It's something a lot of people wanted forever, but never got. Sonic the Hedgehog, although promised by Sega to be released on Amiga, never happened. Whether it was because Sega thought it would threaten Mega Drive sales, or if they thought it couldn't be done on the A500, we'll probably never know. Over the years, we upgraded our Amigas and installed Master System emulators and played those fun, but sub-par Sonic games released for Sega's 8bit systems. We viewed fake demos, and saw complete ripoffs, but we never had a real Amiga version of Sonic.

We should change that! There are plenty of Sonic fangames available for Windows, some for X-Box 360, and even a Spectrum version! While the Amiga probably won't get an exact replica of the Mega Drive game, we can make our own original game in the same style as the Mega Drive games, using ripped and edited graphics and sounds.

As there's no platform game engine available to use, unless a coder wants to help out, we'll have to use Backbone or something similar. I've been playing around with Backbone, and through EXTENSIVE tweaking, have come up with what is as close as you can get to Sonic using Backbone (which is an old freeware platform game maker, made partially in Amos). I can't code, so this is as good as I can do for now. I've tried to get the speed, animation, inertia and controls to feel like the real thing, but of course Backbone wasn't designed for these types of games. For example, it only allows you to choose a single frame of animation for your jump and fall, so it doesn't let you animate Sonic spinning around when he jumps. It also can't make enemies die when you roll into them, or when you jump at them from beneath. There are no diagonal tiles, and no moving platforms, or platforms that fall away when you stand on them.

Despite these limitations, I think we can still come up with a pretty fun game. I want to make this project open for the whole Amiga community to contribute to. Anyone is welcome to download Backbone (and its updates) from Aminet, and create their own levels. I can provide the game files I have created so far for people to test their levels with, and once they have made either some levels, tilesets, sprites or music for the game, they can submit it to us, where we can quality-test it and integrade it into the game. It has the potential to be massive if everyone has a go at adding a level or two, and it's really easy to do since there's a whole bunch of sites full of Sonic graphic rips.

So, to show you what I'm proposing, I have made a quick one-level demo of Sonic in Backbone. I have made two versions, one is for expanded Amigas, and really needs a 030/50 or better to run at a playable speed. The other runs in a much smaller screen, but is quicker, and should hopefully be playable on any Amiga. I have tested it on the CD32 and it was alright.

So, here are the files. Download and (hopefully) enjoy:

Expanded Amigas - http://www.spin.net.au/~amiga/Sonic.lha
All Amigas - http://www.spin.net.au/~amiga/Sonic500.lha
CD32 - http://www.spin.net.au/~amiga/SonicCD32.zip

Extract the game to a directory in Workbench and double click the icon. The game can be played with the control pad or joystick or keyboard. For that authentic Sonic feel, plug in a Mega Drive pad. The CD32 version needs to be burnt with MakeCD on the Amiga or something like Alcohol 120% on Windows. It should boot on any CD32. The game works in both PAL and NTSC, whichever your system is running in. It won't run on RTG or AmigaOS4 or anything like that, this is a game made with an OLD Amiga program for OCS Amigas.

If anyone wants to get involved, shout out.
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@Rebel-CD32

want me to convert some of the sonic midi's to protracker mods?
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I say we should wait for the Mr. Beanbag engine to start making this, as suggested by cammy.
I am definitely up for gfx converting and music making.

Don't mess with MIDI bullshit, the MIDIs are shit.
And I suggest the use of an optimized "synth" music engine like AHX, but if that's impossible, Protracker should do.
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I can help convert virtually any format :-)
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Zetro, I would love it if you could convert any Sonic music to the Amiga. I have the original Mega Drive music files if you need them (.vgz format).

Akira, we figured that it could be a while before the Mr. Beanbag engine is released, if it ever is. For now, we can just put together the best game we can with Backbone, and then make a new game when the Beanbag engine comes out. This game doesn't have to be "THE SONIC GAME" for Amiga, but ONE Sonic game for Amiga. For example, it could be called "Sonic Trash" and the next one "Sonic Smash" or whatever. Doesn't have to be "Sonic Amiga 1" and "Sonic Amiga 2"... you know what I mean? If this first game turns out shit compared to the next one we make with the Beanbag engine, they don't have to be related. We could always just reuse all the graphics, sounds and music for a revised Beanbag-edition anyway.

