This is Sonic the Hedgehog SMS - NC Revision or S1NC for short. The aim of this simple hack is to give the graphics of Sonic 1 SMS a greater sense of detail, improve the gameplay experience, add more slopes to some areas (which could be seen as an improvement), and make other miscellaneous alterations to the game. This is actually my first ever public ROM hack release! Thank you for visiting my entry and I hope you enjoy the hack!
Note: If you're having trouble running the hack on Bizhawk, try changing the region to Japan.
Changes include:
- Tweaked shading and added expressiveness for Sonic and Dr. Eggman's sprites.
- The most significant changes to level art can be seen in Green Hill Zone.
- Various level objects, animals, monitors, rings, signposts and UI elements have also recieved graphical changes.
- A new palette for Bridge Zone.
- A new "SMS" logo added to the title screen, in addition to unused text crediting Ancient, the developers of the original game, and text crediting myself.
- Added more slopes and extra graphical background details to Jungle Zone. These extra sprites have been taken from the Game Gear version of the game, with their palettes being altered for compatibility with the Master System, and with the shading of the apple sprite being tweaked by myself.
- The water physics and drowning mechanic have been removed from Labyrinth Zone, although bubbles and the water surface sprites are still present. This was done in order to make the zone more enjoyable to play through. Although editing the actual water physics values might have been a more preferable solution, I was unsure as to how to do so, so this is the method that the hack will be using in its current state.
- More slopes have been added to Labyrinth Zone Acts 1 and 2, as well as other level design changes.
- More slopes have been added to Jungle Zone Act 2, as well as other level design changes.
- Rings have been added to the Boss Acts that formerly lacked them, except for Sky Base Zone Act 3.
- Extra rings have been added to Scrap Brain Zone Act 2 and Sky Base Zone Act 2 in order to help the player to locate the Acts' respective Chaos Emeralds.
- Bridge Zone Act 2 is no longer an autoscroller.
- The rising death floor has been removed from Jungle Zone Act 2.
- The Chaos Emerald location within Labyrinth Zone Act 2 has been moved.
Update 1 (30/8/2024):
- The Shield monitor near the beginning of Labyrinth Zone Act 1 has been moved, replacing a Power Sneakers monitor, in order to fix a sprite issue.
- In order to try to fix a graphical glitch that occurs in the final Act of the game, I've made changes to blocks that appear in that section.
Thank you to ClassicSonicSaturn and Penta for reporting these bugs.
Update 1.1 (31/8/2024):
- As reported by Penta, the graphical glitch in Sky Base Zone Act 3 was not entirely fixed by Update 1. He had said that the glitch was caused by the timer being added to the Act, so I had decided to remove the timer in order to fix issue. Also, he had kindly created a patch for the game in order to fix it himself, but I instead chose to do so myself out of a desire to be the sole developer of this project. Regardless, Penta's assistance has helped me to improve my hack, and for that, I thank him.
Update 1.2 (31/8/2024):
- It seems that the last update didn't properly fix the graphical bug in Sky Base Zone Act 3, but this update has appeared to have fixed it.
- A Shield monitor has now been added to Sky Base Zone Act 3.
- Sky Base Zone no longer features flashing lightning effects. A user named Sik had asked if this feature was removed from my hack, and now it has been.
- Slight level design tweak to Sky Base Zone Act 3.
- Slight tweak to Dr. Eggman's sprites.
A perfect way to experience Sonic 1 SMS again or for the first time, with graphical upgrades and a few layout changes here and there.
One bug/exploit I did find is that you can skip most of Sky Base Zone Act 2 by damageboosting through the saws near the beginning. Also, it is disappointing that there isn't any lightning in Sky Base Zone Act 1 (You could have changed the palette to only affect the lightning and not the whole screen to avoid seizures)