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VGMaps Social Board / Sonic 3's

« on: October 10, 2025, 01:36:31 pm »

A bit of an insight, but, didn't any of you know about what was Sonic 3's planned launch date?

Well, after watching Splash Wave's look into Sonic 3's development history on YouTube... I'm kinda sure some of you are quite familiar of what some of Sonic Team and S.T.I.'s devs went through, but, just in case...

It was not Feb 1994, but the game as a whole, if it wasn't split into 2 halves, WAS actually planned to be launched in Summer 1994, but, thanks to the promotional deal with McDonald's Sega made, that date got thrown off by many months, and we know where it led, to the invention of Lock-On Technology, to take care of such problems.

We also knew Sonic 3 started previously as a 3D game, planned with its Virtua Processor chip installed, which didn't happen because of it being too costly.

The dev work actually began in Jan 1993, shortly after Sonic 2's launch, but, thanks to mentioned complications, including the promotional deal, all that work got canned in June '93. Very shortly, though, it got restarted back to the 2D blueprint in about Jul '93, but improved from Sonic 2, including having mini-bosses in each Zone's 1st Act, instead of some.

Thanks to the pressure of launching the game to meet that deal's deadline, the game got split, with the 1st half to be launched in Feb. '94, and the second half in Fall '94, months later. At least, we had the first of its 3 Bonus Stages in the 1st half.

Then, after 3 more Sonic games got launched in later '93, its second half was given about enough time to finish all remaining Zones, resuming from Spring 94, including the Extra Zone, Doomsday, along with the additional 2 Bonus Stages, done in the next month, then, the remaining months spent building Lock-On Technology in the cart before its launch on Oct. 94.

Yes, you're already educated on that, but I felt a bit more history of Sonic 3, at least about the intended launch time, should be shared.

If you'd like, you can watch that video here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vdvtssb10Q8

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Gaming / Comparisons between past true 2D Sonic games & Sonic Superstars

« on: October 10, 2025, 02:17:05 am »

There's a couple minor comparisons to remember between the many past 2D Sonic games(those from the Classic line, not counting Modern's own 2D games, even the "Advance" and "Rush" games in that line) and Sonic Superstars, most of which favor above Superstars' own. I may include Zone amounts in them, too.

Sonic the Hedgehog had 6 Zones, each having 3 Acts at the time, with only Final Zone holding the last fight against Robotnik.

Sonic 2 had 11 Zones, most being 2 Acts, Metropolis having 3, and the rest having 1, most of which were a bit longer than Sonic 1's.

Sonic CD had 7 Zones(though, if DLC for the 2011 port wasn't cast aside in favor of it being too faithful to the regular's amount, 9 Zones, with Zone 2 maybe being Dubious Depths being added, and the last being Final Fever with a satisfying conclusion to the time-traveling adventure on Little Planet), 3 Acts, most of which had time periods suiting to the time-travel theme.

Sonic 3, as the whole game, had 14 Zones, the last of which is the first Extra Zone Sonic only went to by having all Chaos/Super Emeralds. They were three times larger than Sonic 2's, and they were all enjoyable.

Sonic Mania had 13 Zones, 8 from past games, 5 original. Again, the last is an Extra Zone, and is focused on the anniversary aesthetic, but having the pixel art graphics upped to solidify the thrill of a 2D Sonic game on the Sega Saturn, if such a one was made. The Zones were made quite long, but to compare on their size and length, not quite more than Advance's, Rush and Rush Adventure and even Colors DS'. They were all still enjoyable, though.

Of course, Mania Plus' Encore Mode felt a bit lacking in what we often expect as a New Game+ mode of some sort; none of the bosses were given their own upgraded counterparts(but I don't mean needing bland palette swaps to call it that), not like how later Kirby games did after Super Star Ultra(I quickly imagined DD Wrecker becoming QQ Demolisher and Hotaru Hi-Watt becoming Hotaru MAX-Watt), nor an actual exclusive final boss, and hardly the levels' layouts were changed to become more challenging than Mania Mode's levels, save for Mirage Saloon giving a different Act 1.

