Sonic CD Restored

By PimpUigi

Sonic CD Restored is a fangame that primarily aims to recreate the original glitchless speedrun experience of Sonic CD on the Sega CD, often referred to as CD93.

I was the fastest CD93 player in 2010 (full game runs), and I'm the fastest CD11 player today. (Not in full game runs; but I hold the highest amount of Individual Level world records/shortest "sum of best segments" as Sonic, though Tails is in fact the faster character.) It was always my dream to bring back the true routes of the game that we lost when the 2011 version (often referred to as CD11) was released.

CD-R adds Amy as a playable character, 720p remastered FMVs, 500 Kbps music, 16-bit SFX (up from 8-bit that CD11 used) and undoes the hardware limits that forced Sonic CD to use the Z80 processor for its SFX instead of the PSG chip. A handful of non speedrun related UI and gameplay restorations have also been made; such as the black titlescreen fade in, CD93 titlescreen codes, the Quartz Quadrant foregroound crystals, and Stardust Speedway 1's roads no longer trapping the player in a small space towards the end of the level.

Sonic CD Restored continues the pattern of each major Sonic CD release containing its own OST. The Mega-CD version had the original JP OST, then the Sega CD had its own US OST, and finally the 2011 version received unique mixes done by Christian Whitehead for both OSTs as well. CD-R cherry picks the best tracks from the JP and US OSTs to make a Hybrid OST, available in two different variations: Arrange and Unified. The intention is to let a player experience what the OST may have been like had the JP and US sound teams collaborated with one another in unity. Arrange moves four tracks to other levels considering the stage backgrounds and ambience of the levels, while Unified simply cherry picks the JP/US track that belongs to each stage. In the instances of Palmtree Panic Present, Tidal Tempest 'G' Mix, and the Special Stage, we weren't able to subjectively agree on which track was better, and an attempt was made to compromise. Beating the game as Amy unlocks the option for a Custom OST so the player can choose between all the JP/US/Hybrid tracks, and even a couple beta tracks for them to make their own ideal soundtrack.

While most of the 100+ CD93 restorations may be difficult for some players to notice, everyone will be able to notice that Sonic CD Restored also implements Instant Time Warps. This feature is based on Naoto Oshima's Time Warp development sketches; programmed by TheStoneBanana. This fundamentally changes the way Time Warping in Sonic CD is performed, requiring you to execute a Super Peel Out, Spindash, or Drop Dash to trigger the Time Warp timer. The Time Warp timer is now 60% shorter than CD11's timer, and about 30% shorter than CD93's. Coincidentally enough this allows players to find previously inaccessible secret areas which happen to only be accessible via thew new instant Time Warp. One such area is in Metallic Madness 2, where you can Time Warp to the Past to find a secret room with 40 rings, and a spring to return you to the normal gameplay area. Beware warping to the Future there however, the same room exists, only with no exit!

Along the speedrunning side of things, Restarting a stage from the Pause Menu no longer takes a life. This lets you time attack stages with far more ease, restarting as many times as you like. Time Zone Select is a new feature that will let you play the game with each level starting in the Past or Future, so all 78 levels in the game can finally be easily accessible and the full potential of the replay value in Sonic CD can be experienced. Special Stages now feature an In Game Timer, so All Time Stones runs are no longer timed differently from the other categories. Sonic's Special Stage turn radius and the bigger UFO hitboxes have both been restored from CD93, and so everyone; speedrunner and casual player alike, will find these special stages responsive, fun, accessible, and even "too easy" if one can imagine saying that about a Classic Sonic special stage.

Sonic CD Restored added the Sonic Mania Drop Dash to keep parity with Sonic Origins' own Sonic CD moveset. A player may enable this in the normal Settings menu underneath the Spindash setting. Other than that however, CD-R is trying its best to stay faithful to the original Sonic CD gameplay experience. You won't find six pages of gameplay options, you can't disable the Sonic CD extended camera (which now works as originally intended, allowing a player to outrun the camera or a spindash holding the camera in place for a few frames), I didn't make the game easier by slowing down the Lighbulb Badniks or giving away the location of Wacky Workbench's Robot Transporter, and sadly I didn't add in any Game Genie codes to let players Moonjump like the good old days. ;p

I did however, include an optional mod that removes every ring from Metallic Madness 3, giving some players the more typical Final Boss experience they have been craving. Psycho-Egg: Hard Mode removes all the rings from Metallic Madness 3 and challenges the player to defeat Dr. Robotnik without taking a single hit. While I was at it, this mode also restores a few things for the Pycho-Egg boss as well, which was originally much harder to defeat in CD93.

CD-R is focused on speedrunning, so lastly like to talk about the new Results Summary / built in Autosplitter. When a player completes a full game run in CD-R their in game stats will be displayed. It will show you your Total Play Time, Final Score, the amount of Time Warps performed, Robot Transporters/Metal Sonic Projectors destroyed, Deaths, your childhood landline phone number, etc. as well as a detailed history of the times you achieved on every level, including in-game-timed logs of when you restarted a level, exited the game, or died.