However, if we use Backbone, the mods must be in Protracker format, nothing cool and custom.

I really DO hope that Tricky releases the Mr. Beanbag engine, but Backbone is still alright for now, have a go of the demo and you'll see it's not all THAT bad, as long as your Amiga is fast enough.
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Good morning.

I think this is an awesome idea!! :-)


Just a thought:

Backbone can play iff anims.
Why not record the original animated title screen and include it in our Amiga version?
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that demo in backbone looks really good :-)

IMHO sonic is THAT sonic because of two things: features (spinning, loosing rings etc) and levels (they are well known). So if we want a soni it must have same features and atleast very similar levels, otherwise it will be still sonic clone
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There are tools that allow to get the GFX without ripping them, but instead get them as they should be.
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Hey!! Sonic that works on A500???!!! Please dudes, continue on this! :-)
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Nice idea you can get some nice results converting MPEG to Anim - Also I think your backbone Golden Axe 3 game was mentioned in Micro Mart did you see it?

Rebel-CD32 Id love to see a full level of Sonic so keep up the good work!!!
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just like to pipe up and say cool project, but i disagree Rebel`s statement about Sonic on the SMS... imho, it plays better than the MD version.

that is all! carry on.......
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Conversion will be not so straightforward, having in mind the big differencies between the music architecture of both machines. You have many, many less channels in the Amiga.

But I'd be up to that challenge, I love this kind of limitations.

The same can be said about anything. Converting with software just gives tame results, that need to be further handcrafted by someone. You can convert the graphics with an utility but the end result will be shit and not as nice as doing it by soft+a hand retouching. As I said, I passed through these steps converting gfx for NeoGeo Pocket games, which use a max of 2+1 colors on the sprites!

What player in Mac casn I use to give a listen to those vgzs? send them to me and I'll start the reinterpretation :-)

Well, just worried about two things:
- first, you will have to redo all from scratch the second time.
- second, backbone will certainly not be as optimized, and things like fast,smooth scroll (one of the keys in the Sonic games), will not be very possible. Though,Sonic 1 is not THAT fast, my gauge always looks into Sonic 2, which I think is the definitive Sonic game. It also helps to make a bridge with the NeoGeo Pocket version, which is pretty damn spot on, keeping all the main aspects of Sonic 2, but with a set of limits. We could learn a lot from this version.

I will try the demos, I been slacking around to do that, I have them already in my 1200. Also, we should try to stick to one platform, and I think a stock A1200 would be enough...
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Really nice work Rebel-CD32 :-)
It's really good for the given limitations of Backbone.
Keep it up!
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thank you :-)
It's really fast with winuae even too fast :-).
I think on 060 50 mhz and winuae you could add multi scrolling ! ?
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Grab the tunes from Project2612 and for a player try Audio Overload.
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Tried both Amiga versions. As you already said, the version for expanded miggy's is really slow. I got maybe 10-15 frames with my 030/42Mhz card.

The A500 version runs much faster, of course. It's pretty playable, but not good for your eyes. :-) :-)
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Shit, I missed it. Please post a link. Thanks. :-)

I´ll do the anim conversion tom. I think...

Well, Ambermoon Arcade for example will be in 64 colours and damn slow on 020.
10-15 fps on 030 is the maximum, I´m afraid. :-)
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@Akira / Rebel_CD32

I was thinking of re-sampling the music and then re-sequencing it on pro tracker :-)

might even throw in a few extra re-mixes :-)

I will need the files so link would be nice :-)
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Great idea, my friend. :-)
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That might prove inefficient. You have to keep in mind memory constraints.

Let a pro have a go, punk :P
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@Akira

you show me yours.... and I will show you mine :-)

I reckon i could do it under 120k in two channels :-)
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And sound like shit. Challenge taken. But I need a decen protracker to use in my A1200.

Can Backbone use MED files? or can I export MOD from Octamed?



I tried to run this but it crashed after intro screen with somethng about a wrong parameter or whatever.
Mind you, i got the very first files. I will get now the ones linked here.
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Viddi, I've actually got the original ripped graphics for the intro animation in several pieces (they must have been sprites or tiles in the Mega Drive version) I would just have to join them together and animate them in Personal/Deluxe Paint. But since this is a new, original Sonic game, I think it should have its own unique intro/title screen.

