make a large upload set, and what's in it. It'll be on Friday, March 1st. Basically, anything I get finished by the afternoon of that day will be uploaded to the website later in the evening, one way or another.

What I can confirm to be in the finished sheets, will largely consist of the backgrounds that have been seen already, and some others not seen yet. I'll outline here with a full list.

Sonic 1:
Spring Yard Zone Background
Labyrinth Zone Background
Star Light Zone Background
Scrap Brain Zone Act 3 Background

Sonic 2:
Death Egg Zone Background

Sonic CD :
Wacky Workbench Past Background (Final Game)
Special Stage 7 Background -> Apologies to WizToad for his recent upload, but this would have the full parallax breakdown.

Sonic 3:
Hydrocity Zone Act 1 Background
Hydrocity Zone Act 2 Background
Marble Garden Zone Act 1 Background
Marble Garden Zone Act 2 Background
Ice Cap Zone Background (Snowboarding)
Launch Base Zone Act 1 Background
Gumball Machine (Everything)
Azure Lake (Everything)
Desert Palace (Everything)

Sonic & Knuckles:
Flying Battery Zone Exterior Background
Flying Battery Zone Interior Background
Sandopolis Zone Act 1 Background
Sandopolis Zone Act 2 Background
Lava Reef Zone Act 1 Background
Lava Reef Zone Act 2 Background
Hidden Palace Zone Background
Death Egg Zone Act 1 Background
Prototype Glowing Spheres (Everything)
Slot Machine (Everything)

Let's see what else will be included by the start of March!

[Paraemon]

Adding to the list!

Tidal Tempest Present (Currently 70~80% complete)
Tidal Tempest Past
Tidal Tempest Good Future
Tidal Tempest Bad Future

And this:



I'm going to try and get Chemical Plant, Oil Ocean and Metropolis Zones done before next weekend, and see what can be grabbed from Sonic 1 and CD in that time-frame.

I better take the time to explain the position of the project from the summer onwards. I'll say it now instead of further down the line/at the last minute.

So, I'm currently in my final semester of university, and have two paths to choose from to pursue after I graduate:

1. Work (something that I'm having trouble with finding and it might be a bit late in the day to apply for what I want to do). If it does happen, it'll happen from August or September.
2. Pursue a Masters-equivalent course, that'll start from September through to May or July 2020.

In the case of the first option, it will result in relocating abroad, and unlike Cyprus, it may be that I won't have as easy access to the message board and/or site. In the case of the second option, I'll likely be relocating within the UK, but time will be exceedingly minimal.

Either option obviously comes with caveats that'll effect chances to progress with this project meaningfully, but since it's already coming to its mid-stage, I don't think it's going to be all that big of a deal. I just feel that it's fair to say it now instead of later because we know I have something of a history of disappearing for a few weeks without warning.

Obviously, I want to follow through on this project no matter what, and I will see it completed one way or another. Just, right now, I have no way of knowing what the future holds until I make the necessary work/study applications.

[WizToad]

Sounds interesting so far. Good luck with finishing the rest of the project. And by the way, do go ahead with the Special Stage 7 re-rip for CD. You'll probably do a much better job at it anyway, so I'm interested to see what you'll have to offer.

[Paraemon]

Sounds interesting so far. Good luck with finishing the rest of the project. And by the way, do go ahead with the Special Stage 7 re-rip for CD. You'll probably do a much better job at it anyway, so I'm interested to see what you'll have to offer.

Thank you, hopefully it'll all work out!

And I can oblige by showing off Special Stage 7 now.



While I'm at it, I've covered the stage-side palettes of Launch Base Zone Act 2. The Epilogue's Flash Cycle palettes will go on a separate sheet, you won't believe the issues I've had just trying to get these five together, I'm not putting an extra 13 on there.

[Superjustinbros]

Excellent effort, especially on Launch Base Zone’s backgrounds.

[Paraemon]

Excellent effort, especially on Launch Base Zone’s backgrounds.

Thanks man!   

So, after some consideration, I've had to push back some parts of the update as I wish to get my post-graduation plans underway this week - it'll mean spending more time looking into universities and forming an application that'll help get towards them.

Stage backgrounds that I won't include in it will be:
Green Hill Zone
Marble Zone
Scrap Brain Zone Acts 1 and 2/Final Zone
All Sonic 2 stages bar those already completed (Death Egg Zone, Hidden Palace Zone)
Angel Island Zone
Carnival Night Zone
Ice Cap Zone (All Varieties)
Mushroom Hill Zone
Lava Reef Boss Sub-Act
Sky Sanctuary Zone
Death Egg Zone Act 2 & Boss Sub-Act
The Doomsday Zone
Anything not already mentioned for Sonic CD

To make up for this, I will try to tie up anything left over for general objects and pre-existing sheets I'm currently reworking. But for now, I'd say that let's just see how things roll for the next 12 or so days.

[Ton]

Good luck with the application!

[Paraemon]

Good luck with the application!

Thanks man! It's not yet underway, I need to get relevant experience and/or understanding before I can properly start it, and well, I'm struggling to get that, haha.

A slightly related to the whole application process issue, tomorrow's update is postponed. Trying to get real life things organised is playing too much time so not all that much is as ready as it should be. I'll post at a later point with some fresh content and a new uploading date (likely in June, in all honesty) once I know where things are in my life. Until then!