Credits

Credits

Original Authors

  • PimpUIgi - Sonic CD Restored
  • Naoto Oshima - Created Sonic The Hedgehog and Sonic CD
  • SEGA - Owns Sonic The Hedgehog and Sonic CD
  • Christian Whitehead - Original author of the RSDK
  • RMGRich - Co-creator of the RSDKv3 Decomp
  • Rubberduckycooly - Co-creator of the RSDKv3 Decomp

Contributors

  • Leonx254 - Adapted Restored.exe to allow Sonic to outrun the Extended Camera. Created the 'No Save Slot' and 'Enhanced Level Select' mods, created the Skip Logos code, Super Peel Out for Tails code, fixed the Tidal Tempest 1 background animation, and animated the Sega logo, discovered CD93 Level Select cheat, lots of heavy lifting with importing Amy
  • MainMemory - Created the Results Summary / Built in Autosplitter and helped me adapt it for Sonic CD Restored
  • SoN1c2001 - Did the coding to allow Sonic to use his ANI_Dropping sprites when walking in the air, Restored Sonic's Sonic 1 Spring Bounce, Created sprites for Mini Sonic and Tails animations, and helped me restore the original speedrun route for TT1
  • UminekoSean - Created the restored text graphics for the Bad Ending FMV post credits sequence, restored the Dev Time Attack Records code and gave me the idea to restore the Special Stage 8 credits screen
  • Epoli - Helped with 3Dramp sprites, CC ramps, extended Special Stage backgrounds, and the hardest restoration in the mod: Epoli restored the foreground Quartz Quadrant Crystals!!!!
  • MegAmi - Created the Completed Save Slot mod, Restart Time Attack & Special Stage mod, fixed Wacky Workbench 3 Good Future bouncefloor SFX, and modified Full Decomp Menus for Sonic CD Restored
  • Jack0b0 - Hi-res Readable Instruction Screens
  • peter4432 - Custom OST & Little Planet Past DAGarden, helped me overhaul all the audio scripts
  • TheStoneBanana - Created the Time Travel Overhaul mod
  • Plumbers_Helper - Restored the rest of the unused US/JP music tracks from FLAC files
  • CheatFreak - Integrated the Time Zone Select menu so they no longer had to be external mods
  • Colou - Created the Zone to Act mod
  • Rubberduckycooly - Created the Ring fade VFX code, all the decomp scripts, etc.
  • TheA_Gamer554 - Mobile to Steam Conversion mod so players can use their Mobile RSDK files with Restored
  • KingMeteorStudios - Stardust Speedway Past intro
  • Nuclear [NUKELEDGE] - Restored Past Quartz Quadrant music
  • Collision Chaos Radio - Restored Beta Loops, Restored Collision Chaos Past, Restored Stardust Speedway Past music
  • DeevDaRabbit - Restored Beta Loops
  • Glitch - Created RSDKunpack.exe
  • jubbalub - Created REMS logo
  • DarkVampireDee - R2 Mockup
  • Acht05 - Creator of Amy In Sonic CD
  • PicsAndPixels - Sprite Artist; created many of the amazing Amy sprites!
  • E-122 PSI - Amy Sprites
  • AsuharaMoon - Amy Special Stage Sprites
  • speediousmilk12 - Helped with code and sprites
  • Century_ - FPS Corrections for the Remastered Ending FMVs
  • TrekkiesUnite118 - Remastered the You're Too Cool flowers FMV, + CD93 US Ending Music
  • NopeMeet - DA Garden night and dusk restorations
  • Dude64 - Improved DA Garden Past sprite accuracy

Special Thanks

  • Dude64 - Dude64 got me into modding Sonic CD again for the first time since 2010! He would talk with me about the OST almost every day and helped kick around ideas and jokes until real productivity came out of it all.
  • MainMemory - It was truly a good experience getting to work with you. I don't know how you had the patience to put up with me, but this mod surely benefits from all you've done to help.
  • Leonx254 - You definitely deserve special thanks for helping out with all the special effects put into the Level Select and Sega logo animations, bearing with me as I leveled up in scripting techniques and learning the ropes of RetroEngine coding.
  • SoN1c2001 - His enthusiasm, contributions and optimism really helped get me back on track and pushed me to get this done. He taught me how to use RetroEd which made a ton of these speedrun restorations possible. Compared to SonLVL it was a very slow and arduous process, but it was all we had back then.
  • UminekoSean - Helped me understand the Start script and restored things I didn't think were possible.
  • CubieJudy - A dedicated and hard working modder who somehow always stays optimistic and ready to tackle the hurdles and challenges of modding.
  • Epoli - Came out of no where and pulled off the hardest change done in this mod in less than a week! I had been trying to move those crystals to the foreground since before the first release of Sonic CD Restored! What a beast! AHH!
  • MegAmi - This project really reached the next tier of polish because of your mods and your patience with me. You and SoN1c2001 both put real work into this mod. It shows, and I am grateful.
  • TrekkiesUnite118 - Taught me how to create new credits for the FMVs and how to correct the speeds of the ending FMVs
  • Hydra Spectre - Pushed me to restore the music and video quality, one thing lead to another and I definitely did not start this project with the intention of working from FLAC files or 25th Anniversary DVD rips of the intro video. He deserves credit for pushing me to redo the remasters of the OSTs.
Gallery
Download

File Type: rom/zip

File Size: 862.16 MB

One-Click Install
Sonic CD Steam Mod Loader

Extra Public Downloads
Full Changelist
5.26 KB

AortaPlatinum @ 2022-10-11 16:21:14

Comment deleted by AortaPlatinum @ 2022-10-12 16:33:31