Sonic Superstars only had 11 Zones, all original, but same amount as Sonic 2's, but their Act amount differs through many Zones. The true final fight against the Great Dark Dragon is claimed to be a level, but isn't.

What is truly common for those 2D games, they're all made from the original pixel art style and aesthetic, of which Sonic was originally made from. The animation frames in Mania are more fluid, and there are more background layers that moved freely in all directions, even those that replicated line scrolling, due to them being free from the Genesis' past constraints.

Sonic Superstars was made in 3D, but placed in 2.5D view. Aside from numerous misses in different aspects, the aesthetic doesn't work well for those still expecting for more 2D Sonic games to retain the pixel art style, and no, I don't mean sticking too close to the limits of the Genesis, nor Saturn's, but not too high from the latter. It also does not deliver the atmosphere and excitement felt and seen in an actual 2D Sonic game.

There's certain things 3D can work, but others, well... they just plainly won't. Just only saying.

For the record, in my perspective, I'm strongly against Takashi Iizuka's quite out of touch mindset about pixel art games' viability and relevance(which is an obvious bland cop-out to the opposite and to the talents people held from growing up with these games), because we have NUMEROUS games made in said style, PC and console, and they don't really need to adhere to the tech constraints of many past consoles, nor their singular sound chips' channel amounts(of course, Furnace does retain said fidelity to numerous sound chips, but the freedom to use a lot as we want, even the original chips that Sonic's music and sounds were made from, is much more widespread).

I do, at the very least, agree about only one thing(nothing more than that). Sonic Mania, still being actual 2D in its own right, is made as a commemoration to Sonic's 25th Anniversary, and it's only made to be exactly that. Another Sonic game that continues said anniversary adherencies as a sequel to it(complete with the obvious name and number to boot) can be dismissed as a rehash of the previous.

It's been nice to celebrate, but original 2D Sonic games still retaining the original pixel art aesthetics would still be the best choice, with the exact tools an engine that would've still been used, too, and the stories all still need to be well-made and original, and sometimes, have new villains to face instead of Robotnik a lot. It does not really have to be called "Sonic Mania 2" at all.

The continuity arrangement for Superstars doesn't really make sense being placed before Adventure(we really don't even get an explanation about how Robotnik escaped from the Phantom Ruby's grasp in Encore Mode's good ending). I'd been more content having Classic and Modern Sonic's canons still being separate on their own, but co-existing. Makes their storylines and continuities less convoluted that way. Superstars tried to have Classic Sonic remain independent from Modern's games, but I'm not sure how that went.

And, so far, no 2D Sonic game has its Zone amount went past 14, if I'm not counting Extra Zones. I handled longer Zones, as many of you have, but what can you imagine if a new 2D Sonic game, still made in pixel art and with Retro Engine, had about, at the very least, 17 Zones, and they were longer and/or larger than Colors DS, even Asteroid Coaster Act 2's size(well, not too crazy large than what we've been through so far, but still...)?

I could imagine some of you being fatigued after a few runs.

If Classic Sonic got another new game, which still needs to retain the 2D pixel art aesthetic, it'd best be an interquel that takes place after Mania Plus' events, where Robotnik and all of his remaining Badniks finally got out of the unstable, self-created pocket void the haywire Phantom Ruby created and re-enacts his conquering plans, but having been landed on an unknown alien world, he attempts to go intergalactic, and Sonic and his friends would go on a planet-traveling adventure to stop him.

Wouldn't that be really neat?

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Gaming / Re: Broken Relic (point-&-click adventure game on Kickstarter that I'll appear in!)

« on: October 08, 2025, 09:03:07 am »

He's right! If anyone's willing to donate more money to reach those stretch goals, now is the time! The countdown's begun! Make Jon's dream come true!

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VGMaps Social Board / D'OH! Forgot...

« on: September 30, 2025, 02:21:09 pm »

Of all the parts I've brought up, I forgot one more subject that should've been covered...

There's no part of the blog series that covers the in-game intros of Sonic 3, halves itself, the intros from selecting Sonic and Knuckles' stories, Sonic's beginning at Angel Island Zone, and Knuckles' at Mushroom Hill Zone(though, it does only reside in Part Two, and it was relocated to Angel Island at Sonic 3 Complete, yet set erroneously to the former in Sonic Origins), nor the seguing from scene to gameplay, complete with the HUD scrolling on-screen, and the endings, especially Knuckles' after defeating Mecha Sonic Mk.II's semi-super state that segues to ending and credits.

