Sonic 1 in Sonic 3 (S.C.E. Version)

By Red Miso Studios
   

This is a port of Sonic The Hedgehog (1991) to Sonic Clean Engine (S.C.E.), our heavily modified and improved Sonic 3 & Knuckles engine, which we have been using for a long time for our MD projects (such as Hellfire Saga and Sonic 3 & Knuckles: Epilogue).

TheBlad768 had the idea for this project back in 2017, when we were working on Sonic Virtual Adventure. But at the time, porting the entirety of Sonic 1 to another engine was too difficult a task, and we had other big projects that couldn't wait. So it was decided to leave the idea for better times. In 2022, TheBlad768 had gained more knowledge and decided to return to the idea. By then S.C.E. was ready, so we started from scratch.The porting work took our team 2 years. But this is not the final version and we will continue to improve it with future updates.

The original game was very poorly optimised and had severe FPS drops, so all the code from the original game was rewritten to ensure better performance.

But the main reason for making this port is to help other ROM hackers. In the future, we plan to open source this project's codebase so that anyone can use it to create or improve their own ROM hacks. You can use it as a base for your own project, or for whatever other purpose you can think of. We just want to try and help others. There are no other goals here. We really hope you find something useful in S.C.E. :)

Unfortunately, the source code is not available at the moment, as we're still looking for bugs and fixing them. And we hope that the open beta test will help us find more problems to fix.

We are looking for feedback. Your opinions and bug reports are very important to us!

Changes:

  • New game engine. The original Sonic 1 has serious performance issues, so the game runs much better now;
  • Some things are kept in the style of Sonic 3 & Knuckles. There is a mix of graphics and music from Sonic 1 and Sonic 3 & Knuckles;
  • Playable Tails and Knuckles. You can play as Sonic and Tails or Knuckles and Tails. The villain switches between Eggman and Eggrobo depending on which character you choose to play;
  • All level layouts have been updated to match Sonic 1 2013 and Sonic Origins. New paths for Tails and Knuckles in MZ3, SYZ2 and SLZ1, new secrets pretty much everywhere else;
  • New artwork for bosses and other stuff;
  • New settings menu;
  • Seven Special Stages. Special Stages are now only available through Star Posts, but only if you have 50 rings. The player will lose 50 rings for entering the stage.
  • You can get 7 Chaos Emeralds, but unfortunately you can't use Super/Hyper Transformations yet. This may be added in future updates.
  • Many minor improvements in polish, such as added SFX or boss intros.

Many of those changes will only be appreciated by other ROM hackers, not the average player. The core gameplay of the game has not been changed due to the nature of the project, so it's possible that the source code will be much more interesting than the hack itself.

Cheats and Secrets:

  • S1 Level Select: U, D, L, R, A+Start on the Title Screen
  • S.C.E. Level Select: U, D, L, R, A+C+Start on the Title Screen
  • Hidden Credits: Hold A+C on the Sega Screen
  • Debug Mode: 1, 9, 9, 1, 0, 6, 2, 3 in the Sound Test of any Level Select;
  • All Emeralds: 4, 1, 2, 6 in the Sound Test of any Level Select;
  • Results skip: A, B or C during Got Through/Special Stage screens.

Roadmap for the future:

  • Act transitions. Levels have been edited to allow for these, but unfortunately they couldn't be implemented in time for SHC.
  • Fix Knuckles' socks palette.
  • SRAM (?)
  • Super/Hyper transformations (?)
  • Flamedriver has some issues that need to be addressed. Music speed-up is reset after 1UP. Continuous SFX have conflicts with other SFX. Continuous flag is not reset when playing normal SFX.
  • Of course all the bugs that are found will be fixed as well.

(?) - We'd like to know if this really needs to be added.

We look forward to your feedback!

Visit our pages to keep up with all the news:

Russian language only:

Base Sonic Clean Engine (S.C.E.) on GitHub (without Sonic 1):

Credits

Red Miso Studios Staff

  • TheBlad768 -- Project lead, sole programmer, S.C.E. Game Engine
  • kuroya2mouse -- Level art and level design edits, sprite art and other things
  • pixelcat -- Sprite art, options background art and other things
  • FoxConED -- S.C.E. Level Select font art
  • Dolphman -- Robotnik head art

Testing and other help

  • giovanni.gen, KGL, DeltaW, Narcologer, CatswellMeow, Nintorch, FoxConED, lavagaming1, cuberoot, Vladikcomper, ProjectFM, MarkeyJester, VAdaPEGA

Special Support

  • cuberoot

Special Credits

  • Vladikcomper -- Kosinski Plus algorithm, Advanced Error Handler
  • Flamewing -- Kosinski Plus algorithm, Z80 Sound driver (Flamedriver), Ultra DMA Queue
  • Clownacy -- Kosinski Plus algorithm
  • Devon -- Enigma algorithm

