nesdev.org

From time to time people ask me about the graphics for the Sonic game I started to code for the NES, and since recently I put together a bunch of them in order to show someone, I saw no reason to not share the files with everyone else. There are many variations of everything, and nothing here was ever considered final. These are all pretty old now, the most recent sprites are probably from 2009.

Here's more:

These are the last:

Honestly, and this is just my opinion, but it all seems to look a lot better than the Master System versions ever did. I don't remember a "Square Shores" zone though. I'm guessing you were planning to build more of an original game than just a port of an existing Sonic?

Khaz wrote:Honestly, and this is just my opinion, but it all seems to look a lot better than the Master System versions ever did.

Thanks. The goal was indeed to get slightly closer to the MD titles than the SMS games did. I'm not sure I would be able to succeed in that.

I don't remember a "Square Shores" zone though.

What about "Mingwink Zone"? (this was just to see how names using M and W would look like)

I'm guessing you were planning to build more of an original game than just a port of an existing Sonic?

The closest thing to a port I have considered was a "best of" collection with re/demakes of my favorite zones from the 4 games, but I dropped the idea fairly soon. At some point I considered a geometric shapes concept for the zones, but most names sounded silly! =)

Very beautiful graphics. Still hope to see this project being completed someday.

Macbee wrote:Very beautiful graphics.

Thanks.

Still hope to see this project being completed someday.

Me too!

I know that I'll eventually work on the engine again, but the theme of the game might be changed to avoid copyright issues.

Traditionally, SEGA hasn't really cared about Sonic hacks or fan games. I've never heard of them shutting one down.

tokumaru wrote:Thanks.
I know that I'll eventually work on the engine again, but the theme of the game might be changed to avoid copyright issues.

You're welcome!
Feel free to use Sônica, my shameless rip-off character

LocalH wrote:Traditionally, SEGA hasn't really cared about Sonic hacks or fan games. I've never heard of them shutting one down.

I wonder whether that more relaxed attitude has anything to do with the company's own unclean hands. In a world with stricter enforcement of copyright, Sega might have had to change "Flying Battery Zone" from Sonic & Knuckles because it sounds like "James Bond Theme" by John Barry and "Standing on the Corner" by The Four Lads. In the comments, Cockshield points out that both Bond and Sonic feature "A bald evil dude launching space weapons from a volcano crater". Compare the later "Byelomorye Dam" from GoldenEye 007, which uses the motif from "James Bond Theme" under license. Not to mention "Waluigi Pinball" from Mario Kart DS and "Bad Romance" by Lady Gaga sound a little like "Flying Battery Zone".

EDIT (October 2015): They sound so dam similar...

LocalH wrote:Traditionally, SEGA hasn't really cared about Sonic hacks or fan games.

I know, but it kinda sucks not being able to call a game I made from the ground up mine just because of the character that stars in it.

Macbee wrote:Feel free to use Sônica, my shameless rip-off character

Holy shit, Sonic + Mônica! I could get sued twice!

Faced with the same problem, WB Games and Sunsoft put WB's own characters into Sunsoft's Sonic-clone engine and produced Speedy Gonzales: Los Gatos Bandidos. (East Asian pirates would later hack Sonic back into this game.) Epic Games put The Tortoise and the Hare, Sonic, and Contra into a three-way and came up with Jazz Jackrabbit.

tepples wrote:I wonder whether that more relaxed attitude has anything to do with the company's own unclean hands. In a world with stricter enforcement of copyright, Sega might have had to change "Flying Battery Zone" from Sonic & Knuckles because it sounds like "James Bond Theme" by John Barry and "Standing on the Corner" by The Four Lads. In the comments, Cockshield points out that both Bond and Sonic feature "A bald evil dude launching space weapons from a volcano crater". Compare the later "Byelomorye Dam" from GoldenEye 007, which uses the motif from "James Bond Theme" under license. Not to mention "Waluigi Pinball" from Mario Kart DS and "Bad Romance" by Lady Gaga sound a little like "Flying Battery Zone".

Wait.... What?

Now Bad Romance and Flying Battery do kinda belong together, but I'm really not hearing the similarities to the James Bond theme. I mean... at all. I suppose if you sped it up quite a bit you have a similar chord -pattern- and kind of a similar feel with that horn hit on the upbeat, but... still. I sincerely hope such a claim would never have held up in court. Otherwise, SEGA should definitely be suing Nintendo too.

Which Sonic is your favorite?

I think the first one looks the best, but is a little too big for the NES. My second favorite is the last one.

psycopathicteen wrote:I think the first one looks the best, but is a little too big for the NES.

It may look big, but it isn't significantly more expensive sprite-wise than the smaller versions. IIRC, I made him facing forward so that the color overlay for the face could fit in a single sprite. The body is pretty narrow, not so different from the smaller versions. The shoes are almost completely separate, avoiding overlays.

I allowed myself to use up to 4 sprites per scanline for Sonic. It may sound like a lot, but remaining 4 can be used to draw an equally complex enemy or an item box without flicker. Of course some animation frames would extrapolate this 4 sprite limit, but I'd try to keep those to a minimum.

Unless you meant a big sprite would look out of place in an NES game, as opposed to the PPU limitation. I can think of a few games with large sprites that I think look great, even though they come with a bit of extra flicker.