I can only guess such coding made it possible for that seguing. The matter is how to do it, and even how to have the HUD scroll off-screen and the timer stop for in-game scenes and resume after they're done.

Well, I'd like to see those processes sometime.

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VGMaps Social Board / What do you like about "Go! Go! Kokopolo"?

« on: September 26, 2025, 01:43:48 pm »

Well, since I'm still waiting for the next installment of Kokopolo to come out(and I REALLY still do hope it comes out), maybe I can ask anyone in the community that may have played these games what they like about this unique chase-'em-up series to pass the time.

Having already beaten them so far, and seen all of their endings, I should perhaps tell you a few favorites.

For the first game, I really enjoyed fighting Totemator, Maple Park's boss. It was a rather fun fight to have the totem based creature that has parts of himself sent to drive away Kokopolo/Tatsumo, but I really got to turn his segments against each other for damage, and leaving the one left to defeat him. Can't lie, really great boss to me!

The second game, Punch Castle's boss, Kintaron. It was real fun to get Tatsumo, Kokopolo's best friend who's an okapi, into a duel with that robot himself, as it was a bit exciting to dash slash against him while avoiding his attacks and his mines planted over the map! He also took 8 hits to defeat, not like others that take less, and its also what I like on bosses having to take more hits than less, regardless of series. Still, it was a very fun boss to take part in!

The funny thing to see in the first game was Kokopolo/Tatsumo get furious after tapping the Starfish Houdini on the touchscreen rapidly(it's random at times, so I keep an eye out) and go on a frenzy on him, only to end up slashing out any enemy in the way and ended up getting rid of them instead of feeding them to the SnapSnap Plant.

Finding cards in the guise of butterflies that differ on following their paths to get them is also a real good favorite, too. the challenge is where and how to follow them.

The music also have many favorites I love to listen to. The pity is there's no unlockable sound test in those games, by far, as well as needing a bit more unlockable content, including a few minigames.

I've seen a video from Jmac and Webb's series,  "Who Are the Twinsanity Developers??", and I did see what Keith's been working on. I do really love that kind of work, but I still feel he should at least finish development on his 3rd game in the series before getting to his other projects.

If more Kokopolo games were made a bit more frequently, we'd have more favorites to talk about.

His artwork and storyboards are rather lovely to see,  because its well-made, and I still can't wait to see what more he cooks up!

If any of you have played these games before, please tell us, what favorites do you have for Kokopolo?

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Gaming / Re: The Legend Of Zelda is 33⅓ years old today!

« on: September 24, 2025, 05:08:34 am »

I'll tell you what I feel, Jon.

Just a little... mind wringed.

Still, happy belated anniversary to "A Link to the Past", our very favorite Zelda classic that did more than bring joy to people.

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Map Requests / Re: Capcom's Aladdin GBA Not Up?

« on: September 24, 2025, 04:48:20 am »

Why would anyone even think you were responsible in the first place?

(sigh) Never mind. Just trying to keep on-topic, here.

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Gaming / Re: Broken Relic (point-&-click adventure game on Kickstarter that I'll appear in!)

« on: September 21, 2025, 03:43:23 am »

That's an amazing opportunity, Jon! I like how you're going to be a part of that new entry to the point-and-click games as a voiced NPC, whoever it'll be. That game will surely give satisfaction to those who grew up playing these kind of games before. And if it reaches the goal to be put on a Nintendo console, that's really neat to fulfill your dream of being in one.

Say, is there a stretch goal that allows actual phonemic lip-syncing for English voices? I could guess numerous point-and-click only had very little phonemes and lip-syncing for voicing characters, regardless of language, and its surely to then-present size limits for unique animations, even those that have expressive emotions in them, story-exclusive scenes, and lip-sync altogether... well, until later games were placed in discs and such and had some clever coding done to provide lip-sync in them.