Chain, I wouldn't even attempt to recreate the original Sonic games with Backbone, it's impossible, so this game would have to be thought of as more of a spin-off than a clone, I guess. Perhaps that should be the name "Sonic Spin-Off"?

Dlfrsilver, I've got all the sprite sheets already, it's just a simple matter of remapping them to the new 16 colour palette this Backbone version uses.

Old Fool, to be more precise, Sonic that works very slowly on the A500, but yeah, it's still something!

Boo-Boo, the closest we could possibly get to an actual Sonic level would be to try and copy some of the Master System levels, which aren't too complex. Still, we'll do our best to make the levels as Sonic-like as possible.

Horace, okay well I enjoyed the SMS versions too, I've finished the first two SMS Sonics (haven't finished Sonic Chaos yet) and all the Mega Drive Sonics. But until Sonic Chaos came out, the SMS versions just didn't feel the same as the Mega Drive originals. They were damn impressive for the system they were on though, and they're special because they're so easily emulated on an Amiga.

Akira, I don't think 4 is many, many less than 6 channels, but you're right, it won't be straightforward. I also agree with hand-crafted conversions turning out much better than if you let software do it for you. For example, the Mega Drive uses 16 colours for Sonic and 16 colours for the backgrounds, and then more again for parallax. I had to reduce this down to a shared 16 colour palette, using 8 colours for Sonic and 7 colours for the backgrounds (colour 0 is transparent). If you use a paint program to reduce the colours dwn they look crap, which is why I had to manually choose each colour and remap them myself, to get this optimised 16 colour palette. I think the results speak for themselves, while not as nice looking as the Mega Drive version, I think it looks alright for a quarter of the amount of onscreen colours.

As for redoing the whole game once the Mr. Beanbag engine comes out, well I don't see any harm in just making two separate games, one with Backbone and a new, improved one with Beanbag. Sonic Spin-off and Sonic Knock-off, perhaps? It's just something for people to hae fun with in the mean time until some real games come out anyway. And since Backbone is ECS, the game really can't be aimed at any platform specifically, we'll just try to keep it as efficient as possible, and just compile a different version for each system, changing the screen size to match the CPU.

CyberDruid, thanks. I'm particularly proud of the trick I've used to make Sonic spin when he jumps.

Turrican3, unfortunately with Backbone there's no way to add parallax layers, but we can always make optimised versions that run at more playable speeds on both super-fast and really slow systems.

OddbOd, thanks for linking to those tunes and the Mac player.

Retro-Nerd, once we get some more levels made, we'll compile an optimised version for your 030. I think a screen size of 288 x 192 is perfect for a 030 (I have one myself).

Viddi, I too once thought "If I have a 64 colour EHB game with a 64 colour EHB panel and 16 shades in the copper, I can have an OCS game with 146 colours onscreen!" but then I saw how slow it was. I was using the large graphics ripped from the arcade version of Alien VS Predator though, so it was extra slow. I've found I get far better results with an optimised palette, remapping each of the colours manually. You could probably get a really nice 32 colour combined palette that'll look fine with the Golden Axe 3 graphics, but of course 64 is co much cooler.

Zetro, great idea. Remixes will probably be the best idea, since you can take better advantage of the Amiga's capabilities, and since it's a new/remixed game, not an exact replica, the music should be new/remixed too. The link provided by OddbOd has all the music you'll need.

Akira, Backbone can only use Protracker mod files. I have had to convert a few mods to this format using Octamed, but sometimes it changes the timing and things. Sometimes it's okay, as long as the track isn't too complex.