Software Credits

  • MainMemory -- SonLVL, Level Converter and other things
  • ProjectFM -- Modified SonLVL with two-byte layout support
  • kirjavascript -- Flex2

Additional art Credits:

  • Sonic 1 Mobile (2013), Sonic Origins (2022), Headcannon (Stealth)

Special Thanks

  • Flamewing, devon, RealMalachi and others for bug fixing guides
  • SSRG and Sonic Retro
Gallery
Download

File Type: rom/mega-drive

File Size: 1.43 MB

Extra Public Downloads
Version with lagometer (In-game display of lag rate)
1.02 MB
Level maps
8 MB

Rrose80149 @ 2024-09-28 07:17:46

Comment deleted by Rrose80149 @ 2024-09-28 07:18:08

Rrose80149 @ 2024-09-28 07:18:17

FIRST! Very well done! Although I really don't like how Eggman and Egg Robo laughs in all zones. You should've probably used the 1103 Prototype/Origins credits instead of the final one, but I like how we can keep the emeralds we have via SRAM instead of losing them all when soft resetting the game. Maybe you should try making act 2 and act 3 theme variants of the Sonic 1 zones instead of using the act 1 part, but either way your team pulled it off as I can give it a 10/10. (1/2)

Rrose80149 @ 2024-09-28 07:18:31

I hope you can even do Sonic 2 next. (2/2)

Kyoni @ 2024-09-28 10:59:04

This game doesn't work on the Sega Genesis Mini stock emulator.

The Sega logo doesn't show up, all you see afterwards is a blue screen and then upon starting a game there's just a light blue screen with the score, time,ring count and lives count without the picure but the only letter that appears is an E next to the score.

I tried playing through it to see what does show up and the only things that do are invincibility sprites and the leg of the sign post.

TheBlad768 @ 2024-09-28 21:06:59

Can I see screenshots of the issue? DMA doesn't seem to be working correctly...

Kyoni @ 2024-09-30 07:01:11

[url=https://youtu.be/tON-Q8-VF-Q?si=_NWtS58fcLWeDRK6]Here's a video showcasing the issues[/url]

TheBlad768 @ 2024-09-30 12:33:11

Thank you for this video. I'm wondering if Sonic The Hedgehog in Hellfire Saga is working properly? This project uses SCE as the base too.

Kyoni @ 2024-09-30 20:28:13

https://youtu.be/Lib0lkC6Vxc?si=YdVh7Q4oeVr82RgF

Not at all. I used the 2023 entry from the vault.

TheBlad768 @ 2024-10-01 08:50:24

I see...

Unfortunately, there's not much I can do here. Your emulator isn't accurate, so it doesn't support our projects working properly.Our team focuses primarily on the real hardware. We just don't have the ability to try to support a bunch of emulators. I apologize for that.

Jdpense @ 2024-09-28 14:53:19

Nice base to use for future ROM hacks!

dilworks @ 2024-09-28 15:15:18

I'm happy with any hack that lets me play with Tails in S1 :)

The selling point of this hack of course is the customized engine, and so far it looks like a very clean implementation (pun not intended). Can't wait for this engine being used on future hacks. Good contender for the technical trophies.

TheBlad768 @ 2024-09-28 21:07:59

Thank you all for the feedback!

Un-f4n-de-sh4d0w @ 2024-10-02 20:17:37

Un gran rom hack aunque puede mejorar

Roebloz @ 2024-10-03 11:43:33

An excellent hack! Not only is it a great display of the new engine, but also probably the best way to experience Tails and especially Knuckles in mostly-vanilla Sonic 1 (Without too many extra HUD and design changes like Sonic Classic Heroes and Sonic 2 Delta have)

NaylenSucksAtRomHacking @ 2024-10-07 16:05:35

This is a very good Port of sonic 1 to Clean Engine and I would like to see updates in the future and it becoming open source after all the bugs been ironed out, the only thing I would say, is that the sonic 3 drums/PSGs in the sonic 1 songs do not sound great, its not that bad in most songs but with songs specifically like the Boss theme and Final Zone theme, the Timpani's drums is so out of place from what they are meant to sound like but apart from that, Really good job Red miso studios!

TheBlad768 @ 2024-10-08 19:55:29

I completely agree with you. But sound driver settings easily allow to select samples from different games. And after the source code release, everyone will be able to use their own samples.

FrazzDude @ 2024-10-15 18:15:45

Very well put together hack, makes playing through s1 less tedious

However my only criticism is keeping the usage of sonic 3 assets in a game style that clashes very well against it, both music wise and art style wise.

would personally reccomend swaping out the s3 drums and sprites with their s1 counterparts to keep it faithful to the source, or at least having a toggle for it

aside from that this is a pretty good hack, well done!

Timothyfox888 @ 2024-11-15 03:20:00

Pls sonic 3 in sonic 2 hack cool

Jos1990_ @ 2024-11-15 11:58:56

Here's a collision error in Green Hill Zone Act 1