Maybe when people see the backer credits with your name in it, they'll likely remember you. In any case, let's hope for great success to that game! And, congratulations for volunteering!

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Map Requests / Re: Capcom's Aladdin GBA Not Up?

« on: September 20, 2025, 10:12:38 pm »

LOL, wut

What is the story behind the maps for Looney Tunes games, and what do politics have to do with it?

Please pay no mind to that. It has nothing to do with the game's port in mind.

LTIan's trying to fish for attention lately because many Looney Tunes games aren't mapped yet, and many mappers seem to have plenty on their plates presently that's putting their tasks of mapping games on the back burner, albeit repeatedly, and keeps requesting them over and over again, and invoking matters we cannot, and are trying not to, talk about here in this post, or anywhere here. We're trying to maintain a clean, toxic-free place.

I mean, I get waiting until they're mapped and uploaded, but bothering people about the same thing too much(and, believe me, I try not to) doesn't help with anything, really.

He can take such matters outside of here, lest he pokes too much and messes with the bull... big time.

I won't bear responsibility for whatever LTIan's trying to stir. What he tries to do is on him, NOT me.

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Maps Of The Month / Re: 2025/08: Super Mario Sunshine (GameCube) - VGCartography

« on: September 18, 2025, 01:27:09 am »

Hey, I just had a little realization about the "Boos" from that game...

Those Boos in that game are not alike the regular Boos with their menacing faces. The Boos I've seen in Sirena Beach's Hotel Defino are kinda a different branch of 'em, and judging from their actions, I'd say they're quite more on drooling and scaring people than normal Boos, and their name that is shared is not quite original.

Even their branch's leader bears the same name, "King Boo", and I don't find him the one and the same King Boo Luigi thwarted time and again.

I feel they should have a more fitting, distinct name among the other varieties. Given their obvious nature, maybe they should be called "Slob-Boos", and their leader, "King Slob-Boo", just like how Super Mario 3D World finally gave the once long-dormant variant of Goombas from Super Mario World, "Galoombas". It combines the two words, "Boo" and "Slobber" together, because, well, they tend to slobber a lot, even their king. Makes it more original sounding that way.

Neat distinction, yes?

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Map Gab / Re: Sonic Advance - Sonic Colors Maps' sizes

« on: September 16, 2025, 06:57:07 am »

I think this quick-way gameplay can may have a bad influence on people and lead to excessive haste in the live. I noticed one strange feature when I explore a tourist object or go through a forest route as soon as quickly not clear why. This is useful when it need to pass the distance in 16+16km from a bus stop through the forest to cave, exploring this cave and come back and 'finish' within 6 hours to catch the bus, but I noticed that in this mounth I thied to explore castles or river valley quickly/as soon as possible (is not clear why).

Uhhh... 

I don't think it was related to the topic I'm talking about here. I also mentioned there's no Super Sonic option to play through regular Acts in these games.

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Map Requests / Capcom's Aladdin GBA Not Up?

« on: September 12, 2025, 11:20:33 pm »

I couldn't help but notice that there's a GBA port of Disney's Aladdin not present in the Atlas.

I already saw the maps from Capcom's take on Disney's Aladdin game on SNES, but did anyone here not notice that the game got a GBA port? I did.

What I saw from a few longplay Youtube videos online, that game's GBA port is mostly the same, but there's numerous changes, such as having one additional area in each stage, and all the 70 red gems relocated to accommodate them, barring the "Whole New World" carpet ride stage labelled as a bonus stage, which I kinda feel is not one at all, the extra actual bonus stages, like one where you land the Genie's face during the "Break Time" bonus game that gives you a chance to gain more goods, but ends shortly if you take a dead end with an extra life in it, replacing the password system with an actual game save, and the removal of Alan Menken's songs, "Friend Like Me" and "A Whole New World", replaced by all-different original themes, due to additional costs from that movie composer, I'm guessing. They're rather neat to listen, though. One upside, you don't have to turn off the handheld to replay it all over again after seeing the credits and being stuck there until then.

Overall, the adventure to thwart Jafar's Agrabah conquest still remains the same.

The additional areas in each stage does address a few complaints about the game being quite too short, in my perspective, and the additional changes do make the game a bit more enjoyable.