Thanks, guys.
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Awesome news. I'm looking forward to this special version. :-)
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@ Akira

you can export MOD from Octamed, but dont expect every command to be copied (it will warn you though if you use MED only commands)

since the Sonic music uses chip-sounds i think Zetr0's comment is fair enough myself. Personally i would say you are best going for an adaptation rather than trying to produce a pure clone anyway, and take creative advantage of working within the required limitation.... but hey, what do i know, i only have a BA in Music Tech :-) :-)
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it's a very nice project! i've thested both demo ... is the speed the only difference? the A500 version is great!

the only annoying thing aside from the music which i don't know exactly why but seems out of tune, is the sprite for tumbling, which makes the character a ball destroying the totating effect. but that said, it's so cool!

i would propose some tweaking to the original graphic: why simply a port after all?
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This is what I am saying, I want to work around the limitations and rescore the music. I understood Zetr0 was going to sample the thing and use that as a base for conversion. I wouldn't sample a thing.
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aah. personally i'd sample the chip sounds (maybe using a hardware mod to isolate the channels if possible... i've done it with my speccy!) and then use those to build it from.... but with that creative element that comes with re-scoreing :-) so a bit of both i think is prob the way i would go!


i agree cramming long samples of 2 channels (left/right) wouldnt be the best way to go, (and didnt think that was quite what zetr0 was suggesting until now, the <120k thing had me thinking he culdnt mean that!) but i dont know the Sonic music that much to know how much loops/repeats etc - i'm sure it could be done, but it's not a method i would employ either.
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@Akira

this might help my friend

http://microkit.free.fr/Sega/Mod2PSG/

:-)
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I'm very excited for this! Keep us all posted please!:-)
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I see.

So, do you want an animated intro sequence?
I could start something new then. :-)
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I've seen now the Backbone structure and it's not that bad!
Given the ridiculously small game screen, perhaps a better reference for game mechanics should be the Game Gear version of the game.

If you want an animated intro screen... can't you CODE it? making an ANIM out of the original makes no sense. Besides, you'll have parallax and stuff that has nothing to do with the actual game. Why not make a new intro screen? after all, we agreed this should be like a spinoff, given the resources :-) So I think Viddi could have a go at animating a new one (if you can't code it as I asked)

Also tried Beanbag, and there's all the potential in there to do Sonic., I surely hope the engine gets released.
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If Sonic does end up getting used on the Amiga, Genesis/Mega Drive controllers will be able to be used, correct? Since they're you know, the exact same serial pinouts and all:-)
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Yeah you could use them but Sonic takes no advantage of extra buttons.
So you can feel free to plug your genny pad to your Amiga and run this demo right now :-)
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Here's the latest version of the Sonic game I've made. This is it for me, I'm giving the project to the community to continue now so I can get back to working on real Amiga games. I have added a very short second level. I've pushed Backbone to its limits, but this demo should give people an idea of all that's possible to make a Sonic game. You'll see what I mean, and sorry about the jerkiness, it's as smooth as it gets in Backbone.

http://www.spin.net.au/~amiga/Sonic030.lha

This one is also optimised for running on a 030, so it's somewhere between the other two demos in terms of screen size and speed.

I'll set up a web page with all the relative files for people to download and have a play around with in Backbone. I'm not "giving up" or anything, but I never even intended to keep going this far with this Sonic game, since I really should be working on graphics for Annihilation and Halloween Nightmare. So I hope others will want to continue with the game, there's a lot of potential for something fun in there.

As for intro animations, I had an idea that doesn't require someone to actually animate the whole sequence themselves, and hasn't been in a previous Sonic game. Have you guys seen any of the MANY Sonic the Hedgehog anime/cartoons? There are heaps of them, and I'm sure it wouldn't be too much effort to export frames from a few good sequences and convert them to an anim. The Mega CD version had a nice animated intro, so why not a CD32 or Hard Drive version? Of course, if someone has the patience then drawing it from scratch would look more original.

Anyway, I'll post again when I set up a site for this project, I hope you guys like the new demo.
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Indeed, it's between the A500+expanded versions. It's a least playable here, of course not too enjoyable. Backbone shows really some power though. :-)
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My problem with the game was not the jerkyness of framerate, but the completely wrong physics system. The physics is one of the main key points in the Sonic games.

i guess you can achieve that on Backbone?
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Are you emulating the Sega Mega Drive engine or reprogramming it completely to work with the custom chipset in the Amiga? They use the same processor so it should make instruction writing easier.
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@Boing

Heys my friend, its a complete re-write of the game using the Backbone game creator.

Even though the cpu instructions would be the same, the addresses for the graphics and the graphics gpu language is completely different.
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Perhaps it could be a great idea to write an email to backbone's author and ask him for a new version ?
But rebel-cd32 and others programmers what miss to backbone ?
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