If any mapper's interested, the port's maps are needed to be seen.

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Gaming / Re: Silksong's Launch is Nigh! Excited?

« on: September 09, 2025, 11:25:30 pm »

Pretty excited to see what TC has cooked up. Even if it's more of the same, HK was one of my favorite metroidvanias. Only thing I'm dreading is how difficult the optional lategame stuff will be, based on some of HK's insane challenges...

You mean challenges like the "White Palace", or the "Delicate Flower" quest? I have a feeling their challenges may be a bit more tougher for Silksong this time around. Better strengthen your endurance and determination, pal. You'll need it.

"Guacamelee! 2" was quite more of the same, the moves and such, but that didn't stop me from having loads of fun. Longer and  tougher, yes, but still fun. And, before many Metroidvanias were made, loads of people enjoyed more of mostly the same hi-speed 2D adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, and there weren't many complaints about it.

Even I enjoyed it all, and I still don't gripe about the later 2D Classic Sonic games being quite the same(well, maybe more should continue along the treads of Mania's, but not the anniversary themes, to say). Its the material and substance that matters in each game, on the inside.

On a small note, the game's RAM requirements for the PC version is more or less the same as HK's, but I think its more leaning towards 8GB of RAM than HK's 4 to 8GB. My one guess, its to accommodate for the larger world, Pharloom.

You know, a bit unrelated, but, so far, many Metroidvanias have used about 4GB, to 8GB, and sometimes, even 16GB of RAM for creating big worlds, but not a one has yet to reach about 24GB or 48GB of RAM(yes, I know the shocked feeling you got, go ahead).

I mean, not that they cannot reach it, but I'm just saying. All the loads of RAM memory we got and it may need to be put to use in creating larger Metroidvania maps... at least, sometime soon.

Think about it.

To compare, "Noreya: The Gold Project" uses about 8 to 16GB of RAM, providing two rather large worlds based on choices on path allegiances, one for The Path of Light, the other for The Path of Gold.

In short, they're about roughly twice as much as any Metroidvania world put together.

Well, hope you have fun!

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VGMaps Social Board / Re: Sonic 3 Unlocked, Act Transitions, A Blog Series

« on: September 09, 2025, 12:49:20 am »

Thanks for sharing, the Sonic 3 Unlocked series is a fascinating deep dive into how the game achieved seamless stage transitions on the Genesis, and it’s a great resource for anyone interested in game coding or level design.

You're quite welcome! I wonder how such coding can be readjusted to commit stage-to-stage seguing beyond Act 2 in a Zone, and so on?

As far as I saw before, I think Retro Engine got that continued in Sonic Mania, and I also think Hatch Game Engine does it too in Sonic Galactic.

Even Freedom Planet, as I actually recall from memory, replicated that kind of Act-to-Act seguing when I first saw the video showcasing its first stage, Dragon Valley, that is, when it was a Sonic fangame at the time. I was very impressed it took on the kind of formula from Sonic 3's both halves, whereas most Sonic fangames followed on those of either Sonic 1 or 2, which doesn't have seamless seguing in stages.

I did get the video link, actually archived by Iceland's/Iceland's Old Channel, due to that original from its original user's video being shuttered into privacy quite some time before the game's launch. Thankfully, for its preservation, that YouTube user was able to secure it for anyone to watch it again.

Here it is - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_32k_5gWmc

Maybe there should be a video tutorial series centered on coding stage seguing in games in the fashion of Sonic 3, for those interested.

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Maps Of The Month / Re: 2025/09: SOS (Super NES) - Tropicon

« on: September 02, 2025, 01:15:04 pm »

Yeah, it is rather a bit disappointing for the PS1 sequel not to be globally launched.

I would like to say this. That SNES game is one of the few, if any, that uses all of Mode 0's 4 available background layers, because it wasn't used more often due to its limited capabilities, compared to other games using other modes, even Mode 7.

Makes you wonder how and why many SNES games' backgrounds in many stages appear to be vertically static in place while they move horizontally, not doing both at once.

A bit disappointing that we don't see many SNES games use Mode 0 to utilize its 4 layers at the time.